Chapter 1

Huang Zitao is used to coming into his music school early by now. He’s been past the practice rooms so often he knows who each person singing is just by their voice, even if he doesn’t know them personally. So, you could say Zitao is thoroughly confused when he hears a new voice overpowering the five or six other voices in that hallway one morning.

Curiously, Zitao went down the hall, listening to the voices in the rooms carefully to try to identify where the new voice was. It was so unbelievably strong. Certainly better than some of the other singers in the school. Especially when it came to high-notes and ranges. The voice had perfect high pitched and low pitched notes. Yet Zitao still couldn’t find where he (he assumed judging by the way the person sounded that it was a male) was, and ended up not finding him in time before class started.

Disappointed, he went to his class, deciding to ask one of his friends or classmates if they knew about a new student. He needed to find the source of that voice, even if it was the last thing he’d ever do. Even if it involved listening to that voice every morning.

In the end, he never found out if there was a new kid. But he didn’t see anyone new in his classes, nor was there anyone different with any of the other singers he knew. Which made him even more confused and curious because normally, if there was a new singer, Baekhyun would always end up finding them and ‘adopting’ them into his ‘family of singers’ (which only really consists of three or four other people).

The next morning, Zitao heard the voice again. That angelic voice that Zitao had even heard in his dreams last night (which was really weird in Zitao’s perspective). Zitao quickly made his way down that hallway to find the source of the voice again, this time determined to find the person before class started (hence why he came a little bit earlier than usual).

He stopped in front of the door he suspected the source of the voice was and peeked through the window. He could just barely see the person, but was too afraid to enter just yet. Instead he just listened through the door to the sorrowful English song sung by the voice of an angel.

Somehow, he ended up opening the door without realizing it and jumped back nervously. When he peeked back inside, the male was still singing peacefully as if he didn’t hear the door opening, which, Zitao hoped he really didn’t because he hesitantly stepped inside the room to get a better look at the male.

He was shorter and scrawnier than Zitao had expected. But that wasn’t really that surprising because Baekhyun was similar to this person height and weight wise. Or maybe Zitao was just really tall. But back to the male singer; he didn’t seem to notice Zitao, but that was because his eyes were closed slightly. Zitao watched the short male in awe as he continued to sing. But he ended up knocking something over accidentally, causing the singer to abruptly stop and open up his eyes, which were a pretty shade of brown, but looked slightly glazed over.

He looked around as if searching for the source of the sound. “You’re done making noise?” his voice sounded as if he knew Zitao was in the room the whole time.

“U-uh…” Zitao stammered awkwardly. “S-sorry…did I disturb you?”

The shorter male shook his reddish brown haired head. “I heard you come in. Just wanted to see what else you’d do.”

“O-oh…” Zitao bit his lip. “Well…sorry for intruding. I couldn’t help but listen to your voice…it’s so stunning.”

The other smiled. “Well thanks. I’ve been told that a bit, but not much so by a male.”

“Do you—uh…go to school here?” Zitao asked.

“No. I can’t.”

Zitao tilted his head. “Can’t?”

“I don’t have the money to physically go to this school. So I just come in the mornings to practice.”

“Can’t you practice at home though?”

The reddish brown haired male chuckled sadly. “My family doesn’t like it as much as others do.”

“Why not?” Zitao asked. Then he realized he was being too nosey. “I-I’m sorry. Am I being too much of a nuisance with all these questions?”

The shorter laughed. “No…I like the company.” He walked toward Zitao. “I’m Jongdae by the way. Kim Jongdae. But since you sound foreign—Chinese maybe—you can call me Chen.” He offered his hand out.

Zitao shook Jongdae’s hand hesitantly. “H-how did you know I was Chinese?”

Jongdae shrugged. “I have good enough ears to tell. Plus you don’t seem to see many Japanese or other Oriental ethnicities here.”

“O-oh…” Zitao let go of Jongdae’s hand. “Well…you’re right. My name is Huang Zitao. People shorten it to Tao though.”

Jongdae nodded. “Nice to meet you, Zitao-shii.”

“A-anyways…” Zitao looked around. “Why don’t your parents like you singing?”

“Dunno.” Jongdae said. “Probably because they think I’m useless.”

“Useless?” Zitao repeated.

“You haven’t noticed?” Jongdae tilted his head.

“Noticed what…?” Zitao was getting confused.

“I can’t see.” Jongdae said. “I’m blind.”

Zitao blinked in surprised. Well…that explained a couple things Zitao noticed but didn’t comment on. At first, it seemed like Jongdae was trying to find where he was. Then Zitao noticed that Jongdae wasn’t looking at Zitao’s face, rather he was looking at—possibly over—his shoulders. And that also explained why the shorter heard him come in. Didn’t blind people have enhanced hearing or something?

“Oh…” Zitao said softly. “Sorry. How insensitive of me.”

“Don’t worry about it, Zitao-shii.” Jongdae smiled. “But…may I ask how tall you are? So I…uh, know where to look so I’m actually looking at you. I constantly get yelled at for not looking people in the eye because they don’t realize I’m blind…”

“I’m…183 centimeters…” Zitao mumbled, feeling tall compared to Jongdae, who was probably only 176 or something around there.

“Ah. I’ve probably been looking past you then…sorry.” Jongdae laughed. “Blind person mistake. Also doesn’t help that I’m 178 centimeters.”

The bell rang, signaling the start of class. Zitao didn’t realize how much time he’d wasted talking to Jongdae. He sighed slightly, wishing they could have talked longer. If only he could stop time.

“You have to go, don’t you?” Jongdae asked, sounding a little bit disappointed.

Zitao nodded before quickly realizing nodding wouldn’t do too much. “Uh…yeah. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Jongdae said. “It’s just…I’ve never had a normal conversation with anyone before.”

Zitao hesitantly patted Jongdae’s head. “I’ll come back tomorrow morning. I promise.”

Jongdae’s glazed over eyes, somehow lit up. “Really?”

Zitao smiled. “Yeah, sure. If that makes you happy.”

Jongdae grinned. It was cute. “Thank you! My first friend in years! Yay!”

Zitao laughed. “Well…I better get to class before the mark me as absent. See you tomorrow.”

“Bye Zitao-shii!” Jongdae said as Zitao started to walk away.

Zitao gently closed the door behind him, smiling to himself. What a cute person Jongdae was. And he obviously didn’t care much about his disability. Zitao was definitely looking forward to talking to Jongdae again tomorrow. 

Word Count: 1,209

A/N: Ayo _GG it's been a while! Sorry 'bout that! >< Been caught up in comebacks, Taochen moments (loootsss of theeem), and other stuffs. Plus my birthday is in 4 days (holy poop). And I haven't exactly been able to come up with any fic ideas despite all the Taochen. But I've had this idea for a while, so I decided to actually write it out and stuff. 

(This may seem familiar to some people from my fb page because I had posted a couple attempts at a chapter on there a while ago. I think this one is better though. xD)