Junghye’s POV

I yawn and glance at the time on my computer, it was just past midnight.

It’s been a month since Jonghyun started his after school part time job as a waiter and his night shift job at a 24/7 convenience store.

The signs of exhaustion have already started to show. The bags underneath his eyes are as dark as ever, I see him asleep more often than awake during class and he’s also lost some weight.

In between all his jobs, I hardly see him anymore. At first, I tried hanging around the café and convenience store but he would always shoo me out after awhile, insisting that I had to study and didn’t have time to waste.

But what did he expect me to do? Just go about my life as normal? Ignoring how tired he looked every day? No, there was no way I, Park Junghye, was going to sit around doing nothing.

So I started to help out in small, unnoticeable ways.

Well, at first I tried to put small amounts of money into his wallet when he wasn’t looking, hoping that he wouldn’t notice and would just think that he miscounted. But that sort of failed when it turns out he counts his money like crazy now, down to the very won.

Instead, I had to strike a deal with the manager of the café he was working out. I would give the manager a certain amount of money every week but the manager would just tell Jonghyun that he’s been given a raise. The day after I made the deal, Jonghyun came home with a grin on his face and he hasn’t suspected anything yet so yes, I am quite proud of myself.

I rub my eyes and take a sip of coffee to wake myself up. The mass of words on my computer screen were starting to blur together as the night went on.

I shook my head and forced myself to focus on the words in front of me,  ‘The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock implies that the appearance of a unified society is only a façade and instead, the feeling of isolation is a universal problem—‘. Did that sound too similar to my own? Should I try for a different argument?

I totally underestimated how hard it would be write two essays for the same question, this wasn’t like maths where I could just replicate the exact working out and answers, occasionally changing some numbers, this was like, well, writing two different essays!

Jonghyun was also unaware of this, but it appeared as though the whole teaching faculty knew about his father and the part-time jobs he had taken to earn money and so, were going remarkably easy on him.

It also seemed their conscience stopped them from waking him up during class and so, instead, they would pass out the assignments and homework to the person sitting next to him—which was always me.

Of course, they expected me to pass it on to him at some point of time but how could I do that? Hey Jonghyun, I know you’re tired from work and all but here’s another essay, five maths exercises and ten sheets of extra work.

Yeah, no. No way was I doing that.

So what was the only other way? Yep, I was doing two sets of homework. Oh how proud my father would be if he could see me now! His slacker daughter was doing twice the required amount of work! Rejoice!

I groan aloud, I had been distracted yet again.

Concentrating on the words, I begin to type.

Jonghyun’s POV

I’m sitting on the chair next to my father’s hospital bed, exhausted from standing all night when Jung Hye’s dad walks in.

 ‘Jonghyun.’ He says tersely, nodding at me, ‘I need to discuss something with you.’

I’m too tired to feel any sense of apprehension.

He takes my silence as a sign to continue, ‘I must say, I’m impressed at how long you’ve kept up with the hospital bills.’

I remain silent. What did he want me to say? Why thank you good sir, how nice of you to lavish such praise upon me?

He clears his throat and ploughs on, ‘I’m sure you remember how deal from last time, but I would like you to reconsider it.’

‘No.’ I automatically reply.

He gives me an amused smile, ‘Now don’t be so quick to answer. I would like you to consider this from another view,’ he pauses, glances at me and continues, ‘Right now, you are just barely paying off the hospital bills and if your dad awakes, the bills will only increase. You are in your final year of high school, am I correct?’

I nod. What was he getting at?

‘With the amount you’re working, I doubt you have any time to study, which would heavily jeopardize your chances of going to university—if you are planning to at all. I’m sure you’re a bright boy, so think about this, without a university degree, would any high paying jobs bother to hire you? No. So, you will be stuck with this minimum wage jobs for the rest of your life, just barely scraping by.’

‘Yes, I know.’ Did he think I didn’t know this? Did he think I wasn’t aware of the fact that I fell asleep every day during class, had no idea what was happening? That I didn’t know I was throwing my future down the drain?

He looks down at me, ‘Well then, have you ever thought about Junghye?’

Junghye?

Seeing my confused face, he continues, ‘You haven’t right? Have you thought about your future with her? Because of you, she will be working harder than ever, trying to help you. Because of you, she might decide not to go to university but pick up a part time job. Do you really want that life for her? Stuck with you, working a minimum wage job, unable to live a comfortable life, unable to have what she wants—will she really be happy? Or did you not imagine her to be part of your future? In which case, why didn’t you just accept my offer?’

‘I—‘ I start, but I have nothing to defend myself with. His words are registering in my mind and for once I’m not feeling anger or fear at him. No, I’m angry and disappointed at myself. His words were true, I hadn’t thought about what all this meant for Junghye, I hadn’t thought about what I was doing to her. I may have settled for the hard path but why was I doing the same to her? This past month, I hadn’t taken her out at all. I hadn’t done anything for her. I was terrible.

‘All I want is for my daughter to be happy, but can you do that?’ Doctor Park says and I finally see that the deal he made was out of love for his daughter. That he really did just want the best for her.

I stand, ‘I understand, just give me a few days.’ I say before walking out.