Mr and Mrs Lim finally agreed with the price I offered to buy for the building. It wasn’t easy making it cheap but in the end I was able to buy for a reasonable price. Once the owners left the building that used to be their family florist shop, I looked around, admiring how big the place is and I imagined what our café would look like. I feel good, I was determined to make this work and I have decided to further my studies in accounting and business managing.  

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It’s been seven months since we started building our café. Because we were working on the café during the rainy season, from then and afterwards most days had been really troublesome because the weather was either too hot, too cold or too rainy. There was one time during winter when Mae Ee and Je Si were bringing in the tables and chair that we ordered. The roads were so piled up with snow they couldn’t drive back to the café so they had to carry at least two or three tables or chair and use the subway to get from the place and back. Also the same time we were fixing the café I was back to studying in university. It was difficult working on the café and doing my assignments at one time, so I was beginning to feel stressed.

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Start of spring was the set date of when we were going to open the café, we are almost done with preparations and I feel business will run smoothly. I thought before that because I went back to study and at the same time help my cousins, we weren’t going to make it but never judge our determination. I have currently finished and passed all my exams and assignments. WOOT! Time to party! Jokes, I’ll party with my cousins when we officially open the café.

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I have classes today so I wasn’t able to help Je Si and Mae Ee fix the café, but they were handling well on their own. I just finished one of my lecture classes and was going to head to the cafeteria for lunch when my lecture teacher, Mr Chang, called out my name. “Hello Mr Chang, why did you call me for?”

“May I talk to you in private please? Meet me in my office after you finish your lunch.” After agreeing, he walked off leaving me confused and wondering why he needs to talk to me. After I ate my lunch I made my way to Mr Chang’s office, lightly knocking on his door. “Come in. Oh, Tae Ah come in and take a seat.”

“Sir, why did you need to talk to me?”

“I’ve seen all your exam results and I’m surprised that you’re getting top marks out of all the other students. And what’s more is that you were educated from another country.” I felt proud of myself hearing that I was top of all students that took the same course as me, “But why are you saying these things?”