LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES...CHAPTER 2/? (Daehyun's POV)
Title: Love knows no boundaries...
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: Daehyun, Youngjae, Sunhwa, Yongguk, JB
Word Count: ~3000
Rating: G
Genre: College, AU, idekwhatelsetolabelthis...
Summary: Most of them are college students...You can consider them to be unique...They just feel out of place. Some call it a disability. Some call it an ability to prove people wrong. Flirtations lead to relationships, between two parties of people that you could not possibly dream of. (A/N: There may be possible multi-band crossovers but they're not as important as the people listed above.)
Once again, there's some sign language dialogue in here. If you need the guide, click here.
Mmmnggrrhh…mmnggggggrrrrrrhhh...mmmmnnnnnngggrrrrrhhh…
As an alarm clock, Jung Daehyun’s cell phone vibrates on his mattress to waken the college student from his sleep. The young man stirs and groans as he stretches out his body under the covers, ready for another day of classes at his neighboring campus. He scrubs his eyes and blinks rapidly to adjust to the gradual brightness of his room.
“Mmm,” Daehyun groans again while ruffling his hair. He searches for his cell phone that has vibrated just then, and turns off the alarm. He sees that it is 7:30AM and he looks over to see his younger twin brother, Youngjae, still sleeping. The boy sleeps with his eye mask on. Youngjae is not one for beauty sleep or vanity; he thinks that with these rituals, he would look normal and feel relaxed in the morning. He may be bright and all, but he often has ridiculous reasons for his actions.
Daehyun sighs, shaking the sleepiness out of his head and gets up to wake his brother. Youngjae appears to be out like a light bulb when Daehyun calls out to him, “Yongshay, you awehk? Yongshay?” (Youngjae, you awake? Youngjae?) He shakes him but receives no response, only the movement of his mouth. Youngjae mumbles and Daehyun amusingly rolls his eyes because he does not understand “lazy visual human speech”. Not bothering to try waking him up any further, he gets ready for his 9AM classes. Their college is about a 30-minute walk from the house. He brings his school clothes with him as he makes his way to the bathroom in the hallway.
With divorced parents, the Jung siblings live in a house with their artistically creative mother not too far from the university the twins are currently attending. Their father is a wealthy business worker, and their mother is an artist, a painter and ceramist. They chose to live with their mother because her house was closer to their education than where their father had planned to live. Every now and then their father would check up on them, to make sure the children are doing all right, especially the middle child, Daehyun. Sunhwa is majoring in Educational Studies with an interest in Special Education; she wants to be a teacher for the special education students.
Upon entering the house, one can see an open, spacious living room with a half wall separating the living room and kitchen, with the dining area in the corner of the living/kitchen area. This way the visitor will have a 360-degree view of the living, kitchen and dining areas with no visual obstructions. There is an L-shaped hallway on the opposite end of the living room that passes by the kitchen. Going down the longer wing of the hallway, further from the kitchen, one will reach the mother’s, the twins’ and Sunhwa’s bedrooms in that order. If one took the shorter wing of the hallway, they would walk past the kitchen on one side and laundry area on the other, with the bathroom in front of them.
Before he reaches the bathroom, he catches movement in the corner of his eye. He looks to his right and sees his sister, Sunhwa, pacing around the kitchen with the landline phone in her hand. She seems to be looking a bit exasperated, Daehyun notices from her body language; her hand on her hip as she walks and the seldom eye rolling. It must be Dad, he thinks. He knows he guessed right when he reads his sister’s lips mouthing “Appa” a few times. Sunhwa looks defeated in the end, and hangs up the phone, giving the phone a forlorn look. She places the landline phone back to its dock and looks up to see Daehyun in the hallway in his pajamas, holding his school clothes with a small smile on his face.
“Oh!” Sunhwa exclaims, and gives him a warm smile. She stops whatever she is doing and starts moving her hands and arms with graceful motions. [Morning, Daehyunnie-ah, sleep last night well?] (Good morning, Daehyunnie-ah. Did you sleep well last night?) She raises her eyebrows in a questioning look.
Daehyun smiles and nods in reply. [Fine, o-k. Who you phone talk finish just-now? Dad?] (Yeah, it was okay. Who was that on the phone, was that Dad?) He furrows his eyebrows with curiosity.
Sunhwa responds by twitching the side of her nose in confirmation. [Yeah, hear-hear Dad too much lecture. *rolls her eyes* Pick-on this, pick-on that. Tend usual, new what else? *shrugs* You worry *shakes head* need. Nothing connect-you. Dad lecture-me search another job, that why.] (Mm-hmm, Dad was giving me a lecture just now. He was nagging so much. Typical Dad, he does not change. There is no need for you to worry; it has nothing to do with you. He gave me a lecture because he wanted me to look for another job to replace what I have now.)
She puts on an annoyed look and sharply exhales. [“Sick-in-head-of”. I tell finish fine everything now. Love my job, passion, good pay have. Dad understand will-not. Do-do? *sags her shoulders*] (I got annoyed and told him that everything is fine as it is now. I love my job, it is my passion and it has good pay. He doesn’t understand how I feel about my job. Oh well, what can you do?)
Daehyun nods and shrugs with understanding. He looks around the kitchen, as it appears to be that Sunhwa was cooking something. He notices the rice steamer is plugged and cooking, the plate of sausages already cooked, and the French toast heating on the pan with a stack of 5 toasts on a serving plate nearby. There are three plates with utensils already set on the table on the opposite end of the kitchen. He points to the stove. [Cook-cook something, you? *His face shows concern*] (Aren’t you cooking something up?)
“Oh right, the French toast, haha,” Sunhwa giggles while palming her forehead as she looks to the stove behind her and back at Daehyun. [Thank-you remind-remind-me, forget almost. Do-do, why stand there? Shower! *laughs* School have.] (Thanks for reminding me, ahaha, I almost forgot about that. Anyway, why are you standing there? Go take a shower! You have school~]
Daehyun laughs and is about to head to the shower, but on his way, he informs Sunhwa that Youngjae is still sleeping. [Mumble-mumble, I wake-him-up try-try. *shakes head with his eyes glimmering amusement*] (He keeps mumbling every time I try waking him up). Sunhwa, almost out of the kitchen as she followed Daehyun to see what he was signing to her, laughs and tells him, [Leave-him-be, wake-up me will] (Let him sleep some more, I will wake him up). She goes back to the stove to flip the French toast, and he goes into the bathroom to shower.
Daehyun turns on the light and stares wide-eyed at his dirty blond-haired reflection. He must have tossed and turned a lot last night in his sleep for his hair to look all awry and to stick out at ends. He shrugs and checks for any eye crusts from his sleep before placing his clothes on the sink counter and taking off his pajamas. He grabs his toothbrush and puts toothpaste on it before brushing his teeth. He enters the shower and sighs as he feels the warm water beating down on his body. Once fully brushed, he rinses his mouth with the shower water and spits it out. After applying shampoo to his hair, he lets it stay there as he grabs his bar soap and scrubs himself down.
Meanwhile, Sunhwa has plated the French toasts to the table and goes to wake up their youngest brother. “Yah, Youngjae-ah,” She coos as she knocks on her twin brothers’ bedroom door. “Wake up~ it’s already 7:45AM…Your brother’s already up, taking a shower.”
Youngjae mumbles, “Five more minutes, noona…” Sunhwa declines that offer, “Nope~ I made you breakfast! French toast with pork sausages and rice! Your favorite~,” Youngjae does not react, so Sunhwa reaches for his eye mask and quietly snickers to herself as she draws back the eye mask.
“YAH. YOUNGJAE-YAH. I MADE YOU YOUR FAVORITE BREAKFAST. OFF THIS BED AND TO THAT CHAIR, OR ELSE,” she taunts at him with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Youngjae wakes with a start at the absence of his eye mask and his sister’s loud voice and nearly screams at what she plans to do with it.
“OKAY OKAY, I’m up, heading to the dining table now,” Youngjae scrambles out of bed, taking off his eye mask, and hears his sister cackling behind him. Sunhwa shakes her head, “Aigoo… our Youngjae’s so cute. Go wash up your hands and your face, ok?” With a pat on his cheek, she goes to the dining room to prepare any final touches to the breakfast table. Youngjae scrubs his sister’s touch off his cheek and heads to the bathroom where Daehyun has just finished showering.
“DAEHYU-“ He raises his hand to knock on the door but instead facepalms himself because he realized that his brother could not hear any of what he would do. I’m still waking up, okay?, he thinks to himself. Shaking off the sleepiness from his head, he tests the doorknob and finds it to be unlocked. Oh okay, he must be done showering. He enters the bathroom and sees his brother half-naked in his jeans and underwear, about to put on his shirt.
Youngjae waves to his twin brother, [Morning, Daehyun…why-not early wake-me-up? Noona “exact-trick-me” almost, me-wake-up why because eye-mask-gone *pretends to gasp in shock* me-surprised see noona look-like will let-go-mask will *shakes head*] (Morning, Daehyun…how come you didn’t wake me up earlier? Noona almost pulled a trick on me, pulling my eye mask until I woke up. She gave me a fright, and was planning to release the eye mask back to my face.) He proceeds to wash his hands and face, as he hears Daehyun chuckling. He glares at him, [What-for? Not. Funny. Feel how if you-same-me?] (What, it wasn’t that funny. How would you feel if she did that to you?) Daehyun shook his head with eyes shining of laughter and pats his younger twin’s back as he leaves to join Sunhwa at the dining table.
When the siblings finally gather at the table, they chat about their plans for the day, hands bustling about in excitement or dejection and the mixture of their voices, sweet with rough low voices from the brothers and a cheerful light tone emitting from the sister. Chuckles can often be heard in the conversation, one would assume that they seem pretty close and they would be right to assume so.
A light starts flashing, a signal to Daehyun that someone is at the door. He excuses himself and goes to check the entrance. Peering in the peephole, he sees a red-haired Bang Yongguk and dirty-blond Im JaeBum casually talking about something. They stand there looking cool, with their bags over their shoulders. Daehyun flaps his hand at Youngjae while calling "YONGSHAY, YAH. YONGSHAY!" to get his attention; once he got him, there was a flurry of hands as Daehyun warned his brother. [Go quick change shower bathroom. Y-G-hyung J-B outside. GO!] (Yah, Youngjae, go shower and change in the bathroom. Yongguk-hyung and JB are outside! NOW!) Youngjae scrambles for the bedroom to get his clothes and runs for the bathroom; once Daehyun feels nothing on the floor after a quick series of thuds that Daehyun assumed to be Youngjae running, he goes to open the door. Sunhwa has already cleaned up the table and is making herself look at least presentable.
“AYYYYY what’s up, Dae? [what-up?]” Yongguk drawls with a hint of laidback and chill tone to his low, bass voice. JB, as he prefers to be called, stands there with a smile and an eye smile as he waves to Daehyun with a “Hey there”.
Daehyun smiles, “’Ey yais, ahm fahn. Yongshay’ll be owht shoon. Cohmon in” (Hey guys, I’m fine. Youngjae will be out soon. Come on in).
“Aite, cool, no probs man. [Fine, thanks.]” Yongguk has this smile on his face as he enters in with a humble swag, hugging Daehyun before politely greeting Sunhwa with a bow of his head. JB follows in, and does the same as Yongguk when he sees Sunhwa.
“Yongguk-oppa, aigoo…” Sunhwa softly exclaims to Yongguk when she notices the change in his hair color. Daehyun sees his sister joking to Youngguk-hyung about his habit of changing hair colors every month. Out of habit, Sunhwa signs while talking to include him in the conversation.
“Oh, JB-yah…did you eat already? We have some leftovers here if you want. Here sit, you’re getting too skinny, noona’s getting worried.” Frowning slightly, Sunhwa guides the young visitor to his chair and JB humbly accepts the meal without complaint, smiling at her in gratitude.
“Thanks, noona.” He looks at Daehyun with a questioning look as if asking, is it okay to eat now? Daehyun laughs, “No pobem. Juss’eet, kay?” [No-big-deal, eat] (No problem, just eat, ok?). Yongguk added, “Yahh~ just eat. Haha, it’ll be fine, we can wait.”
JB eats as Sunhwa goes to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Daehyun and Yongguk join him at the table and start a casual conversation, with Yongguk interpreting for Daehyun. JB studies Daehyun as he signs his heart out, eyes smiling in cheerfulness and relaxedness, his hands moving here and there as he replies to him, his face contorting in different emotions with every movement of his eyebrows, nose, eyes and mouth. He also observes Yongguk and is amazed by him; how he constantly alternates personalities as he interprets for both parties, and checking on both JB and Daehyun as the conversation goes on. One minute, he is interpreting with a calm posture for one party about what the other party said, the next he is joining in with thoughts and answers of his own with a carefree, excited personality that really screams "Yongguk".
Sunhwa also joins in the conversation from a distance, often listening when she can as she washes the dishes. JB starts feeling slightly awkward because he has not experienced a lot of signing in his life and only met Daehyun a few months ago. He makes an effort to try signing, but there is a lot of discipline needed to get the signs right. Often he just resorts to paper and pen communication. Daehyun senses the awkwardness easily from the body language, but he does not let it bother him. He wants to make JB feel more welcome and comfortable with him. Sunhwa and Yongjae usually interpret for him, but if Yongguk is with them, Daehyun does not mind him helping out if the other two are busy with their hands.
As she places the clean, washed dishes in the dish rack, Sunhwa asks the boys about their siblings and how they are doing. Sunhwa has been close friends with Yongguk’s sister, Hana, and his girlfriend, Jieun, since high school, and they hang out whenever they can. Both Yongguk and JB have younger brothers, Junhong and JR respectively who are attending their last year of high school. Their younger brothers are connected through dance and rap, so Yongguk knows the “JJ Bros” through Junhong.
The Bang family has known the Jung family for quite some time, having been neighbors since the Jung family moved in after the divorce. JB is relatively new to the families, as he is Youngjae’s best friend from the university. It has only been a few months since they met but they are inseparable. Both JB and Youngjae are pretty smart, and they love to sing. Yongguk attends the same university as theirs so he is the oldest hyung of the group, watching out for them most of the time. With this weird network of connections, everyone knows each other pretty well.
By the time JB has finished eating, Daehyun sees his twin brother fixing his hair as he enters the living room through the hallway. Youngjae is looking fresh and clean with his school clothes, carrying his and Daehyun’s backpacks. He spots JB and greets him excitedly, “HEYY, JB! Wha…did you just eat my breakfast?”
A sudden look of hurt flashed across Youngjae's face as he notices JB sitting on the seat he previously occupied. He looks down at the plate that was supposed to be his, JB’s squirrel-puffed cheek, and at everyone. JB’s eyes, earlier seemed happy, has now widens in shock and panic. He stops chewing his French toast, glances down to the plate and looks to Sunhwa with disbelief.
Sunhwa simply nods, “Yep. He ate your breakfast.” She raises her eyebrow in defiance. “That’s what you get for talking too much during breakfast, and hardly even finishing your favorite breakfast that I cooked for you.”
Daehyun, although there were no signing in the conversation just then, has read their lips and has a full grasp on the situation. Yongguk has recently placed his arm around Daehyun’s shoulders, and watches the whole situation with amusement, biting on his lip to contain himself from laughing.
Youngjae whimpers, “B-bu-but…I was three-quarters of the way done!! I wanted to finish it after I showered!”
Sunhwa retorts, “Well too late. You didn’t say anything. Here JB-yah, a fresh apple for you.” She hands him the apple, and hands the others bananas and oranges. “Well guys, you best go ahead make your way to your classes! Study hard and do well, you hear? Oppa, you too!” [O-k, “attention-all” I suggest you-all walk-walk university. Study-study, understand?]
The twins grabbed their college bags, and Yongguk let them all exit before nodding to Sunhwa and closing the door on his way out. Anyone, not familiar with Daehyun, who glances their way to the group of guys chatting with a flurry mixture of timid, confident and relaxed hands, may find them peculiar and strange. Those who do know the family are glad to see Daehyun enjoying every moment with his friends and brother.