"I think...ermmmm...the best I can do now is to try my best to sway their mind by winning this scholarship. I have been talking to them so much but it didn't help, so hopefully...by getting a med scholarship...I would be able to prove to them how determined and headstrong I am...Perhaps when they see me achieving such a feat in my favourite field...they would understand that it was the best career path for me, and I will..ermmmm...commit myself to it," his voice continued stuttering while trying to cope with the unexpected question, forcing out a sketchy response which was definitely not well-thought.

"Oh...OK, just that? Is there any other way that you can think of apart from merely asserting your passion and determination?"

"Not really to be honest, but maybe I can try to get my sister on my side first, it will be easier for her to persuade my parents than me," he awkwardly tittered, trying to hide his nervousness.

From that moment onwards, things were completely screwed up for him. He could not speak as fluently as he did at the start of the interview, and he also felt harder to think straight. The psychological effect of that unexpected question had totally ruined the whole interview.

The three interviewers kept on discussing with Yu Jin for a few more minutes, and then he was dismissed after it ended. Despite having finished his interview, his emotional torture did not disappear yet, and he knew that it would linger in his mind for a painstakingly long time.

This feeling was so strange. He had been previously aware of how fierce the process for applying for a scholarship in the US could be, thus reassuring himself that everything would be fine even if things went wrong and he failed it. But then, at the moment when he realised that he could not play his cards right, and there was no other chance for him to fix it, a feeling of utter disappointment still took over his mind. It was like a heavy stone pressing on him, suffocating him and leaving him with no way to escape. Even Yu Jin himself could not explain why he was feeling this way. Perhaps he had set a goal which was too unrealistic for himself. Although he tried to deceive himself by thinking that everything will be alright even if he failed, he was, in fact, subconsciously thinking about having a chance to study in the US. Thus, being slapped back to the harsh reality inflicted a painful damage to his thin shred of self-esteem, which had already been crippled since SNU rejected him.

Without having lunch, he headed home straight away, flopped onto his bed and just lied there, mindlessly locking his eyes on the ceiling. The moment that he decided to leave home for medical school in Seoul, he had never thought that things could be this tough for him. The peaceful days when he was still in Busan started to fill up his mind, slowly and vividly appearing in front of his face just like a flashback. It was true that his parents were strict to him, and did not understand him, but at least they cared for him. He missed those days when his mother was cooking him delicious meals, and his father was willingly bringing him to school. He also missed those times when he came back home with a science medal or certificate of award, and then his sister would be greeting him with her sincere congratulation. And he missed those literature tuition classes where he kept sleeping or messing around noisily. He missed all those days, all those highs and lows that he had been through in Busan.

Time passed by, and he fell asleep without even noticing. Probably because he had been suffering from severe sleep deprivation for the last two months since he started preparing for this scholarship. Maybe in his dream, he would be seeing himself holding the letter of acceptance from Duke University with a jubilant grin on his face. It was a beautiful scenario, though unlikely to happen.

That evening, when Eun Chae arrived home, the first thing she asked him was about the interview.

"How was your interview, everything went well?"

"No," he sighed and shook his head, "I screwed it up. I think I'm really gonna fail."

"Don't be so pessimistic, maybe you think that you did badly, but that's not necessarily what the interviewer thought, am I right?" She patted his shoulder.

"But I did really badly, even a ten-year-old kid would say so. I could definitely have done better but..." He shook his head, tiredly looking at her.

"Haizz...that sounds pretty bad I guess," she held his hand tightly and looked into his eyes. Yu Jin could see the reflected image of himself inside her pupils which were filled with sympathy, "You still have a chance, let's apply for SNU this fall semester. That's your last chance for this year so remember to give it your best. Hang in there!"

Yu Jin averted his eyes away, absentmindedly stared at a random point in the midst of the scenery. Being rejected the second time really made him become doubtful of his ability. He remained silent for a while.

"Will I make it into SNU? What if I can't?"

"You can do it. As long as you put your mind into it, you will get the scholarship, I believe in you."

"But...I got rejected twice already. Am I really...not good enough?" He exhaustedly lowered his head and buried his face in his hands.

"Just try harder, don't let this drag you down!" She gently rubbed his back.

"But I have been putting so much effort into applying for med school. Why am I still failing? I really don't know," he rubbed his eyes, "You know what Eun Chae, sometimes I just...wish that I can easily slide through everything and get into SNU like the way you did. I really...admire you a lot, Eun Chae"

"You think that getting into SNU is easy for me?" Eun Chae tilted her head and surprisedly stared at Yu Jin, "No, it's definitely not. I also needed to try very hard to get accepted. It was a tough process since the start of my highschool, not an overnight success. It's true that there are a few people who become successful in a blink, but I am not one of them. So remember what I say, just be consistent!"

"Eun Chae, do you believe that I'm good enough for med school?" He looked at her with a sorrowful face.

Eun Chae suddenly looped her arms around his back and hugged him. Her chin was placed on his shoulder. She held him so tight that he could hear her heart beating and feel her healing warmth.

"I believe it. You're good, not enough, but more than enough."

"Thanks!"

"Keep on following your goal, you promise me?" She let go of him and thrusted her little finger in front of his face.

"Yeah, I will," he hooked his finger over hers, making a pinky swear.

******

Half a month later, Yu Jin received his official result for the interview. He was declined, but that did not upset him. It was too predictable, and he was mentally prepared, so he was neither sad nor disappointed.

In addition, he was also applying for SNU scholarship in the fall semester. Unlike the first time he went for it, his write-up was accepted this time and he would be interviewed very soon. And this time, he also made a new strategy, which emphasised more on practising to go with the flow rather than predicting questions and memorising his answers for them, which was also one of the fatal mistakes that ended his dream to go to Duke University. Fortunately, that worked for him and he performed much better at his next interview. Considering that the planning strategy was improved, all the questions were tackled smoothly as well as the interview was in Korean, his mother tongue, instead of English, he had no reason not to be optimistic about his chance.

To celebrate, Eun Chae suggested both of them go to the Seoul stadium to watch a football match there, the game was between Seoul FC, Eun Chae's favourite club, and a club from Australia. Eun Chae was a dynamic girl so Yu Jin was not taken aback when he found out that she was a football fanatic. Meanwhile, he was not that interested in sport, and he did not enjoy crowded places such as a football field either. He turned her down at first, but knowing Yu Jin just like the back of her hand, Eun Chae made a smart move to lure him to a begrudging decision to say "Yes." 

"Come on, just come there with me! You said that you would fulfil all the wishes I have together with me before I die, remember?" She took advantage of his reluctance to break his promise to persuade him.

"Stop playing that dirty card, you're leaving me no way to refuse you," Yu Jin grumbled in irritation.

"Then you should prepare another card too," she chortled.

If he really had that card, he would have kindly refused her. Unfortunately, he was not having a fatal illness, and he did not plan to have one either. However, of course, he would never say that to her head-on so that he would not worsen her mood.

"Please," she grabbed his arm and vigorously shook it.

"OK, fine! I'll go."

That Saturday afternoon, Eun Chae and Yu Jin rode the bus to the stadium together. The whole stadium, from the entrance, to the food stalls and the bleachers, was packed with spectators. It was hard even to just make their way through the mass of people here.

Eun Chae said that she was hungry, so Yu Jin told her to stay at a corner while he weaved his way through the crowd to reach the food selling area. While she was quietly and patiently waiting for her friend to come back, a small boy suddenly approached and asked her.

"Hi unnie, do you know where the food stalls are?" His accent sounded quite strange. Eun Chae also noticed that he had a very "European" face. This boy must be a fan of the Australian team. Observing his appearance, Eun Chae could surmise that he was only around ten years old.

"Address me as noona, not unnie, OK? Only girls call older girls unnie," she friendlily grinned, "You see the sign far away over there? That's where the food area is."

"Thank you noona!" He happily said.

"You're welcome."

Right at that moment, Yu Jin also came back, holding a box of pancakes.

"What's your name noona?"

"I'm Hong Eun Chae, and you?"

"I'm Aaron."

"Aaron, that's a nice name!" She sweetly smiled.

"You also have a good name too, unnie...oh, I mean noona."

"Ohhhh, you're so sweet," she gave him a big grin, "By the way your Korean is really good."

"Thanks a lot, noona," the way that boy kept adding "noona" to his sentences was so adorable.

Looking at the way Eun Chae could comfortably talk with a stranger, he wished that he could be just as half as outgoing as she was. Although Yu Jin genuinely wanted to be a sociable person, he was apparently no way near there.

"Hey noona, is he your boyfriend?" The small boy looked at Yu Jin and naively inquired.

"Ah...no, we're just...close friends," Yu Jin meekly grinned.

"I think you two really look like boyfriend and girlfriend."

"We do?" She cracked out. Her expression was a mixture of confusion and amusement.

Eun Chae booked the seat right at the front of the bleacher, so they needed a lot of time to squeeze themselves in the middle of the exuberant and noisy crowd in order to reach their seats. But that did not really bother him as he understood how much it meant for a huge football fan, like Eun Chae, to get a seat which was close to the field.

Yu Jin had never seen his friend being so energetic like she was during this football match. She was shouting out loud so enthusiastically, as well as keeping standing up and sitting down intermittently. "Is it possible for a cancer patient to have that much energy?" Yu Jin asked himself. She did not let her eyes off the field even just for a second. He could apparently see her excitement when Seoul had some good play, and also her disappointment when her favourite team missed any big chances.

Meanwhile, Yu Jin just sat beside Eun Chae and stared at her. He did not like the noisy and boisterous atmosphere at the stadium so much. He would rather say he was the introverted and placid type who preferred quiet, peaceful places. His eyes were looking at her even more than at the field.

The tension could be easily obtained from Eun Chae's face when the match came to its last minute and the score was still 0-0. However, just before the referee's ending whistle, Seoul FC scored a brilliant goal to make it 1-0. The whole stadium exploded, and so did Eun Chae's emotion. She blissfully jumped up, screaming her lungs out louder than she had ever had. Yu Jin also felt happy for her. He wondered since when seeing a girl being cheerful like this could also give him such a great joy.

"I've told you to stop screaming and you didn't listen. Now you see what happens?" He sighed and shook his head in despair when he saw her coughing after the match ended.

"Screaming is not...ough ough...that bad. By the way, the match today was...ough...really exciting, right?" Her sentence was disrupted by coughing sounds. "The last goal was magnificent. Both Tae Hyun's cross and Soo Bin's header were perfect. You agree with me?" She spoke with a radiant flame of enthusiasm.

"Yes, I guess. You wanna do anything next? It's only seven now."

"Yeah, it's still early...hmmm...shall we go to The Seoul Ring?"

"You mean the ferris wheel in the park near here?"

"Yeah."

"Ermmm...you sure you wanna go there? Don't you have anything better to do than sitting in a ferris wheel cabin?"

"It's gonna be fun, trust me!"

"Whatever," he begrudgingly said.

After they both had got their dinner, Yu Jin reluctantly followed Eun Chae to the park and climbed into the ferris wheel capsule with her. His hesitation was not too visible at first, but it became more and more noticeable as they went higher.

"Hey, are you good?" She confusedly looked at him from the opposite bench.

"I am fine...I guess," he defensively pleaded with an obvious agitation on his face.

"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?"

"Ah...no...of...of course no! Why do you think so?" He tried to play it cool, but his body's reactions proved the opposite. Sweat beads started to form on his forehead while the colour on his knuckles gradually faded into a dull white. He was intensely fixing his gaze on the ground with his hands clutching the bench.

"You definitely have acrophobia, stop acting strong in front of me," she chuckled and then came by to sit next to Yu Jin. He could feel his arm touching hers. She leaned on his shoulder and tenderly inquired, "You feel better now?"

Thank you very much for making it this far! If you enjoy reading my story and are excited to find out what is going to happen next, don't forget to click the star to vote for me as well as recommend my story to your friends. You votes really motivate me a lot^^