Why Kung Jin is a thief - Headcanon
When Kung Lao and Lui went to the tournament, their families were in contact with Raiden.
Jin always looked up to Lao so he was the most worried. When Lao left for the tournament it was a very sad goodbye. But then everything went downhill.
Jin was 16 at that point and dating a guy from his school, while in training with his family. They are a very traditional Chinese, Shaolin family with a lineage of warriors, to a point where it grows into toxicity. His father often envied his sibling for having Lao as a son. A noble warrior.
His father once caught him with the guy, and it was a scandal on a godly level, his father threatened to throw him out of the house and disown him. And in the whole family only his mother was protecting him.
Then one evening the whole family was sitting in the living room to hear of the news about what happened to their ‘sons’. And Raiden announces that Kung Lao’s neck was snapped. Jin starts crying with everyone around. His father gets pissed for this display of emotion and starts yelling
“At least he died like a warrior! Look at yourself an unworthy waste of space! I’d rather have a daughter, or have you never been born!”
Jin yells back, emotions mixed up. It’s unheard of to talk back to elders in their strict upbringing. He slams the door. The fact that it was in front of the whole family infuriates his father
His father is pissed. He follows him. His mother following soon after. She tries to convince them both to calm down. A lot of tears and yelling.
“Who said I wanted to be born in this fucking family?!”
His father slaps him hard,
“Get out of my house, and don’t you dare come back. Your tendencies bring only dishonor! Get out!”
And Jin does. Vision blurry. He grabs only his bow and a backpack and goes out. Bumping into a random cousin, but he doesn’t give a shit. He leaves.
When he cools down, his mother tries to convince his father to bring him back. His father is no longer this heated,
“I’m sure this worthless trash will come back on his own, he has no where to go. Why couldn’t Lao be my Son?”
His mother turns around and cries.
But Jin doesn’t. He spends his first night on the cold street in the freezing cold rain. Weeks go by, and he knows that he won’t last much longer.
He becomes a thief using his shaolin skills. He knows it’s wrong but he wants to survive. The neighborhood he got himself into is horrible, getting him into a bunch of horrible companies,. He also falls deep into depression and self denial.
He lives like that for more than a year. His mom wants to find him. To do something, but his father forbids it. She cries “What if he died?!” “Better for us, he shall stain our reputation no longer”
He blames Raiden for Lao’s death. He steals the statue of Lao from the sky temple, but Raiden catches him. He tells him to join the Shaolin, to have a better future. But Jin still struggles with self acceptance,
“They- they won’t accept”
“They care what’s in your heart, not whom your heart desires”
And suddenly all the hate is gone. Maybe there really is someone who could accept him? Maybe he isn’t as bad as he thinks of himself? He still struggles with self acceptance. It bothers him how the Shaolin could be kin with the family that despised him, and still grant him love and support.