Prologue: Ray of Hope

The light emitting from the lamp on the shuttered old table was the only source of light the thin skinny boy had 

He sat on the weak wooden kitchen stool with an unbeatable posture

The few textbooks and workbooks he borrowed from his mates from school were opened agar with his eyes searching for answers nonstop

His eyes had turned red and heavy from keeping them open for so long 

Both his waist and wrist were aching and hurting both from sitting in a fixed position for so long or moving rapidly to scribble

His lips were partially red and swollen from bitting to draw blood from them for so long 

He sucked them to prevent them from splitting because of the harsh temperature

His skin was covered in goosebumps due to how cold the night was 

His legs were knitted in hopes to magically produce at least the minimum calorie of heat for his body

He mentally refused to get his thin cloth he used to sleep since he covered his sleeping and then shivering mother with it 

But his mind was determined 

His right hand never stopped scribbling

His eyes never stopped screaching

His brain never stopped racing

And whenever the thought of having a wink of sleep crossed his mind, he looked over his shoulders to regard his family 

Both his parents warmly cuddle on a thin cloth lay beneath them on the hard concrete floor

His two younger siblings curled up in little balls with a single thin cloth covering them on the already flattened mattress 

It gingered him do more

To keep pushing

To keep pushing until his parents had a bedroom of their own where they could do all their frickles frackles 

Until his younger siblings could sleep confrotably on a huge and soft bed with a warm and soft duvet shielding them from the cold and harsh weather 

Until his family quit having body pains from sleeping on the hard floor which they already stopped complaining about

Until he could see his father genuinely smile again 

Then, he would rest

Then, he would consider the act of take a wink of sleep

But not now

He turned back with a much more determined look

To ace that paper two month away

He knew there was no space for failure at that point in his life

He had to get that scholarship by crook or hook

He understood that the opportunity was a one time thing, since never in the history of Busan community college has such a well-known and reputable school such as The Seoul University himself offered a scholarship to them

He knew he couldn't afford to fail 

He had to do it for his family 

For his parents, for his siblings and for himself 

He dug-in with frowned eyebrows again- after all there was a ray of hope