June 2004

It was a gray monday morning outside when Minho left the two room cheap apartment he and his older sister Sooyoung were renting.His parents Siwon,Taeyeon,five year old sister Lami and seventy five year old grandfather Heechul were all staying in their small humble farm in Busan.

Thick,omonious clouds were hanging where the sun should have been,giving the street an unreal light.It had obviously rained during the night as piles of trash which had blown by away were glued down to the wet pavement stones.Minho picked a couple of drink cartons,papers and candy wrappers while avoiding the dirty puddles.He brought them back to the garbage bin then made his way up to Seoul Daily Inquirer headquarter to pick up the newspapers he would deliver to every house in Mapo street that morning.He applied as a newspaper boy three days ago for his daily allowance and school expenses.His sister Sooyoung who was working as a waitress in a chinese restaurant was the one paying the monthly apartment rentals and electricity bill.

Flashing his widest most friendliest smile,Minho walked into the two storey building and bowed politely to every employees he came across.

"Good morning Mam,Sir"he said repeatedly,still flaunting the most beautiful and warmest smile every people inside the room had seen so far.He saw a middle age employee carrying a pile of folders and volunteered to help.

"Thank you,Minho"said the man after he put down the folders to his table.

Minho just smile and gave him a salute.

SDI Editor In Chief Lee Eunhyuk stepped forward and smile fondly at him "Minho,do you want to work here after college?I'm close with Chairman Choi,I can recommend you to him"

Minho's big brown eyes grew even bigger in surprise"Really sir?Y-you would recommend me to Chairman Choi?the great Choi Daniel?!"he admired the award winning journalist more than anyone in this world.

Eunhyuk nodded and tapped him lightly in the shoulder. "Study hard and continue being nice and kind to people.Your good deeds to others will be rewarded someday,that I can assure you"he said and winked at him.

Minho felt as though the whole world lit up,Lee Eunhyuk's encouraging words had given him hope.Hope to become Seoul Daily Inquirer Editor In Chief someday.Hope for a brighter future for him and his beloved family.

Gangnam High

It was almost seven by the time he reached the school.As Minho walked across the corridor,he ran through a list of possible things he would do after class in his mind.He was so absorbed that he barely noticed the group of students standing patiently beside the science lab.There were six of them,three boys and three girls.Most of the students in the corridor ran toward their respective classrooms,all had a scared frightened look on their faces.

As Minho approached,one male student peeled away from the group and began throwing rotten egg to him,the object broke open across his leg.Shocked,both by the smell and the fact that someone had thrown a rotten egg at him in the first place,Minho walked a little closer to his attacker to confront him.One of his companions,a female student reached into her bag to pull out a small object.Minho was greeted with another egg which this time hit his face,he felt the sting of contact,the bruising pain and then a tomato,which exploded across his white school uniform and dripped onto his black pants.

Paralyzed,confused and shocked,Minho looked at the group.His eyes were asking questions.Perhaps there must have been some sort of mistake, that they must accidentally have taken him for someone else.Or perhaps he had done something to insult them?perhaps as he hurr