Accidentally Assisting

Chapter 1 - So what now?

Dear Rose,

We thank you for your application and your interest in our TravelDreams – Work and Travel program.

However, we regret to inform you that due to limited spots available in the program and your late application, we do not have a place open anymore for the fall semester of 2018.

Kindly note that we offer this program twice a year, and we are pleased to provide you with a spot in the spring semester of 2019.

To secure your spot, please...

The rest of the e-mail is a blur. I stare at the screen, the outside of the window. Then at the screen again.

I've been rejected.

I've been rejected.

The words are slowly and painfully burning themselves into my brain, and a feeling of utter failure and desperation washes over my entire body.

How could this happen to me? Me?

My entire life, I've always known what I was doing. I've never been late for a deadline, and I sure as hell have never been rejected from anything.

After graduating from high school, I couldn't bear the thought of starting university right away. Another four years of sitting in a classroom and memorizing pointless information only to forget it right after taking the exam seemed like hell to me, and I somehow managed to convince my parents to let me on a work-and-travel around the globe for a year.

Except, there's a slight problem.

I wasn't accepted to the only program my parents could afford.

I shut my laptop closed – I can't look at this damn e-mail anymore- and put my head in my hands, massing my temples.

The cute café I'm sitting in Hongdae, Seoul, does not fit my current mood. Around me, people are chatting, laughing, talking, carrying with their life while mine has just been ruined with this simple, short e-mail.

I need to clear my head. Everything can be fixed. How do I fix this?

There's several issues with my current situation. First of all, the fall semester at the universities here starts in two weeks, so I can't apply anymore. Second of all, I've already told my parents I was leaving. Everything is ready. It never even occurred to me I wouldn't be accepted.

How could I be such an imbecile?

At this moment, my phone lights up, and a text from my best friend Eun appears on the screen. Great. I officially have no plans for the future anymore, but at least I still have friends.

You still coming tonight?

Sighing, I read her text. Eun wanted to go out with me, and some of our other friends tonight before summer is over. Except I'm absolutely not in a party mood right now. But I'm also not going to bail on my best friend.

Sure.  can't wait babeee

As soon as I send the message, I immediately regret it. That sounded way too enthusiastic for my texting style. She's going to sense something is off.

What happened?, she immediately texts back. Damn it, I knew it.

Talk tonight, ok? , I answer without waiting for her response.

...

"Ouch!", I groan as Eun grabs me by the arm to pull me outside. "Can you like, slow down?"

She ignores my complaints until we're outside on the street, far away from our other friends who are still dancing inside at the club we've reached a couple of hours.