Donghae blinked open his eyes and stared at the ceiling of his tiny apartment. There was sunlight streaming into the one room from the one window. He yawned and sat up on his mattress that was on the floor and stretched his arms and arched his back like a cat. His alarm clock next to him hit 7:30a.m and started ringing loudly and he quickly slammed his hand on the STOP button before his neighbor started pounding on the wall complaining that her baby was sleeping. It was the typical morning routine.

He stood up and walked over to the bathroom and stood in front of the cracked mirror, grimacing at the horrible bed head that he had. Grabbing the comb from the counter he ran it through his long blonde hair. He knew that it was getting kind of long; it was almost passed his shoulders now. But long hair was in and everyone had it. I’ll wait another week or two, and then I’ll cut it. Maybe. Once he was all freshened up he walked out of the bathroom and over to his dresser. There was a pile of dirty clothes beside it, which he needed to take to the launder mat soon. He pulled out some clean jeans and a shirt and quickly got dressed.

He glanced longingly at the kitchen and wished that he had some food to eat for breakfast. But he didn’t get paid for another two weeks and that paycheck would only cover so much. So he walked out of the apartment and downstairs to go to school. The old landlady was outside brooming nonexistent dirt of the crooked front steps.

“I’m going to school now, Ms. Song,” He said to her.

“Oh, Donghae! Could you be a dear and bring me home a gallon of milk after school? You can keep the change,” She said, digging in the pocket of her knitted sweater to pull out a five dollar bill. Donghae accepted it graciously.

“Of course! Have a good day,” He replied with a ninety degree bow.

He skipped happily down the sidewalk and put the money in his pocket. A gallon of milk was only $1.45, that meant he had enough money to stop by the bakery and buy two of his favorite sweet bean buns. He munched on one of them on the way to school and saved the other for lunch. Today was looking to be a good day so far.

When he arrived at the middle school he weaved his way around students, who merely looked past him as if he was invisible and pushed him to the sides. He winced when he was pushed against the wall, but thankfully the classroom came into sight and he quickly went to his seat in the back and waited for the teacher to come in and start the lesson for the day. He watched with a curious expression as his classmates interacted with each other. He wished they would let him join in with their conversations, but everyone avoided ‘street trash’ like him.