The first day he stepped his feet into the school area, a same-aged boy came crushing him with a big welcoming hug. He just smiled and replied to the warm hug.

Sungmin brushed his palms, trying to heat up his hands and grabbed Hyukjae’s hands in his. “Come on, I’ll show you your room.” Hyukjae’s arm was being pulled by the excited male in front of him. He meekly followed the older male.

Once they were in their room, the both high school students settled down on the carpeted floor, sitting face to face. Sungmin was still excited.

“How are you?” Sungmin asked, again pulling Hyukjae’s hand into his and gave it a soft squeeze.

Hyukjae smiled, revealing his gums. I am good, how about you, hyung?

“I’m good, too. Ah, I’m glad that you finally decide to move here!” Sungmin said excitedly and pulled the younger into another hug, ruffling the younger boy’s blonde hair.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you, ne Hyukkie?” Hyukjae nodded to his reliable hyung. Ne, I’ll count on you, hyung.

-

That morning, both boys woke up early, excited to start a new school day. Hyukjae was quite nervous if the other students were going to treat him like a normal kid or not.

The realization of the nervous blonde hit Sungmin and he put an encourage hand on Hyukjae’s shoulder while they were walking at the corridor to their class. Fortunately, Hyukjae was in the same class as Sungmin.

They entered the class with Sungmin leading Hyukjae. As Hyukjae expected, the other kids stalled their activities and stared at Hyukjae. He smiled and bowed politely. He raised one of his hands, indicating a ‘hye’.

Sungmin pulled his friend’s hand to their seats. Hyukjae’s seat was behind Sungmin’s and beside this unknown student who was soundly sleeping with arms wrapping his head.

Hyukjae pulled the chair quietly, trying to avoid the chair from making a screeching sound due to the friction between the floors. He succeeded, he thought. Not until Sungmin decided to check on him.

“Hey Hyukkie, are you…” Oops, wrong timing.

Sungmin unintentionally elbowed the sleeping male beside Hyukjae who groaned in annoyance in reply.

“What the…” the sleeping kid stirred in his sleep and raised his head and stretched up a bit.

“Hae-ah! Sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt your beautiful nap,” Sungmin said, putting some sarcasm in his words.

The already woke up boy, or Lee Donghae just smirked playfully at Sungmin. Hyukjae blinked confusedly at the conversation before him. He eyed Sungmin, putting an asking face.

Sungmin let out a giggle. “Oh sorry, Hyukkie. Donghae, meet Hyukjae. And Hyukjae, meet your new friend, Donghae.”

Donghae scratched his not itchy head and felt his head ache from the lack of sleep last night. Blame his room mate who insisted him to beat him in computer games.

“Lee Donghae.” Donghae offered Hyukjae a hand and Hyukjae shyly reached out his hand, too. He smiled at the still sleepy man before him, without uttering any words. Lee Hyukjae.

Donghae raised his eyebrows and kept his gaze on the new classmate of his. “Uh? Nice to meet you. Let’s be friends.”

A tint of pink formed on Hyukjae’s cheeks and he lowered his head. So do I.

Their homeroom teacher came into the class and their daily routine as students started.

-

Three months passed normally. All students in his class knew that he was mute. At first, their reactions were like “Oh. You are?” as if Hyukjae was just fooling around with his condition. But the next day, all kids truly believed him and they treated him nice, not showing any discrimination towards him.

Hyukjae’s thought was cut when he felt someone waving a hand in front of him. Donghae, why?

“Nothing. You look like you’re lost to somewhere. Are you okay?” Donghae asked, fiddling his fork with the fried noodles in his plate. Sungmin was lining up to buy food for himself and Hyukjae even though Hyukjae had insisted that he could buy on his own. But, being the protective Sungmin he was, he said “I’m older and I should take care of you. Now, sit here with Donghae.” And with that Hyukjae couldn’t argue more.

They did nothing while waiting for Sungmin. Sometimes Donghae would look up at Hyukjae who in return decided to face down because of shyness.  And sometimes Hyukjae would steal a look at Donghae when Donghae was concentrating on his fried noodles. And so on.

“Hyukkie-ah, here.” Sungmin placed a packet of red bean bun in front of him along with a carton of strawberry milk. Hyukjae smiled as a thank you.

“Just that?” Donghae asked while Hyukjae was tearing the plastic of red bean bun. Hyukjae stretched his lips into a small smile before stuffing a small chunk of bun into his mouth.

“Here, have some of my fried noodles.” Donghae leaned forward a bit while his right hand was nudging forward, ready to feed the fried noodles to Hyukjae. Hyukjae blushed and did not know how to respond.

“Aaaaa.” Donghae made a sound with an action. Hyukjae accepted the food and ate it and resumed the recess time by staring down at his fingers, not bother to raise his head. Sungmin giggled at these two friends of his.

-

Autumn had arrived and it was Hyukjae’s favorite season. He loved to see how the leaves fell from the branches, how they were blown away by wind, how the leaves flew gracefully before they finally fell on the ground. It was just beautiful.

There he was, sitting under a tree with his sketching pad. He was not an art lover, or an art student, but his sister once said that his sketches were good and nice. But he just loved to carry that sketchpad around with him.

He picked one of the fallen leaves, the brownish one and stared at it. He smiled alone. He toyed with the leaf until it crumpled and turned into dust. He brushed his palms and picked up another one and kept doing the same repeatedly.

A few minutes later, another human’s presence was felt sitting beside Hyukjae. He looked to his side and saw a smiling Donghae beside him.

“What are you doing here?” Donghae asked while pulling Hyukjae’s sketchpad away from his lap.

Nothing. I’m just playing with the leaves and appreciating the nature.Hyukjae replied when he finally gave up on Donghae who was trying to pull away his sketchpad.

Donghae snorted and Hyukjae let out a soundless chuckle. “Cheesy.” said Donghae.

“This is nice,” Donghae said when he stopped at a page of Hyukjae’s sketchpad. It was a picture of a boy who was gazing out the window.

This time, Hyukjae soundlessly snorted and Donghae chuckled. It’s you.

“I know,” Donghae said. “Pencil?” Donghae reached out his palm in front of Hyukjae and Hyukjae quirked his eyebrow. What do you want to do? Nonetheless, he still gave his pencil to Donghae.

Donghae winked and it sent butterflies to Hyukjae’s stomach.

Donghae scribbled something down into the blank sketch paper in Hyukjae’s sketchpad. Hyukjae merely watched the latter with a smile.

“Here,” Donghae shoved the sketchpad to Hyukjae. Hyukjae took it from Donghae’s hand and looked at it. A huge smile crept onto Hyukjae’s plump lips.

Hyukjae took the pencil away from Donghae’s hand and scribbled something down under the sentences Donghae had scribbled. He nudged the sketchpad shyly and turned his body around, back-facing Donghae.

Later he felt an arm pulled him. Hyukjae was now sitting side by side beside Donghae who had his hands firmly wrapped around Hyukjae’s.

Donghae slowly felt a weight on his shoulder and when he turned to his side he was welcomed with a blonde head leaning on his shoulder. He nuzzled into the soft locks, breathing in Hyukjae’s scent.

“I love you.” Donghae confessed, making sure each word slipped out his mouth perfectly and meaningfully to Hyukjae’s hearing. Donghae could feel Hyukjae smiling and he understood that. I love you, too.

Sometimes, verbal ‘I love you(s)’ aren’t important. It’s true when people say actions speak louder.

-

END

A/N: /laughing/ Omg, I wrote fluff? And I ended it with cheesy ending……….what is this? And yeah, the sketchpad thingy, I made it :D LMAO, DO YOU THINK DONGHAE WOULD REALLY WRITE THAT AND POST IT ON HIS TWITTER? Hell no. If that happens, well this might be my last fanfic and I’ll fly straight to heaven, DIE. Sorry for this insensible a/n. I am just too awesome not to ramble and share my so-brilliant thoughts.

A/N 2: Ya know, I love you more and more and MOARRRRRRRR if you leave comments. I’m not forcing, though. But I eat human. OTL WHAT IS THIS. Thanks for reading!

A/N 3: Yeah, I posted this a looong time ago in my LJ :3

The pic's credit goes right to its rightful owner ^^