Earphones• Vkook

12

Jungkook sits in front of some lady with long brown hair, her lips covered in bright shiny lip gloss.

"Lets start out with the alphabet okay" She says with a smile 

He nods not knowing what he's got himself into. 

"That's close, you have to flip your hand up" She says trying to fix his sign language they just started and he's messed up with slight mistakes.

"At this rate I'll never learn" Jungkook complains 

"No, Trust me, you're doing better than a lot of people around here, some come in here not being able to hear, and they struggle to learn a whole new language and I cant help them as much as I can help you, and they learn, if they can learn, you can learn, anyone can learn something if they try hard enough" 

Did I just receive I life lesson from someone teaching me sign language? Jungkook thinks to himself before continuing to fix his signing mistake. 

Jungkook after searching online for hours the night before found this place, a place where they specialize in sign language learning, deaf recovery, learning with how to adapt, hearing testing, anything involving all of those, they specialize in it here. These two tall buildings next to one another, the two buildings that Taehyung has to start coming to on a weekly basis. 

Jungkook gave them a call, pressing no on getting a person to sign since he wasnt deaf and could talk to the person without an interpreter.  He told them he wanted to learn, no questions asked, they got him a session and a time slot. 

"You must really want to learn" The lady known as Rose says 

"I do"

"Can I ask why before you leave?" She asks 

"I have this friend, and I really want to help him" 

"This friend is lucky to have someone like you by his side" 

He smiles at her before waving and exiting the room. With a bounce in his step he joyfully goes out of the building.  

He skips down the mildly filled sidewalks, happy he can spell out his own name using his hands. 

He smells something delicious making his stomach growl, he turns to see a restaurant and he goes in. Not knowing he'd see his blonde haired rival. 

Hyungwon happily takes Jungkook to an empty table. Jungkook sits down and Hyungwon hands him the menu and says he will be back.  Jungkook puts the menu down and sees a figure leaning over him he expects Hyungwon to be back. 

He looks up to see Jin with a notebook and pen. 

Ew its you, he thinks to himself 

"Oh good its you, I need your help, then I'll get you food" Jin says practically pulling Jungkook out of his will out of his seat. 

I just wanted food, get your strange hands off of me, Jungkook tries to take Jin's hand away but then is faced to the direction of the deaf boy who is staring endlessly at the wall in front of him. 

"Why is he like this?" Jungkook asks, Jin's hands are now off of him.

"Thats what I need you to find out, he won't talk to me" 

Jungkook sits next to him, the shift of the couch making Taehyung turn. 

"So whats wrong?" Taehyung says knowing thats what Jungkook was going to say. 

"You" Jungkook says, Taehyung's eyes focused on Jungkook's lips. 

"Me? I've done nothing" Taehyung mumbles

Jungkook looks at Jin who is at the door frame, "You should go run the restaurant or something" he says trying to get Jin to leave. Jin hesitates before turning away. 

"You being upset-"

"That doesn't harm you, does it?" 

Jungkook rolls his eyes, "you are making me into a cliche person out of a book" 

"I'm what?" Taehyung asks not grasping onto the words said to him.

"It does hurt me... you being upset"   

Taehyung rolls his eyes. 

"Okay, you want to know so badly" Taehyung starts talking then looks away from Jungkook. 

"Not being able to hear, its a restriction, you can't undo it one hundred percent... But what really gets to me, is those kids, those babies who were all born without being able to hear anything, I had my time to hear, I know what I'm missing, but those kids, those babies, they don't know what they are missing, at least I had that chance you know" Taehyung lets all his feelings out, talking in a normal tone, not too quiet but not overly loud, its almost as if he stopped caring how others might hear his voice, he won't know how loud or soft he is talking, in this moment he freely talked without caring, without hiding his voice. 

Jungkook sits there next to Taehyung, focusing his view on the same spot on the bland wall that Taehyung is focusing on. 

Jungkook thinks about what he is going to say then thinks about it some more. 

Time passes, Jin too busy in the restaurant to check up on his friends, His friend Taehyung thinking just as much as he can hear, nothing. Jungkook his one sided friendship finally finding words to say. 

Jungkook taps Taehyung's shoulder and Taehyung looks at him. 

"Those kids, they are learning to cope, they possibly are getting treatments to help them, and if not, they don't know what they are missing, they haven't heard anything before so they might not even realize there is sound. Don't think too deeply into it" Taehyung doesn't grasp many of the words. Jungkook takes out his phone and types everything he just said and passes the phone to Taehyung who reads it word per word. 

"You're right, sorry" Taehyung passes the phone back and looks back at Jungkook 

"don't be" Jungkook looks into Taehyung's eyes, while Taehyung is focused on Jungkook's lips, waiting for more words. 

"I love the way you look at my lips" Jungkook blurts out he suddenly lets out a nervous laugh and he looks away. 

Taehyung starts laughing, smiling brightly, "shut up" he says and playfully hits Jungkook's shoulder.