It would be her boyfriend’s first time coming to her martial arts lesson today. It had been a couple of weeks since she and Jaebum had seen each other. Imagining on the other end of him sighing when she texted him that she had martial arts lessons today, this was why she decided to bring him along.

He was happy. Jaebum knew she was very private about her proclivities and knew she would be nervous about letting him in a world that she so cared about. Still, after school he took a bus and visited her at the martial arts place that she trained at.

She was already there, stretching by herself. She gave him a small smile when she saw him enter the door, wanting to hug him, but the teacher had already arrived and called for attention.

He took a seat at the back of the place. At first he wanted to laugh at the funny instructor who was able to make his girlfriend appear very serious in the lesson. She is usually a fidgety girl, unable to stay at one place for longer than a minute. He was also amused when he first saw her wearing the karate uniform for the first time. She was wearing a yellow belt, but he didn’t know whether that rank was high or low, but all she did tell him was that she had taken karate lessons.

Whilst they were still stretching, she could hear some of the quiet murmurs from the female students gossiping about the boy at the back of the classroom. Blushing and saying he was very handsome. None of them knew she had a boyfriend let alone brought him to the place because of how much they missed each other. So, throughout the lesson, she felt helpless but had focused on her training. Yelling out kiai and performing punching and kicking drills with more intensity than usual, one, because her helplessness now turned into anger towards those girls, and two, because she wanted to impress Jaebum with her skills.

When the teacher called for a few minutes break, the same girls daringly came up to Jaebum to ask for his name. But Jaebum’s eyes already wandered over to her, hoping that his gaze will capture her attention. He felt awkward to stand and go over to her personally, because he was in a strange environment and he was hoping that she was going to go over to him instead. When she managed to see his gaze she gave him a wide grin; she couldn’t help it when he gave her one of those sweet smiles.

The girls found him rude for not answering their simple question, but were laid down to rest with what had actually happened next.

He started signing.

The girls exchanged each other a shocked glance, knowing full well who the other girl was that knew sign language. The other girl that was clearly not deaf, but chose not to say a word ever since she had arrived. They glanced over to her, where she was signing back, wearing the same smile that dissolved all her anger earlier today. The girls smiled bitterly, almost as if it was a waste for a good looking boy like him to be in unfortunate circumstances. Once more, Jaebum was left alone at the back of the room, just as she was left alone amongst the wave of students in white.

It had almost always been that way for the two of them. To be strewn aside after learning their circumstances, no matter how good looking a person is; most could not handle the baggage that came with having such a friend unless this person also experienced similar circumstances as them.

She was at peace when they started signing a stone’s throw away from each other. Even though their lives were hard, by having each other it was like everything had made sense, for they finally found each other to be the missing piece of the other’s life.

Thank you for inviting me to your lesson, he signed.

Thank you for coming, she signed back.

And when class resumed again, she knew that today wouldn’t be the last time that she would invite him to her martial arts lessons.