guilty conscience | minsung

24

"am i allowed to come in..?" the boy timidly asked, still standing at the door without fully opening it as minho blinked a few times to register what was happening.

"oh... yeah, sure come in." minho quickly replied after realizing how much time he was dragging as jisung stepped a foot into the room, already glancing at his mother who was still peacefully unconscious on the bed.

"what are you still doing here? why didn't you go back home?" minho asked once the boy entered the room and just awkwardly stood there until minho gestured him to take a seat on the chair in front of him, to which jisung agreed and sat down.

"ah, well. i.. just.. i saw you entering this room and curiosity got the best of me so.." jisung nervously chuckled, looking down and scratching at his neck. and at that movement jisung's loose hoodie seemed to move away a bit from his shoulder, revealing a patch of white.

and minho took a while to understand that his shoulder was bandaged.

"oh well that's fine." minho simply replied after listening to jisung's explanation. an awkward silence following by.

"you-"

"well-"

they both seemed to speak at the same time, shutting up after realizing the other person wanted to say something.

"you can go ahead first.." jisung spoke after another second of awkward silence and minho just nodded, not wanting to make this any more awkward.

"why is your shoulder bandaged?" minho went straight to the point, looking at jisung who seemed to stop fiddling with his fingers. he noticed how the boy was looking down at this lap and from what he could see, his eyes were shaking on trying to find a reason to say.

gosh, this boy was easy to read.

jisung nervously laughed, glancing at his revealed bandage from where his hoodie moved and covering it back again by moving the hoodie up.

"wel... it's quite embarrassing for me to explain." jisung finally said, grimacing at minho who just raised his eyebrows.

"in what way?" minho pushed, clearly wanting to hear more from jisung.

"uh.. i kind of went to this restaurant and um, bumped into someone and the food they were carrying seemed to drop and the plates broke. and he was really aggressive about it.. and ended up pushing me..." jisung seemed to trail off for a second, getting lost in his thoughts as if he was trying to make it make sense, even though minho was half convinced with the boy's story.

minho might've brushed it off as another accidental problem but the way jisung picked at his cuticles and bit at his bottom lip said otherwise.

"and then? what happened?"

"i fell on the glass shards on my left shoulder, so it hurt a lot. apparently i fainted and lost a lot of blood. that guy was reported to the police." jisung continued his explanation nonchalantly, now staring into nothing as all his body movements stopped and he looked up at minho with those eyes of his.

that gaze of his was always unsettling.

"so can i ask you who this is now?" jisung asked, pointing with his thumb at the woman on the bed.

"it's my mother." minho replied, glancing at her before looking back at jisung who was seemingly absorbing his mother's body. his eyes were fixed on something in particular.

"what are those wounds from?" jisung asked, even though he knew the answer.

"ah, well. you don't need to know that." minho said with a chuckle, and jisung's eyes still hadn't left the bruises on her arms. then travelling up to her face where he seemed to even stop breathing when looked at.