Sunhwa's heart raced triple its normal speed as she read: “If you have received this e-mail, we are pleased to tell you that you have been accepted…”

She actually stared at that sentence for a couple seconds before screaming.

Grabbing the phone, she shrieked, “HYUN JIN! I MADE IT! I MADE IT IN! KYAAAAA!”

Sunhwa could hear identical screams from the other end of the phone and was vaguely aware that she was making a huge commotion in the apartment, but at the moment, she didn’t care. “I can’t believe it!” she breathed as she collapsed into the chair.

“I told you that you would!” Hyun Jin sounded pleased.

“Arraso arraso,” Sunhwa said, scrolling through the rest of the e-mail in relief. A sudden thought occurred to her.

“Hyun Jin…you made it in too, didn’t you?”

“Neh,” she replied, modestly dropping her voice.

“Ah! Good for you!” Sunhwa was impressed that Hyun Jin didn’t try and show off her abilities like she had seen so many other people do. She hoped that the other dancers were as modest as Hyun Jin but knew that reality tended to be different.

“Kamsahamida! I’m really excited for rehearsal tomorrow!” Hyun Jin squealed.

“We have rehearsal tomorrow?” Sunhwa said rather loudly, forgetting for a moment that her mother and brother were sleeping.

“Neh, didn’t you see – ” Hyun Jin’s words were interrupted by Sunhwa’s bedroom door slamming open. There stood her mother, hair in disarray from being woken up from sleep, but the look on her face said it all. She folded her arms and glared an iron-hard stare that could have burned through a wall.

“Uh…I’ll talk to you later, Hyun Jin…I have to go,” Sunhwa said quickly.

“Oh! Ok! See you tomorrow!” she chirped back. Sunhwa hung up as quickly as I could, but the damage was done. She mentally facepalmed herself. Why did Hyun Jin have to be so dang cheerful?

“What was that about?” Mrs. Park said, still glaring.

“Um…I made the audition…” Sunhwa replied slowly. “And…uh…we have rehearsal tomorrow…”

“What about work?”

Sunhwa blinked. She hadn’t even thought about that – her new job at Paradise. “I’ll go straight after.”

Sigh. Sunhwa could tell that her mother really cared about her, but she simply wanted to dance. She knew the necessity of a job and was more than willing to go to work, but all she wanted at the moment was for her mother to let her go to recital. After rehearsals were over, they would start concerts, and then tour, hopefully. And that was when the money would start coming in.

Mrs. Park sat on the edge of Sunhwa’s bed and frowned at the wall. Sunhwa knew better than to interrupt. She was thinking.

“Sunhwa yah,” she started. The girl’s stomach clenched painfully as she heard her mother’s tone of voice; sure that she would not be able to go to rehearsal.

“You know that dancing is a very unstable job. I know that you’re very talented in that area and like doing it, but life is not always about doing what you love all the time. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices.” She pinned her gaze onto her daughter.

“And you also know that I have perfectly sound reasons that I have explained to you for not wanting you to dance. I’m very proud of you for getting a job somewhere else, and also glad that you made it into this audition…” The mother paused as Sunhwa held her breath. Her future was riding on the next few moments.

“…But despite my common sense telling me otherwise, I’m going to let you go.”

Sunhwa’s eyebrows shot up. She leaped to her mother and hugged her tight. “Kamsahamida umma! I promise I’ll make you proud,” she said, bowing low.

She smiled faintly and hugged Sunhwa back. “Work hard, okay?”

“I’ll work harder than I ever have in my life.”

Wheee another chappie! Hope you guys liked it :) Agh school started again, but I had a pretty decent day today. :P Now to do my homework...

- tigress