LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES...Kyungsoo's Background
Title: Love knows no boundaries...
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: Kyungsoo (D.O), Baekhyun, Jonghyun, Miyoung (Tiffany), Taeyeon, Daehyun, Youngjae
Word Count: 2950
Rating: G
Genre: College, AU, crossover
Summary: Kyungsoo's background before the story took place.
(A/N: Remember how I said there's possible band crossovers and BAP interacting with EXO? Yeah, this is it. :P)
(A/N2: Also, this story has a similar manner to Daehyun's parts so once again, I'm including the tips)
[American Sign Language grammar is expressed in brackets], so please read it with an open mind. There will be rare occasions when there is a deaf speech (as in deaf person trying to speak with words), but to many of you, it is indecipherable. You will see some words in which Daehyun, the deaf character in the story, will say that looks absolutely strange to you. It is not meant to be mockingly funny, but rather accepted with understanding that the Deaf Speech and Sign Language are different languages from English. I understand that it may seem weird to you as you read along but that is the essence of the deaf language. I have grown up listening (with my eyes) and communicating to my deaf friends, most of us having different structures of ASL grammar. Having already understood the general structure of ASL as a 4th grader since then, I found ASL grammar to be very fascinating.
1. Fingerspelling will be indicated with hyphens between letters.
2. Conceptual signs expressed figuratively in English will be “hyphenated-between-words-and-have-quotation-marks”.
3. Signs combining at least two English words will simply be hyphenated-between-words. If repetition of verb words are hyphenated, i.e. "remind-remind", it means the "doing" verb indicated in Sign Language.
4. Often times, there are body gestures and facial expressions included during signing. *These will be indicated with asterisks on each end of the sentence, like so*
5. (Translations often will be provided after the brackets, if not beforehand, like so in italicized parentheses).
Park Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were born on different days but only a few minutes apart. Baekhyun was born at 11:58PM and then Kyungsoo at 12:05AM. As twins, they were the youngest of the five children, and the second set of twins in the family. Taeyeon and Miyoung were the first set, and Jonghyun was the only one who did not have a twin. They were 5 and 4 respectively when the babies were born. The Park family had been at a family gathering, when the mother had a contraction and was rushed to the hospital. The parents were surprised and became very worried because it was two months too early for their babies to be born.
The babies were taken to the Natal Intensive Care Unit and were placed in the incubators for a couple of weeks. The mother was saddened that she could not hold her babies after she got out of labor. However, the doctors allowed her and the family to visit the NICU and see their newborn twins, but they had to wear special uniforms to keep the NICU sanitized. Any fabric material different from what the NICU provides would complicate the conditions of the premature newborns in the room. After a month, the mother was finally able to hold her babies and she was so overjoyed that her twins had made it this far, given their premature births. The family was really lucky to have another set of twins, and survivors nonetheless.
Few months later into the babies’ monthly checkups, the parents, along with the audiologist, noticed something was different about Kyungsoo. Baekhyun had continued to pass his audiology tests, but Kyungsoo failed to pass most of the tests. He was not responding to most sounds at all. Worried, the audiologist checked the baby’s ears. What she saw was what she had feared, and so she concluded to the parents that Kyungsoo might have suffered hearing loss from his premature birth. Although not totally deaf, Kyungsoo still had severe to profound hearing loss. He could still hear but most of the time, it would be garbled or inaudible to him. The audiologist recommended that the parents taught him signs but considering his hearing condition, they could still teach him to speak. It would only take a while for Kyungsoo to catch up with the other kids, in terms of age relativity with the speech capabilities. She offered that they could purchase hearing aids for him to hear better, to make up for his hearing loss when he wears them. The parents agreed wanting to help their child do anything and be anything he could without his hearing loss hindering him.
During his childhood, Kyungsoo wore hearing aids and often used home signs with his family. The home signs were proven helpful to the family and Kyungsoo, because Kyungsoo was still not able to speak in sentences or with clear words and the family could not understand what Kyungsoo wanted to say. Only Baekhyun could understand what Kyungsoo wanted to speak, maybe because of some kind of a telepathic connection between the twins.
The Park family was a loving, affectionate family. The older twin sisters were very caring for their younger boys. Now that they had twin younger brothers, Taeyeon and Miyeon had a favorite brother to play with, with Miyeon choosing Kyungsoo and Taeyeon choosing Baekhyun. Sometimes they switched it up but most of the times it was like that, as it had always been. Jonghyun, being the oldest of the boys and the middle child between his two sets of twin siblings, took the chance to play with Kyungsoo and help him whenever he could. He got protective of him whenever the family went out to visit places, or for walks around downtown or the malls, making sure Kyungsoo was holding his hand and keeping his brother in his sight. It did not mean that Jonghyun ignored Baekhyun, because Jonghyun and Baekhyun were really close when it came to getting physical and rowdy at times despite their ages. Jonghyun was very gentle with Kyungsoo, speaking loud and clear to his brother so Kyungsoo could understand, staring up at Jonghyun with his big wide eyes.
At school, Baekhyun would have Kyungsoo tag along with him. He knew that his brother was different but he did not really care. Like Jonghyun, he was protective of Kyungsoo, especially at school. One time at their school, when it was time for recess, Baekhyun was hanging out with his newly made friends at the playground, and Kyungsoo had just came out of class, looking around with his big eyes as if judging everyone. Baekhyun spotted his twin brother nearby and waved at his brother. When he finally got Kyungsoo’s attention, he signed to him to come over and join him. Kyungsoo hesitated at first but when he saw his brother’s genuine smile, he signed back with an “o-k” and came over. Once Kyungsoo joined in, Baekhyun introduced him to his friends, spelling their names to him. Kyungsoo copied his brother in understanding as he read his brother’s hand spelling and his lips pronouncing the names. His friends were curious as to what Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were doing with their hands, and also as to what “those things” were in his ears. Curious, they pointed at their own ears and asked him what these objects were. Kyungsoo tried to explain, “Dey are ma’ heewing aids. Zo I can heew bedder.”
One of the friends asked, “What are “heewing aids”? Bedder? You mean, better? Ohhh so if you don’t wear them, you won’t hear what we’re saying, right?” Both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo nodded and Baekhyun explained that ‘heewing aids’ are “hearing aids”. Unbeknownst to Baekhyun, Kyungsoo had blushed that he had not gotten the words as clear as he hoped to be. He had speech therapy in school, often in his homeroom where the speech therapist would come once or twice a week to test and teach Kyungsoo on speech pronounciations and grammar. He shyly looked down to the ground, often glancing at his brother.
“My brother is somewhat deaf, so please don’t make fun of him. He can speak but he’s still learning. He has speech therapy in school so he can learn how to speak. Whether he wears his hearing aids to hear or not, I’m proud to be his brother anyway.” Baekhyun looked at Kyungsoo and beamed at him, and Kyungsoo replied with a shy smile.
When Baekhyun’s friends talked to him and Kyungsoo, Baekhyun noticed something was odd in their behaviors. Kyungsoo was oblivious to their sarcasm and secret looks as he made awkward replies while looking at the ground, glancing at them occasionally. They were even whispering crude imitations of his speech among themselves, when he was not looking. Kyungsoo looked very unsure of himself. Baekhyun caught the small mocking looks, and he wondered why he did not notice them before. When he realized that his friends were teasing Kyungsoo behind his back, flailing their arms in mock gesture and overdoing their speech enunciations, he shot back at them with a warning yell and glowered at them. Baekhyun growled at them, “If you think my brother is dumb, think again.”
Kyungsoo got startled when his brother made a sudden move to stand in front of him, looking up at his brother’s back, and the guys’ expressions changed from mocking to “deer-in-the-headlights” looks. Baekhyun continued, “Do me a favor, look at yourselves in the mirror and do what you did to my brother. You’ll see who really are the fools here. You guys are pathetic. Come on Kyungsoo-yah, let’s go.”
He brought his arm to rest around Kyungsoo’s shoulders and led him away from Baekhyun’s so-called friends. Kyungsoo felt the tense grip and stopped when Baekhyun stopped to turn around to yell at his friends, “Come back to me when you’ve sincerely apologized to my brother! Not today because you guys need to seriously think about your actions, and I will be watching when you apologize. So don’t even think about making half-butted apologies to him. Hmph.”
Walking in sync with each other, Kyungsoo could watch his brother in awe, though he was not aware that he was moving in rhythm with his brother. He felt guilty being the focus of attention and apologized to his brother with a guilty look on his face. Baekhyun wheeled around to look at him in disbelief, “What?! Kyungsoo-yah, why are you apologizing? Those jerks are the ones that need to apologize. You did nothing, absolutely nothing, to them and you ended up being teased! I had to stop them and end it. Don’t apologize, okay?” Baekhyun put his hands on Kyungsoo’s shoulders. “Wipe that guilty look off your face. You and I, we’re twins and we’re also a family. If anything happens to you, I don’t know what I’d do. You tell me if anyone’s bothering you, okay? Hm?” Kyungsoo looked up and stared in his brother’s eyes. He could see the genuine and caring person in his brother. He smiled and slightly nodded.
“Good! Let’s keep our heads up and walk to class, shall we?” And so they walked to class just as the bell rang signaling that recess was over.
Just as the brothers were about to walk to their classroom, Kyungsoo caught a flurried movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped as Baekhyun went on ahead to enter the classroom. He looked to his right and saw a set of twins, one brown-haired and the other blonde-haired, signing to each other, with their faces showing emotions as raw as they could be. As if his eyes were not big enough, he widened his eyes so greatly in awe that anyone could make out the whiteness of his eyes fully surrounding his black irises. Although his knowledge of signing vocabulary was limited, he could make out some of the familiar signs he often used at home. Although his pace of signing was not as quick as the twins, he was slightly overwhelmed at the speed of the twins’ signings. They both must be deaf to sign so fast and still understand everything, Kyungsoo thought to himself. But he was wrong when someone from behind him called out a name that he did not understand and the blonde-haired twin had looked around. He looked around too to see who shouted and he heard another shout, “YOUNGJAE, OVER HERE!”
Kyungsoo turned to see a boy running past him towards the twins, and Youngjae waved at the approaching visitor. Kyungsoo knew Youngjae had signed something to his brother about the boy, because his brother turned around and waved at him as well. The boy gave a short sign but continued to talk. Youngjae started to sign and talk alternatively, as Daehyun was watching him most of the time, glancing at the talking boy often while the boy was talking. Respecting their privacy and not wanting to be nosy, he turned his head to face the door, which Baekhyun was opening, poking his head out and asking him if he was coming in or not. Kyungsoo did not realized he had been standing in the same spot for a while and ran into the classroom, a minute before the bell rang. He sighed in relief and vowed to never to get distracted. But he was oh so curious about the twins.
After school, Kyungsoo was searching for the twins that he saw after recess. No luck for him, but Baekhyun was watching him looking around in a suspicious manner.
“Are you looking for someone, Kyungsoo-yah?” Baekhyun asked him. “Yah, did you make a new friend already?” He brightened.
Kyungsoo shook his head and explained to him what he had seen the recess before their last class. Baekhyun raised his eyebrows in astonishment and said to him, “Well, I’ll help you find them! Wait, doesn’t this whole thing sound creepy to you though? I mean, we don’t even know them and you heard one of the twins’ names.”
Kyungsoo rubbed his lips together in a thoughtful manner. He shook his head and reasoned, “Since we both know some signs and alphabet, we can just go up to them the next time we see them and introduce ourselves. I’m sure they, well Youngjae’s brother, won’t mind having another group of friends who can communicate almost as easily with him, er, I mean them.”
Baekhyun seemed to think about it and complied with his brother. He trusted his brother’s instinct and he knew that he was not the one with the hearing loss, his brother was. The next few weeks had passed with no luck in finding them, but they did get opportunities to read some signing books and learn about the signs in their own time.
Kyungsoo almost gave up looking for them until he ran into a familiar brown-haired boy just a few weeks before school ended its term. He had left the school bathroom to go back to class when, in the hallway, he bumped into the boy he had been looking for months. He gasped softly at what he saw and was in a temporary mind shock. The brown-haired boy said, “Ahm sho sowwy” with his hands out, as if surrendering to him. Kyungsoo shook his head out of his reverie, smiling at him, [Fine. O-k. Same sorry] (It’s okay, I’m sorry too).
The boy widened his eyes at Kyungsoo. [Know you A-S-L, you? Serious? “mind-palm-amaze” First-time someone meet know sign-sign! My name Yu D-ae-h-yeo-n. Name sign: D. *He taps his D-shaped hand twice on his left temple, near his eye* I age 12. Your name what?] (You know ASL? Seriously? Wow! I’ve never met someone like me before! My name is Daehyun. 12 years old. What’s yours?)
Kyungsoo widened his eyes in shock and utter disbelief at how fast Daehyun signed to him. He felt so guilty being overwhelmed with the speed and looking at the excitement on the boy’s face, completely at loss for words. At least he remembered the boy’s name: Daehyun. He gulped, and after a few seconds of silence did he realize that Daehyun was waiting for him to respond. He tried to smile and signed back to him, [Sorry. “Not-know” A-S-L m-a-n-y signs. I w-e-a-r “hearing-aids”. Fingerspelling s-k-i-l-l-e-d, home e-a-s-y signs little. I w-a-s f-e-e-l-i-n-g l-o-s-t, please slow sign?] (I’m so sorry, I don’t know much ASL signs. I wear hearing aids. I’m very good at fingerspelling but I only know little easy signs from home. I felt lost earlier, could you please sign slowly?)
Daehyun made an “oh!” look as Kyungsoo explained that he did not know many signs. He smiled at Kyungsoo when he read his fingerspelling, and was being patient with him. He chuckled, nodding his head when Kyungsoo asked him to sign slowly. [Understand.] (I understand, will sign again). He repeated what he said earlier but slowly so that Kyungsoo could catch everything. Once Kyungsoo got it, he signed back to him, [My name B-a-g G-yeo-ng-s-u. I age 12 same. You name sign h-a-v-e? Wow! I h-a-v-e name sign same! *He twirls his K-shaped hand on his right temple, near his eye*] (My name is Park Kyungsoo. I’m also 12. You have a name sign? Wow me too!)
Kyungsoo caught Daehyun’s sudden confused and frowning look. He stopped mid-action and signed to him what was wrong. Daehyun replied slowly but carefully that Kyungsoo’s name sign looked offensive, but he asked why the name sign. Kyungsoo told him that everyone who knew him used it because either he always looked panicky or it was just an emphasis on his big eyes. Daehyun inclined his head and apologized to him, explaining that Kyungsoo’s name sign looked offensive because it was a stereotype for Asian people on the ‘small’ eyes. Kyungsoo widened his eyes and looked away, feeling foolish about his name sign and biting his bottom lip. Daehyun tapped his shoulder, looking concerned.
“Hey, Kyunzs’ooh. [feel-bad you not-need. Alright. Smile! You me friends!] (You don’t need to feel bad, it’s okay. I understand. Smile! You and I are friends from now on!)” Daehyun gave an eye smile that made Kyungsoo give in and smile.
[Thanks. I s-h-o-u-l-d go. *Lifts the hall pass* Class have. See-you-tomorrow?] (Thanks. I should get going, I still have class. See you tomorrow?). Kyungsoo lifted his eyebrows in question and Daehyun nodded with a smile. The boys, now friends, went their ways back to class.
Later that day, Kyungsoo told Baekhyun about Daehyun, and his brother was so excited for him. Baekhyun wanted to meet him and suggested that they can learn more signs from him instead of the textbooks. Kyungsoo chuckled and enunciated his words, “Slow. Down. Is’s only been the firs’ day shince we met.” Baekhyun huffed amusingly and promised not to rush anything.
The next day, Kyungsoo brought his brother to meet his new friend, and whether by chance or not, Daehyun also invited his brother too. Baekhyun introduced himself, signing and talking at the same time when Youngjae exclaimed at him afterwards, “YOU CAN TALK?! Man that is awesome. You and I, we’re gonna be good friends, I can tell. Our brothers are already good friends and it’s only been a day since!” The four boys became good friends during the remainder of the school term, with the Park twins learning more and more signs from the Yoo twins. Kyungsoo and his brother learned to be fluent in ASL. However, they lost touch with the Yoo twins over the summer when the Yoo family went through a divorce just after school ended and moved to another place. They had not heard from them since their last year at elementary school, not until college.
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: Kyungsoo (D.O), Baekhyun, Jonghyun, Miyoung (Tiffany), Taeyeon, Daehyun, Youngjae
Word Count: 2950
Rating: G
Genre: College, AU, crossover
Summary: Kyungsoo's background before the story took place.
(A/N: Remember how I said there's possible band crossovers and BAP interacting with EXO? Yeah, this is it. :P)
(A/N2: Also, this story has a similar manner to Daehyun's parts so once again, I'm including the tips)
[American Sign Language grammar is expressed in brackets], so please read it with an open mind. There will be rare occasions when there is a deaf speech (as in deaf person trying to speak with words), but to many of you, it is indecipherable. You will see some words in which Daehyun, the deaf character in the story, will say that looks absolutely strange to you. It is not meant to be mockingly funny, but rather accepted with understanding that the Deaf Speech and Sign Language are different languages from English. I understand that it may seem weird to you as you read along but that is the essence of the deaf language. I have grown up listening (with my eyes) and communicating to my deaf friends, most of us having different structures of ASL grammar. Having already understood the general structure of ASL as a 4th grader since then, I found ASL grammar to be very fascinating.
1. Fingerspelling will be indicated with hyphens between letters.
2. Conceptual signs expressed figuratively in English will be “hyphenated-between-words-and-have-quotation-marks”.
3. Signs combining at least two English words will simply be hyphenated-between-words. If repetition of verb words are hyphenated, i.e. "remind-remind", it means the "doing" verb indicated in Sign Language.
4. Often times, there are body gestures and facial expressions included during signing. *These will be indicated with asterisks on each end of the sentence, like so*
5. (Translations often will be provided after the brackets, if not beforehand, like so in italicized parentheses).
Park Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were born on different days but only a few minutes apart. Baekhyun was born at 11:58PM and then Kyungsoo at 12:05AM. As twins, they were the youngest of the five children, and the second set of twins in the family. Taeyeon and Miyoung were the first set, and Jonghyun was the only one who did not have a twin. They were 5 and 4 respectively when the babies were born. The Park family had been at a family gathering, when the mother had a contraction and was rushed to the hospital. The parents were surprised and became very worried because it was two months too early for their babies to be born.
The babies were taken to the Natal Intensive Care Unit and were placed in the incubators for a couple of weeks. The mother was saddened that she could not hold her babies after she got out of labor. However, the doctors allowed her and the family to visit the NICU and see their newborn twins, but they had to wear special uniforms to keep the NICU sanitized. Any fabric material different from what the NICU provides would complicate the conditions of the premature newborns in the room. After a month, the mother was finally able to hold her babies and she was so overjoyed that her twins had made it this far, given their premature births. The family was really lucky to have another set of twins, and survivors nonetheless.
Few months later into the babies’ monthly checkups, the parents, along with the audiologist, noticed something was different about Kyungsoo. Baekhyun had continued to pass his audiology tests, but Kyungsoo failed to pass most of the tests. He was not responding to most sounds at all. Worried, the audiologist checked the baby’s ears. What she saw was what she had feared, and so she concluded to the parents that Kyungsoo might have suffered hearing loss from his premature birth. Although not totally deaf, Kyungsoo still had severe to profound hearing loss. He could still hear but most of the time, it would be garbled or inaudible to him. The audiologist recommended that the parents taught him signs but considering his hearing condition, they could still teach him to speak. It would only take a while for Kyungsoo to catch up with the other kids, in terms of age relativity with the speech capabilities. She offered that they could purchase hearing aids for him to hear better, to make up for his hearing loss when he wears them. The parents agreed wanting to help their child do anything and be anything he could without his hearing loss hindering him.
During his childhood, Kyungsoo wore hearing aids and often used home signs with his family. The home signs were proven helpful to the family and Kyungsoo, because Kyungsoo was still not able to speak in sentences or with clear words and the family could not understand what Kyungsoo wanted to say. Only Baekhyun could understand what Kyungsoo wanted to speak, maybe because of some kind of a telepathic connection between the twins.
The Park family was a loving, affectionate family. The older twin sisters were very caring for their younger boys. Now that they had twin younger brothers, Taeyeon and Miyeon had a favorite brother to play with, with Miyeon choosing Kyungsoo and Taeyeon choosing Baekhyun. Sometimes they switched it up but most of the times it was like that, as it had always been. Jonghyun, being the oldest of the boys and the middle child between his two sets of twin siblings, took the chance to play with Kyungsoo and help him whenever he could. He got protective of him whenever the family went out to visit places, or for walks around downtown or the malls, making sure Kyungsoo was holding his hand and keeping his brother in his sight. It did not mean that Jonghyun ignored Baekhyun, because Jonghyun and Baekhyun were really close when it came to getting physical and rowdy at times despite their ages. Jonghyun was very gentle with Kyungsoo, speaking loud and clear to his brother so Kyungsoo could understand, staring up at Jonghyun with his big wide eyes.
At school, Baekhyun would have Kyungsoo tag along with him. He knew that his brother was different but he did not really care. Like Jonghyun, he was protective of Kyungsoo, especially at school. One time at their school, when it was time for recess, Baekhyun was hanging out with his newly made friends at the playground, and Kyungsoo had just came out of class, looking around with his big eyes as if judging everyone. Baekhyun spotted his twin brother nearby and waved at his brother. When he finally got Kyungsoo’s attention, he signed to him to come over and join him. Kyungsoo hesitated at first but when he saw his brother’s genuine smile, he signed back with an “o-k” and came over. Once Kyungsoo joined in, Baekhyun introduced him to his friends, spelling their names to him. Kyungsoo copied his brother in understanding as he read his brother’s hand spelling and his lips pronouncing the names. His friends were curious as to what Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were doing with their hands, and also as to what “those things” were in his ears. Curious, they pointed at their own ears and asked him what these objects were. Kyungsoo tried to explain, “Dey are ma’ heewing aids. Zo I can heew bedder.”
One of the friends asked, “What are “heewing aids”? Bedder? You mean, better? Ohhh so if you don’t wear them, you won’t hear what we’re saying, right?” Both Baekhyun and Kyungsoo nodded and Baekhyun explained that ‘heewing aids’ are “hearing aids”. Unbeknownst to Baekhyun, Kyungsoo had blushed that he had not gotten the words as clear as he hoped to be. He had speech therapy in school, often in his homeroom where the speech therapist would come once or twice a week to test and teach Kyungsoo on speech pronounciations and grammar. He shyly looked down to the ground, often glancing at his brother.
“My brother is somewhat deaf, so please don’t make fun of him. He can speak but he’s still learning. He has speech therapy in school so he can learn how to speak. Whether he wears his hearing aids to hear or not, I’m proud to be his brother anyway.” Baekhyun looked at Kyungsoo and beamed at him, and Kyungsoo replied with a shy smile.
When Baekhyun’s friends talked to him and Kyungsoo, Baekhyun noticed something was odd in their behaviors. Kyungsoo was oblivious to their sarcasm and secret looks as he made awkward replies while looking at the ground, glancing at them occasionally. They were even whispering crude imitations of his speech among themselves, when he was not looking. Kyungsoo looked very unsure of himself. Baekhyun caught the small mocking looks, and he wondered why he did not notice them before. When he realized that his friends were teasing Kyungsoo behind his back, flailing their arms in mock gesture and overdoing their speech enunciations, he shot back at them with a warning yell and glowered at them. Baekhyun growled at them, “If you think my brother is dumb, think again.”
Kyungsoo got startled when his brother made a sudden move to stand in front of him, looking up at his brother’s back, and the guys’ expressions changed from mocking to “deer-in-the-headlights” looks. Baekhyun continued, “Do me a favor, look at yourselves in the mirror and do what you did to my brother. You’ll see who really are the fools here. You guys are pathetic. Come on Kyungsoo-yah, let’s go.”
He brought his arm to rest around Kyungsoo’s shoulders and led him away from Baekhyun’s so-called friends. Kyungsoo felt the tense grip and stopped when Baekhyun stopped to turn around to yell at his friends, “Come back to me when you’ve sincerely apologized to my brother! Not today because you guys need to seriously think about your actions, and I will be watching when you apologize. So don’t even think about making half-butted apologies to him. Hmph.”
Walking in sync with each other, Kyungsoo could watch his brother in awe, though he was not aware that he was moving in rhythm with his brother. He felt guilty being the focus of attention and apologized to his brother with a guilty look on his face. Baekhyun wheeled around to look at him in disbelief, “What?! Kyungsoo-yah, why are you apologizing? Those jerks are the ones that need to apologize. You did nothing, absolutely nothing, to them and you ended up being teased! I had to stop them and end it. Don’t apologize, okay?” Baekhyun put his hands on Kyungsoo’s shoulders. “Wipe that guilty look off your face. You and I, we’re twins and we’re also a family. If anything happens to you, I don’t know what I’d do. You tell me if anyone’s bothering you, okay? Hm?” Kyungsoo looked up and stared in his brother’s eyes. He could see the genuine and caring person in his brother. He smiled and slightly nodded.
“Good! Let’s keep our heads up and walk to class, shall we?” And so they walked to class just as the bell rang signaling that recess was over.
Just as the brothers were about to walk to their classroom, Kyungsoo caught a flurried movement out of the corner of his eye. He stopped as Baekhyun went on ahead to enter the classroom. He looked to his right and saw a set of twins, one brown-haired and the other blonde-haired, signing to each other, with their faces showing emotions as raw as they could be. As if his eyes were not big enough, he widened his eyes so greatly in awe that anyone could make out the whiteness of his eyes fully surrounding his black irises. Although his knowledge of signing vocabulary was limited, he could make out some of the familiar signs he often used at home. Although his pace of signing was not as quick as the twins, he was slightly overwhelmed at the speed of the twins’ signings. They both must be deaf to sign so fast and still understand everything, Kyungsoo thought to himself. But he was wrong when someone from behind him called out a name that he did not understand and the blonde-haired twin had looked around. He looked around too to see who shouted and he heard another shout, “YOUNGJAE, OVER HERE!”
Kyungsoo turned to see a boy running past him towards the twins, and Youngjae waved at the approaching visitor. Kyungsoo knew Youngjae had signed something to his brother about the boy, because his brother turned around and waved at him as well. The boy gave a short sign but continued to talk. Youngjae started to sign and talk alternatively, as Daehyun was watching him most of the time, glancing at the talking boy often while the boy was talking. Respecting their privacy and not wanting to be nosy, he turned his head to face the door, which Baekhyun was opening, poking his head out and asking him if he was coming in or not. Kyungsoo did not realized he had been standing in the same spot for a while and ran into the classroom, a minute before the bell rang. He sighed in relief and vowed to never to get distracted. But he was oh so curious about the twins.
After school, Kyungsoo was searching for the twins that he saw after recess. No luck for him, but Baekhyun was watching him looking around in a suspicious manner.
“Are you looking for someone, Kyungsoo-yah?” Baekhyun asked him. “Yah, did you make a new friend already?” He brightened.
Kyungsoo shook his head and explained to him what he had seen the recess before their last class. Baekhyun raised his eyebrows in astonishment and said to him, “Well, I’ll help you find them! Wait, doesn’t this whole thing sound creepy to you though? I mean, we don’t even know them and you heard one of the twins’ names.”
Kyungsoo rubbed his lips together in a thoughtful manner. He shook his head and reasoned, “Since we both know some signs and alphabet, we can just go up to them the next time we see them and introduce ourselves. I’m sure they, well Youngjae’s brother, won’t mind having another group of friends who can communicate almost as easily with him, er, I mean them.”
Baekhyun seemed to think about it and complied with his brother. He trusted his brother’s instinct and he knew that he was not the one with the hearing loss, his brother was. The next few weeks had passed with no luck in finding them, but they did get opportunities to read some signing books and learn about the signs in their own time.
Kyungsoo almost gave up looking for them until he ran into a familiar brown-haired boy just a few weeks before school ended its term. He had left the school bathroom to go back to class when, in the hallway, he bumped into the boy he had been looking for months. He gasped softly at what he saw and was in a temporary mind shock. The brown-haired boy said, “Ahm sho sowwy” with his hands out, as if surrendering to him. Kyungsoo shook his head out of his reverie, smiling at him, [Fine. O-k. Same sorry] (It’s okay, I’m sorry too).
The boy widened his eyes at Kyungsoo. [Know you A-S-L, you? Serious? “mind-palm-amaze” First-time someone meet know sign-sign! My name Yu D-ae-h-yeo-n. Name sign: D. *He taps his D-shaped hand twice on his left temple, near his eye* I age 12. Your name what?] (You know ASL? Seriously? Wow! I’ve never met someone like me before! My name is Daehyun. 12 years old. What’s yours?)
Kyungsoo widened his eyes in shock and utter disbelief at how fast Daehyun signed to him. He felt so guilty being overwhelmed with the speed and looking at the excitement on the boy’s face, completely at loss for words. At least he remembered the boy’s name: Daehyun. He gulped, and after a few seconds of silence did he realize that Daehyun was waiting for him to respond. He tried to smile and signed back to him, [Sorry. “Not-know” A-S-L m-a-n-y signs. I w-e-a-r “hearing-aids”. Fingerspelling s-k-i-l-l-e-d, home e-a-s-y signs little. I w-a-s f-e-e-l-i-n-g l-o-s-t, please slow sign?] (I’m so sorry, I don’t know much ASL signs. I wear hearing aids. I’m very good at fingerspelling but I only know little easy signs from home. I felt lost earlier, could you please sign slowly?)
Daehyun made an “oh!” look as Kyungsoo explained that he did not know many signs. He smiled at Kyungsoo when he read his fingerspelling, and was being patient with him. He chuckled, nodding his head when Kyungsoo asked him to sign slowly. [Understand.] (I understand, will sign again). He repeated what he said earlier but slowly so that Kyungsoo could catch everything. Once Kyungsoo got it, he signed back to him, [My name B-a-g G-yeo-ng-s-u. I age 12 same. You name sign h-a-v-e? Wow! I h-a-v-e name sign same! *He twirls his K-shaped hand on his right temple, near his eye*] (My name is Park Kyungsoo. I’m also 12. You have a name sign? Wow me too!)
Kyungsoo caught Daehyun’s sudden confused and frowning look. He stopped mid-action and signed to him what was wrong. Daehyun replied slowly but carefully that Kyungsoo’s name sign looked offensive, but he asked why the name sign. Kyungsoo told him that everyone who knew him used it because either he always looked panicky or it was just an emphasis on his big eyes. Daehyun inclined his head and apologized to him, explaining that Kyungsoo’s name sign looked offensive because it was a stereotype for Asian people on the ‘small’ eyes. Kyungsoo widened his eyes and looked away, feeling foolish about his name sign and biting his bottom lip. Daehyun tapped his shoulder, looking concerned.
“Hey, Kyunzs’ooh. [feel-bad you not-need. Alright. Smile! You me friends!] (You don’t need to feel bad, it’s okay. I understand. Smile! You and I are friends from now on!)” Daehyun gave an eye smile that made Kyungsoo give in and smile.
[Thanks. I s-h-o-u-l-d go. *Lifts the hall pass* Class have. See-you-tomorrow?] (Thanks. I should get going, I still have class. See you tomorrow?). Kyungsoo lifted his eyebrows in question and Daehyun nodded with a smile. The boys, now friends, went their ways back to class.
Later that day, Kyungsoo told Baekhyun about Daehyun, and his brother was so excited for him. Baekhyun wanted to meet him and suggested that they can learn more signs from him instead of the textbooks. Kyungsoo chuckled and enunciated his words, “Slow. Down. Is’s only been the firs’ day shince we met.” Baekhyun huffed amusingly and promised not to rush anything.
The next day, Kyungsoo brought his brother to meet his new friend, and whether by chance or not, Daehyun also invited his brother too. Baekhyun introduced himself, signing and talking at the same time when Youngjae exclaimed at him afterwards, “YOU CAN TALK?! Man that is awesome. You and I, we’re gonna be good friends, I can tell. Our brothers are already good friends and it’s only been a day since!” The four boys became good friends during the remainder of the school term, with the Park twins learning more and more signs from the Yoo twins. Kyungsoo and his brother learned to be fluent in ASL. However, they lost touch with the Yoo twins over the summer when the Yoo family went through a divorce just after school ended and moved to another place. They had not heard from them since their last year at elementary school, not until college.
- In the signing dialogue, when the Kyungsoo and Daehyun are spelling their names, they spell in Korean Sign Language. When they use name signs, they often are using either American or Korean Sign Language alphabet. Both Daehyun and Kyungsoo are using American Sign Language letters for their name signs.
- You can view the alphabets here: Korean alphabet and American alphabet.
- If you're curious, Baekhyun is spelled B-a-g B-ae-g-h-yeo-n, and Youngjae is Yu Yeo-ng-j-ae. :)
