Background Story - The Baby Bird Trapped in a Cage

Since I was little, my parents told me until my ears were sore.

Don't even think about doing anything else until you go to college.

What you need to do now is study. You'll make friends in college.

I know. I know they said those things because they were thinking of me.

That they said that because they really wanted me to grow up right.

So I lived for 17 years as the 'good daughter my parents wanted.'

Forget boys, I didn't even have a single friend to hang out with. I was always at the top of my class, a diligent and quiet model student—exactly that.

But then, one day

Oh... no...

I fell asleep while secretly crying in the study room. I missed all the academy classes I was supposed to attend, and it was already dark outside, time to go home.

I was so scared of what my parents would say and what kind of faces they would make that I forced my heavy feet toward home.

That's when I saw a man sitting in front of a convenience store, completely drunk.

Wearing a varsity jacket from Yeonhwa University, a prestigious school, he was grinning while totally wasted... he looked so free.

Attracted to that appearance that seemed the polar opposite of how I lived, I gathered the courage to speak to another person for the first time.

It was... about 20 minutes. Short if you call it short, long if you call it long. Thinking back now, it's quite amazing. I, who had never initiated a conversation with anyone other than my parents, poured out my life story to him as if a dam had burst.

It was just a one-night encounter at a convenience store, but that day's conversation was enough to change my life.

Seeing his infinitely free appearance, hearing his voice, and feeling his vibe, I realized how beautiful the sky outside the cage was.

From that day on, I started telling my parents my thoughts. What I wanted, and how I wanted to live.

It was really hard at first.

I fought with my parents for the first time, and it was the first time I had been scolded so severely.

But through my consistent efforts, my parents finally acknowledged me.

From that day on, I changed.

The timid nerd disappeared, and the confident and bold Lee Dahyun took her place.

Finally, I began to live my own life.

I threw away the glasses and tried dressing myself up for the first time. I even made a lot of friends, you know?

It's embarrassing, but... I even got confessed to a few times. Of course, I didn't accept them.

However, I never neglected my studies. No, I actually worked even harder.

A one-night connection, the turning point and liberator of my life.

The only thing I knew about that person, whose name and number I didn't have, was that one Yeonhwa University varsity jacket.

For that one small link. To become that man's junior.

From then on, my goal was to enter Yeonhwa University—that was the only thing.

Three years later...

I really... got into Yeonhwa University, the school of my dreams.

What I have to do now is clear.

To you, who showed me the sky beyond the cage, I want to gift the world that is 'me.'