Park Seonghwa's life was currently miserable.
Clutching his aching head, he groaned.
Crumpled bills and coins were scattered on his almost-broken coffee table as he cried over his unfortunate life.
His wallet was getting thinner, yet the pile of bills on his desk was getting thicker every day.
He was wondering if he could apply for some graveyard shifts at the convenience stores around his neighborhood - even if it meant he would have to cut his sleep time down to three or four hours on the days when he had afternoon class.
And no sleep at all if he had morning class.
He was in his final year of college.
Final year meant a myriad of assignments.
A myriad of assignments meant no time for part time jobs.
No time for part time jobs meant no money.
No money meant no capability to complete his education.
It was a vicious cycle and he was on the verge of being kicked out of his room for delaying his rent payment for about three months already.
Seonghwa could call his parents in Jinju-si and ask them for some money but it meant he would be a burden as a first son because his younger brother was about to enroll into college which meant more money to be spent.
His family wasn't loaded and he wouldn't want to make them more broke than they already were.
But, the money on his coffee table was only enough to feed his stomach for about three days, if he ate once a day, which was impossible since he had to gain energy for his dance class and also to print countless papers for his essay about Meiji Restoration.
He was kind of regretting his choice to take up a minor in Dance while he was barely alive in his Japanese Studies major.
Leaving his money on the table, Seonghwa got up from his mattress slash sofa slash study area to fetch water from the mini fridge on the counter beside the sink of his mini kitchen - which was located only a few feet away from his mattress.
Sighing around the neck of the bottle, Seonghwa glanced at the clock on his table and put the bottle back into his fridge; it was his time to go to class.
Putting on whatever hoodie he could find from the small, plastic cabinet he called wardrobe, Seonghwa snatched his messenger bag and went out, just to be greeted by the face of the landlord.
Crap.
"Park Seonghwa." The landlord crossed her arms on her chest.
"Good afternoon, Ma'am." Seonghwa smiled politely while he was panicking inside.
"It's been almost three months. When will you pay?"
Seonghwa gulped, "Please give me two weeks, Ma'am! I'll pay you!"
"You said that two weeks ago," The lady tsked, "A week."
"Ten days, please?"
"You want me to reduce it to three days?"
"No, Ma'am!" Seonghwa squeaked, "A week, it is!"
"Good." The lady sighed, "A week with no money, I'll evict you with or without your consent."
"Okay." Seonghwa answered in a small voice.
The murderous-looking lady finally walked away and Seonghwa could finally breathe again.
But, on second thought, how would he pay three months worth of rent in one week?
He was barely hanging onto his life.
Not wanting to get more of a headache he had already had, Seonghwa left from his front door to climb down the stairs and go to his university.
__
"Yo!" A cheerful voice was heard when he was brooding in his seat, waiting for his general course's lecturer to come.
"Shut up, Tzuyu. I'm not in the mood." Seonghwa groaned.
The girl sat down beside him and frowned, "What's wrong, Hwa?"
"Nothing, it's just—my landlord is going to evict me if I don't pay her by next week."
Tzuyu gasped, "So rude! Hwa, I've told you I could help you! Come on, just say yes! I can lend you some money."
"It's three months worth of rent. I don't think you'll have that much money." Seonghwa stated the fact before shrinking further into his seat, "Also, I don't want to burden my friend."
"Oh, well, yeah, I don't have that much money, but we can work for it? I mean, I don't mind to ask Nayeon-eonnie to help you."
"No!" Seonghwa straightened his back abruptly, "No, Tzuyu, no! That's more mortifying than borrowing some money from you! I'm not even that close to Nayeon-noona!"
"But, Seonghwa!" Tzuyu whined, "How will you earn the money by next week?"
"I don't know—but I'll work for it, I guess." Seonghwa pressed his lips together, "Don't worry. I'll figure something out."
Sighing, Tzuyu threw her bag on the desk in defeat, "Fine. But, if you really can't earn it before the deadline, you have to let me help you."
Seonghwa knocked his shoulder on the girl's and smiled, "Thank you. You're the best."
The lecturer came and Seonghwa mentally noted; graveyard shifts, it was.
__
Or not.
Seonghwa had applied to some convenience stores around but none of them were willing to give out weekly payments.
All of them would accumulate his working hours and pay him by the end of the month.
But, Seonghwa didn't have a month, and he didn't even have a week by now considering he had spent two days asking around.
He was swinging on a swing that night, crying over his pathetic life mentally, when suddenly his phone went off.
Without checking the caller, Seonghwa picked it up.
"Hello?"
Cough. "He—hello, Hwa." Cough.
Seonghwa frowned at the toad voice coming from his speaker and checked the caller; it was Tzuyu.
"Tzuyu? What the hell is wrong with your voice?" Seonghwa asked.
There was a painful groan from the other line, followed by a string of frantic coughs, and then Tzuyu's toad voice came back, "I'm sick—like—really sick. The sickest sick ever in my entire life."
"Stop being a drama queen and tell me what's wrong? Did you get a fever?"
"Yeah. Fever. Cough. Runny nose. Everything hurts! I'm going to die!"
"You're not going to die, Tzuyu." Seonghwa chuckled, but he couldn't help but worry about his friend's condition since it sounded so bad, "Do you need me to bring you some soup and medicine?"
"No, Nayeon-eonnie is here and has taken care of stuff. But, I do need you to do me a favor though."
"Yeah, tell me. I'll help you if I can."
"So, unfortunately I have this assignment to interview some public figure and I have the appointment already. But, I don't think I can get any better by tomorrow, while the appointment—fuck—I don't think this person will be willing to change the date since he's so busy or something. I spent three freaking months of whining and crying via emails to his secretary before I got a yes. Seonghwa, I can't let this go! This assignment will have about 70% of my grade for this class. So, please, please, please, can you replace me tomorrow?"
Seonghwa chocked on air, "Tzuyu! I'm not a Journalism and Mass Communication student!"
"But, you've attended that Basic Communication course with me!"
"It was one term! And it was because I had to choose one general course! And I chose it because you were in that too so at least I had a friend!"
"You're majoring in language studies so I bet you're good with communication too! It won't be that bad, Hwa!"
"Tzuyu!" Seonghwa groaned.
He saw a mother looking at him strangely at the loudness of his voice so he had to cover his mouth and hissed into his phone, "Listen, I'm a Japanese Studies student, okay? I can go in there to start conversation with ohayou gozaimasu and end it with arigatou gozaimasu, because that's my field, but I'm 100% sure it's not what your assignment is about. I can't."
And then Tzuyu went silent on the other line.
"Tzuyu?" Seonghwa asked in panic, the last thing he wanted was his friend to be upset at him.
"Oh, well," Tzuyu sniffled, "I'll just fail this class then...I'll—I'll just retake it next year. I'm sorry, Hwa. Bye."
The call was ended and Seonghwa crouched down in despair.
He knew he had fallen into Tzuyu heart-wrenching-whining trap, but it didn't stop him from dialing Tzuyu's number back.
"Hello?" Tzuyu's sniffle greeted him.
"Fuck, okay! Okay!" Seonghwa hissed, mentally thinking how he would regret it later, "I'll do it, okay? Don't cry, Tzuyu."
"Really?? Aw, Hwa, you're the sweetest! Thank you so much! And don't worry, I'll pay you for it!"
"What?! No!"
"Yes! Just consider it as errands you have to run just like you deliver newspaper and get money from that, yeah? That's the least I can do for you, my beloved bestie. I'll send you the address and the time you have to go there tomorrow after this call. Love ya! Mwah!"
And the call was ended once again.
Seonghwa couldn't help but feel like he was being fooled, but there was no way Tzuyu would lie to him about her sickness just so she could help him with his economic trouble.
Or would she?
His phone beeped and a notification appeared on his lock screen.
Chou Tzuyu shared a location.
Chou Tzuyu: The appointment is 11am but it'll be better if you come a little bit earlier, just to show him that you're serious about the interview.
Chou Tzuyu: I'll send you the questions to your email. You can add some more to liven the interview though.
The boy pursed his lips and stared at the darkening sky above him thoughtfully, and then he unlocked his screen to reply to his best friend.
Park Seonghwa: Who's the interviewee anyway?
Park Seonghwa: You didn't tell me yet.
Chou Tzuyu: Oh, I didn't? My bad!
Chou Tzuyu : It's Kim Hongjoong.
Seonghwa had a sudden urge to throw his phone into the nearest puddle of rain water, move out the country, and change his name to Jeremy.
But, he didn't.
Instead, he gripped the nearest streetlight and groaned for the umpteenth time of the night.
Kim Hongjoong was one of the most desirable bachelors in South Korea.
He was the CEO of the most monstrous and trusted law Firm in Seoul.
As a lawyer himself, Kim Hongjoong had succeeded defending so many rich people and public figures.
He was so young though, 28 years old at the time.
And single (hence, one of the most desirable bachelors).
He hadn't drawn any news or rumors about dating women and no one knew his real reason as to why not.
The statement he usually gave on every magazine asking about this was that he was too busy to date since he was practically married to his job.
Oh, and he had that beautifully striking face too.
He was fair skinned, black haired, and held a lazy smirk which could make any woman swoon.
He wasn't that tall, one of the magazine revealed that his height was only about a centimeter taller than Seonghwa.
Young, handsome, ambitious, single, and successful, no wonder he was awarded by the title of desirability.
And no, Seonghwa hadn't been tracking Kim Hongjoong's profile and articles.
It just happened because he was best friends with Tzuyu, who was like the biggest fan of the man Seonghwa had ever met.
So, Seonghwa had to face the mogul with his limited skill.
If he was kicked out before the interview was done, he wouldn't be surprised.
And he only hoped he would do well, because this wasn't about him, it was about Tzuyu's grade.
__
Once he arrived back to his tiny room, Seonghwa turned his old laptop on and opened the file Tzuyu had sent to his email.
The questions were basic, just what magazines usually asked the mogul.
And he couldn't help but snort to read a question about Kim Hongjoong's love life.
He was sure he would get the same answer because that was what the lawyer always said in all interviews.
Maybe Seonghwa wasn't in the right major, but he knew basic interview procedure since he had had to interview a native Japanese speaker before.
It wouldn't be the same with Tzuyu's procedure, but at least the girl would have the idea.
So, he wrote down the questions on his note book with enough spaces to write down each answer between them.
He also checked his phone storage just to make sure he wouldn't run out of it in the middle of recording.
When Seonghwa was done, he realized that the time had hit midnight.
He had to sleep or he would show up like a zombie, and he wasn't sure he wanted that.
So, after packing pens, notebook, power bank, and a headset into his bag, Seonghwa prepared to sleep.
It was going to be a restless night.
[A/N: hope you enjoyed the first chapter! this story will pick up after my story "Reputation" wraps up! Also, stan Twice]