When kids are first learning to speak, their parents tell them to ‘use their words’. My mother always said that listening was more important anyways. Unfortunately, these words of wisdom never helped me feel any better about my situation. That is, until I met my best friend.

One day in 7^th grade, I saw him on the school yard. He was sitting on a bench reading a book in Braille and I sat next to him.

                “Hello?”

His voice was like honey

                “Who’s there?”

I’m sorry, I can’t answer you

                “…”

…

                “Is it that you don’t want to talk or that you can’t?”

I hesitated and he smiled in understanding. A few days of this went by and I suppose he got curious because he said:

                “You know, there’s a machine in the library that turns text to Braille..”

The next day when I went to sit next to him, I handed him the card that I had made in the library.

                “My name is Jonghyun”

                “I’m Jinki” he smiled

~

Over the years we became very close. We learned Morse code and he taught me how to read Braille. We visited each others’ families on holidays, we graduated middle school together and after a while, he could even sense when I was around. We weren’t the most popular pair but because we had each other, we had the luxury of not caring what other people thought of us. We were like brothers, and for five years, it was just the two of us.

~

On the first day of 11^th grade, the other kids were rushing all around trying to get their class schedules and see their friends. Damn. On days like this, it’s harder to protect Jinki. I pulled him to the side to wait until they passed.

                “What are we doing?”

He held out his hand. I began tapping my reply on his palm in Morse code.

                [“There are too many people”]

                “Oh”

We waited, and as the crowd started to disperse, I spotted a boy across the courtyard who seemed to be in a similar situation as us. I grabbed Jinki’s hand and we walked over to him.

                [“Hey Jinki, can you speak for me?”]

He nodded.

                [“Hey, are you okay?”]

                “Hey, are you okay?”

No response. I tapped him on the shoulder. He turned and backed away, startling us both. He was beautiful and terrified like a deer in headlights.

                [“Are you okay?”]

                “Are you okay?”

He stared.

                [“Can you hear me?”]

                “Can you hear me?”

I pointed to my ear. He shook his head no.

                [“Jinki, he’s deaf.”]

                “Jinki, he’s de…   he’s what?!”

                [“It looks like he can read lips though.”]

                He eyed us very carefully.

                “I’m Jinki, he’s Jonghyun. Where’s your class? Can we walk you?”

Again he shook his head and took off running towards the school building.

                “What happened?”

                [“He left.”]

~

We didn’t see him again for the rest of the day. At lunch the next day, I saw him near the corner of the lunchroom with two older boys standing over him. He was sitting carefully with his eyes trained on the ground and nervously wringing his hands and chewing on his plush bottom lip.

Everyone’s POV

                [“Oh no.”]

                “What?”

                [“That kid is here but it looks like there are people bothering him.”]

Jinki squeezed Jonghyun’s hand.

                [“This isn’t good, I’ve heard about those guys before. There’s a tall one who kinda looks like a frog. I think his name is Minho or something.

                He got kicked off the track team after getting caught injuring his own teammates so that he’d be the fastest.”]

                “That’s so ed up!”

                [“Yea but he’s just a lackey for the other one. Kim Kibum. Some people call him the Almighty Key because he’s deadly persuasive.

                Once, he convinced the principal to give everyone the day off on his birthday. He gets straight A’s even though he’s hardly ever in class.

                I even heard he borrows the nurse’s car every so often. No one knows how the hell he does it.”]

                “Wow. He must be really smart.”

                [“Not only that, he’s gorgeous too. I mean like seriously. His nose is so cute and his cheekbones are sitting so beautifully

                under the most feline eyes I’ve ever seen. Oh god and his lips, I just wanna-”]

Jinki  let go of Jonghyun’s hand.

                “Please..”

Jonghyun grabbed it again.

                [“Sorry.”]

As Jonghyun and Jinki got closer, they could hear their conversation.

                “Where were you yesterday, Taemin-ah?!” Said Minho. “Did you think you could hide from us?” He slapped the boy hard in the face.

Key scoffed when the boy kept his eyes focused on the ground. He grabbed the boy’s face.

                “I know you can read lips, you little ! Look at us when we talk to you!”

                “Hey!” Jinki shouted.

Jonghyun turned to look at him and squeezed his hand. Jinki threw his hand over his mouth.

Key turned to them and smirked.

                “Well would you take a look at these faggots!” said Minho.

Jonghyun rolled his eyes.

                “Just leave him alone, alright.” said Jinki

Key’s smirk fell as he walked up to the pair. Jonghyun stood slightly in front of Jinki.

                “Look! This is none of your DAMN business but...  since I’m feeling generous at the moment, I think i’ll let you live to see another day,

                 or in your case to not see another day. Let’s go, Minho.”

Jonghyun clenched his fists, his eyes never leaving Key.

                “Oh, and control your puppy or else I’ll have to have my dog here..  kill him.”

Minho smirked as he followed Key out of the lunchroom.

Jonghyun sat Jinki down next to the boy.

                [“Go on hyung, you’re good at this sort of thing.”]

Jinki took a deep breath.

                “You’re name is Taemin, right?”

He nodded.

                [“yea.”]

                “Why do you let them bully you like that?”

Taemin looked away. Jonghyun brought a paper and pen out of Jinki’s backpack and handed it to Taemin. He began to translate in time with Taemin’s writing.

                [“I deserve it, I’m useless.”]

                “Do you really believe that?”

                [“How could I not? I can’t hear or speak. My own parents didn’t even want me and my brothers don’t even like me. You saw!  …well one of you did.”]

                “They’re your brothers?”

                [“Yea, we live in the same foster home. They’d never tell anyone though. Why do you guys care anyways? It seems like you have enough

                problems of your own.”]

                “Because obviously we know what it’s like to be bullied, especially when it’s something you can’t change. It doesn’t feel good and it’s not right!"

                he paused. “Look, I’m sorry you’ve been alone this whole time but it doesn’t have to be that way anymore.”

He bit his lip again.

                [“Is it really that easy?”]

                “It’s worked for us till now” They smiled. “So meet us after school today, ok?”

                [“Hyungs aren’t gonna like that.”]

                “We’ll deal with them later. Besides, you have us now. Don’t forget that!”

Jjong’s POV

And just as Taemin had said, Key and Minho were waiting for him after school. When Taemin finally came out, he smiled at us but it vanished as soon as he saw Key and Minho. He stood there, wringing his hands in the sleeves of his sweatshirt for a while before joining them on the other side of the courtyard. I didn’t even realize I was walking towards them until Jinki stopped me.

                “What are you gonna do?” I shrugged. “No matter how nice we are to him or how much we try to protect him at school, he still has to go home to that.”

He was right. He was always right. I took his hand.

                [“So what are we gonna do?”]

                “I don’t know.”

~

Later at Jinki’s house as we lay sideways on his bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about Taemin.

                “Jjong?”

He reached out for my hand and I grabbed it. He rubbed small circles into the back of my hand.

                “Are you okay?”

                [“I just..  I wish I could figure out a way to help him. I mean, did you see all the bruises on his arms. He doesn’t deserve that.”]

Jinki turned over and cuddled into my side.

                “I’m worried about him too but were just kids ourselves, I’m not sure what our place is in all of this.”

We laid there for a while just staring at the ceiling and thinking.

                “Jinki-ya! Jonghyun-ah! Do you guys want snacks? Anything to drink?”

                “O hey, mom. Sure, I- Mom!” His eyes, color slightly faded, widened to the sized of quarters. “OMG!! Why didn’t I think of this sooner??”

                “What?” said his mom.

                “Jjong, you have to get out.”

I slapped his arm.

                “Jinki! Don’t be rude!” said his mom

                [“What? What is it? Is it about Taemin?”]

                “Please Jjong, just trust me. I have to talk to my mom. I promise I’ll tell you everything soon.”

~

I trust Jinki but over the next few weeks, it became harder and harder to watch Taemin continue to be a punching bag for those two jerks. It made me really anxious to know what Jinki was planning so when he invited me over one weekend saying he had something to tell me, I felt like I could finally exhale.

I certainly didn’t expect Taemin to be sitting on Jinki’s ing couch!

                “Jonghyun?” Jinki said, emerging from the kitchen.

Taemin saw him and turned around to face me. He stood up and bowed. It was the first time I’d seen him truly smile. I walked over to Jinki.

                [“What’s going on?”]

                “Meet my new brother, Lee Taemin!” he smiled

Brother??? My God. All I could think was that Jinki’s mother was truly a saint!

                “I talked to my mom and after much coaxing and some endless promises, she agreed to meet him and just like we did, she fell in love with him.

                I’m even teaching him Morse Code.”

                [“Oh My God, This is amazing!”] I pulled them into a tight hug!

Everyone’s POV

At school the next day, Key and Minho didn’t show up.

After a couple of days, they returned looking much less than okay.

                “What the ?!” said Minho “Taemin wouldn’t join your little Helen Keller party so you just stole him?”

                “Whatever the hell a ‘Helen Keller party’ is, at least he’s safe now.”

Key scoffed.

                “You sound really bitter right now. Don’t be jealous because we have all five senses and my good looks when all you have is a gay guard puppy.”

                “I’m warning you, stop talking about my friend like that. And good looks? Please! What good is all of that if you’re ugly on the inside?”

                “What did you say?!”

Taemin lets out a muffled sound of frustration. He places one small hand in the center of Jinki’s chest and the heel of his other hand quickly makes contact with Key’s face.

                [“! Why couldn’t he do that before?”] Jinki laughs.

                “Dammit, Minnie!”

“Have you lost your ing mind?” Minho rushes forward but Key stops him.

                “I’m sorry.” Everyone looks in his direction.

                “Bummie, seriously?”

                “Taeminah, I’m so sorry” He begins to cry. “I don’t know why I..”

He stops when tiny hands cup his face. Taemin wipes his tears and smiles a smile at him that somewhat resembles forgiveness. Key smiles back. Taemin uses Morse code through Jinki and Jinki laughs.

                “He says: I’m sorry I broke your pretty nose.”

<3