Chapter 1: Silence

Silence. Thats all Donghae has ever known for the past month and a half. For the first 21 years of his life, it was normal, he had quite an average life. However, about a month after his 22nd birthday, he was in an accident. One that would cause him to lose his hearing, and change his life forever. What made it worse was the last thing he heard before he lost his ability to hear. Glass shattering and a blood curdling scream from the girl in the other car. Those sounds would haunt him for the rest of his life. He would wake up in the middle of the night, covered in sweat and his entire body trembling. I killed her. It was my fault. I'm a ing murderer. Donghae would think to himself every night he woke up from the same nightmare.

Donghae hated himself, and he had fallen into a deep depression. He only left his house when he felt it was nessecary, and today was one of those days. He pulled on a grey hoodie over his head, putting the hood up so he could hide his pale face. He definitely wasn't in any shape to leave the house. especially on a rainy day like this one, and he knew it, but he couldn't bring himself to care much about getting sick, and he needed something to fill his empty refrigerator. 

He hadn't gotten around to finding a hearing dog, so he just took the bus wherever he went, afraid of another accident happening, especially now since he couldn't hear. He hated going into public with a burning passion. Only because he hated the looks he would get from people. He knew how bad he looked, pale face, dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. This was only because on top of the rest of his problems, he had insomnia, and barely slept, when he did, he'd have the nightmare, and he had barely slept a wink in the past few days, making it hard for him to function.

The brunette rubbed his eyes with his knuckles as he sat on the bus next to a crying baby and a man who seemed to be angry at whoever was on the other end of the phone. Sometimes he was thankful that he couldn't hear. The woman holding the baby seemed to be trying to apologize to him, or say something. He furrowed his brows, trying to read her lips, but to no avail. He couldn't understand. He pointed to his ears, trying to signal to her I can't hear you. Or the baby. But she seemed to take it as, the baby is too loud, I can't hear you. She continued to talk. He sighed and thought for a moment about whether or not he should just not respond to her, but he figured it was rude, so he took out his phone and began typing, showing her what he had written. 'I can't hear you, or the baby, ma'am, I'm deaf.'  formed an 'o' shape and she went back to whatever she was doing with the child in her arms. That happens way too often. Donghae sighed once again and leaned his head back, closing his eyes for the rest of the ride.

He hated the mall. It scared him, all of the people and he couldn't hear if anyone was trying to ask him to move out of the way or not. That terrified him. He avoided the mall as much as he possibly could, but today he had to come here. He needed some new clothes, the rest of his old clothes were beginning to get too small for him. He absolutely hated being alone. Which was a major problem, because who wants to be friends with the deaf man?

Donghae grabbed a sweatshirt, a t-shirt and a few pairs of jeans off the rack that he thought looked suitable, and would fit him. He didn't bother trying it on. Paying for things scared him, because he knew the person would say something to him, but he just couldn't respond. Usually the cashier would give him a little bit of a strange look, but this time, he had a little more courage to go up there, as the cashier was a middle aged woman, who seemed to be someone who wouldn't look at him like the others did. He took a deep breath before walking up to the counter and putting the clothes on top, looking up at the woman, giving her a soft, but fake, smile. She smiled back and said something. . It was probably only something like 'Is that all' but Donghae had no idea. He panicked. He tried the same method with the woman on the bus, pointing to his ear and shaking his head. She understood. Thank god.

The rest of the trip went smoothly, until he getting ready to leave. He stood on the escalator, fiddling with his fingers as he didn't have the energy to do anything else. While someone behind him was angrily tapping his foot, waiting for him to move, which went unnoticed by Donghae. 

"Excuse me." Hyukjae muttered to the seemingly clueless man in front of him, "Excuse me." His voice became a little louder. Still no reaction. He tapped the man's shoulder, a little harder than he should've.

Donghae's heart pounded against his ribcage and he slowly turned around, his eyes filling with tears as he seen a man who looked like he was yelling at him. What was he supposed to do now? He took a quick shaky breath and ran down the rest of the moving stairs, stopping at the bottom and standing by the railing. 

"What the hell?" Hyukjae mumbled under his breath and went back to whatever he was doing, before he stopped immediately in his tracks. He seen this man, who he had been getting angry at not 5 minutes ago, sitting on the floor of the mall with his knees to his chest, a few bags next to him. He rolled his eyes at first and was about to leave before he heard a soft sob escape the man's mouth. His eyes softened at the sight. Was this my fault? He walked over to the crying brunette and placed a hand on his shoulder, bending down, "Hey, I didn't mean to yell at you back there you know. I'm sorry, I'm Hyukjae."

Donghae couldn't respond. He stared at the man with wide, tear filled eyes and sniffled softly. He was definitely handsome. He was wearing a shirt and tie, his light brown hair styled neatly. He looked at the hand on his shoulder and his bottom lip trembled, tears threatening to fall once again. 

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Hyukjae joked to try to lighten the mood a little, make him stop crying. But what he didn't know was, he couldn't hear him.

Donghae lifted a trembling hand and slowly pushed the man's hand off of his shoulder, wiping his cheeks. He stood up slowly and pulled his phone out of his back pocket, showing this man the same message that he showed the woman on the bus, 'I can't hear you. I'm deaf.' 

"Oh my god." Hyukjae's jaw almost hit the floor. What had he done to the poor man?

a/n; omg this is so bad but anyways comment please!