92 Memories 2 (1/2)

”Kim Nayoung, are you really going to sleep right now?” Nayoung's mother yelled.

I dreamt of days where I could get a solid amount of sleep. I did not care whether it would only 6 hours. It would be better than the constant 3-4 hours of sleep I got per day.

The current unemployment rate in Seoul was toppling the past records. More youth were being unemployed even if they came out from the top universities in the country.

If you were not in the top ranks in your graduating class in your university, then you would definitely not be employed in big companies such as Pineapple or Langsung.

If you could not get into a top university, then there was no chance that you would even get a 'comfortable' office job in this society.

This was why there was fierce competition in this land called 'Seoul' to get into the top universities in this country.

There were a limited amount of spots and only the best of the best could get in. My friends and I named this the miracle 0.000000000001%.

My parents like every other Korean parent would, constantly tried to make me become one of those 0.000000000001% that succeeded.

Everyday I would wake up at 6AM to finish my remaining homework that I was not able to finish last night. At 8AM, I would be at school until 4PM. After that I would go to cram school until 11PM so that I would get good grades on the Korean SATs. It would be finally 11 when I would be able to start my homework. When I really could not take it anymore, I would go to sleep at 2AM.

This was my ordinary weekday that I had to suffer through ever since I entered high school.

Weekends were no better. I had to have good extracurricular activities in order to stand out among the other candidates.

Unfortunately, my mother chose me to play the violin and piano as my activities. Which meant if I wasn't studying, then I was practicing my instruments of hell.

Every time I made a mistake, my teacher would frown awfully alot which was very noticeable with that scrunch on her forehead each time she did it.

”Nayoung! You know other people your age practice much harder,” my teacher would scold me.

Every time I got in the lower rankings of my school, my mom would yell, ”Do you know how much money we spent on you so far? It's so that you can go to a good university and get a good job. For your future! Do you think only you suffer this way? Every Korean student suffers this way!”

I knew she was right so I didn't refute her and got back to studying.

Right now, it was 12AM. It was unfortunate that my mom caught me almost sleeping on the bed.

”No,” I yelled back.

I got up from my bed and gradually made it to my chair.

My mom was getting more anxious about my grades these days because I was in my second year in high school.