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Jihye hovered the mouse over the link and then squeezed her eyes shut in a desperate plea to the gods that be. They must have known how hard she was working to keep herself together, with little success. The last bit of coursework that she'd done was an essay that was worth 10% of her final grade and she'd gotten only 50%, which dragged her average down so that technically, she was failing her course. Which meant that what little money she was earning she was actually wasting by renting in this ridiculously expensive city with its overabundance of cute little coffee shops and trendy bars and pricey skincare items. 

Please. I need at least 75% for this presentation to bring my average back up and salvage my education, she prayed to the gods who may or may not have been listening. She'd been praying to them at desperate moments just like this for the past year and so far they seemed to be purposefully ignoring her pleas. 

Her parents had warned her about doing a masters in child and adolescent psychology. In fact, even before that, they'd warned her about doing psychology at all. If Jihye wanted to help improve the mental health of future generations, why didn't she want to become a psychiatrist instead? A psychiatrist was a doctor, and therefore it was a much more respectable profession. 

And when Jihye really thought about it, maybe there were right. Quite a few of her undergraduate classmates were either working jobs in retail while they figured out their next moves or were in entirely different fields altogether. 

And!- she continued in her rant to the gods who she knew had forgotten about her a long time ago- my lease ends in four months and the landlord has already notified me that they're increasing the rent! My parents are already paying for half of it, so I can't ask them to fork out even more money for my accomodations which means I'll either have to a) dip into my savings to make up the difference, b) take on more hours at the dentist office which may or may not even be possible, c) charge more in babysitting fees or d) find a cheaper place in this ridiculous city which is getting more expensive by the second! 

And in addition to that, I've been applying for internships at all sorts of clinics with no success because like me, there are hundreds of kids with either the exact same or better resumes willing to work for free just so they have a shot at the future! And although I really can't afford it, I'm willing to work for free for a little while too so I can do the kind of work that's actually meaningful and important to me! 

"All I'm asking for is a break," she concluded aloud in a discouraged gust of breath. "If I can just get a passing mark for this, then it'll give me hope for the future after all. So please, pretty please, let me pass this presentation with a good grade."

Jihye opened one eye, and with a nervous squeal clicked the button. The website refreshed and her results announced themselves at the top of the page. 65%. Not great. But at least she passed. 

She looked up at the sky. "I'll take it," she said begrudgingly. "It's better than last time, at least." 

But Jihye knew that essentially it was unsustainable. She worked two mornings and one afternoon a week as the receptionist at a dentist's office, and worked Friday, Saturday and more often than not Sunday as a babysitter for families in the nearby area just to make up her half of the rent and cover the rest of her expenses. There simply was no time to study, and she had no energy for it, either. She always brought her laptop with her to her babysitting gigs so that when the children were put to bed early she had an extra hour or two of study time.

She took out her phone and swiped through her apps, looking for a needless distraction, when she came across a bright yellow app with a picture of a cartoon dummy. WeSit. It was a babysitting app that linked parents to babysitters in the nearby area. Not only did it help them to find childminders, parents could also leave ratings, read reviews, and read about the potential babysitter's previous employment and experience as a babysitter. Jihye had actually had quite a bit of luck in it when she first started building up a pool of regulars when she first moved to Seoul, but ever since she had got herself a stable rotation of clients she'd abandoned the app. 

Out of cur