.

“Mr. Lu, your father contacted me this morning.” The principal placed his hands on top of his desk and stared into Luhan’s eyes. “He wants me to give you a task.”

Irritated, Luhan rolled his eyes and sighed. “The last time I checked, I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Well…of course you didn’t.” The principal nodded. “This is concerning your grades.”

“What about it?” He shrugged. “I’m doing fine.”

“To stay enrolled in such a prestigious school, you have to maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5. According to your transcript, you’re slipping by a few points.” The principal pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and showed Luhan the papers.

“So what? My family owns this school.” He deadpanned. “I OWN this school.”

“Well...I was instructed by your father to keep you back on track. He wants me to give you after school ‘homework’. You won’t be having any social contact with your friends until your grades improve.” He looked apologetic, but Luhan was furious. “I’m sorry for having to tell you this, but starting today you’ll be cleaning the classrooms once the students clear the campus.”

“How is detention supposed to help my grades?” Luhan snarled. “Tell the old man I don’t give a shiet.”

“I know you’re upset about this, but these are orders that I must not ignore. Your father has sent a few of his best guards to watch over your actions. You can’t escape this time Luhan. I’m sorry to say.”

“So I can’t even be a normal teenager?” Luhan threw his hands up. “ this.”

“I’m sure your father is doing this for your own good. Once you graduate in two years, you’ll marry your fiancé and take over his business. All you need to worry about is learning how to manage the company that he’s built for you. Your father knows what’s best for your future.”

“You want to know what’s best for me right now? If all of you would get the hell out of my business and leave me the alone. I don’t care about what my father wants of me nor do I care if my grades are slipping either.” Luhan balled his hands into tight fist as he stood up. “And don’t act like you know anything about me.”

“All of your friends may be kicked out of this school if you don’t cooperate with your father.” The principal added.

Luhan froze. “W-What?”

“Luhan…” The principal drew in a deep breath. “Just do what he says. A week of afterschool cleaning won’t do you any harm. You can study and work on your weaker subjects while you’re at it. I’ll give in a good word to your father that you’re doing what is being told of you.”

 “Whatever…it’s not like I have a choice.” He snatched his bag from the floor and hastily stormed out.

The last bell for the school day finally rang and students filed out of their classrooms. You waited a few minutes before heading out as well. It was only normal of you to be cautious of your surroundings as you knew not many students appreciated that you attended their high status school.

With your exceptionally good grades and assessments, you were one of the lucky few that made it through with financial help from wealthy families who donated to the ‘poor’. Even if you were different from everyone else, the school aversely accepted your enrollment.

Just doing ‘ok’ wasn’t good enough either. You were pressured to always keep your grades at the very top. Since you were accepting charity to stay registered, part of your duty was to take care of the school; making sure the classrooms were clean for teachers and students. You knew this was a way for them to kick you out if you didn’t cooperate, so you keenly followed their request.

You poke your head out of the classroom to make sure the coast was clear and no students were insight. Relieved, you walked down the hall towards the janitor’s room to grab the appliances that you needed. You took a mop and a bucket filled with soap and water and a few towels with you.

As you walked down the hall, you checked the time on your watch. *If I finish cleaning in less in two hours, I’ll still have time to buy some snacks for the kids.* Determined, you eagerly began to mop the floor to the first classroom you approached.

Luhan looked around the room and couldn’t believe that he had to wipe down the entire floor and chalkboards. He angrily kicked a chair for being put on lockdown by his father. He picked up a note left for him by the homeroom teacher informing him of his tasks. Annoyed, he crumbled the piece of paper and threw it on the ground.

He half heartedly stacked all the chairs on top of the desks and started sweeping the floor. This was beyond embarrassing for him. *For my own good? More like for his own good.* Why couldn’t his life be normal? All he ever did growing up was obeyed his father’s order. His entire life had been planned out for him since the very beginning and he had no say to it.

To put it simply, Luhan wished he was never born.

When he was done sweeping the floor, he picked up a piece of chalk and began writing his punishment down. Starting from front of the room all the way around, he was to fill all three boards with the sentence:

I promise that I will do better in school.

I promise that I will do better in school.

I promise that I will do better in school.

Thirty minutes flew by and he was only half way done with the first board. He shook his aching hand that was cramping badly. *en ridiculous.* He swore under his breath and threw the chalk against the board in aggravation. He decided to take a short break and begin some of his homework.

You smiled excitedly as you realized you were done with your cleaning. You placed the mop in the bucket and closed the classroom door. Down the hall, you saw that the light to another room was still on and wondered why the teacher hasn’t left yet. It was already past the time where everyone went home and normally, no one would be around except the security guards outside.

Curious, you made your way there.

Fortunately, the door was unlocked so you easily cracked it open just enough to peek through. *I don’t see anyone.* You swung the door widely.*They probably forgot to turn off the—*

You paused when your eyes landed on a figure at a desk farthest to the back of the room. The person had their head down with the side of their face on top of a text book. Quietly, you walked inside and carefully tippy-toed your way over.

You stood a few feet away from the boy who was snoozing away. *Why would a student be here at this hour?* You opened your mouth to speak, but as usual, only silence came out. Pouting at your failure, you continue to stare at him not knowing what to do.

*Um…hello?* You bit your lip. *Excuse me…but why are you sleeping here?* You face palmed yourself when you realized what you were doing. *I’m so pathetic. Who am I kidding?* You stared at your watch and realized it was almost 9 o’ clock and started to panic. You couldn’t leave the school until you made sure every classroom was vacant of students. This boy was keeping you from going home.

Frustrated you decided to just leave anyways. When you turned around, you saw writings on the chalkboard. *I promise I will do better in school.* You read. *I see now…he’s serving detention…* You looked back at him and frowned. *He’s not even half way finished, yet he’s sleeping instead.*

You stepped over to his side again and looked down at him. His face was filled with distress; eyebrows knitted together and he appeared so uncomfortable even though he was asleep. Somehow, you almost felt pain. The way he clutched his pencil seemed like whatever he was dreaming of was hurting him so much.

Vigilantly, you gently took the pencil out of his hand and placed it on the desk. You glanced at the math assignment he was working and on and were surprised that it was identical to yours. *Is he in my class as well? I don’t remember seeing him before.*

Shrugging, you stood up straight and eyed the chalkboard intensely again. *He’ll be here all night.* Taking a deep breath, you went over to the board, stood on a chair and began writing rapidly away.

In less than thirty minutes all three boards were covered with writings.

You smiled triumphantly as you dust off your hands. You went back to the sleeping figure and picked up his math assignment. On the side of the paper, you jotted down notes and tips for each problem that he had gotten wrong. You then placed everything back into its original spot when you were done.