Attending SOPA

Chapter 3

*Two Days Later*
It's the day of our vocal class performances. First up are the top two students in the class, of course. Those two are bound to debut way before us, but I can't be jealous of them. They are brothers, a year apart. They sing FAKE LOVE by BTS. Their harmonies, their choreography. All on point and perfect. I sing along quietly, watching these two boys dance and sing. Wow, they're really good. They finish their performance and take a bow. The whole class applauds and cheers. They sit down.

Now, it's Hajoon and I's turn. Hajoon spins his guitar to in front of him cooly. I pick up a mic and announce our song to the class,
"This is Time Of our Lives by DAY6. I hope you enjoy. Hit it Hajoon!"
"Okay!" Hajoon exclaims, smiling wide as he starts playing. The class looks at how his fingers glide across the fretboard and plays the chords amazingly. I sing the first verse, then we sing the chorus together, and switch between verses. He sang the second, I sang the third, and so on. Our harmonies during the chorus was something to marvel at. Let's just say, we were doing pretty good. It would be amazing if we also had another guitarist, bassist, drummer, and keyboardist, just have an entire band. That would really make the performance perfect.

By the end of our performance, we got a standing ovation. Hajoon swings his guitar so it's behind him. He runs his hand through his hair, not looking the hottest he could ever be. There's a little bit of sweat running down his forehead, okay not gonna lie or anything, Hajoon is hot. All that besides, our class loved our performance. They want to see what we have in store for the future. If we debut together as a duo, that would be so cool. I would love that. Hajoon puts his guitar back on its stand and sits down next to me near the back. I hear many of my classmates whispering amongst themselves, from what I hear, they either want us to date or debut together because we would be the ultimate duo. I mean, if the chance were to come up, I would take it in a heartbeat. To debut with Hajoon, I mean. He was my first friend out here, and I will forever cherish our friendship.

After everyone finished their performances, in the afternoon, the school held a special assembly. They are welcoming back their alumni and are having the new students meet them. We all file into the gym and take our seats. The stage starts filling up with all the alumni of SOPA. Some of those alumni include: Ahn Yu-Jin, Bae Suzy, Choi Yoo-Jung, Eunha, Hyunjin, Jungkook, Kai, Taeyong, Mark, Sehun, Jaemin, etc. The entire stage had at least four or five rows of alumni coming back to welcome in the class of 2022. That would be my class. Of course, the freshmen class would be the first class to meet the alumni.

After the freshmen and sophomore classes met the alumni, it was finally my class' turn to meet them. Some of my faves are out there, and I can't wait to meet them. Hajoon told me that they only gather the alumni every 5 years, so I got pretty lucky. The junior class is led to the stage where they go through and meet every single alumni that was able to make it here. I meet some of my favorite idols like; Kai, Jungkook, Taeyong, Mark, Sehun, and Jaemin. They even gave us some words of advice, moving forward as juniors. For that, I'm even more grateful for them. They were the people who drove me to pursue this type of career. I couldn't thank them enough for all they've done for me. At the very end, you're allowed to take selfies with your favorite alumni, then go back to your seats. I give them hugs and take selfies. I may never get the opportunity to do that again. I will cherish these photos for my whole life.

With our incredible assembly over, we return to our classes as scheduled. I go to my core classes. To be surprised, along with the arts being the main focus of this school, they also teach the core subjects: math, English, science, and social studies. They also have Chinese and Korean as mandatory classes that you would need to take. I also have to take Korean history. The reason these classes are after my singing and dance classes is because again, this school focuses are solely the arts. The teachers would want you to get those most important classes over with first. I go to my afternoon classes and then afterwards, I go back to my dorm to do some studying. Hajoon texts me, asking what I'm up to. I tell him that I'm doing some hard studying of Korean. He told me to not study too hard because Korean is not that hard. Says the guy who's native language is Korean. I guess I could just go study with Hajoon and his group of friends.

Later that same evening, Hajoon and I went out to the local convenience store to buy some ramen. I bought some cheesy ramen and Hajoon gets himself spicy seafood stir-fry ramen. We cook our ramen in the fancy microwaves, after they're done cooking, we take a seat at one of the tables in the convenience store. Me being the person that I am, doesn't know how to use chopsticks properly. I've tried using them before, but I always fail. Hajoon notices that I'm struggling with the chopsticks and helps me out.
"Here, use them like this." Hajoon said.
"So, my thumb and index finger like this, and my middle finger on top like this?" I asked.
"Here." Hajoon said, putting his hand on top of mine. He shows me how to use the chopsticks by very cutely making my hand use them correctly.
"Haha, thanks. I think I got it now." I said.

Now that I know how to use chopsticks, I continue on eating my ramen. This cheesy ramen is so delicious. Hajoon slurps very loudly as he indulges in his ramen. I giggle because he's eating it so quickly, whereas I'm taking my time eating it. We finish our ramen and head back to SOPA. Walking back to our school and looking at Hajoon every so often, makes me realize that I do actually have a crush on him. Not only is his singing voice beautiful, his personality is amazing. Plus, the boy can also play guitar, I love a boy who can play guitar. I will just keep on waiting until it's a good time to admit that I have a crush on him. I don't want this crush to get in the way of our friendship. Maybe in a few months I might tell him, maybe if I wait it out, he might also have a crush on me too. For now, we'll continue to be friends, then I'll see what happens.