A few months ago, at the Lee's estate

"Son," his mother knocked on the door to his room briefly before opening it. "You've seen the news, have you...?"

He nodded slowly.

"Everything was left to us. The plans are still on. Do you want to go through with it?"

"What about her? Does she have a say in this?"

"Unfortunately no, the will left her to us too. Since the house has been sold off I don't know where she's living now but we can always find out..."

"What if she doesn't want me?"

"That's not for her to decide..." his mom sat on the end of his bed, and he could see the sadness in her eyes. "Honey, our families have always supported each other. Imagine how she feels now with no one left. Even you stopped talking to her. What happened?"

"It's...I don't even know."

"Well," his mom exhaled, "I guess it doesn't matter. You know your father and I are pushing for this, right? We only have until she turns 18."

"I'll..." he hesitated, but nodded. "I'll decide after I see her again."
 

Seoul Performing Arts Academy, room 3A

"Finals," the word was etched onto the board. "It's next week. Dance, vocals, and acting, along with your minor subjects."

"Eh?!" The students groaned simutaneously, and with a few smacks on the board with a ruler, Hyori-teacher regained the attention.

"Today your teachers will tell you all about it, so listen up, alright?" With that, homeroom ended, and the students were left unsupervised to take a break.

"Unnie, what is this?" Hayi suddenly burst out laughing, catching a glimpse of Eunji's english notebook. "Daehyun-ssi, read it!"

As she scrambled to snatch the notebook away, Hayi tossed it over to the boy, who caught it smoothly and glimpsed the page and burst out laughing.

"You-" he laughed again when he reread it, "this whole paragraph doesn't make any sense!"

"No sense whatsoever!" Hayi repeated, and Eunji retrieved her notebook with flushed cheeks.

"Yah, I beat both of you last year in Korean Literature!"

"We need to have a study session later unnie," the younger girl stifled a laugh.

"Sunbae!" Hayi's underclassmen friends called from the hallway, and she joined them. Eunji sat back down in her seat with a sigh.

"Is it really that bad? Finals are next week."

Daehyun snickered and ripped open a bag of chips from his backpack, offering her some. She gratefully accepted like always.

"These are my favorite," he said with his mouth full.

"Swallow and then talk," Eunji's palm met the back of his head with a satisfying smack, "or else you'll die. Plus that's really gross."

"Would you save me if I choked?"

"W-what..." the thought of...she couldn't even...how would she...

"Stupid!" He burst out laughing when he realized what she was flustered about. "You don't do CPR first when people choke!"
 

Seoul Performing Arts Academy, dance studio

Later the students were all in their places in the dim-lighted studio watching while Hyuna-teacher demonstrated the group choreography.

"Yang Yoseob! Pay attention," Hyuna walked over to the boy and straightened his arms, "everything taught this week will be helpful for the final."

Eunji straightened her own arms, watching herself in the mirror. Yup, dancing wasn't her subject either. Maybe it was a vocalist thing. Everyone knew Yoseob was great at singing.

The five kids responsible for saving 3A's overall dance score were called up to the front row.

"You're having two exams for this class," Hyuna walked back to the front of the room as the students groaned at the both the news and their aching arms.

"Hyuna-teacher...how long left...?" Doojoon wobbled on his one foot "cool" pose.

"Endure it," Hyuna nodded firmly before continuing. "My segment is the class performance. Teamwork, get that through your minds. You kids only, show them how it's done."

Kikwang, Kai, Dongwoon, Hyoyeon and Jiyeon moved perfectly in sync to the beat of the music as the rest of the class watched in awe.

"These five...I could see their perfection clearly through all of you. How will you audition if no one can see you?" Hyuna paced between the rows of frozen students. Whipping her head around to the five at the front, "And you five, how will your future idol groups succeed if you don't help your members? Didn't I say teamwork is key?"

The class murmured a "yes, teacher".

"Regroup and improve. See you at the finals," the dance instructor nodded and left them to work amongst themselves until class ended.

The kids all exhaled as they sank onto the floor to stretch out.

"This is so stressful! We just started school a month ago!"

"There's no way I can perfect this choreography by next week!"

"I still have a song to compose!"

Hayi practiced on her own, and seeing her expression in the mirror - the maknae was close to tears. Over on the other side of the room Yoseob was in the same situation.

"Should we split into groups and practice?" Eunji suggested.

"If it helps," Dongwoon nodded, and the others agreed.

"Fine," Jiyeon shrugged reluctantly, "as long as it saves my grade."

The groups were decided over rock-paper-scissors, and separated into corners of the room with the five best students as leaders.

"Hayi, don't sweat it," Eunji nodded to the girl before they split. Hayi gave her a weak smile.

Eunji, Suzy, Daehyun, Doojoon, and Yoseob watched as Jiyeon counted out her steps slowly.

"It's not hard," the girl finished, and then turned around to gesture at them to start. As they did the routine she stopped them and glared at Yoseob, Doojoon, and Eunji.

"Why are you guys so...bad?"

"Excuse me?" Doojoon scoffed, "Hey woman, it's your job to help us."

"It's your job to improve," Jiyeon snapped in reply. "I don't get paid for this."

Seething, Doojoon was about to snap at her but shut up after Yoseob punched his arm lightly.

"Hyung, we just need one more verse."

"Fighting," Suzy encouraged quietly, helping the three of them with their posture as the music started again.

The bell finally rang, and the students scattered into their respective locker rooms to change back into their uniforms.

"How did you learn the dance so quickly?" Suzy asked Jiyeon, who was putting on her uniform jacket.

"I just did," with another glance in the mirror, Jiyeon pushed her hair back and followed Hara out.

"Does she not like me?" Suzy blinked at Eunji, who shrugged.

"She only likes Hara, I guess."

Jiyeon and Hara were people Eunji frequently saw at her parents' company dinners. The ones only the top tier of businessmen in Seoul attend. They were together all the time, those two girls. They even came and left together. Eunji was always curious about them, because even their families never went to separate events. The Park and Goo families never attended a dinner without eachother.
 

Seoul Performing Arts Academy, room 3A

After dance came acting class, and Lee Joon-teacher passed out the class's scripts.

"For the exam you'll be filming music video scenes," he read, and instructed the kids to recite their lines with partners, in groups, and as a class.

"Daehyun-ssi, when you say that line, you have to be more convincing." Lee Joon pointed out, mimicking him as he read the line with a bored face, "Show your hopefulness."

Daehyun repeated the line like he advised.

"Good!" Joon flashed him a thumbs up and went to the next student.

"I don't get how they're good at acting when their faces are so emotionless," Hayi jerked her chin in the direction of Jessica and Krystal, the two reserved sisters.

The Jungs just arrived as exchange students at the end of last year, but since then the class's overall acting score had been raised.

"I can't believe there's no solo exam," Jiyeon snapped loudly, catching Eunji's attention. "I have to depend on these people for my grades?"

"We'll depend on group members if we debut anyway," Hara simply replied. She seemed to be focused on her script. Eunji wondered if they were even that passionate about becoming musicians.

Lee Joon glanced around, checking the progress of each student. Headmaster Ma had called him in with the task of raising 3A's acting scores, and he knew now what he would have to work with. 3A lacked one main thing.

"Okay, you're all dismissed," Lee Joon waved them off as the bell rang, "practice your lines!"
 

Seoul Performing Arts Academy, dance studio

"You standing there makes me self-conscious," Kikwang stopped the music in the small practice room and took a drink of water.

She kicked herself for being obvious and came out from the darkness of the door corner of the room. After seeing him dance under the studio's dim lights again, it was confirmed - only he could help her.

"Help me with the choreography!" She pressed her palms together. "....please?"

He raised a brow, "Why me?"

"Because...you're good."

A laugh escaped his mouth. "That's all?"

"And..."

He shrugged it off after she struggled to come up with more reasons, "Sit down and stretch first. What part do you need help on?"

"...the whole thing," she muttered hopelessly.
 

"Oppa!"

He remembered the exactly how the girl approached him on that day. Dragging along her mess of a bike, she let it fall to the ground in front of him as he put away his new skateboard.

"What is this?"

"Fix my bike for me! Please?" she got on her knees and begged, and Kikwang noticed both her knees and elbows were scraped up.

"Wait a minute," he ran into his house and grabbed bandages and ointment from his mom's cabinet and brought them back out to her, applying it to her skin softly.

"It hurts...yah, this is why I didn't put ointment on! Ow!" She snapped, as he readjusted the bandage.

"Shut up and listen to your parents," he clicked his tongue. "Or else you'll get an infection and your knees will fall off."

He noticed her eyes widened and tear up. Perfect. "And then I won't wanna play with you and I won't fix your bike either."

After putting back the things he came back out to see her cleaning off her hands with the garden hose. "It's clean now, oppa...can you please fix my bike?"

He chuckled, deciding to play around with her a little more. "Why me?"

"Because...you're good at it! I saw you fix Cheongmin's bike the other day and he never fell off again!"

"That's why you came to me?"

"That and...you're really a fairy, aren't you? Anything you help people with never goes wrong!"

He was a little surprised with how serious she looked when she'd said that. And then he burst out laughing, "Yah, fairies don't exist! What are you going on about?"

She looked like she was about to kick him. He calmed down and brought out his tools.

"Okay, okay. What part is broken?"

"...the whole thing..."
 

Right, he still had to think about the all-important decision.

After the girl danced through the chorus, she collasped onto the hardwood floor.

"What time is it...?" 

He checked the digital wall clock. It was late. "Wanna go for some ice cream?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah," he nodded, gesturing at her to get up, "hurry before it closes."

Going for ice cream had also been one of their things. Every weekend their parents would send them both off to the ice cream shoppe.

"Here," inside the empty ice cream shop, he handed her the ice cream cone two scoops high.

"Wow! You remembered my favorite flavors!" she grinned, biting right off the top one.

"You remember you used to eat ice cream here?"

"I remember everything..." she trailed off with a short nod.

"Do you really?"

"Don't you?"

"You were like my best friend. How could I forget...Eunji?"
 

Wow thanks so much for subscribing!! I thought you'd all be scared of the long intro chapter ;; 

And I know the location markers at the beginning of each "scene" don't really matter because most of it is in Room 3A for now but you'll see why I wanna put them in later ahaha

I like comments! Thank you so much commenters it really makes my day when I get a notification c:

So it seems like Kikwang has some kind of decision to make? It looks like he and Eunji used to be friends. And doesn't Daehyun seem like he's opening up? At least to Eunji?