LOVEPHOBIA

The Big Day (Pt. 1)

*2 months later*

Finally, today was the day of the Olympiad. It was an oral quiz in which team members of 6 different schools had come after rounds of screening tests. It was to be broadcasted live on television and the students had to press a buzzer to answer. Among these students were the students of Seoul High School which were Park Areum and her team members. All of the teams were given rooms in the backstage to rest till when everything was being set up.

Park Areum had been thinking since many days that she was ready for this event. She felt confident after 2 months of rigorous practice. That was until when she realized -- "Wait- Is it today?..... IT IS TODAY!! OMG! OMG! WHAT AM I GONNA DO? I DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING! I CAN'T DO THIS! I'LL JUST EMBARRASS MYSELF, THE SCHOOL, THE TEAM MEMBERS,  EVERYONE OUT THERE!!!!! I'M NERVOUS! I'M-" and there goes her rap. She was certainly not ready for this. She started panicking. All the other members were nervous too but after seeing her mental breakdown, they forgot all about their own nervousness and tried calming her down.

"Areum! Areum! Calm down! What's wrong?" Kim Areum asked.

"Are you okay? Do you need some water? Do you want to go outside?" Jung Eun Bi offered.

"Hey, hey, hey! Breathe! Breathe! It's okay! It's okay!" Park Ji Hoon said.

"Areum, please, don't do this. You're scaring us. You're scaring yourself. You're fine. You're fine." Choi Joon Hyuk said.

But none of their words seem to work. She could not calm down. Lee Yeon Woo was irritated at this because till today she had been the most confident person in the group and she encouraged others to be confident of themselves too, so where did all of that go now? It's not like she was the only person who was nervous. Everyone was nervous, even he was. Then why was she the only one acting like this? He couldn't take this anymore. His anger took over him and he shouted.

"PARK AREUM! STOP ACTING LIKE A MADMAN! YOU ARE HERE TO REPRESENT OUR SCHOOL ON A NATIONAL LEVEL AND THIS WILL BE A LIVE BROADCAST!" he shouted.

"WHY ELSE DO YOU THINK I AM ACTING LIKE THIS, YOU FOOL!?" Areum shouted back. She knew he was trying to calm her down and that she shouldn't have said that but she couldn't control herself anymore. It was all due to the panic attack that she was going through.

On the other hand, Yeon Woo realized that shouting won't work. He realized that to calm her down, he would first have to have patience with her. Because shouting or scolding her was just worsening the situation. He started massaging his temple trying to find  some way to calm her down. Finally, he knew what he had to do.

He lowered his voice, went near her, patted her back and calmly said, "Calm down, it's alright. You are ready for this and you know it too. Then why are you worrying so much? I have faith in you, I trust you, so you should trust yourself too! Remember, you are one of the only six students who were selected to be here from the whole school. So, believe in yourself! You deserve to be here and you have to prove it. Show what you can do to the whole world today, this is your chance." 

Areum felt as if she was hypnotized by him. Her heart fluttered listening to all the encouraging words he said to her. She realized that he believed in her, the other members believed in her, the school believed in her, her parents believed in her. She couldn't let down the hopes of so many people. She had to believe in herself too. After all, if she wouldn't have been a genius, she wouldn't have been here either.

So she started calming down. Finally, her breathing came back to a normal pace. Kim Areum brought her a bottle of water and she gulped it down trying to gulp all her nervousness with it. "I'm ready for this! I have done a lot of practice for this day. I know I can do well. We will be in this together! We will definitely win! Thank you guys!" she said thankfully to all the other members who supported her through this. They were happy to see her get back to normal. "Now that's the Park Areum I know of!" said Joon Hyuk smiling widely. 

Right then, Mr. Lee came running to ask what was the matter as he heard too much noise coming from their room. He asked if everyone was fine or not and everyone smiled at him and said they were all fine. 

They just proved how great of a team they were. Now they were more ready than ever to win this quiz and bring name and fame to their school, themselves and their families.

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Hi! The author here! Was this better than the last chapter? Please comment and let me know how it's going so far... Love you all! Goodbye! ✍️(◔◡◔)