“Lai Guanlin!” Guanlin heard the teacher called his name and he looked at her. It’s 6 in the evening and his time studying at the academy is almost done. He got bored, so he decided to make some rap lyrics that he might able to put in the next song of Wanna One.

“Your math test paper” Miss Oh, his teacher, waved a paper at him. He walked and took the paper as soon as he arrived in the front. He looked at the paper and sighed. as usual, he got C-. “Guanlin-ah, study more, will you?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m sorry” he mumbled and went back to his seat. He used to be good on math, and now? It seemed like it gets harder and harder everyday, that he could not handle it anymore.

“Ha Mirae!”

He looked at a girl who was sitting at the back of the class and stood up to get her paper. She went up to front and got her paper immediately. She checked her paper and had no reaction on it. Guanlin looked at her for a while and after that went back to his seat.

Sitting next to him, Daehwi looked at him and waited for him to be seated. “Lin-ah” He looked at him, “what do you get?”

“Don’t ask, it’s a very difficult subject anyway” He put his paper at the back of his book and continued to write down lyrics. Daehwi looked at the girl and smiled at her. But it seems like she has no interest on replying Daehwi’s smile.

“Ha Mirae is really good, do you know that?” Daehwi started to talk about the girl they both saw a while ago, “she must be getting another A, that’s why she has no reaction”

“She’s just okay” Guanlin mumbled and continued with his lyrics.

“Our class is done for today, you may go” Miss Oh announced that the class has finally over. Guanlin smiled and put his book on his bag and waited for Daehwi to finish packing. Daehwi finished packing and smiled at Guanlin, “let’s go”

They both stand up to leave but before they even walk, they saw Mirae ran towards the door and left the room immediately. “As always” Daehwi smiled and Guanlin walked after that. They both walked downstairs and saw their car waiting for them. They still have another schedule after their academy and it’s really tiring, but at least they love what they’re doing right now. They will only be together for 2 years anyway, it’s just make sense that they should enjoy every single moment of it.

“Hello!” Jisung greeted the babies as soon as Daehwi open the door of the car. They both walked inside and sat on their seat after putting their bags away. “How’s class?” Jisung asked them.

“It’s fine, we got another test today” Guanlin looked at Jisung and he smiled at him.

“How’s your test?”

“I got B” Daehwi mumbled.

“It doesn’t matter how high my score is right?” Guanlin laughed awkwardly and everyone started to look at him, “why?” he asked.

“What do you get?” Seungwoo asked.

“You got D again didn’t you?” Jihoon looked devastated.

“No!” Guanlin answered really quick.

“Then why won’t you show us?” Daniel asked him.

“He got C-“ Daewhi mumbled and Guanlin glared at him. “What? I saw your paper a while ago” He answered with honest.

“Guanlin-ah, you need to study more” Jaehwan looked at him worry, “I know you’re very chill because you’re home schooled and only went to academy 3 times a week, but you need to be serious with your math as well”. Guanlin sighed. He tried to defend himself but there’s no use anyway.

“Oh!” Jinyoung made a sound all of the sudden out of nowhere.

“Wae?” Jisung looked at Jinyoung and saw him concentrating on looking out of the window, “is everything alright?”

“Yeah.. something weird just happened” Jinyoung replied and went back focusing on Guanlin, “well, just study more Guanlin-ah, I know you can do it”

“Thankyou hyung” Guanlin smiled and looked at everyone, “I’m sorry, but I’ll be better next time” he smiled and everyone nodded. He said that too many times already. I guess they’re all just tired now. The car moved and drove them to their next destination.

***

“Thankyou so much! Enjoy your night!” Ha Mirae gave the order to the customer. The customer smiled and left the cashier as soon she passed the tray to them. She looked outside and saw the busy Gangnam street at night. Her shift on the cafe is on and she just wait for her shift to be over. It’s just another long day, but as usual, she survived. She looked at the clock wall and the time shows that it’s almost 10 PM. She could leave anytime soon. She decided to look for her manager and after a while, he showed up.

“Oh! Mirae-ah!” Mr. Kang, the cafe manager, greeted her, “you’re still here?”. She answer with a nod and Mr. Kang frowned, “isn’t this a school night?”

“Yeah but it’s okay” Mirae smiled and fix the cashier desk a little bit, “I will go after 10 PM”

“You work really hard Mirae-ah. Harder than most full time worker that work here” Mr. Kang smiled at her, “you really want that bonus do you?” Mr. Kang mentioned about the bonus Mirae has been waiting for and she nodded immediately, “you’ve been very helpful for the past days, so I will drop your weekly bonus by the end of the week” He decided.

Mirae’s face got brighter and she bowed at him, “thankyou sir!” She bowed again and Mr. Kang smiled at her.

“As long as you study well too” Mr. Kang laughed, “okay, you can leave now, we’re about to close really soon and other baristas will help me closing, you can go. It’s already late as well”. She nodded and went back to the toilet so she can change her baristas uniform to school uniform. He changed and fix herself a little bit and passed by the cashier to greeted everyone before she go.

“I’m going to leave now” She said and bowed to everyone.

“Take care!” One of the barista greeted her and she left. She ran to the bus stop and waited for her bus to appear. She sighed once again. Her day was finally over, but unfortunately, she would have another same day tomorrow. Another class, work at the ice cream cafe, work and study at academy, and shift at the cafe as well. It was one hell of a life she’s been through, but she needed it. she wanted it more than anything in this world.

She wanted so study abroad for college.

She’s smart, but she knew studying abroad didn’t only require intelligence, but also money, which are the things her family couldn’t afford. She wanted to study in US and taking business there. She wanted to be successful someday, but it seemed so hard. And the only way for her to make her dreams come true was by working in 3 different job each days, even though she’s only 18 years old.

The bus she had been waiting for has finally arrived. She went inside and the bus took off. It will take at least 30 minutes before she can finally lay on her bed, so she decided to open her SAT book and start reading.

“Oh my God” one girl mumbled at the back of her seat, “damn Daniel. Kang Daniel”

“He’s really hot”

“But I like Daewhi more, he’s very cute”

“Speaking of, have you seen Minhyun in his new commercial”

“Wow he’s as cute as Guanlin and Jinyoung, very visual material”

“Arghh” Mirae groaned. She took her earphones and plug it to her ears, listen to some music and went back reading. She knows very well on the topics that the girls behind her were talking about.

Wanna One.

It’s a little bit annoying how famous they are right now. Well, to be fair, they are chosen so many people in Korea and everyone seems like to watch that survival show and watch them grow. They’re not guilty here, since they have the talent that people wants anyway, but it’s a little bit too much on how people talk about them. Every. Single. Second. And somehow, they were appearing in most advertising in the TV, Radio, or printed media. But she understand, they all have what people want from them, that fresh talent and face that they have.

She also know how unfortunate they are sometimes.

She knows 2 members pretty well. Guanlin and Daewhi. Both of them attended the academy where she work. She work in the academy early in the morning before school and clean the building so she could get a free lesson everyday. She sees how both of the maknaes of the group tries so hard on studying, but at the same time, has no time for it. It’s quite obvious from how they only appear at the academy sometimes only once a week, and even there are times that they went to the academy once in a month.

Mirae looked outside and she saw that her stop is near. She put her books on her bag and went down from the bus after the bus stop. She still needed to walk for 10 minutes to her house, so she put songs on her ears for her company.

Time passed by, and there she is, standing in front of her house. “I’m home” She said in a very low voice.

“Oh, Mirae-ah” her mom walked out from her room and greeted her only daughter. She smiled at her and went to hug her for a while, “my daughter, how’s your day?” she asked her.

“Pretty good, pretty much same like yesterday, and will be the same as tomorrow” she answered, “how’s yours mom?”

“Pretty good as well”  her mom replied, “the kids are doing well today. I’m happy”. She looked at her mom. Her mom went is still working as a teacher just so her family can live and her dad works as a small realtor. Aside from dad, her family needs to manage the bakery shop belongs to her grandmother that was passed to their family. It was a heavy life indeed.

“You’ve worked so hard mom” She told her, “why don’t you just focus on the bakery?”

“I’m not sure if it’s enough dear” she told her, “don’t worry about money and quit working okay? mom and dad have mone