“That’s all for our lesson today. Now, I hope you finish the assignment I gave you. You all may leave. All but, Ji Suk Jin, I want to see you after this. Thank you.”

              Every student in the classroom left one by one. Suk Jin waited for the last person to leave before slowly making his way to the teacher’s table. “Yes, Park sungsaenim, did I do something wrong?” he asked politely, trying to figure out what could be the reason to be called all of a sudden.

            Mr. Park sat on his chair, giving the bespectacled student a glare that made him flinched. “Ji Suk Jin ssi,” he said in a stern voice. “Why are you here again?” he finished.

             “Why? I mean… You called me…” he answered unconfidently.

              “Not that. What I meant was, what are you doing here in the first place?” the teacher’s statement confused him even more. “Among all my students, your grades and performances are the worst I’ve ever seen.”  He then stood up, putting his hands on the table.

            “In fact, I don’t think you belong here in the first place. Ms Hyori said that you are one of her favourite and best student. She said a lot of things about you and I was expecting any of that when I agreed to take you in my class 2 years ago. What do I get now? Feeling regret for accepting you in the first place! Don’t think that you could get away every time your friends are doing a broadcasting event or something. You didn’t even show up to do something as simple as those who works backstage.”

              Suk Jin couldn’t think of anything to defend himself because everything the teacher had said was true. He only looked at the brown floor, thinking on what might happen next.

              “As punishment, you don’t have to do the assignment I gave you. Instead, you’ll be hosting a little event.” Mr. Park said, looking at the student for his reaction. Suk Jin looked at him in a confused expression.

                “You see, the Acting Department is holding a mini play event for the second year student and I’m putting you in charge for it. You better not run from this or I’ll…” he intentionally left his words hanging before walking out of the hall with his stuff, leaving Suk Jin rooted on the same place.

            “Host? Me?”

---

             “Lee Kwang Soo ssi! That’s not how you do it!” angered, the teacher threw the papers right at him. Some hit him, some were scattered around him. Kwang Soo remained standing with a pity look on his face. The other students who witnessed this only looked at him pathetically.

           “Ryu sungsaenim…” Ji Hyo was about to defend Kwang Soo, but was stopped by her friends. She has no choice but just standing there, looking at her poor dongsaeng being scolded like crazy.

            “Kwang Soo ssi, the play is exactly next week! I gave you and your friends one month to practice and this is what you give me?” the man looked at him sternly. Kwang Soo looked to the ground, didn’t dare to make any eye contact.

            “Are you sure you can do this genre?” he asked, putting his hands on his waist. The tall boy gave a slight nod, enough for the teacher to turn his back and headed to another student.

           After the teacher and her friends left, Ji Hyo picked up the scattered papers and skipped towards Kwang Soo. “Are you okay?” she asked as she handed the papers. Kwang Soo smiled faintly, taking his script from her hands. “Do you want to change the play with mine?” she offered.

            Kwang Soo shook his head, “That’s okay nona. I can do this. You’ve practiced your play really hard. Don’t worry much about me.” He reassured her.

            Even though filled with doubt, Ji Hyo only smiled before leaving him on his own. “Ask me if you need anything, okay?”

            Kwang Soo only looked at her left before turning his attention towards his script.

            “I can do this… Right?”

---

            “Try… Try to forget… Try to… Oh no, not like that!” Kwang Soo said, rechecking his script. He then took his MP3 player on his bed and played a rhythm for his play. In all the genre, he had to choose musical. He thought it would be easy, memorizing the lyrics and all. But he kept missing its cue.

            After listening to its beat, he tried singing again. But he kept getting it off beat. Frustrated, he shouted as loud as he can, lying on the big bed on his back. He took a pillow and preesed it onto his face, screaming into it.

            The door suddenly crept opened. He quickly rose, seeing who could it be. Who else if it wasn’t the eldest. Jae Suk and Jong Kook went on a school trip, Gary and Haha were still at school while Ji Hyo was upstairs in her room.

           “Kw- Kwang Soo ah… Is something wrong?” Suk Jin asked as he entered the room. He then slowly closed the door with his left arm while his right hand was holding a rolled up paper.

             “N-Nothing. Sorry if I suddenly disturbed you, hyung.” Kwang Soo replied as he patted the bed, inviting him to sit down and have a chat with him. He threw the pillow back to its place and smile widely.

            “Sounds like you’re stressing out on something…” Suk Jin whispered softly as he sat on the bed. He tried making himself comfortable and at the same time, trying not to disturb anything on the bed.

             “So… You’ll be the host for our little event?” Kwang Soo asked.

              “Yeah... If you're expecting Jae Suk then I'm sorry...”

            Kwang Soo shook his head and showed his jazz hands, saying that he didn't mind as long as it's someone he's familiar with. Suk Jin gave a small nod as his left hand tapped on the bed, following the beat of the music coming from Kwang Soo's MP3 player.

             “You're doing musical for your play? Or, you just like to hear loud music?” Suk Jin asked, pointing towards the music player next to him that has been playing the same music over and over again.

            Apologizing for the loud music, Kwang Soo took the little gadget and tried to switch it off. But the eldest stopped him, saying that he didn't mind. He then asked if he can look at the lyrics for the song. Kwang Soo was willing to give it if he gave him his script in exchange. Reaching an agreement point, they both tradded their papers and statred reading each others script.

           Kwang Soo was shocked upon seeing the numbers of words that will be use by his hyung. He was about to ask something but suddenly froze when Suk Jin started singing. He didn't miss its cue or beat. His voice was in sync and perfect harmony with the music. Kwang Soo was awed, scolding himself on why he couldn't be like him.

          Realizing he was being watched, Suk Jin quickly went quiet. His face flushed a bit as he put the paper down.

           “That… That was daebak, hyung! I didn’t know you can sing! Well, everyone can sing but still, it must be easy for you to memorize it. Same goes with this script. It looked so simple. All you do is greet people, introduce people, make announcement and close the ceremony. Not to mention that you’ll be using some cue cards to help you. Unlike us, we have to memorize the whole book and all!”

           Trying to hide his embarrassment, he let out a big sigh before putting the paper aside. “It… It was an easy beat. Easy to follow, easy to…” Suk Jin continued explaining about the song.

           Kwang Soo felt like hitting himself when he hears his hyung’s comment about his play. All of his classmate thinks that this one was easy to accomplish. But look at him, he has yet to catch up with it. He remembered the first reason he chose this genre. It was to prove to his teacher that he is something else. He hates it when someone starts comparing him with someone else.

---

          The atmosphere in Suk Jin’s room suddenly felt like an investigating room where the investigator questions the suspect.

          The investigator? Suk Jin, of course.

           The suspect? The poor, innocent paper that was filled with scripts and a few piece of cards.

          He has yet to transfer the script into his cue cards despite a pen in his hand and the paper right in front of him on his bed. He stared at it hard, not sure on what and how to summarize the words and write it on the cards. He kept leaning on the comfy pillows, looking outside the window next to the bed for inspirations then sat up straight, staring back at the paper.

          Irritated, he slid the pen in the space between his upper ear and head, took out the guitar he hid underneath his bed and started plucking its string randomly, creating a totally random rhythm.

We are easy, but we are not easy,

Oh no we’re not, we may look that way.

We are easy, but we are not easy,

Oh no we’re not-

             Realizing on what he’s doing, he stopped plucking and singing. He started blaming himself for being able to create such random words but not capable on re-writing a script.

            He could really use some help, but who can help him? He couldn’t reached Jae Suk, which he couldn’t blame due to the low coverage at where he is. He’s a little embarrassed to ask his friends and the event is just in the next two days.

            Like it or not, he has to do it anyway. Putting his guitar aside and taking his pen, he forced himself to write something on the card, only to have a lot of erasing marks on it.

---

           Six hours before the event and the second year students were already rehearsing their play. Kwang Soo was still learning his lines. He’ll be performing after Ji Hyo, first fourth and that’s enough for him to have butterflies in his tummy. He started walking in circles, worried on what Mr. Ryu might say if he saw his progress.

          “Kwang Soo ah, are you okay?” a female voice asked him in a worried tone.

          “Nona! I’m fine, thank you.” Kwang Soo answered, smiling at his Ji Hyo nona.

         Ji Hyo looked at him deeply before she started guessing. “You’re still not prepared for your play, right? Gilin, please don’t lie. You know that I can tell wether you’re lying or not.”

           He became flustered when she found out the truth. But he still denies it, insisting he's fine. Ji Hyo gave out a big sigh, saying that she saw Suk Jin at the corner of the stage and thought maybe he could go and chat with him.

          Remembering that she still needs to check on her dress, she quickly excused herself and persuaded him to go check on the eldest.

         Curious, Kwang Soo went to the stage to see if Ji Hyo was telling the truth. When he arrived, he could see Suk Jin sitting at the edge of the stage, letting his legs dangled five centimetres above the floor.

         “Hey hyung!” he greeted.

           Suk Jin was startled with the sudden greet. Kwang Soo gave a small grin, asking for permission to sit next to him. The bespectacled man patted the spot next to him, saying yes while still looking at his cards.

           Kwang Soo sat quietly as he hugged his long legs and observed him. He then looked around the hall, observing the rest of his classmates who were still practicing. Some of them were dancing. Some of them were shouting. A frown was drawn, and he knows why.

          “I’m going to ruin everything…” he said. “The rest of them practiced so hard for this. Not to mention that this is an individual play. I bet that the mood will be ruin once I perform and they’ll…”

           “It’s not going to be your fault for ruining this. I mean, you’re still a second year student, still lacking something and I bet everyone will understand.” Suk Jin said as he patted his back. “Besides, you’re not the only one. Being a host is extremely difficult. Our job is to make sure that an event goes on smoothly. No pressure nor stressing out during the event and we have to play along with the theme. One stupid mistake and everything will be ruin.”

           “But… But…” Kwang Soo let out a big sigh. He was still worried about his play and how his teacher will react. “To tell you the truth, I can’t do my play. I can’t sing or follow the beat. My teacher will be upset with me. So will my friends…” he confessed, sinking his head into his legs.

             Suk Jin put his cards down and tried to calm him down. He suddenly had an idea. “Kwang Soo ah, do you want me to teach you how to sing?” he offered. “I can teach you when to start, pause and stop. How to memorize the lines and how to sing it right.”

             Kwang Soo slowly lifted his head. “Can you? I mean, can you do that? In less than 5 hours?” he asked, feeling unsure.

            “Trust me, I’ll help you.”

---

           30 minutes before the curtains rise. Everyone’s busy behind the stage, dressing up, putting make-up, checking their props and did one last rehearsal. At the edge of the room was Kwang Soo, who was practicing in front of Suk Jin.

          “Well, Kwang Soo, you still get the lyrics mixed up, but you’re getting there. Just calm down and everything will work out just fine.” Suk Jin said as he folded his sleeve about his wrist.

          “Thanks, hyung. I will keep that in mind!” Kwang Soo exclaimed, fixing his hat. He then bent down to tie his shoelaces.

          Ji Hyo came skipping in a black rob and plastic cat ears. “The hall’s packed. I’m getting nervous by the minute. What about you two? You seem relaxed.” She said as she sat on a chair.

          “Ya, nona. I’m nervous too!” Kwang Soo exclaimed, turning his head to Suk Jin.

           Suk Jin just shrugged. “This is my first time doing this too. So, I’m having butterflies in my stomach too.”

          “First in five years?”

           Suk Jin gave a bitter smile, saying that he doesn’t feel like telling.  Ji Hyo glanced over at Kwang Soo, silently asking what it meant. Kwang Soo shook his head. He wanted to say something, but worried that it might make things even worse.

        “Boys will always be boys. Anyways, Kwang  Soo ah, Ryu sungsaenim wanted to see everyone before the curtain rise. We probably should go now.” Told Ji Hyo as she stood up and walked away. Kwang Soo followed from behind, but stopped a few centimetres. He then turned around, facing the eldest.

         “Hyung.” He called out. “Just, breathe in properly and calm down. Like you said, that always work.” He smiled, before turning back and quickly ran to where his friends are.

         Suk Jin nodded, “Thanks for the advice, Kwang Soo ah.” He then took out his phone and tried contacting someone. Unfortunately, the call went straight to the voicemail. Someone was already calling him, telling him to get ready.

“Too bad you couldn’t see me now. Just be careful on where you’re currently at, Sukkie, Kookie...”

Author’s note:: Spoiler on the next chapter, that is, if you can tell who~ Just wait for at least... 3 months?

p/s:: Some chapters are going to be long, some are going to be short, I don’t care anymore. If it’s too long, I’ll post it in parts.