Off Key 2: Your Voice

#6

It was Wednesday morning when Minho woke up, to see Jisung cutely sleeping next to him.

He only admired him, and stared as he could hear the cute little snores coming from him. He giggled and checked his phone for the time.

It was 4 in the morning and he realized he didn't have to be to school in 2 hours.

He sighed, getting up slowly and quietly, making sure not to wake up his boyfriend.

Minho decided to head to the kitchen and maybe eat some cereal, but walking there, he saw Jisung's mom sitting at the table, looking at the paperwork that was in her hands.

She sighed, and looked a bit upset.

"Hi, Ms. Han." Minho said, entering as she gave him a smile hearing her name.

"Hi Minho, what are you doing up so early?"

Now that Minho saw her up close, he saw how her eyes looked tired and glossy. The bags under them made it look like she hadn't gotten sleep in weeks.

"I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. What are you doing up?" He sat down from across from her as she sighed, still with a smile on her face.

"I just back from work, and was just going through some paperwork."

"Work? I thought you stopped working nights." She shook her head. "No, I just had a different adjustment change so my hours are just different."

He looked at her and thought that was odd. Whenever she worked nights, she hated it and wished they would switch it.

"That's weird. Why did they switch your hours?"

She glanced over at the papers and laid her head on her hand. "I asked them to."

"Why?"

She shoved the paper towards Minho, and as he took it, he could tell they were bills. High bills.

"I got another job that's for the day and pays okay so I needed my hours switched."

Minho didn't know this. He found this as a bit of a shock. Had he really not been paying attention that much to his boyfriend's mom? Did he even know about this?

"Does Jisung know?"

She shook her, and sat up looking sadly at the papers. "No. I'm going to tell him eventually, but then he'd stress out and I don't want him to."

"What happened? It's crazy expensive what you're paying now.."

"They raised the bills and house payments by a lot. Something with neighborhood changes they told me." She grumbled the last part, clearly upset with that.

"That's insane.." Minho didn't know what to say. He had no idea that she was struggling and Jisung was in the dark about this.

"Maybe I can help out and get some money to help out- Minho," She cut him off, with a sweet smile.

"You're so sweet, but please, don't worry about this. We'll get through it." She began to take all the papers. "Sometimes you're too kind for us."

She stopped for a moment and looked at the other, feeling like she wanted to cry.

"I am so grateful that Jisung has you. It makes me so happy to see you take care of him with so much love and vice versa."

Minho could feel the words affect his heart and make him feel so happy that he had met the other and his family.

He saw her about to get up when he blurted out his thoughts.

"I've been thinking about moving out."

She shook her head instantly. "Minho, please, don't worry about- It has nothing to do with the costs." He said cutting her off. "It's something that's been on my mind recently and for awhile."