Yejin had always thought the people in television shows were just exaggerating whenever they claimed that they saw stars after experiencing a trauma to the head. Now though, she could really understand their choice of words.

She put her hand to her forehead, waiting for the kaleidoscope of colours to fade as she tried to pull herself up from the bush she’d landed in. She could feel random leaves poking against her face, and…was that something crawling up her leg?! With her vision much clearer now, Yejin now began to panic over the possibility that an insect might be invading her shorts, and she hastily tried to lift herself off the ground, placing both hands onto the ground beside her and trying to push herself off.

Yejin scowled, thinking about how Sungyeol had said that this would be for her own good. Oh yeah, this was good alright.

Just then, a face popped up in front of hers, and she instinctively flinched backwards. When she looked at the person in front of her, however, her stomach flopped over like an empty hot water bottle the moment the both of them made eye-contact.

The guy pointed at her, before making the universal ‘OK’ sign, a look of questioning mixed with worry on his face. Yejin blinked, confused. A normal stranger would verbally ask someone if she was ok, wouldn’t he? How did this guy know that she was deaf?

She nodded in response, before taking a chance and signing slowly, ‘Do you sign?’

Now, the boy’s face took on a look of surprise, and he signed back an affirmative response. For some unknown reason, Yejin took comfort in this fact, and she let out a small smile.

‘You’re bleeding,’ the guy signed as he looked at Yejin’s leg. Yejin quickly looked down at her right knee, where a small bleeding wound had formed. So, it’d just been a trickle of blood, and not an insect. She let out a silent sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the guy stuck out his hand in front of Yejin, and it took her a few quick seconds to realise that he was going to help her up. She placed her hand in his, thought she noticed that unlike what she usually saw in movies, she did not feel an electrical spark in between them. Hm.

As the guy pulled her up, she made sure to not put any pressure on her left foot. It made the entire process a little tedious, though they managed in the end. After standing up, Yejin looked down at her body to inspect for any further damage. Apart from her bleeding knee, everything else was fine.

‘Look, I’m really sorry for crashing into you with my bike. I…got distracted,’ the guy signed, after tapping her on her shoulder to get her attention.

Well you should be, Yejin thought bitterly, though she smiled at him.

‘It’s ok, I wasn’t really paying attention to my surroundings either. My name’s Yejin.’

‘Nice to meet you, I’m Howon.’

‘So, you can’t hear, either?’

‘Nope. I can’t speak.’

Yejin’s mouth formed a tiny O, before she quickly nodded. She’d met mute people before, of course, though the majority of her friends at school were deaf.

‘We should really get you to a doctor, the wound seems pretty bad.’  Yejin shook her head.

‘Nah, it’s ok. My house’s just down the corner from here, and my brother has lots of experience handling superficial wounds.’

It was true – even from a young age, Sungyeol was always up and about, running to and fro. It was no surprise that he often fell into scrapes, which resulted in him gaining as much knowledge you could get about a First Aid kit.

‘Ah…I’ll give you a ride then.’

Howon walked over to his bike, which was lying rather forlornly a few metres away from the bush Yejin had landed in. As he rode it over, Yejin noted that it had survived the collision without any obvious damages. At least one of them managed to get away unscathed.

‘Actually, I think I can still walk.’ Yejin wasn’t going to get on some random stranger’s bike, especially when said stranger had crashed into her with said bike.

‘With that knee? I doubt so.’

She observed the look of triumph on Howon’s face. Oddly, it annoyed her a little. Honestly, who was the person who had caused her ankle injury in the first place?

‘Come on, get on.’ Howon nodded towards the handlebars.

Yejin bit her lower lip hesitantly, though she supposed she didn’t have much of a choice. She lifted herself up onto the handlebars, and gripped the handlebar grips. Honestly speaking, this was the very first time she’d sat on a bicycle’s handlebars. She wondered how Sungyeol would react if he saw his younger sister taking a ride on a random boy’s bicycle.

As Howon started cycling, a cooling breeze blew towards them; it was nice - really nice. She closed her eyes and lifted her face towards the sky, smiling as the warm evening sunrays cast themselves onto her flushed cheeks. It wasn’t often that she ventured out of the comforts of her room, and now, she could finally see why Sungyeol had pushed her out of the house today. It seemed like sometimes, people just sort of forgot about the simplest blessings in life.

Just then, the bicycle slowed to a stop, and Yejin opened her eyes to see her apartment building in front of her. She turned to face Howon with the intent of asking him how he’d known this was the correct place, before catching a weird look on his face. Before she could sign anything, however, Howon beat her to it.

‘Is this where you live?’

She nodded, slowly getting off the handlebars. Howon chained his bicycle to a lamp post nearby, before quickly going over to support Yejin. Her heart jumped at his hand contact with her arm, but she managed to keep on a straight face.

Typical, she thought, a few months without initiating contact with a guy and you become so easily swayed. Lee Yejin, you are such a disappointment.

At least she hadn’t giggled. Yet.

-

“Whoa, did you fall into a ditch or something?!”

‘Your sensitivity is definitely much appreciated, oppa.’ Yejin signed as Sungyeol took her other arm and helped her to the couch in their living room. Once she was seated, Sungyeol ran into one of the rooms and got out their trusty First Aid kit.

“Honestly, trust you to injure yourself during a simple jog,” Sungyeol muttered under his breath as he got out the iodine solution. Unbeknownst to him, Yejin had become quite proficient at lip-reading in the recent years, and she reached over to flick his forehead.

“Yah!” Sungyeol raised his first and swung it backwards, though Yejin knew he wouldn’t really retaliate; he loved her too much, as disgusting as it was to admit it.

“This is going to hurt,” he remarked as he cleaned Yejin’s wound with a clean cotton swab, before dipping a cotton swab into the bottle of iodine dressing.

“Here I go~!”

The moment Sungyeol made the first application of the cotton swab, Yejin let out a scream, and she immediately grabbed the nearest thing – Howon’s fingers. The searing pain distracted her from the equally distraught expression of pain on Howon’s face, caused by the amount of force Yejin was using to squeeze his fingers.

It seemed like the whole process lasted for hours, though in reality it was probably only a few seconds.

‘God, you’re so dramatic,’Sungyeol signed after he was done.

‘I learn only from the best,’ Yejin signed back, looking accusingly at him.

Just then, Sungyeol looked at Howon, and Yejin quickly stepped in to introduce the both of them before her brother assumed Howon could speak.

‘Oppa, this is Howon. He’s…the one who brought me back here.’ Yejin decided that it would be better if Sungyeol didn’t know that Howon was the reason she’d gotten injured – he just might bludgeon Howon with the First Aid kit. Sungyeol had always been a little overprotective.

‘Do you mind leaving your contact information? I’ll have to repay you one day for sending my brat of a sister home,’ Sungyeol signed after the two of them had exchanged greetings. Yejin’s eyes widened as she looked at her older brother – the mischievous twinkle in his eyes held just a touch of evil.

‘Sure thing.’

As expected, Sungyeol grabbed Yejin’s handphone from out of her shorts and handed it to Howon, who typed in his number into her phonebook, an amused smile lingering on his face.

‘Well, I’ll see you around.’

Yejin nodded at Howon, before getting up to walk him out.

‘It’s ok, I’ll make my own way out. Rest well. And…I’m sorry, once again.’

Yejin watched as he left, giving one last wave as he turned to close the door behind him. Just a few seconds after the door was shut, Sungyeol immediately plopped down beside her on the couch.

‘So, his name is Howon, huh?’  If only Yejin could wipe that smug smirk on Sungyeol’s face.

‘I can’t believe you tried playing Matchmaker! Is some apparent lack of love in your life causing you to be so obnoxious?’

‘Yah, it may not be obvious, but I’m one of the most popular guys in my school, you know. You don’t know how many girls would kill to be in your position!’

Yejin scoffed. ‘Being delusional isn’t good for your health either, oppa.’

Sungyeol clucked his tongue indignantly.

‘Though, that guy looks a little familiar though…I think I’ve seen him somewhere before.’ Yejin raised her eyebrows questioningly.

‘Yeah, a convention for jerks and douchebags, most probably,’ Yejin signed with a playful grin on her face.

Luckily, she managed to dodge the First Aid kit Sungyeol attempted to hit her with.