1. From as far back as I can remember, it's always been this way.
1. I was trapped in a life that never belonged to me.
1. Meticulously planned out by others.
1. "Miss serena, you have to excel. Don't forget who you are."
1. "You can't fail."
1. "You have to become a doctor, everyone in our family has followed this path."
1. Serena, you
1. Need to be this. You need to do that.
1. But where was I in all of that?
1. "Pass it here! I'm open!"
1. "Wait, wait, I'm going for the shot! Hahaha!"
1. "You always take the shot! Pass it to someone else!"
1. "Serena, we need to go. We're running late."
1. "Oh!"
1. "Can you pass us the ball? It accidentally bounced out there."
1. "Yeah."
1. Every rare moment I could be myself felt like stolen treasure...
1. "Serena! Drop that dirty thing right now!"
1. ...snatched away the second they noticed.
1. The real me was buried beneath the weight of their expectations...
1. Lost and suffocating, with no way out.
1. They controlled every step, monitored every move.
1. "You have a real talent for this, serena."
1. "You must have inherited some of my artistic skills."
1. "I love painting with you, grandma!"
1. "You're gifted, my dear."
1. "Grandma, one day I want to be an artist, just like you!"
1. "Serena, that's enough."
1. "You need to focus on your studies."
1. "Put those drawings away"
1. "Put those drawings away and get back to your books. Stop wasting your time like this!"
2. "Mother, you shouldn't encourage this. She needs to focus"
1. "On her future!"
1. "And what's wrong with dreaming, andrew? You're forgetting she's a child."
1. "She doesn't have time to dream, not if she wants to succeed."
1. I couldn't breathe. I was suffocating.
1. "I hate this."
2. "I hate this."
1. "I hate this."
1. "I really, really hate this life, this house."
1. "Serena! Open this door right now! Do you hear me?"
1. "You hear me?"
2. "You can't"
1. "Just disobey me, serena!"
1. No matter what I did, it was never enough. I was never enough.
1. "Is this how you repay everything we've done for you?!"
1. And one day, I just couldn't pretend anymore.
1. If I couldn't be who I was meant to be in their perfect little world...
1. I'd become the disruption they couldn't control.
1. Sera and sunho had been extremely busy lately...
1. It was really hard to catch sera on the phone.
1. The eight-hour time difference was a big deal...
1. And sera was going to bed really late, while I was waking up really early then sleeping in late day...
1. I was becoming frustrated with the lack of communication we'd had lately.
1. We've had lunch.
2. "Should I call her?"
1. We originally planned to video chat every day, but we hadn't been able to catch each other once yet.
1. Better not.
1. I know that she had gone out a couple of times to meet up with friends in their town.
1. Gyuri always got edgy when jiwoo went out with them.
1. "That idiot hasn't texted me yet. Do you think he's doing it on purpose?!"
1. "Does he not care about me anymore? He's probably having too much fun, don't you think?"
1. Having been close friends with jiwoo before he
1. Started dating gyuri...
2. I knew all about
1. I knew all about his escapades with girls whenever he went back home for visits.
1. I think gyuri was worried about those girls.
1. "He's driving me crazy! Do you think I would ever behave like this if our roles were reversed?"
1. "It's unbelievable! You know what I think?"
1. "What?"
1. "He's cheating on me, I can feel it!"
1. "Unnie, you shouldn't worry so much!"
1. "You know he loves you, he would never do something like that."
1. I'd lost count of the number of times I had told her how ridiculous
1. Her how ridiculous she sounded..
1. Because jiwoo was absolutely crazy about her.
1. But recently, he had gone to a party, gotten very drunk, and ended up crashing on a couch there.
1. When gyuri didn't hear from him until the next morning, she was furious.
1. "I bet it's happened again, that scoundrel."
1. "If I find out he"
1. "If I find out he hasn't been reaching out because he's been out drinking and getting wasted..."
2. "It's over between us."
1. "Between us."
1. "Unnie..."
1. Her parents were so worried that they called me...
1. "You punk!"
2. "You punk!!"
1. As everyone in the house could hear her yelling through the phone.
2. He tried to
1. He tried to explain...
2. And reassured gyuri that there hadn't been any girls around when he crashed.
1. She didn't care and eventually just hung up.
1. Just hung up on him.
2. That was four days ago, and neither of them had tried to contact the
1. To contact the other since...
1. At first, I wasn't worried because gyuri was venting to me..
1. Venting to me...
2. ...while jiwoo was venting to sera, so I knew they'd eventually make up.
1. Hang on
1. After four days,
1. Though, I started to worry that their pride might prevent them from reconciling.
1. "Open up, I'm here."
1. "I can't take it anymore, I'm going to break up with that idiot by tonight!!!"
2. "Hey-"
1. "Unnie, give him time. I bet he'll write to you tomorrow!"
2. "Yeah, sure."
