Love is deaf • Meanie

Index, Pinky, Thumb

"Can you hear yourself?" Mingyu was attentive and intrigued. It made Wonwoo feel special.

"No. I can feel my voice though, if that makes sense. It's like there's a vibration in my throat."

"Ah." Mingyu nodded his head slowly. "You're voice is very nice. It's so low and clear- I think you'd be proud of it if you could hear it."

"Really?"

"Well, I sure as hell love it." Pointy white canines flashed in a smile making Wonwoo blush.

"Anything else?"

"Oh, yes. Do you do sign language to your friends?" Mingyu scrunched up his fists then spread out his hand infront of him repeatedly in attempts to imitate the concept. Little did he know he was signing the word 'asshole'.

Wonwoo giggled "I don't have any friends who know I'm deaf other than Soonyoung but, yes, I sign with him."

"That's so cool!" Mingyu squirmed excitedly as if he was 12 years younger.

"Not really." Wonwoo shrugged with a grin.

"Can you teach me? I want to sign to you too!"

Wonwoo felt a wonderful bubbling in his belly. Either the bed had turned to a roller coaster or Wonwoo was just stupidly happy in the presence of the boy with cat-like eyes. He couldn't ignore the fast beating of his heart against his chest. Mingyu wanted to put in effort. He was determined to learn as much about Wonwoo's life as he could. This was so important to Wonwoo- everything about his friend was so precious he never wanted to lose a gem like him again.

"Ok. What do you want to learn?"

"Everything!" His eyes lit up with stars from the sky.

Wonwoo thought for a moment and decided to start with the basics. "This means hello," he moved a flat hand from his head and outwards like a salute.

"This means deaf," First he pointed to his ear then to his mouth. Mingyu copied him clumsily.

"This means yes," Wonwoo scrunched his hand into a fist and nodded it, "and this means no," he the pinched the air with his two first fingers and thumb.

Mingyu got those two easily. "How do you sign your name?"

"You have to spell it out. Like this," Wonwoo spelt out his name with his fingers letting Mingyu take mental note. Then he spelt out Mingyu's name with a finger heart at the end which made them both blush and giggle.

Wonwoo showed him others too: Thank you, my name is, what's your name?, nice to meet you, I understand, I don't understand, sorry, and many more. Mingyu seemed intrigued and asked many questions making Wonwoo feel as comfortable as can be.

"One last thing," Mingyu muttered once the day had melted away and the moon had come to life, "teach me how to sign 'I love you'."

An immense explosion of red petals and flames in his ribcage sent shivers down Wonwoo's spine. All the thoughts in his head muddled into incoherent images and he grinned. He held up his hand with his index finger, pinky and thumb pointing outwards; Mingyu mirrored him. They sat their for several beautiful seconds signing their feelings that spent too long hidden away. Mingyu leaned forward and bounced his hand into Wonwoo's as if he was high-fiving his sign. It was cute.

"Why do you need to know that?" Wonwoo asked eventually.

They both reluctantly dropped their hands and Mingyu smirked.

"It might come in handy." He clicked his fingers and opened his mouth into an over exaggerated smile.

"If you ever make a sign language joke ever again I will remove your hands." Wonwoo sighed but it soon turned into a supressed chuckle.