Dusk Until Dawn

Chapter 1 - The Dusk...

I woke up at 5AM just to see the sunrise.

Call me crazy, I couldn't care less. If I lose sleep just to see one pretty thing, I'd do it. The world doesn't have many pretty things.

I put on my glasses, grabbed a sweatshirt, ran downstairs, slipped into my sandals and stepped out onto my patio. I rested my arms on the railing and breathed in the crisp autumn air.

I stared out into the sky to see a yellow light taking its time to rise. With each second it was taking, the dark, black sky transformed into a fierce, red-orange one.

There wasn't a specific reason as to why I do this some mornings. Maybe this is my way of meditating. Maybe this is how I relieve any stress that happens to be bottled up inside me. I don't know why I did it, and I don't know why I still do. But it's not like I need to have a reason to see an alluring thing.

Eventually, I headed back inside the warm house, and I turned on the TV to watch a few minutes of the morning news to wake me up.

Oh, it's just political stuff. Never mind.

I turned off the TV and put in my contact lenses. I put on my outfit that I had probably already worn sometime this week, checked social media, made my bed – all that fun stuff.

My morning routine is probably the laziest routine anyone has ever seen. I wonder if the routines that YouTubers make are even true. If they are, I have mad respect for them.

I went downstairs with my bag and poured myself a bowl of Cheerio's. I was about to eat them when my sister snatched the bowl from me and began eating it herself.

"Stop, give that back! Yukina, give it back." I tried to grab her arms.

"Maia, you've always been so ungrateful towards your older sister. She's hungry, too. Just make your own cereal." Yukina grinned as she saw me roll my eyes.

I poured myself yet another bowl of Cheerio's, and I had to hurriedly finish them because I had to leave my house at 6:30. I take a Theatre Arts class, and it must be held early in the day for it to work with my schedule.

Yukina agreed to drive me to school, so I got in her car and started to play a Taylor Swift song from my phone. A Taylor Swift song never fails to get me in a good mood.

"Maia, why do you take a class so early in the morning?" Yukina complained.

"You should've let me drive the car!"

"No, I want to be seen as a good sister. I couldn't care less about you. Besides, you would've crashed the car." She sarcastically replied.

I laughed and I took a sip of my water.

"They said that I wouldn't be able to take the class unless if it's held early." I answered.

"You really want to be an actress?" Yukina faced me.

"Definitely."

When I was 11, my mom took me to the theater for the first time. My very first play, "Les Misérables". And I fell in love! Ever since then, I was fascinated by acting.

Then, as the years went by, I consumed more and more media, and eventually I fell upon dramas. Then I saw her. Jeon Yeo Been.

The way she moved and spoke, the way she portrayed her character, Hong Cha-Young is an icon and will forever be my idol. Her power, her charisma, and her witty remarks lit a fire in my mind.

And that was when I decided to pursue acting.

We arrived at my school about 5 minutes later, and I got out of the car. As I was about to close the car door and leave, my sister snapped her fingers.