✔ The Pursuit of Happiness? {Jackson Wang ff} ✔

the beginning

Lihua Zhang is 15 years old and the oldest girl of the hard-working Zhang family, but lately, it seems like no-one is happy with the usual routine. Her parents have become more on edge, and they are always in some sort of 'heated debate'.

One summer's day, Lihua returns home from her after-school saxophone lesson. 

"Mama! Papa! I'm home!" she calls, running straight up to the bathroom for a shower.

She reappears in the living room 15 minutes after in much cooler clothes and damp hair, sitting down on the carpet in front of the TV to play with her youngest sibling, baby Hana. The twins Mika and Naomi were upstairs in their room until the infamous weather forecast music began to play and they came thundering down the stairs. They too plonked themselves down in front of the TV next to Lihua and waited to see if the heatwave they had would continue.

"Hi there! I'm sure you're all wondering about the heatwave, and sure enough, it will plough through to next week..." the weatherwoman says,

"YESSSS! LIHUA DID YOU HEAR??" Mika and Naomi yell simultaneously,

Lihua sighs and Hana's mouth pouts and she responds, "I heard, I'm sitting right next to you!"

"Mina!" Lihua's mum calls the collective name of the twins, "Keep your voices down, it's too hot to be making noise!"

"Isn't that right, Hana?" Lihua asks the infant, Hana babbling in discontent.

Later on, just as Lihua finishes her late-night studying, she hears a voice calling from one of her siblings' bedrooms.

"Liiiii! Lihuaaaaa!" Mika whines,

"Shhh, you'll wake up Hana! What's wrong?" Lihua whispers,

"Could you get me some water? Naomi drank mine somehow..." Mika shoots an accusing look at her twin, sleeping spread out on her bed,

"Alright..."

Lihua makes her way downstairs as quietly as possible, knowing that her parents were still up. She tiptoes barefoot to the kitchen, prises open the fridge and pulls out a bottle of water. Just as she was walking back up the stairs, Lihua hears her parents in another 'heated debate'. Though, for once, she listens in. They seem to be talking about "cutting back on luxuries" and "focussing on necessities". She also hears phrases about being "in a tight position" and "not budgeting properly".

Back in her room, Lihua stares up at her bedroom ceiling dotted with stars. She thought about her parents over the past few weeks, trying to decipher when they started to have money problems. She didn't know what was going to happen, and that scared her. The Zhang family was always routinely, everything running to schedule, and all of a sudden something has thrown them off track.

Feeling like it was her responsibility, she thinks of ways to help her parents get out of any mess they were in...

~flashback - earlier on at school~

"...they get paid soooo much, you know!"

"Who?"

"The artist in Korean talent agencies! My bias looks amazing in Gucci..."

"Oh, Lisa! Just because you see them wearing designer stuff, doesn't mean they'll always afford it. All the actual artists get paid after everybody else!"

"Way to burst my bubble! You'd have a good shot though..."

"What, at being a trainee?!"