Chapter Text
He’s definitely had a haircut.
Jisoo leaned against her arm languidly and sighed. Her eyes narrowed at the young man at the front of the room, scrutinizing his forehead. Jaebum looked slightly different today. She had noticed it the minute she walked into the classroom because she was a self-proclaimed expert on all matters pertaining to Jaebum’s appearance. If anyone asked her how she could so accurately pinpoint the reason why her Business and New Media TA looked different, she’d probably just scoff and say that any of the other students who saw Jaebum in the classroom twice a week would have noticed, too. And she’d deny that her scrutiny had anything to do with the fact that Jaebum was drop dead gorgeous. Especially now that you could see his forehead.
“So, in this chapter we learned about social media as promotional tools for businesses,” Jaebum said, reading off a paper with the professor’s notes on it. “And we looked at Instagram and Snapchat ‘story’ features as case studies. Someone wanna give us the gist of the author’s argument? What about you, Jisoo?”
The whole class looked over its shoulder at Jisoo, who was still leaning against her arm with a dreamy, far-off look in her face. She didn’t seem to notice when Jaebum’s face gave her an expectant look, even though she’d been staring at him. When he talked, she just kept staring at his luscious mouth.
“Jisoo?” Jaebum said again. “The author’s central argument?”
“Pay attention!” shouted a boy, and Jisoo’s focus was finally shook. She blinked and cleared her throat as she stepped out of her daydream and back into the dreary real world of Business and New Media.
“Huh?” Jisoo said. She hated the way her voice dipped even deeper when she was confused. She sounded like Scooby Doo. All her classmates were staring at her, and when she looked back at Jaebum, his gorgeous face was still waiting for an answer.
“Oh, sorry!” She looked down at her desk and found the magazine she’d been reading still open to her page. She snatched it away and replaced it with her eReader, hoping that no one had noticed her slacking off. Jisoo bent over and feverishly began flipping through the pages of the textbook on her eReader.
What was he saying before? What did he ask? Her skin started to feel hot and damp beneath the collar of her pressed white button-up. She could feel her classmates rolling their eyes at her.
Crap. She hadn’t been paying attention at all to what Jaebum was talking about. Her forehead creased with anxiety, and she looked up slowly.
“Umm,” she said, laughing sheepishly. “Can you repeat the question?”
The whole room groaned with irritation. Even Jaebum clicked his tongue with disappointment as he had to look back down at the lesson outline. Jisoo flushed with embarrassment. In the end, another student raised her hand and shouted out the answer before Jaebum had a chance to repeat his question or Jisoo had a chance to redeem herself. Their TA cleared his throat and just continued with the discussion.
Jisoo slumped back in her chair and let out a slow breath. Then she leaned forward and massaged her temples, staring up at the clock every so often. For the next half hour, she tried her best to follow along with her classmates’ discussion on her eReader, but her brain started throb, sore from the effort of trying to feign interest in anything related to business at all. Giving up, she moved her eReader aside and looked back down at the magazine she’d been reading.
Jisoo had been subscribed to Embrace Magazine since she was thirteen, and she read the literary publication’s romance-focused short stories and serialized novels religiously. Almost each and every one brought tears or at least a slight stinging sensation to her eyes and a heavy feeling to her heart. Stories about proud, plucky heroines falling for dark, mysterious men after going on grand adventures. Sometimes, the stories were about shy ingenues who find themselves falling for equally misunderstood outcasts. Sometimes they were about steamy romances developing between two people whose love was forbidden. No matter what the story was about, each one was always told with rich, beautiful, elevated prose that reminded Jisoo why she had to be a part of the work this magazine was doing.
Gently, she ran her finger over the top edge of the magazine until her skin touched a piece of parchment. She opened the magazine at that spot. Lying in the middle of the publication was a slim, folded piece of transparent parchment. Squashed in between was a small pressed and dried wildflower with thin, gossamer purple petals and a center that used to be yellow. It was very delicate, so Jisoo was careful as she opened up the parchment a bit to check on her flower. It had been her lucky charm all these years, and god knows that she would need all her luck later today.
Moving her attention away from the flower and back to the page, she ran her index finger over the glossy finish until it came to rest on a spot on the masthead.
Julie Kiyoko, Managing Editor.
Jisoo felt her heart swell at the same time that her stomach lurched. She looked up to check the clock once more. In just a little over an hour and a half, she would be meeting Julie Kiyoko, Embrace Magazine Managing Editor. This job interview would be her first step toward her dream.
Jisoo had given herself away to daydreaming once again and almost didn’t even notice when her classmates started to stand up and pack their bags. She folded her flower back up into the parchment, gently so as not to damage it, and then she slipped it between the pages of a novel she was reading. Then, she threw everything else into her bag and stood up.
“Jisoo, wait,” said Jaebum before she reached the door. Taking a minute to fix her shirt and steady her beating heart (why did his voice have this effect on her?) Jisoo turned and walked toward her TA.
Relax, she tried to tell herself, but she couldn’t help it. The closer she got to Jaebum, the more nervous she felt. He was wearing a navy blue suit today, which had to be the sexiest of all the suit colors. Paired with his new haircut and the slightly scary aura of authority that wafted around him (which was admittedly also kind of hot), Jisoo didn’t know what to do with herself.
He was half sitting, half leaning against the desk, and when Jisoo slowed to a stop in front of him, he held out a stapled pack of papers toward her.
“I read your draft,” he said. Jisoo gave him a nervous look.
“You did?” she said. “I mean… thanks. Uh, so what did you think?”
“You have a gift, you know?” he said, and Jisoo immediately blushed.
“Really?” she said, hating how pathetically hopeful her voice sounded just then. Jaebum nodded.
“You really have a way with words and expression, your writing is strong,” he said, not breaking eye contact with her. Jisoo’s heart raced, doubling in speed with each compliment.
“Thank y—,”
“But,” he continued, crossing his arms and his expression turning solemn. “I think your research lacks substance. I can tell you’ve done the reading, but there’s nothing in your paper that tells me that you’ve actually done any hands on digging in the information. Everything just feels too surface, you’re going to have to go back and dig deeper to come up with anything of substance. You understand?”
Jisoo blinked at him. Yes, she understood, and he was right, of course. Even before she turned the draft into him, she knew he was going to say that her writing was half-assed and the research felt rushed and surface. But still. She never did take criticism very well. Especially when it came to her writing.
Her ego was hurt. But she couldn’t lash out now. If not because this was Jaebum she was speaking to, then because doing so would lengthen this meeting, and she wanted to be at the Embrace Magazine headquarters early for her interview. So she just swallowed her wounded pride and nodded.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said. Jaebum didn’t let go of her gaze for a long time, but the look in his eyes was stern.
“Has everything been alright, Jisoo?” he asked. Jisoo blinked at him again.
“Of course?” she said. It was meant to be a declarative statement, but it sounded like a question.
“You’ve been zoning out a lot in class,” he said. “I know it’s your senior year and this is probably the last thing you want to be doing with your final days in college, but you should try to finish off strong.”
“Right,” Jisoo said. Yes, she liked Jaebum’s forehead and the way he looked in a navy suit, but that didn’t mean she liked being lectured to like a child about college by someone who was just barely out of college himself. But again, Jisoo stopped herself from lashing out. She cleared her throat, and without anything else to say, Jaebum bid her a good weekend and let her go.
When she stepped out of the double doors of the building in a hurry, Jisoo saw Jennie sitting down on the top step of the stairs, shuffling through a deck of flash cards. When she saw Jisoo approaching, Jennie tucked the cards into her purse and stood to greet her friend.
“Good morning,” Jennie chimed. Jisoo was speed-walking and slightly out of breath as she replied.
“Hey. Come on, walk with me, I don’t wanna be late.”
Jennie fell into step beside Jisoo as they both headed for the campus bus station. Unlike Jisoo, who was wearing a business major’s requisite suit outfit, Jennie looked very fashionable in an off-shoulder top and matching pencil skirt.
“How was Business and New Media?” Jennie asked cheerfully. Jisoo’s face twisted in disgust.
“Ugh, Business and New Media,” Jisoo said, saying the class’ name as if it were the name of a dreaded ex-boyfriend.
“Boring, as usual,” Jisoo said. “I hate Business and New Media. But I think Jaebum got a haircut, it looks so flattering with his bone structure, you know? He was so cute. He really should push his hair back more often, a little bit of forehead goes a long way.”
Jennie’s laugh came out as a snort. “I’m glad your TA viewing session went so well.”
Jisoo, ignoring her comment, checked her watch. “What time is it?”
“You’ve got a little over half an hour,” Jennie said, taking a sip from a cold Starbucks drink she had in her hand.”
Jisoo stopped and gave Jennie a frazzled look. “Half?” she said. “God, how’s my hair? Flat again, probably. I wish it had more volume. Damn it.”
“It looks fine,” Jennie said, tucking a stray hair behind Jisoo’s ear for good measure, although this hard to do while walking at the same time, and she ended up just poking Jisoo in the earlobe. Jisoo groaned.
“I hate this stupid class,” Jisoo said, looking up and speaking her hate to the heavens. “I hate my major. Why’d I do this again?”
She turned to Jennie for an answer, and her best friend replied breezily: “Because you love your dad and didn’t wanna disappoint him with your romantic dreams of becoming a deadbeat author.”
Spot on. Jennie took another sip from her drink and watched with amusement as Jisoo tried to avoid another breakdown.
“I have to say,” Jennie said. “When I first met you and you told me that was your dream, I did think it was a little uncharacteristically Bohemian of you.”
Jisoo laughed, and Jennie smiled at her victory. “I’m full of surprises,” Jisoo said.
“You got your portfolio with you?” Jennie asked. Jisoo tapped her bag.
“Yup. It’s all here. You know, the one good thing that came out of actually going to this class this morning is that I’m at least already dressed for my interview. One thing I don’t have to stress over. Is this okay? I picked this outfit out yesterday.”
Jisoo stopped walking for a minute to do a small twirl and Jennie scanned her outfit. It was a normal two piece suit made up of a gray blazer, a gray pencil skirt, and a white shirt. Not exactly eye-catching, but then again, no one had ever been denied a job for showing up to the interview in a suit.
“Yeah, it’s cute,” Jennie said. “You look capable, like you’re able to carry a tray of coffee in a conference and input numbers into a spreadsheet at the same time.”
“Great!” Jisoo said, throwing two enthusiastic thumbs up. “And the blazer is okay? Not too mature. I’m trying to look grown up, but not too madame.”
“Maybe undo the top button, it’ll make the look younger.”
Jisoo did as Jennie said and undid the top button but then fixed her shirt so that she wasn’t showing too much cleavage.
“I know I was freaking out to yesterday about this,” Jisoo said, resuming their walk. “But I just want you to know that since last night’s meltdown, I’ve thought a lot about this. I am cool and confident and completely not nervous at all.”
“I think if you say it a couple more times, you’ll start believing it.”
“I really need this job,” Jisoo said, stopping and turning to face Jennie head-on. Her eyes sparkled with desperation. “I can’t stand working another day at that tired, awful marketing firm anymore. You seriously need to pray for me, Jennie.”
“I’ll light a candle for you at church if I pass one,” Jennie said. “But don’t stress out too much. You’ve still got plenty of time, graduation is four months out, and we still haven’t even planned our post-grad girls’ trip, so there’s that to look forward to.” She gave Jisoo’s arm a reassuring squeeze, but Jisoo still looked slightly down.
“Yeah, but all I’ll be able to think about if I don’t get this job at Embrace is how I’ll have to go back home and my dad will make me take over the grove and… I’ll be Kim Peachu for the rest of my life. Oh god. I can’t have that, Jennie. Oh god, I’ve just made myself even more nervous now!”
Jisoo started walking again and Jennie jogged to catch up with her. Jisoo was pressing her fingers into her temples and massaging small circles into her skin as they approached the buses.
“Calm down. Take a deep breath,” Jennie said, making Jisoo turn and look at her. “You’re a damn good writer, Kim Jisoo, and all you have to do is be yourself. They’ll see how talented you are and they’d be idiots not to hire you!”
Jisoo slowed again to look at Jennie, hope replacing the desperation for a minute. “You think so?”
Jennie held Jisoo’s gaze, as if to say I dare you to tell me I’m lying.
“Yes, I do,” Jennie said in a tone so determined that it discouraged Jisoo from questioning her. And that was the last word about it. Jisoo gave her an assured nod and then took a deep breath. Seeing Jisoo getting more comfortable, Jennie switched back to a more joking tone.
“Who came up with Kim Peachu?” she said, smirking. “God, that’s clever. I might use it.”
“Peaches, I grew up on a peach grove,” Jisoo said, arriving at the bus station. “But it doesn’t matter, ‘cause I won’t be Kim Peachu for much longer. I want to be…”
Jisoo puffed her chest out for a minute and smiled into the sun. “I want to be… Kim Jisoo… novelist.”
Her words wafted in the air and the wind carried it out into the world, and with that declaration, her dream felt even just a little bit closer. She felt it might actually happen today. When she looked back at Jennie, the girl was holding her Starbucks drink with both hands and tilting her head at her.
“Reach for the stars, Jisoo,” Jennie said. Then she leaned forward and gave Jisoo a one-armed hug. “And remember me when you’re famous, okay?”
“Who are you again?” Jisoo said, pulling away from the hug. Then, she turned and rushed toward her bus. “Wish me luck! I’ll text you how it goes!”
“You better!”