Cold winter days have never really been Liang Qing Yue's favorite time of the year. She normally has to bury her tiny, hands into the warmest pair of mittens she owns and bury them into her parka pockets.

And when your hands are your form of communication, it's really hard to do so.

Qing Yue pulls her hand free from the confines of her parka as she enters a small coffee shop, determined to sit down and enjoy herself a cup of espresso. Pulling her mittens off, she pulls her hood back from her head a she approaches the counter, smiling at the waiter behind the counter.

"One espresso black." She says, feeling the vibration of the words in , and yet, unable to hear them.

The waiter nods, smiling back wearily, the tired bags under his eyes evident as he enters everything into the system before annoucing the price. 

Qing Yue, at this point, has become accustomed to reading lips and nods, pulling her wallet out and forking over the money, unaware that she had dropped something and that a young man behind her happened to pick it up.

The young man in question, dressed in fashionable clothes and stylish, tousled hair, yet still clearly an university student, stood up and called Qing.

"Hey, you dropped your notebook."

But Qing turned and walked off, causing the young man to furrow his eyebrows as he followed the girl, thinking that maybe, she had simply not thought about what he'd said.

"Hey, excuse me?" He tried again.

But Qing continued on with what she was doing, resorting to sitting down at a table to wait for her drink to come out. By this point, the young man grew fustrated with her before turning away and rushing back to the counter and ordering his drink quickly.

Once he was done, he grabbed Qing's drink and his own from the counter and turned back around, rushing over to where she was. All but slamming the drinks down, he sighed angrily and placed them down before sitting down himself.

Qing looked up in surprise from the book she'd been reading, to see the attractive young man, along with her drink. Surprised, she reached for a scrap of paper from her bag and a pen she had in her pocket.

"You dropped your notebook." The young man said irritably, placing it down in front of her harshly.

Qing nodded, a little confused by how quickly he spoke, but somewhat understanding it as she took her book, muttering a quiet word of thanks.

"I'm Zitao. Nice to meet you. What's your name?" the young man said, sighing in exasperation.

Qing grimaced, trying to think how she would answer since she'd barely understood anything of what he'd said since she was in too much shock. She attempted pantomiming, pointing to her ears and tapping them.

Zitao raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow, "What? My piercings?" He asked, touching his own ears.

Qing Yue shook her head, fustrated before grabbing her paper and pen, writing down quickly a series of characters before planting them in front of Zitao.

He frowned, taking the paper and looking down at it, a quick jolt of surprise causing his eyes to widen as he looked back up at her.

Because, inked across her paper were the words, 'Hi, I'm Liang Qing Yue. I'm deaf.'