✦ Foreword  ✦

"I’ve turned back on the road I was supposed to be on till the end with them. But this might just be the path that takes me to success."

- Mino, Mic On

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I am never good at Mathematics. Never. And this might be the reason why I have never put much thought deciphering the red numbers above Minho’s head. Excluding the fact that I did not want to spend more effort making myself feel confused and tired figuring out the meaning behind those numerals.

Today must be an exception. The red numbers flashed once before it appeared again on his head.

8760: 0: 0

And it flashed another two more times before I finally realised 8760 hours is exactly 365 days.

There is exactly one more year from now on before Minho dies.

“Earth to Hye Rin.” Minho said while waving his hand in front of my face. Oh my god, I thought, what do I do now?

“Hey? You alright?” He said again, “You look a little weird.” I look at my friend in front of me, wearing his barista uniform, hair pushed back and neat, and has no idea of what is going on. My emotions were overwhelming and I find it how to put it in words. “Y---eah. I think I’m just a little tired. Sorry.” I said, excused myself and left.

What do I do with Minho? He only has one more year.

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It was a Thursday. Work ended. Minho and I were tidying up the cafe before leaving. I looked at the boy standing at the counter.

8736: 0: 0

364 days.

“Minho.” I said, still wiping the tables of the cafe, acting as though I was initiating a casual discussion. “Hmm?” He responded, still focusing on cleaning the grouphead of the coffee machine. “Do you have anything you want to do? Like a dream?” My question got his attention. He put down the grouphead. “Dream...” he said slowly and softly before going into a deep thought. I waited patiently for his response, he let out a smile and said, “Let’s sit and talk for awhile, shall we?”

Two cups of water were placed on the table. We sat at a window seat. Minho looked out the window into the dark night lightened by the street lights. “I wanted to debut.” He said. Then, I decided to give him all my time and listen to his story. He let out a soft sigh, took a sip of water and continued.

“I started liking hip hop since I was little. Elementary school to be exact. And I really wanted to be a rapper. My parents were very supportive and the hip hop culture influenced me deeply, at then I made up my mind to be a rapper when I grow up.”

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