When we reached the academy after bandaging Rin’s wound and all, we went straight to the Grand hall given by the instructions when we got the letter. When we entered the Grand hall, it was well…grand. It was huge, there was a big stage at the front and there were rows of seats for approx. 1500 audiences. Unfortunately, since we were late, we missed the first lecture and they are already giving out the room keys.

“I’m sorry,” Rin muttered, rubbing her wound gently.

“It’s okay, we weren’t that late. Plus, we only missed the lecture!” I answered, smiling at her.

“I think we should line up as well if we were to get our keys,” Rin pointed at the line, it was long! Freakishly long.

“Yea, let’s go,” We moved to the back of the line, apparently, we are actually the last.

After about thirty to forty-five minutes of waiting, it was finally her turn, the girl ahead of us. After five minutes, they were apparently bickering about something…in TWO languages. The person in charge was speaking agitatedly at the girl in Korean and the girl was screaming in English.

“Can I help you?” I asked the girl in English while Rin asked the person in charge the same question, but in Korean.

“Thank god someone can speak English here. I was at the brink of committing suicide trying to talk to her,” The girl was angry.

“It’s okay. What were you trying to ask her anyway?”

“I could understand Korean but she was speaking too freaking fast. When I asked her to slow down, she didn’t listen so I started using English,” She explained, her hands massaging her forehead.

“Can you repeat what you said to her?” Rin asked the person in charge.

The person in charge was blabbering on and on about the academy protocol which I had to translate for the girl. After everything settled down and was calm, I asked the person in charge what was our room number since it actually turns out that we are the only ones here!

“Names?” She took out a board from the table.

“Song Seung Won imnida,” I answered.

“Park Min Rin imnida,” Rin smiled.

“oh me? Cha-neun Nicole imnida,”

“Fortunately…” The person’s voice trailed off, eyes travelling up and down the board, “You girls are in the same room! You girls are on the 18th level, congratulations in entering this academy!”

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“The lift is here!” Rin announced and we calmly entered the lift.

As we were standing, I finally realized that Nicole was actually quite pretty. She was a few inches taller than we both were and her hair was tied up into a ponytail. She was wearing a black knee length dress with a white jacket over it. She was also wearing white jeans to match her clothes. She was beautiful, but don’t worry, I’m straight. It turns out that she was from Singapore and came here from an overseas audition. I guess we are in the same boat, Rin and I was also from Singapore but came here a few years ago.

“We have to go to the class briefings right?” I asked when I opened our room door.

“Yea, so let’s get this over with!” Rin shouted as she punched the air, “I’m taking the bed next to the bathroom,”

“I’m taking the middle one,” Nicole pleaded and dashed off to the bed.

“Oh sure, I didn’t want the middle one anyway,” I grumbled, “THOSE BEDS ARE FOR LOSERS!”

“Whatever!” Both of them chorused and laughed.

Beside my bed, there was a small window. I stared out of the window, immersed in the night sky, the moon’s light reflected on me as I finally stared at my two roommates. I finally remembered that my father bought me a Polaroid camera for my acceptance into the academy. I rummaged my bag for the camera and tried to figure out how to turn it on.

“What are you doing?” Rin looked at me with those innocent eyes of hers.

“Wait,” My gaze still on the camera.

“Tell me now!” She pestered.

“I SAID WAIT,” I shouted and suddenly the camera flipped open, “I did it!”

“I am totally lost,” Nicole muttered after trying to unpack her clothes.

“I don’t think I care,” I joked, “Stand in front of the mirror,”

“Why?” Both of them looked at me.

“Just do it!” as I set the camera on the dressing table, positioning it perfectly with the help of the mirror and set the timer to ten seconds.

“You guys ready?” They hurriedly got ready and posed, awaiting my presence.

“Taking it three times okay?” I shouted and posed as well.

After a few minutes, the three pictures settled on the table, our picture coming out beautifully. The first picture, I was giving the peace sign near my eyes like Rin as Nicole gave a kissing pose, with a single finger on her lips. The second picture, Rin made a cute superman pose as I leaned on to her. Nicole was hugging me from behind which unfortunately caused us to fall right after the flash. The third picture was the best; we were all holding each other closely, not wanting to separate as we grinned at the camera.

“I got an idea,” Nicole spoke, “We are to write each of our wishes on either one of those pictures,”

“Great idea dude, I want the superman pose,” Rin snatched the picture away and gave a silly grin.

“I guess I’ll take the first picture we took,” Nicole took that one away.

I silently took the picture and sat on my bed, a marker on each of our hands. After a few minutes, we pasted the pictures on the mirror and stared at it, all of us grinning at each other.

The first picture, written in cool blue ink was Nicole’s dream:

“Nicole- I met two amazing girls today. I won’t regret my choice of coming here and will achieve my dreams of becoming a dancer. I will not falter at any obstacles and shall do my best!”

The second picture, written in black ink was Rin’s dream:

“Rin- I want to spend every single day here with a smile on my face. I want to have fun memories along with these two girls and still achieve my dream of being able to dance and sing. And I will torture Seung to the best I can!”

The third picture, written in red ink was mine:

“Seung- I will cherish every single time here. I will do my best to be a singer…I will not lose hope no matter how hard it may be and I will not be distracted by anybody! I know writing this in red ink is bad luck..But, what is life without risks right?”

I guess…none of us knew how IRONIC our words were then…