“Because you’re wrong. Because they don’t have to dictate our lives – they will, but only if we let them.” Kyungsoo spoke aloud even though he knew it was useless – even though the only person who was supposed to hear his words would never be able to. Jongin’s hand twitched as if he knew that Kyungsoo was talking to him, but obviously he didn’t know exactly what was being said. Lacing their fingers together, Kyungsoo refused to let go of his hand. He was concerned that Jongin was going to continue to push him away, and knew that instead of giving up, he was just going to have to try even harder to make him believe that the unfair challenges life had maliciously thrown at them did not mean that there was no hope for their potential friendship.

“What? Are you two, like, gay for each other or something?” Krystal’s cruel words sliced through the tense atmosphere like a machete through a marshmallow. She placed the page she’d torn out of Jongin’s notebook back in front of the bemused deaf boy; Kyungsoo heard the rustling of pages as she did so. “Wow, Kyungsoo,” she continued, smirking sinisterly (unbeknownst to the target of her words). “You’re even more of a freak than I thought. Don’t get your hopes up though – there’s no way someone as hot as Jongin would ever even look twice at someone like you… Then again, how would you know if someone was looking at you in the first place?”

Gritting his teeth and balling his hands into fists and glaring in the direction in which Krystal’s voice was coming from, Kyungsoo let out a pained mewl that was intended to sound more like an enraged growl than it actually did. “What right do you have to make comments on other people’s disabilities?” Despite having said it, Kyungsoo wasn’t particularly bothered about her comment on his blindness – no, he was mad about the fact she had automatically limited his relationship with Jongin based on her own judgement on them both.

And then she did something he never expected her to do – at least, he thought it was her. Though he expected this treatment from his own father, he did not think so lowly of Krystal until this moment. She slapped him, leaving a red mark that he would never see on his cheek. The pain didn’t bother him – it was merely the shock that stunned him and rendered him speechless. What happened to Krystal after that was something that Kyungsoo never found out, though he assumed that the fast-paced footsteps he heard after the slap belonged to her; all she did was run out of the café, shocked and ashamed at her own actions though she would never admit to Kyungsoo that what she did to him was wrong.

It didn’t matter to him that he never found out what happened to her or how she felt about the violence she bestowed on him, or that he only met her once after that and she sounded like she felt no remorse whatsoever. What mattered to him was what Jongin did next. He let the pen fall from his hand and cupped Kyungsoo’s cheeks, occasionally rubbing the soft skin with his thumbs. Unable to suppress his unusual sense of security and familiarity, Kyungsoo suddenly wrapped his arms around Jongin’s neck, burying his head into his chest. And for some reason that even Jongin himself was unaware of, Kim Jongin didn’t pull away.

“So… Do you think they’re dating?” Kyungsoo heard Minseok whisper, presumably to the ones he called Sehun and Luhan.

“You mean…” Sehun started. “You mean like how Luhan-hyung and I are dating?”

“No… I mean, are they actually dating?”

It didn’t come as a surprise to Kyungsoo when Jongin pulled away from him. He assumed that Jongin was shaking his head at Minseok to tell him that they were not in fact dating, but he was wrong. He was actually just staring blankly at the Minseok, Luhan and Sehun as a result of the internal battle – between the side of him that wanted to deny his relationship with Kyungsoo (whatever it was) and the side that wanted to take advantage of the fact that Kyungsoo couldn’t see him and lie by nodding in agreement – that was going on inside him. Kyungsoo spoke for him. “We’re not dating.” ‘Though it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if we were’ Kyungsoo wanted to say.

Minseok clicked his tongue in disappointment. “Too bad. You two seem like you would make a sweet couple.” A deep red covered Kyungsoo’s face at the sound of his words, and Kyungsoo returned to burying his head in Jongin’s chest – this time out of embarrassment rather than due to being consumed by an overwhelming feeling of affection.

“Umm… Guys?” Luhan interrupted. “Aren’t you forgetting that Kyungsoo needs an audition? I mean, we can’t just give him the job.”

“That’s true. It’s a formality, I guess.” Minseok agreed. “Hey, Kyungsoo?” he called, louder this time – louder than when he was speaking directly to Luhan. “Can you audition for the job as a singer? It’s just a formality.”

Slowly moving away from Jongin and standing up, Kyungsoo walked in the direction of Minseok’s voice. “Sure. Where do I do it?”

“In the back room. Luhan and Sehun will show- I mean, they’ll take you there,” Minseok replied.

A minute later, Kyungsoo was standing in the middle of what Minseok had described as ‘the back room’ and was facing three judges that were invisible to him – Minseok, Luhan and Sehun. They told him to sing any song that he wanted to, and he did. He sang the only song that he remembered all the way through – the one that his mother used to sing to him when she was still alive, the one she wrote for him. Instead of leaving his lips as simply a noise, the sound entered the room as an exquisite melody, the words were not just lyrics but feelings and emotions, and his voice was more like droplets of pure golden honey woven together with silk than any sound ever heard before.

Once the song was over, Kyungsoo waited expectantly; he waited for the sound of insults; he waited for the penny to drop and for his judges to suddenly realise that they were making a terrible mistake – that asking him to work for them was a horrible decision. If only he’d seen the awestruck expressions on their faces. Then he would have understood the true reason for their silence: they were simply spellbound. And if he had understood the reason for their silence, he wouldn’t have excused himself and tried to leave. “This was a mistake. You don’t want me anymore. I get it. I’m sorry for wasting your time.” He started walking back towards the door when he felt a hand on his arm, dragging him back to where the others were sitting as they stared at him.

 “Where are you going?” Minseok asked as he pulled on Kyungsoo’s arm. Kyungsoo couldn’t see the grin that broke onto all three of the café-workers faces and Minseok spoke. “Yixing’s going to love you.”

“What? You actually still want me to work here? And who’s Yixing?”

“He’s the owner. You’ll meet him soon. When can you start?”

“Right away. I-”

A most beautiful sound cut him off. In one way it sounded like a piano, but in another, it was so mesmerising that it seemed to be coming from another world entirely. And due to his lack of sight, Kyungsoo wasn’t even aware that there was any piano in the building at all. Based on Sehun’s exclamation of “Who’s playing that?” he guessed that the others hadn’t been expecting anyone to play the piano either. They led him back into the main room of the café, leaving him by the door as they hurried to the piano in the corner of the room. “Whoa. You’re… You’re Jongin, right?” Kyungsoo raised his head at the sound of Jongin’s name, though obviously he couldn’t see what was going on around him. “Why isn’t he answering?” Sehun huffed.

“He’s deaf, you idiot. He doesn’t know you’re talking to him.” Luhan answered, jabbing Sehun in the ribs playfully with his elbow.

“He’s obviously not deaf. He’s playing the piano! And so well, too.”

“Jongin? Jongin’s playing that?” Kyungsoo wandered aimlessly over to where the unearthly sound of the piano was coming from, stopping only when he walked right into Jongin, causing him to stop playing. Jongin turned round in his seat on the bench and stared at him, taking his hands to let him know he was there and that he was looking at him.

Meanwhile, Minseok was scribbling a note on a piece of paper that he’d taken out of his pocket. “What do you all think of this idea: Kyungsoo will sing while Jongin will play? It’s a good idea, right?” He asked excitedly as he wrote.

While Luhan and Sehun both agreed enthusiastically without hesitation, Kyungsoo’s reaction was different. “I agree that it’s a good idea, but is it practical? I mean, we can’t even…” Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes at the thought of what he was about to say. “We can’t even communicate.”

“We’ll take care of that. Don’t worry about it.” Minseok showed Jongin his note, which explained to him his proposal. Jongin’s initial reaction was similar to Kyungsoo’s, but after he discovered that they would receive help with their communication, he agreed to the arrangement wholeheartedly.

“I’d better go now. My dad will be waiting for me.” Kyungsoo told them, regretting having to go back home.

“Can you come back tomorrow to meet Yixing? Same time?” Luhan asked.

“Sure,” was all Kyungsoo said before returning to the cold and the bitterness that awaited him outside the café – but not before stepping slightly closer to Jongin and squeezing his hand as if to say “goodbye”.