guilty conscience | minsung

23

"a 98?" his father questioned, and he was far too tiny to look past the paper to see his expression, his voice tone didn't say anything, it was rather confusing for the small boy. "so close to a perfect score."

minho lit up, "can i go out to play?" he was far too naive to understand.

"why?" he asked, taking the paper that a eleven year old minho was holding, "why did you miss those two points?" he pushed.

minho's excitment was far gone, he looked down to the ground, muttering a small "I'm sorry.."

he bent down to meet his height, patting his hair and smiling at him, "that's not an answer. why did you lose marks?" he asked him further, pretending to softly pat at his hair.

his gaze on him was far from concern.

"explain."

--

just as minho had opened his eyes, he knew his day was already ruined. the moment reoccurring in his mind wasn't all the best.

why had has mind let him dream about his nightmares again? it was so much better for the few days he hadn't dreamt them.

he genuinely thought he was getting better. and with this, he knew it was all gone down the drain again.

the reality and his past were already haunting him enough, he didn't want them appearing when he was trying to have a peaceful sleep.

after dwelling about why his life was like this, he finally moved away the covers from his body and stood up to continue on with his day.

it was currently 6 in the morning and he should get ready for his shift at the convenience store before going for practice.

minho stretched his body, looking over at chan who was staring at him like he saw a ghost, the boy was busy writing something on his laptop so it might have surprised him when minho just stood up out of nowhere.

"why are you up so early?" chan questioned after a while of silence of them staring at each other.

"i should be asking you that but i have work so." minho explained, going over to his closet to grab some clothes for taking a shower.

chan furrowed his eyebrows when their eyes met, conveying some sort of concern.

"at this time? minho, aren't you working too much?" chan asked, his tone suddenly switching to worry. minho just glanced at him before muttering, "i need to, i have to save up." and chan would've missed it if he wasn't so eager to know why he was working so much.

"do you want to talk about it?" chan sat up on his bed, looking at minho expectantly.

"no, it's fine." minho simply replied, grabbing his backpack to stuff some more clothes into in his bag to change after he was done working. he made sure to put his other stuff like face cream, hand cream, and sunscreen too.

"minho." chan's stern voice was rather scary but minho didn't pay much attention to it, breathing harshly from his nose as he looked at chan.

"I'm fine. everything is fine. I'll come to you if it gets worse, okay?" minho tried to reassure to which chan couldn't help but side eye him before leaning back onto his pillows behind his back.

"it's okay to hurt for a while, but do come to me, alright?" chan spoke before minho could walk into the bathroom after he was done with putting clothes in his bag.

"yeah, alright." minho replied with a soft smile on his lips, and disappeared behind the closed door of the bathroom.

--