School was becoming significantly more difficult for Jonghyun, as mid-term exam time drew ever more near. His incredibly complex and heavy courses were being taught by the professors at an incredibly fast pace and all of the students, even those with top marks, were finding it challenging, at least, to keep up. For Jonghyun, the struggle to absorb all of the class material was made that much harder by the fact that he had to work his two jobs. That his landlord had raised the price of the monthly rent by nearly seven percent, was the watery, expired icing on the figurative fouled and molding cake that had rapidly become Jonghyun's life.

There had been building-wide protest, at Jonghyun's unit, especially from his neighbour.

"Son of a gun!" The middle-aged man spouted, standing in the the middle of the hallway on the night that the rent-raise had been announced, in nothing but a pair of pyjamas and a ratty old bathrobe. "Doesn't that good-for-nothing rotten fruit know that my job only pays twenty dollars an hour?! My wife's unemployed! And I have seven cats to feed, for heaven's sake!"

But the protests fell on deaf-ears, as the new rent remained high. Jonghyun didn't bother telling the older man that the twenty dollars an hour that he made at his job was still more than Jonghyun was pulling in.  

He began to take more shifts at the café, and arranged to work for a few days during the week at the seniors' residence. He was even considering to (almost impossibly) look for a third job that he could somehow squeeze into his nightmare of a daily schedule.

To an outsider, it might seem as if Jonghyun was working himself so hard, simply to finance petty "young adult luxuries", such as a new car or designer clothes. Someone who was unaware of the truth of his situation might have said,

"Slow down, son! You should be focusing on getting through school!"

But for Jonghyun, he had to work to survive. He was faced with a choice to make between supporting his basic needs and getting an education and somehow, he had to do both.

Having clearly made the choice to ensure that he had a roof over his head, some money to help out at home and at least enough food to survive off of, Jonghyun's grades, unfortunately suffered the inadvertent consequences.

Even more frequent became the nights when, after coming home from a grueling day at school and an exhausting double shift at work, Jonghyun would be completely drained and literally unable to do much more than glance at his notes and attempt a few odd questions on his homework assignments. Although he felt guilty for doing so, Jonghyun found himself copying entire assignments, instead of just parts of a question, as he usually did, off of Jinki.

Being the understanding friend that he was, and knowing that Jonghyun wasn't deliberately trying to cheat, Jinki didn't mind, but he was becoming increasingly worried about Jonghyun.

He had asked Jonghyun if anything was wrong, when the latter showed up on campus, day after day, looking as if he hadn't slept in weeks, and although Jonghyun told him, honestly, that he was working more shifts at work, Jinki couldn't help but feel as if Jonghyun wasn't telling him the entire truth.

"You should ask your parents to send you a bit of money," Jinki had suggested, when Jonghyun explained that his landlord had significantly increased his rent.

With a slight sigh, Jonghyun refrained from telling Jinki that his parents could hardly pay their own rent, let alone help him to pay his. Instead, he had made a slight nod of acknowledgement, then proceeded to distract Jinki by asking him to explain one of their homework questions to him, his mind not at all focused on his friend's explanation.

Regardless of his attempts to study and do his homework, however, Jonghyun's marks continued to drop, so noticeably that his anatomical biology professor, who, like the majority of the staff on campus, didn't really give much thought to the marks of his thousands of students, had actually pulled him aside after class one day, putting a hand on his student's shoulder, to confront him about his plummeting average and ask if there was anything going on that he needed help with. Although Jonghyun appreciated the uncharacteristically kind offer, he couldn't really explain that he had to work long hours just to keep himself off of the street.

Even though he was trying to hold himself together and make the most of his almost desperate situation, the bringer of ill news came knocking on Jonghyun's door one evening, in the form of a letter from the university. Knowing that the envelope could only contain an inopportune message, Jonghyun miserably peeled open the sealed paper.

'Dear Mr. Kim,

We regret to inform you that, on account of your low average, you have been put on probation¹.

You will have a month to raise your average to an acceptable standard, but if you fail to do so, we will unfortunately have to expell you from the medical program.

Sincerely,

Lee Byung-Chul

Head of University and Campus Services'

Jonghyun sighed in despair and frustration. He knew that this would be coming, with the downward path that his grades had been taking, but actually seeing the words, in print, that he was only on the brink of being expelled was a horrible feeling.

He slammed the letter down on the table. What gave the university staff the right to dismiss him so casually; to put him on probation like some kind of common criminal? Was it a crime to want to at least have a shelter to return to every night? Was it punishable by law to send money home to one's parents? Did it make him a person who didn't deserve a chance at accomplishing his dreams, because he chose to attempt to quiet the sharp pangs of hunger that he had come to acknowledge as a part of his daily routine?

Jonghyun gave a good, resounding whack to the part of the table on which the letter sat, making sure to make contact with Lee Byung-Cheul's signature. The pen that the man had used to sign the letter probably costed more than Jonghyun's salary for two days!

What did a bunch of men and women, who received big, fat pay-cheques every month for working a square eight or nine hours a day, maximum, with weeks-long holidays, know about how destitute he was? Jonghyun was sure that few of them would have lasted a single week in his shoes. 

In a final gesture of frustration, Jonghyun ripped up the letter, letting the pieces of paper lie, uselessly, on the table. He sat down, sighing heavily, again, and combed his fingers through his hair, rather viciously.

He had a lot of catching up to do.

-----

After about two weeks, including a few exams and lab reports to hand in, Jonghyun's average went up, a little. It was still no where near where it had to be by the end of the month, but, with a few big exams coming up, Jonghyun knew that he could make a complete recovery if only he kept up with his studies and did well on the tests.

The only problem left was earning enough money to pay his rent.

Over the space of time that he had been trying to focus more on his studies, Jonghyun had asked Kibum and Taemin if they could help him with his extra shifts. The two were eager to help- Kibum was not a full-time college student, and his parents helped to pay some of his rent and tuition, while Taemin, who was taking a year off after having newly graduated from high school and was still living with his parents-but, like Jinki, they were growing increasingly concerned. Every time he came in to work, Jonghyun looked more and more tired, and he performed his tasks with increasing lethargy. Even regular visits from Minho and his soccer team couldn't take away the sombre and exhausted look on Jonghyun's features. When any of them tried to ask Jonghyun if anything was wrong, however, he would only tell them that he was getting more homework from school.

He hadn't even told Jinki about being put on probation.

Note:

Hey everyone! :)

This, along with the following chapter were supposed to be all one chapter, but I decided to break it up, other wise it would be too long ^^

Just a quick note, Lee Byung-Cheul has nothing to do with kpop. He's not even a real person- I just looked up some Korean names on Google ^^

(1)- Just in case you don't know what universitary probation is, it's a period of time where the student is warned that they need to get their grades up if they're failing, or else they'll be expelled. (I'm pretty sure) I thought I would explain it, because the first time that I heard the term being applied to university, I thought that it was something to do with being jailed ^^'

Thanks for reading; next chapter will be up shortly, since I've written most of it already :)

x Angela