Window to freedom °•Minsung•°

38)

"Matt!" Minho called.

The boy turned quickly, surprised and pretty scared. He looked too thin with bags under his eyes and a prominent bruise on his arm.

Minho's heart clenched when he saw it.

He gestured to him and they got out of the classroom togheter while everyone else had their break.

"What is it, professor?" Matt asked, tense.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to scold you about not paying attention. We aren't in high school anymore" Minho patted his back and instantly the boy relaxed.

"Just wanted to ask if everything's ok, is all"

Matt seemed sketched out by that:
"Yeah, yeah... All good"

"Well... some of your friends think differently" Minho looked into his eyes intently, trying to get the point across.

Matt sighed:
"Did Julia come talk to you?"

Minho smiled. Clever boy.

"Actually, they talked to Jisung. Who talked to me... You know how this stuff works. But Matt, you shouldn't be too mad at them...they're just worried...they want to help"

"But they can't. So they should've just staid out of it." Matt harshly said. Then he realised who he was talking to and seemed to backtrack:
"Sorry I-"

"No, no... it's ok. This is a safe space. Be honest. Why can't they help?"

"It's something bigger than all of us, professor...Our parents, mine and Evan's that is... they should've divorced ages ago but they didn't. And now they take everything out on us...well, expecially Evan"

"But you're the one with the bruise..." Minho commented softly.

Matt looked at his arm with a grimace:
"I try to protect him. But he doesn't seem to appreciate it."

"Is that why you haven't been talking?"

Matt's eyes widened:
"Julia noticed that, too!? Eyes of a hawk she has..."

Minho chuckled:
"Or maybe she just really cares"

Matt nodded with a small smile then he got serious again:

"He won't talk to me. Keeps avoiding the conversation, it's so annoying. He knows I'm just trying to help so why won't he just tell me the truth??"

Minho felt a little stung, hearing him talk about it. Had Jisung felt this frustrated too? Had all the lies and silences been as unbearable to him as well?

"Well... sometimes it's hard to be honest, expecially with someone you care about... Having to say something that might hurt them is no easy task..."

Matt scoffed:
"We're brothers. I trust him with my life and so does he. I thought he knew that I'd rather know things, in every situation, even though they'll hurt me"

"Mh" Minho hummed, feeling even worse about having deceived Jisung in the past.

After a bit of silence Matt cleared his throat:
"Well...Actually, I have a plan to fix all this but...it might be pretty stupid."

Minho stopped in his tracks and looked at him: he seemed unsure, embarassed but also eager to have someone listen to him and be part of this <<plan>> he had.

The professor sighed. He hoped he wasn't getting into any more trouble:
"Let's hear it..."

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"Hey, Evan" said Jisung nonchalantly, approaching him at the vending machines.

"Hey, Jisung" Evan's eyes sparkled, he seemed so happy to have been addressed by the assistant.

"All good?"

Instantly his face became gloomy.
He shrugged.

Jisung faked surprise:
"What's up? Is something wrong?"

Evan looked down and started playing with his painted-black nails, nervous:
"Home life" he said simply.

"Oh...Well if there's something I can do..."

That seemed to be enough to open the floodgates. As shy as Evan was, once you got him comfortable he'd start talking like a madman. Something Jisung related to a lot.

"... and my mum! If she's a lesbian why would she marry a man and have two kids with him you might ask! Because her father wanted her to do that. What kind of excuse is that! And now she refuses to leave him because she's scared even though he beats her and beats me because he's homoohobic as fuck- oh, sorry for swearing-"

Jisung waved him off, kind of amused by the apology while everything else worried him sick:

"...and that dumbass Matt getting involved in all this when he's daddy's boy and could get out of it without a scratch... but no he has to play the hero and come to our rescue..."

after a few more minutes of explaining Evan ran out breath:

"It's the fucking binder" he grumbled, taking a seat in the building's gardens, away from people's ears.

"All good, just breathe" Jisung said simply.

"Why can't things just be easier, you know?" Evan asked at that point:
"Why couldn't mum just leave dad and settle for some girl..."

Jisung sighed:
" 'twas other times, kid. Pretending to be straight and building a family was what you were expected to do...even now some people struggle with this stuff"

He thought of Minho and their situation. Would he end up having an unhappy family like this one, too? One where two people who were supposed to love eachother, couldn't? Would his kids one day have to suffer like Evan, all beacuse of a situation forced from the outside?

Maybe he had been too harsh on Minho after all...

"Well I think it's bullshit" the boy stated:
"If you can't be yourself and you have to struggle every day just to appease others, what kind of life are you living? I know it sounds selfish, but I wish mum would've fucked them all over and not given a single damn of what was <<expected of her>>. I sure as hell won't"

Jisung looked at his confident expression and felt new hope burn in his belly.

"You tell 'em kid"

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