The chattering noise of students talking filled the air as the first bell rang. Running into the classroom, the students dumped their bags onto their chairs and started forming groups as free period started. Everyone was smiling and relaxing themselves as there won’t be any teacher in class to control what they want to do for a whole period. The girls started to gather around with their friends, giggling about the latest boy bands, gossiping on who is dating a celebrity as well as discussing the latest trends now in stores. While on the other hand, all the boys did what they always do—yelling and laughing out loud, screaming at each other and fooling around, playing with the things in class and making a mess.

Running late, Jae Mi entered the noisy chaotic classroom with her bag slung behind her shoulders. Her long hair was messy as it flowed down onto her shoulders and her eyes were red with weariness. Dumping her bag on her chair, she immediately dropped onto her seat and folded her arms on her table, placing her sleepy head onto them as she tried to take advantage of the free period to rest her tired self.

Well, like she had said before, having a life being a trainee was hard, especially for teenage girls. Since her group’s debut is only a month away, everyone in the band is either busy practicing till late at night or recording the final touches of their song for their new single. It was only yesterday that the company had informed all eight members of the group to move into their new dorm. In order for the girls to not be late for their practices, as well as to delay their busy schedules, they were ordered to move some of their daily belongings from their homes into the apartment for the sake of convenience.

All of the girls in the group are still high school students. This meant that they have school in the morning as well as in the afternoon. And when school is over, everyone would rush back to the company and begin their training. It was their daily routine ever since they were informed that they are going to debut soon. Their life after school starts with a basic vocal warm ups with their vocal coach, where they sing and get individual reviews on what should be improved. After that, they would go up to their dance studio, where they would practice their dance routine for several hours. If the practice goes well, the girls are allowed to leave early for their dinner.

Dinner was basically the only time for them to rest since the afternoon. It was also probably the only time of the night that they would get to be normal as other school girls other than going to school during the day. After resting for a short time, the members would continue their schedules, going to the recording studio and learn about their new songs as well as record them. Well, to short things up, their life is basically school and training all day long, twenty-four hours a day with only a few hours of rest if there is enough time. Yes, it is tiring but what can they do? Their dream is about to come true and that’s the only thing they wanted—to become shining stars on stage.

“Ding Dong Ding Dong, Ding Dong Ding Dong…” When the chiming melody of the school bell rang, everyone groaned in unison as they knew their fun was over. Exam days had ended a week ago and everyone was in a mood of having fun and partying with their friends. There wasn’t anyone in class who wanted to pay any more close attention to their teachers’ boring not to mention torturing teachings now that their first term exams were over. The groans continued but were silenced immediately as soon as their next teacher, Miss Choi, came into the classroom with a bunch of papers in her hands.

Jae Mi shot her head up slowly from her folded hands and narrowed her eyes at the unexpected brightness. The sudden silence of her chaotic classroom followed by a nudge on her elbow woke her up from her short slumber. Rubbing her eyes, Jae Mi found a pair of eyes staring straight at her—it was Miss Choi. Biting her lip, Jae Mi nodded her head to the teacher as a sign of bowing before straightened her school uniform and smoothed her hair. Then, she waited for her name to be called.

Names were called one by one as everyone in class walked towards the teacher to get their result slip regarding their exams. The more Jae Mi waited, the more she felt nervous. She wondered how her exams went. Will it be as good as before? Or will her marks fluctuated from perfect A’s to just barely passing? With all so much training going on all day, she didn’t have much time to study for her exams. She was sure the other felt the same as well. Cho Rong unnie was a year older than her, and she was preparing for her big exam. She wondered if Cho Rong ever suffered from obstacles like this.

Jae Mi’s thoughts were once again interrupted by a nudge. She immediately shot her head up and found the whole class staring at her as if she was a freak. After several lagging seconds, she finally realized that she did not response after her name was called. Shrugging her embarrassment off, Jae Mi walked towards Miss Choi with an apologetic smile and accepted the folded paper. She walked back towards her seat and sat down, closing her eyes as she slowly open her result slip. She opened one eye to take a peek at the paper but what remained was disappointment.

The chiming bell once again rang as everyone stood up from their seats and stretched, walking towards their friends and started discussing about their results. On the other hand, Jae Mi sat silently at her place, dumbfounded at what was written on the paper. All her results, they were either B’s or C’s. Well, there was an A in the result slip but it didn’t make it any better. Though having results like that weren’t bad to the others, it was to her. It meant that her grades had worsened and that her parents are not going to be happy about it. She was in deep trouble but what made it worse was seeing what Miss Choi wrote at the edge of her slip— ‘Please see me in the office after school.’

Feeling nervous, Jae Mi hesitated and stopped in front of the teachers’ office. She had never gotten called into the office by any teacher before. Well, that’s because her grades were always one of the highest in class. But now, it was a whole other situation. Her grades had slipped when she had promised her parents that her new found career won’t have any effect on them. Mom and dad are not going to like this. They’re going to kill me, for sure. She just knew it. They have always been very strict when it comes to academic studies and to get such grades would be such a disappointment to everyone—her parents and her teachers, even herself.

 Jae Mi sighed and let out her breath before walking into the large lounge. She strutted her way to Miss Choi’s desk slowly and waited as Miss Choi finished her call. After several moments later, Miss Choi hung up her phone and arranged the papers on her table. She sighed and took off her glasses, pausing a moment before she looked up at the girl in front of her. She smiled. “Come Jae Mi, sit down.”

Jae Mi did what she was told and sat down right in front of Miss Choi. Her head was down but it was obvious that she was nervous. Her back was too straight as she sat on the chair and her whole body was all tensed up. Jae Mi was so scared that she didn’t even dare to look into her teacher’s eyes.

“What’s the matter, darling?” Miss Choi asked. “Is there anything that has been distracting you from your exams?” she continued when Jae Mi didn’t response, concerning about one of her top student’s sudden declining results. Jae Mi’s lips trembled before she spoke. She bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Miss Choi.” She apologized before stopping once again. Not knowing what was going on, the teacher asked Jae Mi what was bothering her.

Jae Mi slowly looked up at her caring teacher and began to explain about her current situation. She explained about her new found career as well as her tight training schedules due to her debut and that there wasn’t enough time for her to fully concentrate on studying for her exams. Tears began to fall down her cheek as she continued to talk more about her being tired all the time and that everything seemed so much harder to handle when knowing that she had once again failed to meet her parents’ expectations.

Miss Choi nodded thoughtfully at her frustration and patted her shoulder. She told her that it is good that she had found her dream but it is best if she can keep up her grades. After a few more talks on how to manage her time, Jae Mi was dismissed from the office.

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The time on Jae Mi’s watch struck three as soon as she arrived in front of her porch. She took out the silver key hanging around her neck and unlocked her door with a click. “I’m home.” She yelled as soon as she walked inside, only to found herself hearing the echo of her voice and coming back to a cold, empty house. She sighed. Gloomily, Jae Mi walked up the stairs and kicked her door open, slamming it shut behind her and dumping her bag on the floor before flopping down onto her bed.

Judging by the time of the day, mom and dad had probably gone to pick up her younger brother, Shin Woo, from school.  Like Jae Mi, today was also the day his results came out and her parents wouldn’t miss it for the world. Of course they wouldn’t, he’s practically their only hope in this house. Well, at least that’s what their actions told her.

Her brother was smart, as in really smart, ever since he was a little kid. He would always enter competitions since he was little and prizes were won every time. After getting such high grades in his exams as well as getting a recommendation by his previous school, Shin Woo ended up getting a scholarship to one of the prestigious schools in Seoul.  Now at the age of fifteen, Shin Woo continues to get straight A’s in his new school. Other than grades, her brother is good in sports too. He’s the perfect son any parents would wish for, unlike her.

She could never take over her brother’s place in her parents’ hearts. He was too good, too brilliant… too perfect. If there is anything she can do, Shin Woo could do twice as better than her. When she got an A in math, he got a perfect score. When she won the school’s annual sports fair, he got first place in the national marathon. But she could not blame his brother for her failure. It wasn’t his fault for being smart. She is the one to be blame for not being good enough to surpass his standards. But not being able to beat his brother wasn’t a problem for her. The problem was that her parents wouldn’t stop comparing them to each other.

Thinking about her younger brother and her parents made Jae Mi’s head hurt. She sighed and caressed her forehead, massaging it in circles. Feeling annoyed, she got up and her stereo to the loudest volume. The electronic techno sound of TeenTop’s ‘Supa Luv’ bombarded the whole room as soon as she pressed the red little button. Jae Mi dropped onto her soft bed once again and screamed her stress away under her pillows, letting the music surround her and swallow her up in this tiring day.

A soft thud was heard outside the front door. Jae Mi lowered down the stereo volume and walked towards her window, only to see her father’s car parked outside. She sighed once again, knowing that her parents would start nagging her about getting good grades again. It’s like a routine every time they came back from picking up the result slips and she was tired of listening to it all over again. Shrugging, she busied herself by taking out several large bags and a luggage from her wardrobe, shoving her personal belongings and her clothes as she started packing for her move.

The door opened widely with a loud thud as it was kicked with force. A boy in a prestigious navy blue and white uniform came barging in lazily with a piece of bread in his mouth. “Yo!” he greeted his sister before jumping onto the elder’s bed. Jae Mi glared at her brother annoyingly and threw a pillow at him. Unsuccessfully, it didn’t hit him. “Yah, how many times do I have to tell you not to sit on my bed? Your bed is just right next to it, sleep there!” She yelled.

Shin Woo made a face and ignored his older sister, sticking his tongue out and laid on top of her pillow. He looked down at the messy floor, which was swarmed with piles of clothes. “What are you up to now?” He asked, cocking his eyebrow and looked at Jae Mi like she’s some mastermind planning to play a prank while Jae Mi continued her work. “We’re in a strict schedule nowadays since the recording is almost done. Cube wanted us to move in together in order not to waste our time. Time is money, my annoying brother.” She answered, only to get a ‘mm hmm’ as a response.

 “Whatever.” Shin Woo faked a yawn and climbed off her bed, walking to their desk. Even though having a famous star as a family member might be extremely awesome for outsiders, Shin Woo didn’t really bother with it. Sure, he is happy that his older sister will be achieving her dreams, but he wasn’t really that excited. Well, that’s his sister, what could anyone expect? Even though that she might be a big star one day, she’s still that annoying, mean older sister who bullies him ever since he was born.

Then, something on the table caught his attention. “What’s this?” He asked, picking up a slip of paper. Jae Mi yelped and jumped up from the ground. “Don’t look at it!” she exclaimed, trying to snatch her result slip from her brother’s hands. But being 165cm tall and a head shorted than her brother, Shin Woo won by lifting his hand up high. “Yah, you got a C in math?” He yelled in surprise as he moved the paper closer so that he could see a little better. “Mom is so going to kill you.” He mocked in glee as he continued scanning down her paper. “Give me that right now!” Jae Mi screamed annoyingly and chased her brother around the room. Shin Woo ran away, laughing as he tried to avoid his angry sister.

A honk outside the house stopped the chaotic commotion in the room. Both siblings stopped from their argument and walked towards their window. A large silver van was parked on their front lawn. Jae Mi yelled. “Ahhh, I have to leave now! Look how much time I’ve wasted. I didn’t even finished packing yet.” she told her brother in panic as she hurriedly threw all her belonging into her bags. With one final zip, she slung them all around her arms and left the room.

“What about this?” Shin Woo shouted right across the stairs, waving Jae Mi’s result slip in the air. “You’re going to be in so much trouble!” He warned. “Well, don’t tell mom about it until I leave, got it?” She demanded in a serious tone, sending a death glare all the way across the hallway. “Araso…” Shin Woo whined, making a face as he watched his sister close the front door behind her.

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I FINALLY UPDATED!!!!! :D YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! Well, I'm the one whose being excited right now. I want to apologize to all my super awesome readers for not updating all my stories for such a long time. Well, this year is kind of an important year cause of my exams, and I'm really busy with my studies, so it's hard for me to write new chapters. But I'll find some time to continue them :D Plus, I feel so unmotivated :( I don't know why but I just feel so sad and lazy now. Maybe it's because I lack encouragement or something. Anyways, even though I don't update this story for a few weeks or even a month or so, I am shocked to see new subscribers :D

OMG OMG! HIIIIIII NEW SUBBIES! Welcome!!!!!

So, anyone miss me? :) this chapter is only about Jae Mi's life in school and some details about home. Well, as you can see, she's trying hard to cope with her new found dream as well as the pressures in her home. I hope I captured the 'stress' she's having. It's not really an exciting chapter, but i hope you guys enjoy it.

Questions!

1) Anyone heard the news of JunHyung and Hara being not together anymore? O_O I think it's just rumours though, cause my baby JunHyung stated that they're still together. Soo... anyone mind putting that clear, please? :)

2) How do you cope with rejection? Tell me your stories and your way to get over it.