author: jwhong005 / pairing: 2min / written: 08282012 / rating: pg(-13 maybe) / cr: here + 2min feels /
a/n: ignore the crack I was on when I wrote this thing + what I did to the coding took forever

For some reason Choi Minho was less enthralled when he found out that there would be a new student joining his homeroom. It was just too crowded and he couldn’t stand all the noise, most of which came from his best friend who looked like a puppy (so that may explain it).

            “Please welcome Lee Taemin,” the middle aged female teacher announced, holding the boy’s shoulders from behind. “He’s new here so be sure to treat him well.”

            Grunts of acknowledgement sounded as Minho rested his head on the desk, feeling a hard clap onto his shoulder. Of course it was Jonghyun who just couldn’t stand when the other was trying to sleep even though it was against classroom rules and Minho shouldn’t have been doing it anyway.

            “The new kid is coming our way,” Jonghyun said, elbowing Minho until he looked up briefly.

            The first thought that came to mind when he saw the brunette was that he seemed shy and fragile, especially with a lithe body and feminine features. A few girls snickered, already whispering catty things behind the new kid’s back. Taemin didn’t seem to be bothered since he just found his seat beside Changmin, a male that seemed much too old to be since he had eaten so much and grew to be so tall.

            Within seconds of Taemin sitting down, Changmin began hitting on the smaller male, reaching out to the soft looking cheek. For some reason Minho’s hand twitched, wanting to stop him but he couldn’t for two reasons; Taemin just wasn’t his type and they were sitting too far away for him to do anything.

“Hope you guys don’t mind that Taemin’s sitting here today.” Changmin announced with his loud voice, putting down two trays onto the table in the bustling cafeteria.

            “Where is he then?” Jonghyun asked, pointing a fork at the other when he saw that Changmin had come alone.

            Changmin laughed, turning around before disappearing off into the crowd, returning with Taemin in his grasp, tugging the boy along by the hand. Taemin was blushing slightly, keeping his head down even when he was told to sit. He began to hug the backpack to his chest, averting the other people’s gazes.

            “C’mon kiddo, say hi.” Changmin urged, digging into his lunch while eyeing the younger’s untouched food.

            Looking up finally with wide eyes, Taemin only waved his hand, choosing to use food as an excuse to not join in on the conversation. Even if he wanted to it wasn’t like he would be able to contribute too much on his first day. He only knew the teachers that he had gone to see so far and there had only three classes had gone by. Changmin had attempted to bring Taemin into the conversation, wanting to involve the quiet male but Minho always found a way to him out of it again.

            It was official, Minho just didn’t like the new boy.

Even after a month went by, Taemin didn’t seem to be any more sociable than before. He seemed antisocial almost, always typing away at his phone with headphones on. At least he wasn’t like a rude antisocial person that blared the music so loud you could hear it outside the ear buds.

            Minho came to discover that Taemin did have friends other than Changmin, who seemed to develop a crush on the lanky boy. There weren’t too many of them and it didn’t add up how they even became friends. Kim Kibum, for one, had always been loud and boisterous, something that Taemin was far from. Another apparently went by Kim Jongin, yet another new kid to the school that had his popularity blossom because of his looks and personality. Lastly, there was Lee Jinki, a kid who struggled to keep himself upright at times. Such an odd group for an odd boy that never talked.

            “Can I borrow a pen?”

            Taemin gazed over at Minho, surprised that the basketball star was talking to him. He hadn’t expected it since the moment he got into the classroom his first day all Minho did was look the other way. But blushing, as he always did, he nodded and pulled a pen out from his blue pencil case and handed it over.

            “Thanks …” Minho answered, nodding to match the other’s action absentmindedly.

            Loudly, someone clapped at the front of the classroom, gathering the students’ attention one-by-one. The teacher gave his usual tired grin and held a whiteboard marker up. “Lee Taemin, come up and answer question four from your exercise notebook for me.”

            Wordlessly, of course because it was Taemin, the student got up and went to the board with the thin beaten up workbook in hand to finish the rest of the work of the day in the boring history class. At the time Minho couldn’t help himself. He needed to hear the boy’s voice.

“Is this seat taken?”

            Taemin moved his head from looking out the window to the person speaking to him. He tilted his head in confusion, not catching what was asked of him since he wasn’t paying the least bit of attention.

            “I said, can I sit here?” Minho repeated, wondering why Taemin looking at him would make a difference. It wasn’t like he took out the earbuds that most likely prevented the latter from hearing his voice.

            Slowly, Minho sat himself, seeing that the bus driver was looking impatiently down the middle isle, wanting everyone to sit down so that he could start his final rounds of the day. “Remember,” he said, his voice booming over the kids’ that didn’t quiet down, “you can talk but don’t get too loud where I can’t hear myself think. Then I’ll have a problem.”

            The warning as such came every day but nobody really listened to it. It would go in one ear and out the other the moment the bus would start to drive off. Minho did the same, shouting to his friend who sat up front to ask him a question Taemin didn’t understand.

            “Sh,”

            Just the simplest of sounds made Minho turn, surprised that he caught it since it came from Taemin’s beautiful pink lips. His eyes focused on them, wanting to figure out if they were as pillowy and soft as they look when you feel them but he restricted himself, wondering why Taemin had told him to be silent. The focus on the plump lips changed when Taemin held up a small notebook in Minho’s face.

            We were told to be quiet.

            And for some reason after that Minho was. He never listened to the dumb rule, so why now?

Looking at the back of Changmin’s head was beginning to bother him. The teacher was doing absolutely nothing but hitting on a student that was obviously much too young for him instead of going on with the lesson. Passing a note to Changmin wouldn’t help because the hopeless student was sleeping on his desk.

            “Yah, Changmin-hyung,” Minho whispered sharply, poking Changmin on the back with the eraser on his pencil.

            Gradually the head of hair rose on the desk, turning to Minho. He had his eyes squinting after just waking up from a nap, his dry lips. “What is it? This is the period where I can just chill.”

            Minho rolled his eyes and seated himself into the empty chair beside his teammate. “You’re really close to the new kid, Taemin, right?” (“What do you mean new? He’s been here for three months now.” Changmin quipped through Minho’s questions that didn’t stop to wait for an answer.) “Do you know if he’s fluent in Korean?”

            The expression on Changmin’s face wasn’t one that Minho had expected at all. At first it was perplexed like he didn’t understand but then the laughter came. Changmin stifled it by covering his mouth with his hand, banging on his desk playfully to show he was extremely amused.

            “You can be an idiot sometimes. Even a bigger one than me and that’s saying something,” Changmin joked, punching his friend on the arm as he continued to laugh. “Ah, well of course the kid’s fluent. He’s just deaf so he can’t speak.”

            Deaf.

            Lee Taemin, an incredibly shy and adorable boy was deaf.

Since his conversation with Changmin, Minho couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to be in a world without sound. Even as he sat outside a dressing room to wait for his best friend to show him the perfect tux for the winter formal he just couldn’t help but think about it. It made him so curious.

            “Why does Taemin have an iPod if he can’t hear?” Minho spoke aloud although the thought was supposed to be something to keep to himself.

            Jonghyun poked his head out from where he was, half dressed. He wasn’t sure if he had heard Minho right and it was much more important than putting on pants. Or to Jonghyun’s reasoning at least it was. “What are you talking about?”

            “Why does Taemin always wear headphones if he can’t hear?” Minho repeated but a bit clearer this time.

            His short friend stepped out of the small dressing room, not caring that he was half dressed with only his undergarment to hide his endowment. “Just why other people do it. When they don’t want to talk to people, just crank up the music instead.”

            For the most part it made sense. For the most part.

            “Is he going to the formal with his friends?” Minho sighed, playing with the hem of his shirt a bit to prevent himself from looking at Jonghyun.

            “Why do you care so much all of a sudden? It’s not like you’re really friends with him. He’s just Changmin’s friend mainly ‘cause he drags the poor kid around with him. I’ve never seen a guy have that much puppy love before.” Jonghyun mused, chuckling to himself, especially when someone walked by with wandering eyes to his lower parts.

            “I was kind of hoping that I could change that actually.”

Taemin just couldn’t comprehend why all of a sudden the school’s biggest jock wanted to meet up with him. And it made even less sense why Changmin had to come with him. The tall one was glued to his side, constantly cooing sweet words near his unhearing ears. Changmin knew that Taemin was deaf but it didn’t stop him from constantly saying lovey-dovey things to other.

            Hyung, you can leave now. Taemin puffed out his cheeks as he held up a notebook with the words freshly on the page. Countless times he had used sign language around Changmin but the other couldn’t even pick up on the simplest of things such as ‘thank you’ and ‘goodbye’ for reasons unknown.

            “It’s alright. I can accompany you since I have nothing to do this afternoon,” Changmin shook his head as if he was doing Taemin a favor by tagging along on the Saturday afternoon lunch date.

            For Minho the feeling was mutual because to have Changmin there proved to be a slight problem.

            Minho at least had attempted to read up on how to learn sign language and greeted the pair in a way that Changmin didn’t catch onto. Taemin did and it was worth staying up all night just to say ‘hello’ to see a bright smile directed at him only.

“How’d your awkward date go?” Jinki asked once he had gained Taemin’s attention after tugging on the school uniform sleeve. “I hear that someone tagged along with you. Third wheels are never fun.”

            Minho-hyung drove me home though so it was alright.

            Jongin hooted, seeing how casually it seemed Taemin’s relationship with the older jock seemed to be, patting the other on the back. “Well look who just snagged a hot piece of .”

            Flushing a deep shade of red Taemin hid his face behind his text book in the middle of the library to hide, knowing that his friends were chuckling at him. Even Kibum, Lee Taemin’s supposed ‘umma’ that would never do anything to offend the sensitive one.

            “What else happened that you seem so happy?” Jinki brushed his fingers through his hair, taking Taemin’s textbook away from him so they could finish talking. “He wasn’t your hyung before the little date.”

            I’m going to formal with him apparently. But we might skip to avoid Changmin-hyung.

            “My baby is going to formal!” a shrill shriek came that was none other than Kibum, flinging himself across the table to engulf his ‘baby’ into a tight hug with no intentions on letting go.