Earphones• Vkook

5

Christmas was two days ago, Taehyung has been cleaning his already clean house for the past two days trying to keep himself busy despite his boring winter break plans of staying inside his small home doing nothing. Jungkook has been with family, and staying around there which isn't far from his apartment, currently sitting in a cafe his suit case on the floor next to him and a to go cup with coffee, wondering when the snow will stop and when he should start to go home.

Somethings different about him, he's always alert, he thinks of Taehyung, putting the pieces together. he watches movies with captions, low volume, when I accidentally put it too loud on the TV he didn't even flinch, unlike how I did. He has red lights that go off in certain moments. He knows sign language. Maybe its not a family member who's deaf, maybe its...It's him. Jungkook sits there dumbfounded for a few seconds taking it all in. He drinks the rest of his coffee, which gives him the energy he needs.

He runs out of the cafe, suit case in hand, almost slipping on all the snow on the ground. Out of breath he knocks on Taehyung's door. Then mentally slaps himself. he presses the door bell over and over again, sending the light in the apartment to flicker like crazy. Taehyung lets go of the wet cloth he was using to clean the counter and opens the door.

he sees Jungkook, his hair filled with small little snow flakes, his jacket wet from the melted snow, his boots all wet from all the snow he ran through.

"Are you okay?" Taehyung asks looking at the tired boy in front of him.

"I was at a cafe when I had a realization" Jungkook says, taking a deep breath before continuing, Taehyung focuses closely to make sure he gets every single word Jungkook says.

"You-You're Deaf" 

"no I'm not", Taehyung closes the door in Jungkook's face not wanting to get hurt by the only friend he had. He'd leave me, Taehyung thinks. Its too late, he's going to leave, he corrects his thoughts and he gets back into bed closing his eyes as a tear comes down his face.

His phone vibrates.

"please please answer" Jungkook says as he stands in front of Taehyung's place holding his phone out in front of him deciding to text him instead,

I'm starting to learn that your way of dealing with me is closing the door on me. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, by your answer I'm guessing I'm right? Please open the door, its cold outside, and I'm not planning on leaving until you maybe open the door and hear me out, I um I didn't mean hear um, you understand what I am meaning to say right?

Taehyung reads over the text twice before wiping away his tears and making his way slowly to open the door,

"I'm sorry" they both look at each other confused as they both apologized at the same time. Jungkook walks inside and they both stand in front of each other, Jungkook closes the door behind him and looks at Taehyung, his eyes red from those few minutes of crying.

"I am deaf, you're going to abandon me now right?" Taehyung asks and Jungkook shakes his head.

"Why would I do that?"

"Everyone else does"

"I'm not everyone else, Im Jungkook" If Taehyung's eyes weren't watery and if he wasnt so emotional he'd probably push Jungkook right about now.

"so if you're deaf, do you read lips?"

"I try, I only pick up a few words some times and I pull the sentences together on my own" he looks down

"Taehyung look at me" Jungkook mentally slaps himself again before putting his hand under Taehyung's chin moving it so he looks at him

"I'm not leaving, just stop closing the door on me okay" Jungkook says with a smile, Taehyung laughs a little as he wipes the tears left on his face.

Jungkook drops the suitcase as if he just walked into his own apartment.

"Can I just ask you questions?" He asks and Taehyung nods. They sit down on the floor facing eachother.

"S-so h-h-how did y-you be-com-"

"You're speaking too slow" Taehyung cuts off  Jungkook mid sentence, "You can speak normally" he adds with a smile 

"How did you become deaf?" 

"Honestly, they still don't know, one doctor said that from the start I was supposed to be deaf he claimed that my hearing slowly went away without me noticing until one day it was gone, some other doctor said it could've been a virus, but she didn't say which one"

"You speak really good for someone who can't hear their own voice" 

"Well at some point I could, that m-might be why I am confident, kind of" 

"when did you lose your hearing?" 

"about seven months ago now" 

"those lights?"

"can you repeat?" Taehyung asks confused since he looked up instead of focusing. Jungkook points at the red light that isn't on. 

"Oh, they let me know when someone is at the door and stuff" 

"those are so cool" Jungkook gets up and leaves the door open as he goes outside and clicks the  door bell watching the red light inside go off. 

such a kid, Taehyung thinks to himself. "Having fun?" Taehyung asks as Jungkook closes the door behind him as he walks inside. 

Jungkook secretly- so he thinks- walks over to the tv turning it on and turning up the volume. 

"You might want to turn that down before the neighbors complain" Taehyung states as he watches the volume numbers go up on the TV screen, he raises an eyebrow looking at jungkook and he turns down the TV. 

"How did you?" 

"Im deaf not blind" Taehyung rolls his eyes as he sits next to jungkook on the couch, "you see this" He turns up the volume on the tv "The volume number appears on the tv, like magic" he adds sarcastically putting the remote in Jungkooks hands.  

"Also theres a lamp in my room that flickers when someone is at the door" Taehyung says looking at Jungkook looking more excited and interested than he ever thought someone would be. 

Taehyung never told his old friends that he was deaf, they'd always laugh at anyone who was slightly different than them, they'd laugh at someone just for having glasses, Taehyung hated it and he'd never laugh. He couldn't dare tell them that he lost his hearing and was forced to live alone to deal with it. From knowing people like them he felt he shouldn't tell anyone that he was deaf. But Jungkook just changed that. Taehyung smiles as he looks to the floor, Jungkook mumbling about there not being anything good on tv, Taehyung doesn't hear the complaints though. All he can hear is his own thoughts, the only voice he can still hear that is inside of his head.