being happy is your duty.

Taemin was tired. His cheeks and jaws ached from the constant smiling. As soon as he stepped into the safety of his home, his smile was replaced with a loud groan and the boy made his way into the kitchen for some much deserved food.

At the sound of his groan, Taemin’s mother, a woman of around 45 turned to him, an amused smile on her face.

“What’s the matter, long day at work?” She joked, handing her son a small carton of milk as if she were a bartender and her son was some overworked man.

“I give up on school.” Taemin muttered to himself as he rested his chin on the back of his hand, his eyes transfixed on the label of the carton.

“Hm, what was that?”

“Nah, I was just talking to myself. it’s nothing.” The boy said quickly, taking the milk with him as he gathered his bags and motioned to his mother that he was heading to his room.

His mother knew nothing about the dynamics of the school and even if he told her, she would either not believe him, not see the problem that he was having, or worse, believe him and report it to the school.

There was 1 basic thing you needed to do to survive in this particular highschool - stay happy. Even if you felt like complete and total crap, you had to make sure that a smile was permanently etched on your face. Even if you thought that there was no one around - there was always a student ready to find any trace of sadness and anger within a person - and report it to the committee.

The young faced male allowed his shoulders to slump down just slightly - not enough for anyone to mistake it as dissatisfaction (although that was what it was,) as he walked into the administrative office to pick up a letter that had been left for him. That was when he overheard a girl he had never seen before, presumably around his age, asking for her ID and schedule. Shaking his head in silence, he was tempted to let out a snide laugh.

Out of all the schools she wanted to enrol in for her last year and she picked this one? Luck really wasn’t on her side.

He saw Amber approach the cold looking brunette, and as soon as she did, it was as if the on-looking students outside had found a new victim.

Suddenly a familiar voice was echoed throughout the halls indicating that it was time for the morning announcements. Today’s announcement seemed to catch more attention than usual since everyone was aware it was the first Monday of the month. The day they had all been waiting for. The Wishing Well would be opened for a few minutes and a lucky few would get their wishes selected.

Actually, to say it was luck would be a complete joke. It was this system that created the oppressive atmosphere of the school in the first place. How could such an innocent concept such as ‘happiness’ be taken advantage of? Well, desire really had a strange and terrifying way of manipulating people.

Although it wasn’t actually proclaimed there was much more that one could rely on besides luck to get their wish selected -

1. Stay happy

2. Spread the joy.

3. Report all anomalies.

The first ‘rule’ was pretty easy and it was one of the reasons why most people would place on a happy facade. The happier you were, the higher your chance of being selected. However since everyone was happy, this didn’t really do much in giving a student a bigger advantage.

The second basically meant helping or offering your help to your fellow peers. Unfortunately, most of the students acquainted with the system also knew that if you accepted someone’s help, they would be the one’s moving up the priority list, therefore most students usually denied help (politely). This was where new students came in. Often unaware of this "rule", they take the actions of others to be ‘welcoming’ and nice. Furthermore, usually nervous or shy on their first day, many of them would accept help. Taemin could already tell that the brunette he had just saw was probably going to be the victim of countless of students offering their help to her.

Finally, the third and the most shushed rule of all was reporting anomalies. Anomalies in this case meant any student who openly showed dissatisfaction. Reporting a student pretty much meant that you were guaranteed to get a wish, therefore everyone made sure to keep their eyes open, and their smiles steady. New students in this case were usually offered a grace period, so they couldn’t be reported right away. Lucky for the new girl, since she seemed to have a permanent scowl stuck on her face.

Honestly, Taemin himself didn’t know when he had gotten so used to the system. It wasn’t as if he asked someone for information on the school. After the committee took over, all it took was a few keen observations from students to find out the different tips and tricks to survive (and possibly "prosper.")

Survival. That word brought a bitter laugh from the young boy. That sounded like something over dramatic angst-ridden teens would talk about, but in this school, the term survival was meant literally.

Although the school boasted having a high approval and happiness rating by the students, it was no secret that the school population had dramatically decreased ever since the Happy Committee took charge of the student council and the whole school.

The teachers were powerless against the student council, they were just told to keep quiet on what the committee was doing and their pay would increase three-fold. Apparently the committee wanted the staff to stay happy as well, and of course to adults money equalled happiness, right? That, and the adults were probably afraid of the huge influence the council held.

Because you see, even teachers could be reported as anomalies.

No one really knew what happened to the people after they had been caught. One would guess that they probably get a warning, or a small slap on the wrist - really, how terrible could it be? The people on the Happy Committee were just teenagers, right?

Hah. How naive.

Taemin already knew the reason behind the decline in students wasn’t because they transferred out.

Let’s just say he had heard a small conversation when he passed the doors of the council late in the day.

But of course, his ears may have been mistaken.

He so desperately wished that they were.

“Pick whichever you like!”