Sunday night, Arkan sat in his cramped rented room. He had just returned from an extra shift at a catering event—standing for eight hours, carrying plates and serving guests at a wealthy child's birthday party.
At that party, he had watched how untouched food was thrown away without a second thought. Food that could have fed a family for a week, discarded just like that. Meanwhile, he himself had been eating only rice and tempeh for the past three days.
"This will never change," he murmured.
He opened his notebook and looked at the list of plans he had once written:
Get a scholarship — Rejected
Join a business competition — No time because of work
Intern at a major company — No connections
Graduate with good grades — Maybe, maybe not
Every plan felt like crashing into a wall. Not because he wasn't capable, but because the system never gave him the same chances.
In the class WhatsApp group, Rendra had just posted a photo of himself at an international entrepreneurship seminar in Singapore—fully funded by his father's company as "self-development."
Arkan closed his phone.
There was no point in comparing.