EXO STORIES

Pickpocket {SuHan}

Being born into a wealthy family and having rich parents, the father even works a job as a high-end CEO. It would be weird to imagine that their son would start stealing money from people. Weird, yes, impossible, perhaps not.

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It was Jumnyeon's dream to pursue his acting career. From watching movies to visiting plays to listening to various musicals. One day, he decided he wouldn't be the one standing in the crowd watching, but rather the one standing on the stage being watched by people instead.

He wanted nothing else than to become an actor and share his passion with the rest of the world. His parents, however, had a different idea in mind. They wanted him to become a doctor or a lawyer, and as it became more and more clear that Jumnyeon wasn't going to follow up as they desired, they came up with an agreement.

If Jumnyeon was still certain about following his dreams, then his parents would respect that. But they wouldn't pay for anything or fund his studies. If he wouldn't study what they wanted him to, then they wouldn't help him out either. Despite knowing the hardships it would bring, Jumnyeon still agreed, and his parents had to let him go eventually.

The first thing he did was work a lot of jobs to gather all the money he needed. Since he had to pay everything for himself, there was a lot to save up for. He spent an entire break year doing so, and once he had enough, he moved out to the city his college was located in.

He found a small apartment in the city's centre, enough to fit just one person, and picked up a job working at a restaurant nearby. From there on his student life started and his old life was left behind in his old hometown.

It was a lot of stress. If he wasn't at school or home studying, he was working full shifts at his job, just to be able to pay off both his rent and his study fees. At times he felt like his new way of living was draining him both psychically and mentally, but once he remembered why exactly he put himself through all this, it gave him the small source of motivation he needed to keep working even harder.

But even then, it was becoming harder and harder to keep up with his daily routine. He had almost fainted a couple of times and his health wasn't looking any better either so even his newly made friends started taking notice of it.

Getting disturbed now would throw his progress off balance, so he always told everyone he was tired because of the piles of schoolwork they received, that he was doing fine and that they were worrying about nothing.

And each time they believed him, allowing the unhealthy cycle to continue. It became so difficult, that at one point he stumbled out of the back door from the restaurant, emptying the little food he had left in his stomach in some random alleyway.

As he was hoisting himself back up, he could make out faint noises, looking up just in time to notice a young male running past him. An older male followed, yelling something about his wallet having been stolen. Putting one and another together, it was easy to figure the guy had just been robbed by someone.

Considering this happened all the time, Jumnyeon was soon to shrug it off, but unlike every past event an idea crept up in his mind. What if he just became a pickpocketer?

He quickly shook his head, trying to push away the thought that kept entering his mind over and over. Jumnyeon was a decent man, raised with manners and respect for other people, committing crimes like these went against his polite thinking.

But what if he did? One wallet loaded with cash would be enough to pay off his rent for yet another month, if that was handled he could work less and focus more on studying. Knowing that the people living in the centre were earning decent money, he could grab the opportunity anytime he wanted.