LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES...CHAPTER 13/??
Title: Love Knows No Boundaries
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: EXO (mostly Wufan and Jongdae, mention of Minseok), BAP (mostly Himchan and Jongup, mentions of Yongguk, Youngjae and Daehyun); mentions of JB, B1A4 (only Chanshik), SISTAR (only Dasom), SECRET (only Hyosung); and surprise guests from Hello Baby
Word Count: ~5500
Rating: PG
Genre: College, AU, Crossover
Summary: College students. Blind, Deaf and Mute. Their lives deal with the ups and downs, like a roller coaster. They find relationships, and companionships. Life does not always have a happy ending but they can try to get their happy endings.
Author Note: Wufan takes Jongdae to the Han River Park; Wufan and Jongdae meet two toddlers; Jongdae makes a confession; and Jongup has a dream/nightmare.
Sign Language Guide
Families
Prologue | Jongdae | Chapter 1 | Daehyun | Chapter 2 | Zitao | Chapter 3 | Kyungsoo | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 |
The soothing hum of the engine…A breeze in the air crashes gently on Jongdae’s face…
Wufan is driving his brother, Jongdae, to the Han River Park as a way to celebrate with him. He glances at Jongdae now and then, checking between the road in front of him and his brother; he can see that Jongdae is looking content and relaxed. There is music blasting in his car, but he lowers it down so he can start a conversation with Jongdae.
“Chenchen-ah, how was your exam today? Did you do well?”
“Mm,” Jongdae gives a little grunt in reply. “Yeah, I did. The exam didn’t seem too bad, I thought it was pretty manageable…” Jongdae trails off. He smiles to himself, and it does not evade Wufan’s eagle eyes.
“Jongdae, you’re smiling. What’s up?” Wufan has this curious tone in his voice as he cocks his eyebrow and a smile creeps on his face.
Jongdae giggles, “There was a situation towards the end of my exam testing time, but it was all taken care of. The situation in the classroom was that my professor had to leave early for a lunch meeting so he had his teacher assistant come supervise. Zitao had came in when I was taking the test and I thought either it was Junghwan, the teacher assistant, or Zitao. Zitao was actually escorting me most of the day today. And so when I heard several noises of door shutting and some kind of tapping noises, I didn’t think it was Zitao; I thought it was someone else, a student who was trying to cheat me off the test.
“It turned out to be Zitao after all, because Junghwan came in later and declared himself. Apparently, he didn't know who Zitao was, until another acquaintance of ours came by, Sunwoo from last year. With the confusion cleared up, I was able to finish my test. Afterwards, Junghwan said that we didn’t need to worry about it, that it was just a misunderstanding. Apparently, Sunwoo and Junghwan were part of a bigger group. Zitao and I got to meet their hyungs, Shin Dongwoo and Jung Jinyoung. They seemed nice,” Jongdae rambles on. “We also met more new friends, through Joonmyeon-hyung. I believe their names were Park Kyungsoo and Baekhyun - they’re twins, by the way - Lee Chanyeol, Jung Daehyun and Youngjae - also twins - Im Jaebum or JB, Bang Yongguk, and Song Jieun.” Jongdae’s smile broadens. “It’s quite a big social network we have, hahaha.” Wufan chuckles with Jongdae as he makes a turn on the road that takes them to the Han River Park.
There also happens to be another motive behind Wufan surprising Jongdae and taking him out to the park and not home: Minseok has ordered Wufan to distract Jongdae for as long as he possibly can. Minseok has forgotten one crucial ingredient to make sweet baozi for desserts: red bean paste; his actions have caused a delay of about an hour.
A while ago…
Minseok had put the finishing touches on the dinner feast before he focused on the dessert part. He left the dough to rise while he finished up cooking his meal, and that was when he realized, according to the checklist that he had of the ingredients to purchase from this morning, he did not buy the filling for the buns. When the dough had risen and Minseok realized he forgot the red bean paste, he made sure the bowl with the dough inside was still covered to keep it from drying in the time that he was gone, so he could get the red bean paste from the nearby grocery store.
Just as Minseok was leaving the apartment, he bumped into Wufan who came back from school. Still running, he ordered Wufan to take Jongdae out and not to return until he got the call from the man himself. Wufan cocked his eyebrow at the sight of his brother’s retreating back, wondering why his older brother was being in a rush. He went inside the apartment and noticed several checklists on the table. Most of the lists had been checked off, as they were recipes for the meal later in the evening; however, only one checklist had one box not yet checked off: red bean paste. Wufan understood now why his brother was in a hurry and, glancing at the clock to read 1:55PM, he remembered that Jongdae would get out of class in five minutes. He hurried down the stairs to get on his convertible BMW and headed to Jongdae’s college for a surprise visit.
Back to the present….
A cool breeze blows on Jongdae’s face, and a whiff of fresh water fills Jongdae’s nostrils.
Children are laughing and there are sounds of splashing…the car’s engine is turned off.
Jongdae feels Wufan’s hand resting on his hand, patting him. “Chenchen-ah, we’re here! Come on, let’s go.” He hears Wufan gets out of the car as the door opens and closes, with the car shaking a bit from the loss of Wufan’s weight. A few seconds pass before the door opens on Jongdae’s side, and he feels a hand cupping his elbow to lead him outside of the car.
The moment the brothers are outside of the car, Wufan locks his car with his remote before linking his arm with Jongdae and leading him to a bench near the river. As they walk to the bench, Wufan asks Jongdae to continue his story. Jongdae explains that he does not really know much about the new friends, but he does know for a fact that Daehyun and Kyungsoo are deaf. “But,” Jongdae adds, as they are walking, “Kyungsoo can talk really well, he wears hearing aids so he is capable to communicate with us, too. They have this dual-sign language system where they alternate between American and Korean Sign Languages.”
Wufan raises his eyebrows in surprise as his ears perk up on the information. “Oh? Have you talked with them yet?”
Jongdae shakes his head. “I’m not exactly familiar with the sign language, but Kyungsoo promises to teach me and Zitao anyway, while Zitao will teach the three of us Morse Code. That’s the one that Zitao was using when I was taking the test and he came in to try to let me know that it was him, with the tapping noises. We can use the Morse Code for emergency reasons or for fun. It’s gonna be quite interesting to learn them.”
Wufan nods as he hums in acknowledgement. Having arrived at the bench, he helps Jongdae sit down and sits down himself, sliding an arm around Jongdae’s shoulders.
Wufan takes a deep breath. “Looks like you’ll be having quite a big group of friends for college and from here on out. My baby brother’s growing up, and it’s time you’ve made connections with people out there to have a successful future. You may become a mathematician, a math teacher, or maybe even major in another field and use your mathematical knowledge to solve mysteries and whatnot, but don’t become a hermit.” Wufan jokes.
“Hahaha, I won’t, gege,” Jongdae smiles. The two brothers leave their conversation in comfortable silence as they sit on the bench and appreciate everything in their surroundings that their senses can allow them to embrace.
People are passing by the brothers, often mistaking them to be a couple, with Wufan casually sitting with his arm around Jongdae’s shoulders, which makes Wufan laugh. There are some familiar acquaintances like the one lady from the convenience grocery store who knows Wufan and his siblings due to their regular visits. She nods her head at them and walks up to them. “Aigoo, Wufan-ah and Jongdae-yah, it’s Auntie Hwakyung,” the lady says, as she identifies herself for Jongdae’s sake. She joins them on the bench, sitting down next to Jongdae. “What brings you here? Such a nice day to be here, isn’t it?”
“Mhm, it sure is, auntie,” Wufan agrees as Jongdae nods. “Jongdae here had his math exam today and he thought he did pretty well, so I thought why not take him out and have a relaxation trip out here?” Wufan smiles as Jongdae sighs happily, tilting his head almost as to rest it on Wufan’s shoulder.
“Omona, Jonggie-yah, come by our store sometime, and auntie will give you a special treat, okay?” Hwakyung pats Jongdae’s thigh gently before she gets up to leave. “You boys take care now, have a wonderful time.”
Later on, a family of four walks by, with two young talkative, noisy children following behind their parents. The children suddenly stop in front of Jongdae and Wufan, watching the Lee brothers with curious eyes, wondering why the younger guy’s eyes look cloudy. As the parents continue to walk on, they do not realize until a few seconds later that their children have fallen silent, and when they turn around, they see them standing in front of the Lee brothers. The parents turn around and walk back to their children. Pointing at Jongdae, the little girl begins to question her parents when she is gently shushed to respect the said blind guy’s appearance. Wufan mutters to Jongdae what is happening in front of them, describing two children and their actions when they saw Jongdae. Wufan waves with his free hand at the children and the children slightly cower at his lanky being, hurrying over to stand between their parents.
Wufan is not surprised that to the children he looks like a giant with his eyebrows making him look scarier. He immediately smiles to show his kind nature. The children smile shyly and glance between their parents and him. The little girl starts holding her casual dress by the lengths and starts twirling side-to-side, peeking up at Wufan. Wufan cannot help but smile even more at the girl’s cuteness.
“Hey there, little girl. How are you this fine afternoon? What’s your name?” Wufan glances at the girl’s parents, who nod at him to show that it is okay to talk to her. The girl continues to twirl side-to-side, looking down. She begins to pat down her skirt before saying, “My name’s Dayoung. I’m fine, thank you, a-ahjusshi.”
Wufan raises his eyebrows in a pleasant surprise at being called ahjusshi. He has momentarily forgotten that there is quite a huge age gap between him and the girl. He chuckles to himself, “Aigoo, you’re so cute. You can call me ‘oppa’ if you like.” Dayoung slowly shakes her head with a small pout.
Meanwhile, Jongdae continues to keep his head facing straight ahead, unaware of what is happening in front of him. Yet he hears shuffling of shoes, the noisy children falling silent, and, when he feels Wufan shifting in his seat, he hears Wufan talking with a little girl. He moves his head to face downward before putting on a smile.
“This here is my baby brother, Jongdae,” Wufan earns a light slap on the chest from Jongdae and he chuckles. The girl peeks up at Jongdae before she stares up at him, almost entranced by the misty appearance of Jongdae’s blind eyes.
“MY NAME IS YOOGEUN, AHJUSSHIS!” The little boy runs towards his sister and the Lee brothers, startling the three of them with his loud, energetic voice. The parents snicker at their son’s greeting. The poor girl nearly jumps out of her skin when she hears her brother and whips around to glare at him.
“Heh, nice to meet you, Yoogeun. My name is Wufan, and this is Jongdae, my brother.” Wufan pats Yoogeun’s head, his eyes crinkling in amusement. “You’re quite the energetic one.”
“AHJUSSHI, WHY DOES JONGDAE AHJUSSHI HAVE EYES LI-hmrergmmff!” Dayoung claps her hand to cover her brother’s mouth, as Yoogeun is about to ask why Jongdae’s eyes look so odd compared to Wufan’s eyes. The parents’ faces drop in shocked horror at what their son is about to ask, and Dayoung mutters to her brother to be quiet and to be sensitive about other people’s feelings. The parents rush over to apologize.
Jongdae and Wufan, upon hearing Yoogeun’s outburst, are not too fazed by the question. They take it easily in stride, and when the parents come over to apologize, they shrug it off, telling them that it is okay for children to be curious about such things and show their determination to find out the answers. The mother smiles sadly at Jongdae, and Wufan assures the parents that it is okay.
“Yoogeun-ah, you want to know why Jongdae ahjusshi’s eyes are like that? Why don’t I let my brother tell you?” Wufan gives Jongdae a slight shake with his arm still around Jongdae’s shoulders. Jongdae turns his head to where he thinks he heard Yoogeun shouting. He simply replies, “I am blind, Yoogeun-ah. I cannot see what you see.”
“What do you mean, mister? You have eyes, they help you see!” Yoogeun points to his own eyes and does a “peek-a-boo” gesture. Jongdae chuckles, “Not always. Imagine if you have a black paper in front of your eyes, so that you see nothing but black, and wherever you walk, the paper stays with you, blocking everything you see. Or imagine if you’re in a dark room, with no light and you try to walk around, even with your eyes open. That’s what it is like being blind.”
“Gosh, Jongdae ahjusshi. That must really be awful for you.” Dayoung exclaims in a hushed whisper. Jongdae chuckles again. “Not always,” he repeats. “Even when my sight is gone, my other senses are much more sensitive than of a normal human being. I have keen senses of smell, taste, and touch. My sensitivity to hearing is quite extreme. My ears are very attuned with my surroundings. One of life’s perks when you have a disability.”
“Whoaa…that is so cool.” Both Dayoung and Yoogeun watch Jongdae in awe, with Dayoung’s jaw dropped and looking at Jongdae in astonishment, and Yoogeun watching with eyes wide open. Wufan snickers at how adorable the children are. The parents look over their children with contentment at their respectable behaviors towards Jongdae. Using this appropriate time to leave, the parents pat their children’s heads and coo at them that it is time for them to go home. “Don’t forget your manners,” the father says lightheartedly, and the children do not forget to bow and wish the brothers a good afternoon. Jongdae and Wufan wish the children to grow up healthy and well, and wish their parents happy times ahead for the family.
The two brothers fall into conversation for the next half hour about school and life when Jongdae brings up a topic that has been nagging in the back of his mind.
“Gege, can I trust you with a secret? To be honest, I don’t know whether this is just a phase or if it’s just because I’ve known this person for so long…” Jongdae trails off as he twiddles with his thumbs, hands clasped. Wufan gazes at him, intrigued at the mention of “phase”. He ducks his head slightly, eyes still gazing intently on Jongdae.
“What is it, Jongdae-yah? What is this ‘phase’ you’re talking about, hmm?” Wufan prods with the question.
“I..I don’t know, maybe it’s just stupid to thi-…I…” Jongdae nervously fidgets in his seat, his shoulders still surrounded by Wufan’s arm. “I…don’t know if I…am g-…well,” Jongdae gulps. “I think I like…guys.”
Wufan watches his brother in contemplative silence. “You think you like guys, or you know you like guys?”
“I…ahem,” Jongdae clears his throat. “I don’t know because there’s only one guy and only him that I …have a strange feeling for. Maybe an affinity, perhaps more.”
“Oh, I see…Is it Yixing?” Wufan smiles, as he brings his hand to rake through Jongdae’s hair. He feels Jongdae tensing up, as Jongdae hitches a breath in his throat.
“How…wha…how did you figure it out?” Jongdae stammers, thinking if his actions towards Yixing in the past have been either obvious or subtle.
“It doesn’t take a genius to read between the lines and know the symptoms of falling in love,” Wufan replies. “Chenchen-ah, if you really like Yixing, you should tell him. After all, I see how Yixing treats you, ever since we first met years back when you were in high school. Minseok and I, even your sister, Sunyoung, we suspected there was something going on between you two. Perhaps Yixing feels the same way. I don’t know how you want to go with this, and how things will turn out for you and Yixing, but you have plenty of time to prepare things to go your way. Listen, it may be just me but I do think Minseok and Sunyoung would say this, you’re still my brother, you’re still my family. From me, personally, you’ll always be my baby brother, no matter what.” Wufan brings his hand down from Jongdae’s hair. “Yes, I may have been a little overprotective of you since the…incident, and it shows that I care about you a lot. Whether you’re gay, maybe for Yixing alone, or not, there’s no difference. You’re still a brave, young kid to me; you’re still the sunshine in our family.”
Jongdae bows his head, blinking rapidly, as the words sink in. He starts to sniffle, deeply touched by his brother’s words. He turns his head away from Wufan, knowing that Wufan is next to him because of his body heat and Wufan’s arm around his shoulders.
“Yah, Chenchen-ah, are you crying?” Wufan leans a little forward to get a closer look at his brother. He stares in slight wonderment as Jongdae shakes his head furiously and Jongdae’s voice starts to crack with a reply of “n-no”. Jongdae gives it away with a fast hand moving to wipe off his runny nose.
“Hey…come on, Chenchen, don’t lie. I can see you crying. Yah,” Wufan coos as he brings his hand to brush off Jongdae’s tears streaking down on Jongdae’s cheeks with his thumb. “No more crying, okay? You’ve let out a big burden out of your shoulders and your heart. You should be happy now.” Still seated on the bench, Wufan shakes Jongdae a bit before holding Jongdae’s sides.
“Here, sit on my lap,” Wufan hoists Jongdae by the sides as Jongdae helps out to feel for Wufan’s lap and settles on it. Wufan brings Jongdae a little closer, his chest pressed against Jongdae’s back. He rests his chin on one of Jongdae’s shoulders as he wraps his arms around Jongdae’s waist, watching Jongdae still hanging his head. “Why are you looking so down?”
“BecosIdunnowhaeeshingelook’slike…” Jongdae mumbles. Wufan blinks, eyebrows frowning as he tries to understand what Jongdae just said.
“What, Chenchen? Speak up properly.”
Jongdae sighs and gulps. “Because…I don’t know…what Yixing-ge looks like…Am I stupid to fall in love for someone I cannot even see, only that I can touch, hear and…smell? I’ve known him for years but to fall for someone I cannot picture in my head! This doesn’t make sense, I feel like an idi-“
“Yah.” Wufan interrupts with a growl. That shuts Jongdae up. “Don’t say that about yourself ever again, you hear me? Ever. First of all, you are not stupid. Second, who says so? Who says that it is illogical for a blind person to fall in love with someone, huh? Who is to stop you from feeling what you feel for another person? Jonggie-yah, some people say that love is blind because some people are foolish to fall in love with others who do not seem to match well with them. However, love is also blind because there are some people who do not need eyes to see the love that others have for them. As long as you trust your heart and the other person with your very being, and the other person trusts you just the same, that’s love right there.” Jongdae nods slowly, understanding what his brother is telling him.
A cell phone ringtone interrupts the brotherly moment, and Wufan retrieves his cell phone from the pocket of his jacket. He gets an ok signal from Minseok to come back home before stowing it away.
“Now come on, it’s already almost 5PM. Minseok will have already gotten his dinner creation ready for you tonight.” Wufan pats Jongdae’s thighs to signal him to get up and Jongdae obeys.
Standing up, Wufan stretches a bit before he takes Jongdae’s hand, intertwining with his hand. They make their way to Wufan’s car. “Promise me, from now on, you won’t think low of yourself. Leave that to the haters, and you can simply ignore them. Now, when we get home, you can tell Sunyoung and Minseok about your confession, but I think we all already knew about it. If it makes you feel better to tell them and be done with, then by all means, do it, Jongdae-yah. As for Yixing, tell him when the time comes. There is no rush to tell him right away. When you feel ready to tell him, then be ready to tell him. We won’t push you and Yixing, but we’ll always have your back, got that?” He squeezes Jongdae’s hand gently. Jongdae nods.
Just when the Lee brothers get in the car, the sun starts to set down on the horizon, filling the sky with a vibrant, blood red orange hue. When they arrive home, Jongdae is surprised to hear that not only did Minseok prepare two dish creations, Coconut Curry Chicken and Cauliflower Manchurian, but a dinner feast. When dinner has filled the four siblings’ stomachs to the maximum, Jongdae decides to come out to the rest of his siblings, and sure enough, as Wufan has predicted earlier, they are glad that Jongdae has come to terms of his sexual identity, and they already have assumed whom Jongdae’s heart wants to chase after. Jongdae’s night could not have been any more cheerful than this nor more relaxing.
- - -
The next day, Jongdae is met with not just Yixing, but Zitao and Luhan, at his house. After greeting each other, Luhan begins to converse with Minseok in half Chinese and half Korean while Wufan walks over to Zitao, with Jongdae in tow. Jongdae translates for Zitao as Zitao continues to make different strokes on his palm, with Yixing and Wufan watching them intently. When it is time for Jongdae and his group of friends to go, Wufan winks at Zitao just as the group leaves the elder Lee brothers. Zitao feels funny about it, like a schoolgirl being noticed by a hot guy in school.
Kyungsoo and his group with Joonmyeon also head to school, and they meet Jongin and Sehun at the entrance gates. Daehyun nudges Kyungsoo and signs to him, [Another day deal two R-o-m-e-o-s, right?] (Just another day to deal with your two Romeos, yeah?) Kyungsoo gives him a deadpanned look, and Daehyun snickers.
Wednesday goes pretty slow, since Jongin, Sehun, Youngjae, JB, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol have a busier schedule than Jongdae, Zitao, Kyungsoo, and Daehyun. Yongguk, Luhan, and Joonmyeon, despite their upperclassmen status, have even busier schedules than the underclassmen. Jongin and Sehun meet up with Jongup in their dance studio class and the three of them have lunch together later. Joonmyeon has a meeting to attend during lunch, so Daehyun and Kyungsoo meet with Jongdae and Zitao for lunch. They also invite Chanshik and Dasom to join them for a sign language lunch session.
- - -
In front of Jongup, there is a male figure with his back facing him. The male looks back at Jongup, the lower half of his face is hidden with a black mask, but his eyes are crinkling. He seems to be entertained. Looking right into Jongup’s eyes, the guy holds up three fingers, slowly counting down.
3…
2…
1.
The guy takes off, running through some kind of maze. He keeps turning left and right and straight.
Jongup wonders why. He makes to follow him, running straight towards where he sees the figure.
THUNK…
“OOF!” Jongup grunts in shock just as he collides with a wall. A clear glass wall. He steps back, bewildered, staring at the foggy impression that his face leaves on the wall. With one hand rubbing his forehead, he reaches out tentatively with his other hand to feel the wall. As he wipes his hand across it, Jongup can feel the coolness of the surface rubbing with his skin. He blinks, focusing on the figure now standing in the opposite end of the room, still with the same expression from earlier. But the figure seems to be waiting for him, beckoning him with his hand.
“There are so many walls between him and me…How did he know which way to go?” Jongup mutters to himself as he studies the view in front of him, catching the thinness of the glass-like material found in random areas of the room.
Jongup and the stranger are in a room of glassy, transparent walls. There are too many walls lined up in different directions, causing Jongup to feel lost and confused. Jongup looks behind him, and through the doorway, he sees walls of mirrors. He concludes that they had just left the maze room of mirrors. Looking ahead, Jongup calls out to the figure.
“HOW DO I GET THROUGH THIS MAZE?” Jongup’s voice suddenly fills his side of the room, as the walls are extended from the floor to the ceiling, obstructing his voice to reach to the other side of the room where the stranger is in.
The male figure stands there, unaffected by Jongup’s shout. However, his eyes are no longer crinkling but staring back at Jongup. He shakes his head and shrugs. Then he points to somewhere to the right. Jongup looks to his own left, and finds a gap between two walls wide enough for a person to go through. The walls are thinly durable, yet sturdy. The gaps between the entrance walls cannot be seen from the front, only from the side.
Oh, this is the same way the guy took earlier, Jongup thinks to himself. He goes into the maze and starts running.
THUNK….Jongup collides with a wall.
”WHOA!”…Jongup tests one wall and finds it to be a fake, easily running through the space…until he hits another wall. THUNK….
THUD…A grunt…A hushed ”ow…”
Wincing from the pain of bumping against walls he cannot see, Jongup is halfway into the maze when he looks around to see his masked stranger rooted in the same spot. The stranger looks with concerned eyes and holds a thumb up, signaling the question if Jongup is okay.
Jongup nods despite some bruises he may have, and continues to find his way out of the darn maze. This room is so tricky, he thinks to himself. I don’t know which way is right and which is left, heck, I don't even know which way I came from.
Jongup finally gets himself out of the maze after a while. He tentatively leans on one of the walls, before being assured that he is not going to fall down, since the glass has not cracked under pressure. He pants, due to his running around in the maze, and rubs some of his sore muscles from the impacts he suffered from running into one too many walls.
The stranger comes up to him, tilting his head in concern, and Jongup just smiles at the stranger, too exhausted to speak. When Jongup feels a stitch on his side, he places his hand on his ribs, and bombards the stranger with questions, “Who are you? Why am I here?” He scans the visible part of the stranger’s face.
The stranger makes no reply, and continues to stare at him. Before Jongup can study his face even further, he turns away and heads to the next room.
Jongup, feeling some energy returning into his body once again, follows his stranger to the next room. He slows to a stop when he sees not a door but a gap under the doorframe. The stranger has walked into the gap and darkness has enveloped him. There is no sound coming out of the room. Jongup feels a little nervous. He tentatively walks over to the void, about a foot away from the doorframe.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Jongup continues on, but his body cannot help but violently shudder at the thought of being in unknown, inaudible, unseen dimension of darkness.
“Excuse me, are you still here? Er…the stranger I met earlier. Are you st-“
Jongup continues his sentence, “-ill here in this place? Whoa,” when he realizes in shock that his ears are no longer functioning to hear. The rest of his sentence is swallowed in the darkness, and he starts to freak out. He does whatever he can to regain his hearing back.
Tapping his ears, thinking that something must’ve blocked his ear canals. Nothing.
Shaking his head. Not a single sound.
Puffing his cheeks while pinching both his nostrils to let air out of his ears. Not even one faint noise is heard.
As Jongup continues to talk while unable to hear, he feels his throat vibrating from his voice box, but his ears are still not taking in any sounds.
“What’s happening to me? HELP! SOMEONE! ANYONE!”
On a Thursday morning, Jongup wakes up to his own voice talking; his volume is loud, almost to the point of shouting. He gasps and brings his hands to his ears. He tests his hearing with experimenting different vowel sounds and saying his own name “Moon Jongup, Moon Jongup, Moon Jongup” and then later “Moon Himchan, hyung, Jeon Hyosung-sshi, noona”. After a while of testing his hearing, he sighs in relief that he can hear everything fine. Just then, his nostrils pick up the smell of scrambled eggs, bacon, and rice from the kitchen outside his room.
“Jongup-ah, you okay? Breakfast is ready,” Jongup’s head whirls to his bedroom door, eyes in a frantic state, as Himchan knocks on it before opening it to poke his head through.
“Yeah, I’ll be right out in a sec,” Jongup mumbles, rubbing his eyes. Himchan nods before he disappears behind the door.
When Jongup is fully awake, he joins his brother in the dining table, where breakfast is prepared. He mulls over the dream that he had this morning, wondering who that stranger was, and why he had that panicky moment with his ears.
“Something bothering you, Jongup-ah?” Himchan places his hand on the back of Jongup’s neck to give him a neck massage before returning his hand to his lap. He picks up his utensil with his other hand to start eating breakfast. “You were also talking loudly in your sleep. I could even hear you from the kitchen while I was cooking up eggs. Something about ‘maze’ and you needing help.” He watches Jongup in concern, chewing on his egg with rice.
Jongup slumps on his chair, looking down unfocusedly at his plate. His mind continues to picture himself in the glassy maze, bumping into invisible walls. With one collision with a wall, he brings himself back to reality when he feels Himchan scratching his head, coaxing him to tell his older brother what has been bothering him this morning.
Jongup explains his dream, and Himchan reacts with a look of puzzlement on his face.
“Huh, so that’s how you ended up when I came in,” says Himchan thoughtfully. “Interesting how you had that episode, I wonder why. But for now, less thinking and more eating, Jongup-ah. We’ll be leaving in about 30 minutes, and you need to shower.”
The brothers continue to finish their breakfast and, once full, Jongup heads to shower and get ready for school. Himchan is already all set for his day classes and, as he waits for Jongup to come out, he cleans up the kitchen and grabs his backpack before heading out the door. “Jonguppie, I’m gonna start the car! I’ll be waiting there, okay?” His cell phone rings, and Himchan picks it out of his jean pocket to see that Hyosung is calling him.
“Hey, baby. Good morning, wassup?” Himchan greets Hyosung warmly.
“Himchannie, guess what? My old dance teacher from last year called me to see if she could interview me today because she wants a teacher assistant for her dance classes. Hopefully I’ll get it!” Hyosung rambles. “I mean, it’s so soon after I graduated last Spring that I get a job teaching and assisting one of my favorite professors! Wish me luck, Channie!”
“Wow! That’s great! Good luck, babe. I know you’re going to do just fine! You’ll nail that interview, for sure.” Himchan smiles as he gets in his convertible car. “Okay, Hyosung, I’m gonna start the car. Jonguppie’s almost out of the house, we’re about to go to campus now. Let’s meet up for lunch again today, same place?”
“Sure, sweetie! I’ll see you and Jonguppie soon~ Thanks, by the way~” Hyosung chirps. A few minutes after Himchan has started the car and hung up on his cell phone, he sees Jongup walking out of the house, locking the door and running down to hop into the convertible car. They then drive off to go to campus, ready for the day to come.
- Minseok is making baozis with red bean paste filling. =w= Because I love red beans, and I love buns and Minseok's nickname is 'baozi' =w=
- Auntie's name is Hwa-Kyung, not Hwak-yung, just for clarification ;o
- Chicken Coconut Curry and Cauliflower Manchurian are Indian and Indo-Chinese cuisine, respectively.
- Dayoung and Yoogeun are from MBLAQ and SHINee's Hello Baby shows~ :D