𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 - 𝑆𝑘𝑦 𝐶𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑙𝑒

𝟏. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐨 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬

━━━━━ THE QUIET AND TENSE ENVIRONMENT OF THE CROWD BROKE INTO AN UPROAR OF APPLAUSE as the judge raised the flag, the scoreboard showing the competitors' final score for the tournament's final match. Ahn Seulgi stood up from her seat clapping as loudly as she could, beaming with a huge smile adorning her face as she found it hard to contain her happiness.

The victor who emerged from the final round was none other than her daughter, Roh Eunae. As soon as Eunae was awarded the gold medal and a bouquet, she was engulfed by her friends and her coach as they congratulated her on the win.

Seulgi couldn't help but watch her daughter from the audience, eyes gleaming with a soft gaze that held so much pride as an affectionate smile never left her face.

Snapping back into reality, Seulgi gathered her purse and coat as she began walking towards the stairs to get out of the seating lounge. Walking towards the crowd engulfing her daughter, she made her way through the crowd to reach her daughter, calling out for Eunae.

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Eunae turned to find the source of the voice only to be met by her mother whom she almost tackled down due to the excitement and adrenaline still gushing through her veins.

Stabilising her steps, Seulgi tightly hugged her daughter while constantly praising her and congratulating her on her latest win. Pulling back from the hug, Seulgi congratulated Eunae's coach and her fellow team members.

Having already talked earlier to Eunae's coach about the event taking place, Seulgi didn't have to wait for much longer before the coach brought over and handed Eunae's bag to her as she slightly gestured for Eunae to follow her.

Seulgi walked so fast out of the venue that it looked like she'd start sprinting any time to reach her car even faster as Eunae had a bit of a hard time catching up with her mother's fast pace.

"Calm down Ma! Why are we rushing today anyways?" An out of breath Eunae asked her mother as she bent down, having her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath properly as Seulgi kept her bag in the car's boot.

"Have a party to attend," was all she received from her mother as Seulgi quickly shut the boot and went to sit in the car.

Getting in the front seat beside her mother, Eunae quickly put on the seatbelt as she once again asked, "Party? What party? I mean what's so special today because as long as I remember, we never had any parties for any of my winnings."

Seulgi didn't reply anything to her overexcited curious daughter as she started driving, focusing on the road more to reach home as fast as she could.

Frowning at the lack of response from her mother, Eunae whined before pestering Seulgi again and again to try to get some type of answer out of her.

Not wanting to get distracted further by Eunae, Seulgi replied, "Youngjae got into SNU, which means Seojin has organised a party to congratulate Myungjoo. So, for the party, you need to try out a few dresses when we get home to see which fits and suits you the best."

Even though Eunae perked up with excitement, genuinely feeling happy for her friend, she couldn't help but remember how tough and hard it was for him to achieve this goal.

All those sleepless, nightmare filled nights, all those days without proper food because of the intense studying sessions, all of the times when he had collapsed in front of her, all those nights when she received a call where all she heard were sobs from the other side of the line.

It was no secret that all the families living in the SKY Castle went to great lengths to ensure the success of their children, not caring about how they did it or how it affected the kids.