“Sanghyuk, wake up. Now,” I heard my mother yell from the bottom of the stairs. The aroma of cinnamon rolls straight from the oven filled my bedroom, but it still wasn’t enough to convince me to leave my bed. Even though it all smelled delicious, I ignored the aching growl in my stomach and dozed back off.

After what felt like just a few seconds, I woke up to the sound of somebody trying to break down my bedroom door. “Hyuk, wake up now. You’re going to be late and I’m not going to cover for you this time.”

“That was a close one, Hyuk,” Sungjae, my only friend at this school and in my grade whispered in my ear.

“Yeah, yeah,” I responded, not wanting to discuss my frequent tardiness. Everybody and probably their mother were well aware of my poor time management, especially in my Languages class, which just happened to be my first class of the day.

There was one day in particular when I refused to wake up, and man do I regret it. My father was fed up with my sleeping and tardy habits that he took it upon himself to drag me to school by my ear, literally. He stormed into the classroom with me attached by the ear, whimpering about how he was hurting me. He mumbled something under his breath before tossing me fully into the room, ignoring the fact that there was actually a class going on and people were probably attempting to pay attention.

Everybody knew about the incident by lunch. Somebody, Sungjae, decided to take a picture of my dad holding me in front of the class by my ear and print 200 posters and plastered them all over the hallways, bathrooms, and our two cafeterias. As I left for school that day, the kids that were staying after for detention were taking them down, clearly still amused, telling by their obnoxious giggles when I walked past them. I snatched one of the fliers out of one of their hands and decided to show my mom what exactly happens when she lets my father take me to school.

Needless to say, my father thought it was the funniest thing that he had seen in his entire life. He even considered buying a frame to hang it in our living room, with the rest of our school photos. My mom on the other hand, was far less amused by the situation. She sent me up to my room immediately after dinner and scolded my father on proper parenting. He slept on the couch that night. Karma is truly a .

Instead of paying attention in my class, like I never do, I decided to roll up the sleeve on my school uniform and check the tiny green countdown on my wrist.

7D 3H 28M 32S

In seven days and three hours, I’ll be in calculus. I thought to myself. I wonder if we’re getting a transfer student on my birthday. Man, I hope she’s hot.  I distracted myself more so from the English lesson happening in front of me.

I felt a light tap on my shoulder, and assuming it was Sungjae, I scrawled a quick note asking what he wanted.

“Dude, get your head AND your wrist out of your lap. I know your time is soon, don’t make yourself go crazy over it.”

These last seven days are going to be the death of me, I swear.