☹ consequences; cero
[ rgcero ]
Growing up wealthy and sheltered sounds good on the surface. However, its never just that. Despite being a boy who once experienced a lavish life, spoiled with toys and food and goodies of every shape and size; despite having a home to always run back too, Taeil was not the small child he once was.
No one ever talked about how evil rich parents can be. No one ever talked about how wicked it was to be controlled, how awful it felt when your decisions weren’t your own. When Taeil was young, he admired rogue thieves and dirty, scumbag businessmen--not for their acts of treachery nor for their violence; Taeil saw such thugs to be men who chose for themselves. Men who were free.
And perhaps it was due to his lack of bonding with his mother and father; their sheer lack of care for their child; perhaps he was still a young boy locked inside an older body: Taeil was the kind of boy who never outgrew acting out to be noticed. Though he hid his misdeeds behind a guise of resentment, though he pretended to steal for food, for clothes, a place to sleep at night, a place where he was safe: there was something else inside of him too, something that drove him to steal, to cheat, to fight. That same feeling he harbored deep down was what made him run away when he was young; it was the same feeling behind his emotional outbursts, the tantrums he threw as a small child. That feeling... that impending though that always prevailed: If no one notices me I will die.
It’s for food money, Taeil told himself; slyly pushing his skinny fingers into the pocket of a gruffer looking man. I am doing this so I can live. And when Taeil thought like that, he felt his guilt flutter away. He could justify his wrong doings because he simply wanted to survive. Though his target was a man with such an overpowering stature, Taeil had that knack for picking fights with the wrong people; it was as though he was always subconsciously asking to get his ass kicked. And despite Taeil’s own belief that he was a great thief as opposed to a pitiful one, everyone had to face the consequences of their wrong doings at some point. Though he assumed the festival to be the perfect opportunity for looting, somewhere in the back of his head Taeil had a sinking suspicion; a dreadful feeling that he was in for a rude awakening.
But even so, he ever so stealthily fished out what his hand found in the stranger’s pocket and slipped it into his own; scurrying away as casually as he could manage before being detected by the man. Watching around nervously to ensure his action had gone unseen, he began his escape. Taeil scampered into the nearest alley, dodging the crowds of passerby, trying to get away from the hubbub of the festival to count his new fortunes before his target noticed; before the chase began.