Every weekday, in broad daylight and with concurrent classes in the morning, the things Leansei despises the most are weekdays. He can relish the hours of classes, but not having enough sleep during classes makes him want to sleep every subject.
However, he is unable to. He spends hours making an income for his daily needs and tuition fees. Thus, he didn't pay a tuition fee just for him to sleep in it.
While Leansei was in deep thought, Mr. Leyri noticed how preoccupied Leansei was, so he called him. "Leansei Ty." But no response. The students in his classes look at him and start laughing when he is still looking at the window.
He was looking at the students wearing PE uniforms, running, and playing on the soccer field, which he envies the most since he can't afford miscellaneous fees and time because after class he needs to work until midnight or past midnight.
' I wish-- ' He couldn't finish what he was saying in his thoughts when Mr. Leyri threw the eraser board at his head.
He almost fell down from his chair when something hard hit his forehead. Leansei immediately caressed his forehead to lessen the pain. He looked up and saw his classmates laughing at him and a terrifying look from Mr. Leyri, the professor of the gen math class.
"Ow.. " he said, rubbing his forehead.
"Now I got your attention, Sir. Ty?" Mr. Leyri said, with a scowl on his face. Leansei looked down and saw the eraser board that Mr. Leyri hurled at him.
'So vicious.' He said in his mind.
"Since you're busy thinking, then solve this problem," Mr. Leyri said. That made him frown and didn't have any choice but to stand up while holding the eraser board.
He walked towards the board and stopped to look at it. Since he was busy with his part-time jobs, he hadn't paid attention to every subject.
"It's not a TV show to stare at. Solve the problem, Mr. Ty." He took the whiteboard marker and looked at the equation carefully. But whatever he does or thinks, he really doesn't know how to solve it.
"Can this equation be used to earn money, sir?" Leansei asked out of nowhere.
"What??" Mr. Leyri said, with furrowed eyebrows.
"If not, I won't solve it," Leansei continued, and he was being mischievous once more.
He gave Mr. Leyri a silly smile.
Mr. Leyri was surprised and at the same time getting his face red in anger from the nonsensical words of Leansei. When Leansei realized that he had made an excessively big mistake, he ran away from Mr. Leyri and his classmates, who were laughing at him because of what they had witnessed.
Every school knows how silly, witty, and naughty Leansei Ty is, and every teacher dislikes him the most, but they don't have a choice but to treat him as a student in this school.
The bell rang as a sign of the lunch break.
"Leansei!" The name cracked through the classroom like a whip. Mr. Leyri's voice was sharp with fury. Leansei didn't wait for the second call. He was already on his feet, bag slung over one shoulder, heart hammering.
"Bye bye, sir. Have a nice day!" he called over his shoulder, and bolted through the door before the last syllable could land.
The bell saved him. If it hadn't rung at that exact second, he'd be sitting in detention now, watching dust collect in the corners of a room while minutes bled away from his life. Minutes he couldn't afford to lose.
He ran.
The corridor blurred. His watch read 12:00. He was already late for his shift at the coffee shop.
"Wait!" he shouted, lungs burning, as the bus hissed at the curb, doors beginning to close.
Mercy, in the form of a tired driver, held them open. Leansei lunged aboard, tapped his card, and was swallowed by the murmur of the afternoon commute.
The bus was full. Of course it was. Only one seat remained, he tucked by the window like an afterthought. He collapsed into it and let the air scrape in and out of his chest. Sweat cooled on his neck. He fished out a handkerchief and pressed it to his brow.
The bus jerked to a halt.
An old woman stood at the door, both arms full of grocery bags that pulled her shoulders down. Without thinking, Leansei was up. He took the bags, guided her to his seat, and stood instead grabbing the overhead hanging handle.
"You're so kind, young man," she said, her smile folding the lines of her face into something warm.
He only nodded. What else was there to say?
' Being kind is the only thing I have right now and she looks like grandma Delin. '
His eyes flicked to his watch. Five minutes. The thought of being late gnawed at him, until the old woman held out a small wrapped candy between two weathered fingers.
Leansei looked at it and hesitating if he should accept it or not, but in the end he did since he believes that you can't reject the elders' offers or requests.
"Thank you," he murmured. Old lady gave him a genuine smiled and minutes later, the bus stopped. She stood up her feet, tapped his shoulder once in farewell, and disappeared into the crowd. He stared at the her, something about her lingered, an odd weight he couldn't name.
When he reached the bus stop, Leansei immediately climbed down from the bus and looked at the candy in his hand. He unwrapped the candy, and it's a blue candy with white paper around it. Blue, like twilight. He took the paper as the candy melts into his mouth. it has a sentence in careful ink:
"WHEN THE LEAF FALL DOWN THE RIVER AT THE FULL MOON AND WHEN THE SUN COMES UP, HE WILL BE RENAISSANCE," he read it once, frowned, and tossed it into the nearest bin before sprinting to the coffee shop.
Prophecies were for people with time to spare. He didn't have any.
He ran.
The smell of bread and coffee permeates the coffee shop with the smell of roasted beans and warm bread—a scent that seemed to quiet even the loudest parts of a person. It was no wonder people stayed here for hours.
"You're late," said the girl at the counter, pulling off her apron and hair net.
"Sorry," Leansei said, and removed his bag that was slung across his chest and walked toward the staff room where the staff locker was located, starting to open his locker and he stashed his bag. pulled on his uniform, and stepped out.
Leansei entered the counter and greeted the arriving customers, "Good afternoon. What can I get for you, ma'am?" he asked and started taking orders and making coffee.
.
Leansei worked his shift like he always did and just like that, he became motion. He mopped the floor, wiped the tables, took the orders, and served all around by himself and repeat. That was the condition he made to the owner: if he wanted to work for 5 hours only, he needed to do all the errands in the coffee shop.
When his shift ended around 5 p.m. He left the coffee shop right away.
The coffee shop and Samgyupsal restaurant were just near each other, and it's just around the corner. Leansei ran as fast as he could because he was about to be late for his shift in the restaurant for his other part-time job.
When he entered, the restaurant was full of customers, and he thought that it was Friday night so it's expected that house will be packed. The air was thick with students and sizzling pork.
"You're late," the owner said. "Take this to table six and give it to them," he said as he already thrusting a tray into his hands. Leansei moved. Bacon, side dishes, bow, smile. Then the staff room, uniform change, and back onto the floor.
"Sei. Tables seven and eight." He didn't answer. He just went.
"Is that all, ma'am? Sir?" Leansei asked after taking their orders.
Orders scribbled. Dishes carried. Tables wiped. A rhythm he'd learned to keep inside his bones. No breaks. No pauses. Just the steady, quiet endurance of a boy who had learned that work was the only thing that kept the world from swallowing him whole.
And somewhere, in the trash can by the bus stop, a small piece of blue paper waited for the full moon.
.
The night had thickened.
Hours slipped through Leansei's fingers like water, unnoticed until his wrist burned cold against the glow of his watch. 9:17 p.m. It was time. The dishes waited outside, stacked in steel towers that caught the yellow light of the alley.
"Good work, Sei," the voice came behind him.
He didn't turn. He only nodded, hands already submerged in soapy water, scrubbing at the blackened bottoms of pans big enough to bathe in. The steam rose and fogged his eyelashes.
He felt, more than saw, the owner lean against the brick wall, the ember of a cigarette flaring and dimming between his fingers.
"How the hell do you do it, kid?" the man asked, not unkindly. There was bewilderment in it, and something else—a quiet kind of respect. "Three jobs in one day and you're still a student right?"
Leansei said nothing. How could he explain it? He hadn't asked himself the question in years. Not since that night.
Since then, there had only been one answer: earn. Earn through exhaustion. Earn through silence. Earn until the rent was paid, the lights stayed on, debts paying down and tuition settled balance.
The owner exhaled smoke into the night. "Payday's tomorrow. You earned it, young man." He flicked the cigarette to the concrete and ground it out with his boot. Then, he disappeared back inside, the door swinging shut behind him.
Leansei was grateful for him in a way he couldn't articulate. The man had hired a student with dark circles and too many hours, and asked for nothing but work in return. In a city that chewed people up, he had been something like a brother. Not by blood. By mercy.
When the last pan was rinsed and set to dry, Leansei peeled off his apron. The fabric was heavy with grease and heat. He pulled his bag from the locker, the strap worn thin from use, and gave a small nod to the owner on his way out.
"Night," he said.
"Night, Sei."
The door closed.
The street took him. Neon buzzed overhead. Buses hissed past. Somewhere a siren wailed and faded. He walked with his head down, toward the last place he had to be tonight — his third and final shift.
.
The street took him in its teeth.
Leansei dragged a hand across the back of his neck and rolled his shoulders, trying to pry the ache loose from his bones. Exhaustion had settled in him like sediment. There had been no breaks. No pauses. No mercy.
He could feel his body testing the limits of what it could carry and yet he walked. Because to stop was to starve and he had decided a long time ago that if he had to die, he would rather die with calluses on his hands than with nothing to show for it.
The convenience store glowed ahead, a box of fluorescent light against the dark. Perfect timing. The girl behind the counter was already shrugging into her jacket.
Another uniform. Another counter. Another five hours of standing, smiling, serving. But for now, the night air was his. And in it, he carried the quiet dignity of a boy who had decided, long ago, that he would not break.
He tied on his vest, smoothed his name tag, and took his place. While the minutes stretched thin, he pulled out his notebook. Assignments due next week. If he didn't do them now, between customers, he never would. School and survival had to share the same five minutes.
"Good evening. Welcome," he said, eyes flicking from the book to the register. The customers were students from the famous university in Lemous City. You could tell by the uniform: Blue blazers, white shirts, blue skirts that looked like they'd never seen rain (it hadn't rain.)
They dropped energy drinks and chips on the counter, busy talking over each other.
"I heard that Vcheroi's sons came home from other country!" The short-haired girl said while looking at her purse.
"Oh yess! I'll be seeing them next week!" An excited tone from the red-haired girl, Leansei, glanced at them. He knew that they were from a middle-class family.
Leansei scanned each item. Beep. Beep.
He didn't know who Vcheroi was. He didn't follow celebrity news, or dramas, or anything that didn't pay rent. His world was smaller than that. It was made of due dates and time cards.
He doesn't even know what they're talking about. He doesn't spend much time on social media or watching TV. He always spends time on homework or part-time jobs.
Leansei put what they bought into the paper bag. "That'll be 760 pesos, ma'am." he said, while looking at the monitor. She handed him one thousand pesos and took the paper bags.
[ Pesos in the PH money ]
"I bet Lucia's gonna be all over the Vcheroi boys again."
"I bet too!"
"I received a total of 1,000 pesos. Here's the change--" Leansei was about to finish his sentence when the red-haired girl shook her head.
"Keep the change," the red-haired girl said, already pushing the door open with her hip.
He watched them disappear into the night and whispered, "Thank you." The coins clinked into the tip jar anyway.
.
Hours passed. 4:13 a.m. The store was empty. The air conditioner hummed. His eyelids were heavy, his thoughts slow. He slapped his own cheek once, twice, trying to knock the sleep out of himself.
The bell above the door rang.
A clang sound. As a rang when someone went inside the glass door, He shot upright, spine snapping straight, heart stumbling and unconsciously stood up that made his spirit awake. "Sleeping while on shift, huh?" The man's voice was dry, but not cruel.
Guilt burned hot in Leansei's throat. He rubbed the back of his head. He couldn't blame his body. It had been running on fumes for days.
"I'm sorry, sir," he said quietly. The worst fear rose in him: don't fire me. I can't afford to be fired. He has cant afford to look for another job right now.
"Nah, kid. I know you're working yourself to death."The owner laughed and shook his head. He pulled an envelope from his pocket and tossed it onto the counter. Leansei gently took the envelope and thanked the owner. "Here's your pay. Go home. You look like hell."
Leansei took it with both hands. "Thank you, sir."
He stripped off the vest, packed his books, and stepped out into the dark. 4:30 a.m. The city was cold and quiet. He could feel the cold breeze and dark streets as he walked. The only sounds were crows arguing on power lines and cats fighting in alleyways. The wind cut through his shirt.
All he could think about was his bed.
Ten minutes later he was home. A small apartment that smelled like old laundry and instant coffee. He didn't bother with lights. Didn't bother with changing. He fell face-first onto the mattress, clothes and all, and let the dark take him.
"Finally," he breathed and then there was nothing.
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