Switched

Chapter Eight

It had been exactly three weeks since she secretly wrote the Beijing University scholarship examination. She still felt queasy. What if she failed it?

The anxiety was killing her inside. Worse still, superstition got the best of her. Some ridiculous side of her still thought that if she voiced it out, she would fail. She didn't want want to ruin it.

She paced up and down the small living room, holding her phone. Suddenly, the door bell rang.

"Who's that?"she asked, opening the door.
"Anneo- oh, it's you guys."

She opened the door wider for her friends to come in.

"Is it just me or is February unusually cold?" Ace said, rubbing her palms together as she stepped in.

"You look like a homeless burrow rabbit," Eun Kyung said.

"You don't say," Hee Kyung giggled.
Closing the door, she sighed. "The weather's a bit cold outside. I'll fetch you some coffee. Sit here and don't BREAK anything."

"知道啦,"*(1) Ace playfully said in mandarin.

Eun Kyung stuck her tongue out at her  pronunciation. Ace stuck out hers back.

She shortly came back with two mugs. She gave it to them and cleared her throat.

"So, I've been meaning to tell you something," she started.

"Exactly what I needed, Eun Kyung-ah. What d'you want to say?" Hee Kyung said, sipping the coffee.

She heaved a sigh, ignoring her nerves and superstitions.

"I wrote the Beijing University scholarship examination nearly a month ago."

The girls stopped sipping their coffee and stared at her in surprise.

"What?! Why didn't you tell us?" Hee Kyung said, wide eyed.

"Was it too hard? It was easy, right?" Ace asked.

"Please tell me you read, Eun Kyung."
"Of course I did," Eun Kyung said. "I read like I was going to die. It's my only true free chance at music, y'know."

"Was it okay? Were the questions hard?"
"No, they weren't. Most of them are highly technical questions though. If I hadn't read in depth, I might have not been able to answer them. All in all, I'm impressed. Even their questions aren't so cheap. Only true geniuses enter that school."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hee Kyung asked, brows furrowed.

Eun Kyung guiltily smiled. "I thought I would jinx it if I told anyone."

"So not even your mom knows about this?"

"No. No, she doesn't." She got a notification on her phone and read it slowly getting visibly agitated.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" Her besties asked.

"I- I... t-the results..."

"What? What's wrong?" Ace asked, taking the phone from her and reading it.
"The results... They're releasing them today... This is bad. I'm not ready to see it!" Eun Kyung said, trembling.

"It's ok, Eun Kyung-ah," Hee Kyung said, trying to calm her down.

"The results will be released at exactly 8:00pm today," Ace read aloud from the phone.

Eun Kyung was panicking.
"It's ok… we'll stay with you till then," Hee Kyung said soothingly.

Fast forward to 7:48pm and Eun Kyung was still in panic mode. The rest of the Bae family was home already, having gone to a family member's house without Eun Kyung who wasn't home then.