How We Communicate | Karma X Deaf!Reader

Chapter 5: Outsider

~To The Story~

You adjusted your hearing aid on your right ear properly this early in the morning; preparing to go to school.

Next, you gathered all your textbooks and assignments in one pile before settling them neatly in your school bag. Just as you were about to zip up your school bag, your eyes caught one of your assignments on your desk.

You realized that you must have forgotten one. You casually took your assignment and upon closer inspection, you noticed that this assignment of yours was already graded.

You were given another algebra assignment. It was a lot easier to do it after having Karma help you out on your last assignment. You smiled at the thought of it.

Still, you kinda felt a little bad that Karma took extra effort just to help you with algebra. Normally, you don't ask for help from others, but you knew that you just had to when it came to something like math. After all, sometimes asking for a little help just try to be equal to others couldn't hurt.

You do go to a school that has an entire body of students who can hear. As far as you know, you're the only deaf kid there. You, of course, did feel like an outsider sometimes.

You wonder if your classmates would try to acknowledge you more if you tried to talk?

You pressed your lips together, trying to think back to the last time you used your vocal cords to talk. It has been a while that's for sure.

Taking a deep breath, you opened your mouth to at least force out one letter. ".. Ha.. A..." You closed your mouth immediately.

...That felt strange. Your throat tingled after you tried to speak and as well as your ears.

However, you wanted to at least try it again.

You walked down the familiar hallway at your school, heading your way to your classroom. On your way to school, you kept reminding yourself that you were going to try and speak to a classmate of yours.

Your eyes then caught three of your classmates. One boy and three girls; casually talking to one another. You decided to start with them.

Trying to look more casual than nervous you walked right up to them, who quickly noticed your frame.

"Mh? (l/n)-san? What do you want?"

You saw one of them moving their lips, eyeing you with curiosity. You got a little antsy, starting to have second thoughts about this new form of communication.

You opened your mouth, wanting to at least force out a simple word like 'hello.' but closed your mouth again, feeling uncomfortable already.

You noticed how the three stared at you questioningly and glancing at each other.

"Uh, (y/n)-san.... where is your journal?" The girl faintly smiles, tracing the air with her finger to form a rectangle that was the same shape as your journal.

You didn't give her a response. You didn't want to use your journal to communicate with her. You try to muster up some courage to speak up, but couldn't, worried they would laugh at the way you sound.

Your cheeks flushed in embarrassment, understanding that you're coming across as weird to them. You shut your eyes tightly and quickly walked past them.

"Hey, where are you going!?"

You disappeared into the classroom, never hearing the last sentence.

"Man, she's weird." The boy mumbled, furrowing his eyebrows.

"She is weird," the second girl puffed her cheeks. "I always offer her my help for things like clean up but she always turns me down. Doesn't she have a hard time doing things on her own because of her hearing loss?"