To See The Moon

Confessions

     "Jisung, did you steal that?"

     Jisung's mouth went dry. He hadn't expected Minho to be so perceptive. Oh, what the hell, Minho was the most perceptive person he had ever met. Nothing escaped his eye.

     Usually, Jisung never minded his weakness but at this moment, screw him for being such a bad liar.

     "So what if I did?" he mumbled. "You probably already expect that from-"

     Before Jisung could get another word in, Minho grabbed his wrist and led him along. Holy shi- his grip was strong and he walked fast. Jisung was sure he was going to trip over his own feet with how Minho was practically dragging him through the street.

     Finally, the two were behind one of the building complexes, out of the public eye.

     "Geez, what the hell?" Jisung complained.

     "What the hell? You were out there in broad daylight with a stolen watch in your pocket, running like a mad man as if you well... stole something. You should be thanking me," Minho snapped.

     Jisung felt his temper flare at Minho's tone but calmed himself down. Minho was only helping him. "So... what now?"

     "Telling me why you decided to basically steal hundreds of dollars would be a good start."

     Jisung shrugged. "What if I just felt like it?"

     Minho raised an eyebrow. "Jisung, you may be the most determined to drop out of school, get arrested for trying to walk into a bar and get yourself killed from crazy dares, but you don't steal."

     "How would you know?" Jisung said, his tone a bit more aggressive. Minho had only known him for a few weeks and was already firing assumption after assumption.

     Never mind that everything Minho was saying was true. Jisung had never stolen anything in his life. His conscience stopped him there. He'd never done anything that had the chance of harming anyone but himself.

     "Fine, let's say I don't know you well enough to make that conclusion. The fact that you clearly don't know how to get away with pulling such a stunt already shows that you've never done it before," Minho said.

     Jisung could only look down, feeling exposed. He hated the feeling. Hated it so much that...  he had decided to steal a Rolex watch.

     Minho huffed in resignation at seeing Jisung so down. "Just tell me why."

     Jisung shuffled his foot around nervously before giving in. "So I spent the evening with my friends today and I came home..." Minho's eyes stayed on Jisung to let him know he was paying attention.

     "But..." Jisung continued. "My parents were waiting for me. Turns out I had missed a day too many and the school contacted them. Without even telling me. They were pissed. I tried to get out of it by promising I wouldn't do it again and all that crap but they weren't done." Jisung laughed but he was far from happy.

     "University applications have been released and even though we have a few months to complete them, they figured I should start now. That I might as well start 'considering my future before I destroy it.' They already had a bunch of brochures ready from pretty much every university in Nila. And a few from Seoul if 'they were desperate,' being the Nila patriots they are. And..." Jisung took a deep breath to steady himself. Gosh, he seriously felt like punching something.

     "I told them. They were lecturing me about college and everything and I had it. I just confessed that I don't want to go to university yet, I want to take a gap year and travel. I had wanted to tell them eventually, but not like this. And oh boy were they even more pissed. They started talking my ear off again about how our family isn't made out of money and my wishful thinking won't get me a college education and I'm going to go study after graduating high school and that's that!" Jisung felt frustrated tears coming to his eyes but he held them down.