Mingyu hung his head low with fingers intertwined, forearms resting on his sitting thighs. 

 

For Woozi's sake, he decided to skip a day from school. He thought even a week won't bother him anyways. 

 

But Mingyu was worried sick for the blonde. His voice sounded greatly throaty and wasted. Mingyu thought maybe he had been screaming, but that couldn't be possible. Why would he go around shouting in the morning?

 

A few other theories popped in his head, but none made sense. 

 

"Excuse me, Mr. Kim?" A hand gently tapped Mingyu's shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts. He jolted up at the arrival of the smaller blonde next to a nurse, eager but scared to know what really happened.

 

Mingyu straightened his white fitted tee and black jeans as an awkward gesture of acknowledging. "Yes?"

 

His gaze drifted to the elder, receiving a small eye contact. Woozi broke the stare, facing his feet as tears threatened to well up.

 

Mingyu's heart cringed at the sight before the nurse's voice interrupted with a clear of . "The doctor wishes to see you and your.." The last prolonged before Woozi decided to answer the best answer.

 

"Friend-" Woozi started with a raspy and scratchy voice.

 

"Boyfriend. He's my boyfriend." Mingyu cut him off with an even better way of response, placing his arm around the other's shoulder, pulling him closer.

 

The doctor's assistant widened her eyes in utter shock, failing to pronounce anything correct as bizarre sounds escaped her parted lips. "U-Uh, right.. Please, step inside." She stepped aside to let the couple in.

 

Mingyu walked in first, gripping onto the other's shoulder tighter than before, ushering him to come along as an assured smile colored Woozi's lips.

 

The doctor was already waiting inside, sitting on his desk as he held hands with himself and stared right at them in nothing but pity.

 

But nevertheless, the man in white spoke. "Please, take a seat."

 

Both obliged without an utter of word, sitting down next to each other. They exchanged nervous looks before Mingyu grabbed ahold of the elder's fingers as he drew uneven circles on the back of Woozi's hand.

 

The fully educated man pushed his glasses up his nose, "Mr. Kim, I'm truly very sorry that I might be bringing awful news."

 

The serious tone in the eldest's voice was enough to scare the life out of the junior. He tightened his grip on the other's fingers as he anticipated the worst.

 

"Mr. Lee here, has lost almost all of his voice. His vocal chords were terribly damaged, apparently from a good strangle. Even if he hasn't lost his voice yet, it will eventually run out and I'm afraid there's nothing we can do."

 

The doctor's words..was even worse than both thought. 

 

Mingyu could've sworn he felt his heart disconnected itself from all the veins in his body and dropped to his feet.

 

Woozi practically swore he heard his heart crash into a million pieces, scattering around the floor. And to make it even worse, he didn't have the voice to say anything.

 

Mingyu felt tears glisten down both his cheeks; his body somewhat paralyzed itself. He unknowingly let go of the other's hand stiffly in clear disbelief before snapping out of it and wiped the rheum off his eyes.

 

The blonde parted his lips, but no tears came running down. It was the kind of pain that surpasses heartbreak and physical soreness, it doesn't need any brine to indicate the feeling.

 

"N-Not even a proper medicine prescription?" Mingyu couldn't help but to start stuttering out of panic.

 

The doctor shook his head.

 

"I greatly apologize on the behalf of this hospital-"

 

"I'm going to be mute?" The third eldest in the room concluded, although barely heard. He nodded with a pained expression, clearly sympathizing the young couple.

 

Woozi buried his face into his palms before running both of his hands through his blonde hair in distress.

 

Mingyu stood up first and bowed, "Thank you for your hard work, Doc. We'll be leaving then." With the last statement, Woozi stood up as well and copied the action.

 

"Again, I am sorry. To make it up a little, the bills on me. You don't need to pay." The man in the all-white outfit painted his lips with a sincere and apologetic smile.

 

Both widened their eyes until Mingyu decided to speak first. "T-Thank you! Thank you so much." He bowed in respect, along with the shorter.

 

"Your welcome."

 

And with that, the door closed behind them. 

 

Silence filled the gap between them, until Woozi couldn't hold anything in anymore and broke down on the chair beside him. Every slight hiccups of his cries was enough to rush Mingyu into wrapping his arms around the smaller's body, letting the other cry in his embrace.

 

Woozi clutched the younger's shirt as he wept louder, soaking Mingyu's shirt with a sized stain. Mingyu placed his chin on top of Woozi's head, caressing his back ever so gently.

 

"Sshh.. Please stop crying," Mingyu pulled away to look into the blonde's tomato red face, and into his eyes. "I don't want you to waste your precious voice for something as useless as crying." Mingyu swept the bangs away from covering his lover's eyes with a smile so sincere and gentle Woozi almost forgot that he was in the midst of a horrible breakdown.

 

"You can't give up, Woozi. WE can't lose hope. There're so many things we can do to deal with this, I mean, we can learn sign language or something."

 

The blonde pouted cutely as his shoulders slumped down, "b-but that'll take a while." He spoke with yet the same kind of voice that hurts Mingyu downright even from his skull.

 

Then an idea popped into Mingyu's head, almost as if a light bulb has lit right above his head. He fished his pocket and pulled his phone out. Woozi stayed still as he did nothing but watch as the younger started fiddling with his phone. 

 

"Here." Mingyu shoved his phone right in front of Woozi's face. "You can write whatever you want to say here while we practice signing. And I'll write everything you and I said for the day in a big, big book." A grin didn't fail to plaster itself across his face, motivating the other.

 

The elder blinked at the electronic device before finally accepting it and started typing in Mingyu's notes. Mingyu watched as he couldn't make out what Woozi was typing. After taking a little while finding the right words, the shorter finally faced the phone back to the now kneeling owner.

 

'Why would you write everything down?'

 

Mingyu chuckled at the question, cupping both Woozi's cheeks. "Because even if I can't hear your voice anymore, I could still read that book and just imagine you saying what you said every night before I sleep. Is that weird?"

 

Woozi shook his head vigorously as a smile crept its way to his lips. He started typing again.

 

'I'm amazed by how sweet you can be sometimes.'

 

A softer chuckle came this time, not breaking contact. "I try, sunbae, I try." Mingyu stood up, looking down at the other as he extended his arm to offer help, not failing to play a smile across his lips.

 

Mingyu,

 

Woozi accepted the hand and stood up, eyes no longer wet. The taller intertwined his fingers with the blonde, pressing their foreheads together as Mingyu brushed his nose  slowly against Woozi's.

 

"Woozi, whatever happens from here, I need you to know that I will never leave your side."

 

I can't promise you a happy ending filled with wedding bells and diamond rings,

 

"No matter what?" Woozi didn't need to type nor speak, Mingyu could read his lips perfectly.

 

But as long as I have you right here,

 

"No matter what." Three words were enough to convince the elder of Mingyu's priority level in his life.

 

Maybe everything will be alright for once.