“An… deulryeo?” Kwangmin repeated, not believing the quiet words that had reluctantly escaped from Jangmi’s lips. She was trembling in her seat, her bottom lip quivering like a lost puppy, her face drenched in her own salty tears.

            “Why is she crying?” Youngmin dropped his microphone immediately, allowing it to crash hard into the smooth surface of the pull out stage. He sat on the edge of the bench beside Jangmi, ignoring the anxious and worried crowd, trying to get her to look at him. But she wouldn’t.

            “Jangmi-ah… you’re scaring us.” Eungyo whispered, her hands loosely covering in shock. There was a loud silence that filled the entire gym for a brief second before Jangmi winced in invisible pain, screaming to the top of her lungs. Something was wrong with her. She tried to force her eyes opened, vision blurred by the tears welling up in her eyes as Kwangmin put both hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down. She could see his mouth move, but why couldn’t she hear him? She couldn’t hear anything but an obnoxious ringing that pierced through her thoughts. For a moment, everything was horrifying enough for her to forget just who was with her. Kwangmin continued trying to coax her as the principal stepped up on the stage. With a humble authority, he pushed Kwangmin aside and bent his knees slightly to meet Jangmi face to face.

            “Kim Jangmi, can you hear me right now?” He asked in a stern voice, his mouth emphasizing his words so that she could briefly read his lips. She shook her head as if she was going hysterical, and the nurse quickly fled to her side. She gently grabbed a hold of Jangmi’s arm and lifted her from the bench, escorting her off the stage and into her office. The principal was already one step ahead of them, having contacted Jangmi’s father who was now on his way to pick her up. Teachers that were viewing the performance from the sidelines ushered students out and into class early, leaving the baffled Minwoo, Eungyo, Kwangmin and Youngmin staring blankly at each other on the stage.

            “Was she having a seizure or something?” Youngmin asked stupidly, reassessing the situation.

            “No you idiot, she said she can’t hear.” Eungyo snorted, having zero tolerance for his obnoxious idiocy today.

            “I think it was the speakers.” Kwangmin concluded, having spent the past five minutes thinking hard to himself rather than having a verbal debate with Eungyo and Youngmin.

            “Oh, you’re probably right!” Minwoo agreed, nodding as he thought over Kwangmin’s reasonable hypothesis. All eyes turned to Kwangmin and Minwoo, the two science-revolved minds for an explanation.

            “The high frequency from the microphone’s signaling to the large speakers along with Jangmi’s insanely close proximity to them as opposed to everyone else in this room would be more than likely to be the source of her disabled hearing.” Kwangmin educated his peers, not stuttering with a word as he shed some scientific light onto the situation. Everyone else was at least five metres away from the speakers when the unpleasant sound reared its ugly head, but Jangmi was so close to them that her head could basically lean on the soft cushioning that filtered noise for the speakers.

            “The question is; is her disability temporary or permanent? This is difficult for a professional to determine. It’s like predicting when a patient will wake up from a coma—or if they ever will.” Minwoo added, bringing back the worried emotions that had been shortly cast aside during their brief enlightenment.

            By the time the gang entered the nurses’ office Jangmi’s father had already taken her away. They wanted to know all that they could, but the nurse wasn’t knowledgable enough to give them a clear diagnosis. Jangmi was not heading to the hospital, and what happened after would be a mystery. Youngmin listened to the nurse’s descriptions and details with a spiteful heart, thinking only of how having a deaf girlfriend would bring down his own image. It didn’t matter though, because he had no intentions of dating a handicap. Her abrupt seizure-like behavior during the lunch hour was already embarrassing enough to him.

~~~

            “Can you hear me now?” The doctor sat smugly in his overly comfy office chair, separated from his patients by a rectangular desk with his computer to the side. The papers on his desk looked disorganized, as if a tornado had paid his office a visit but to him, it didn’t matter because he knew exactly where everything was.

            “…Yes,” Jangmi answered, surprised that she didn’t have to struggle to read his lips to understand what he wanted to know from her. His dad sat worriedly beside her, hands gripping tightly on the arm rest as they waited for a definite diagnosis.

            “So, I’m fine right?” Jangmi asked, hoping to hear a yes before she got her hopes too high. Right now it she felt perfectly normal, as if nothing that happened at noon time ever did but it was too random and unexpected to just be passed as nothing. She recalled the heavy screeching from earlier, making her cringe and hug herself as if a million nails were running down an old chalkboard.

            “At the moment, yes, but the symptoms you experienced earlier will periodically come back. There’s no way of determining when.” The doctor informed, pushing up his thick framed glasses as he typed something out on his computer. They had taken an x-ray of her ear and pulled it out onto the big overhead screen for her to see.

            “What kind of trash are you spouting? How can she be sick she’s perfectly fine right now!” Jangmi’s father protested, slamming a shaky hand on the desk, compressing the loose leafs together on the hard surface.

            “This sort of disability exists, Mr. Kim,” The doctor insisted, probably enjoying the fact that he didn’t have to diagnose anyone with cancer or Alzheimer’s and deal with another family member in denial to that extent, “It’s called tinnitus.”

            “I’ve never heard of anything as bizarre as this.” Her father continued to deny that his only daughter was now suffering a lifelong handicap. He had such big plans for her future. He planned for her to marry a successful business entrepreneur and graduate as a talented translator. Every class she took involved language, and without hearing how could this future be possible for her? What family in the right mind would marry their well off son to a hearing disabled young lady? He was too frustrated to accept it.

            “It’s surprising that you haven’t. In this generation’s increased noise exposure, tinnitus has become one of the fastest growing disabilities among all age groups.” The doctor planted some statistics flat in his face. The truth was hard to deny.

            “Your case however is not severe though your first encounter with its symptoms had been more than the usual outburst from a tinnitus patient. At this point, it’s possible that your tinnitus may be only temporary but we can never be completely sure.” He tried to comfort Jangmi’s frustrated mind with words of truth. As a doctor, he swore to say only the truth, whether it hurt or not. Jangmi was a young, prominent girl with her own level of intelligence, aimed to be a high school graduate at only seventeen. All this in consideration, anyone would feel pitiful towards her.

            “I’ll prescribe these pills to you. They don’t make tinnitus disappear but they do stop the symptoms from getting worse. Take them twice a day.” He slid a sloppy piece of paper with the medicine’s name decorated with his signature. Jangmi took the note and thanked him, having to drag her dad out of the office herself. He still couldn’t grasp the reality that his daughter was hearing disabled.

            “How about a hearing aid?” He suggested as they headed towards the pharmacy just conveniently outside the hospital. She rolled her eyes.

            “He already said they’re not going to help with this.” She reminded, walking faster to the pharmacy. It had been two hours since the first sign of tinnitus and she didn’t know when it would strike again. Would it be every few hours? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? She sighed, knowing it was a question she should’ve asked when they were still at the doctor’s office. Now she was left wondering until she got her hands on some internet access. Her old pal Google would help her out.

            They sat patiently in the waiting area, already passing a pharmacist the doctor’s note. Jangmi herself couldn’t read the words he scribbled, having problems differentiating between his “G’s” and “Y’s” in a medical brand name that she had never seen. Her lifetime spent studying different languages did not equip her with the ability to read past the stereotypical doctor’s messy script. She allowed her mind to drift, her eyes darting from the conventional drugs off the shelf to the files kept in neat portfolios behind the counter. Her cell phone sat snuggly in her palms as she wondered why Youngmin had never called or texted her.

~~~

            “We should all go visit Jangmi at her house.” Eungyo suggested. The four of them unanimously agreed to skip afternoon classes after what had happened to their dear friend. Still unsure of what was going on with her; Jangmi’s dad had called Kwangmin to let them know she wasn’t going to be staying at the hospital. With no other details he hung up. Everyone thought it weird for her dad to call Kwangmin rather than his twin—her boyfriend, but the obvious favouritism had been accumulated throughout a lifetime of mistakes and make-ups. Jangmi’s dad always favoured Kwangmin over his mischievous identical half.

            “It would be weird since I don’t know her well.” Minwoo admitted, facing the reality that he really didn’t know any of them too well other than Youngmin who he was no longer in good terms with.

            “I’m sure she’d appreciate your visit.” Eungyo insisted, growing attached to Minwoo’s constant company. To know that he was always somewhere near was a warming thought that started to grow on her, but she wasn’t at the stage where she wanted to admit to any rash emotions.

            “Yea, we’d be happy if you came along Minwoo.” Kwangmin invited, shooting Youngmin a glance. They all expected him to come along and never bothered asking. Instead, they headed down the sidewalk towards their familiar street. Kwangmin lead the way with Minwoo and Eungyo side by side trailing close behind. Youngmin was lagging along, and Eungyo noticed how dazed he was.

            “What’s up with you?” She managed to choke out. Her tone made it sound like a question out of spite rather than concern, and she never made an effort to clarify how she wanted her question to be interpreted.

            “You guys go on ahead. I don’t think I’m going to visit.” Youngmin concluded, pivoting his left foot in 180 degrees and turning around back towards the school.

            “So you’re saying that even though your girlfriend is sitting at home fighting the reality that she now has a hearing disability, you’re not going to make even the slightest effort to help her cope with it?” Eungyo demanded, her fists clenching as she grew angrier. The moment they first met she knew he was nothing but a jerk but this proved that he didn’t even have a heart. He never answered. Instead, he pulled out his cell phone and pushed on a few buttons. He was really testing Eungyo’s patience. Despite the obvious tension all afternoon, Minwoo made the effort to walk up to Youngmin and meet him at eye level.

            “She’s your girlfriend. It’s the least you could do.” Minwoo said nonchalantly, still finding it hard to believe that he had put their friendship above so many others’ well being all these years. In the end their friendship amounted to nothing.

            “You mean my ex.” Youngmin announced in a serious tone, his stare was shameless as he stood straight with his chin up. His left arm held up his cell phone showing the text message he had just sent Jangmi only seconds ago.

            “You bastard,” Minwoo cussed, sending Youngmin a punch dead in the jaw. He lost grip of his cell phone and it fell screen down onto a small rock, creating a noticeable crack over the words “It’s over” on his screen. 

A/N: Even though my brain felt so fried today, I managed to write this chapter out. It turned out a lot better than I expected and I hope it clarified a lot of things you all were questioning about from the previous chapter regarding Jangmi's hearing. Enjoy ^^