Taeyeon groaned.

She'd just gotten out of detention for sleeping in class. It had been the third time she'd gotten detention for something this week, and the principal had finally snapped. He condemned her to community service, so every time she misbehaved, she'd have to go to the local park for volunteer work.

And that was how Kim Taeyeon found herself in Rocco Park picking up trash on a Friday.

She sighed again as she picked up the last piece of litter on her block area that she'd been assigned to clean. 

"Ugh." She sighed, putting down the bag. Wiping her forehead, she dragged herself to a nearby shady bench and sat down, brushing her blonde hair out of her face.

On the other end of the bench was a girl, a girl who had long brown hair that cascaded down her back in beautiful waves and radiant pale skin. Taeyeon couldn't clearly see her eyes, but she could tell that the other girl was gorgeous. She had a pair of white earbuds in, and a blue notepad, twirling a pen in her hand.

Taeyeon's eyebrows knit together when the brunette cast her a side glance, and suddenly started to scribble furiously in her notebook when she noticed Taeyeon's arrival. She seemed… nervous. But at what?

She suddenly had to stifle a laugh as she realized the nervousness was directed towards her. She hadn't even done anything yet! She resisted the urge to laugh, and leaned back on the bench, stealing side glances at the brunette. She began thinking about how she could make the other girl more comfortable.

"Nice weather today huh?" She commented, shooting the brunette a smile.

Only to be ignored.

She frowned. "Nice weather today huh?" She tried again, a little louder. 

No response. Not even a glance.

She made a face, then scooted slightly closer and tapped her shoulder. The girl jerked a little in surprise, and turned to face the blonde.

"Can I borrow your pen?" She asked with the friendliest smile she could muster, determined to be less intimidating. 

The brunette motioned to her earbuds, and turned back to her paper.

Taeyeon tapped her shoulder again. "Pen?" She asked, making a scribbling motion with her hand.

She was delighted to find a blue ballpoint pen in her hand soon after.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica Jung had never really been a "people person."

She'd much rather sit on a quiet bench outdoors in the nice Seoul weather than socialize with other humans.

Her father constantly worried about her isolated persona, and constantly tried to get her to hang out with "friends" that didn't even care about her.

But she always found some way to resist.

Her world was never meant to be noisy anyways.

So when her peaceful, isolated park bench in the shade was disrupted by another human being, she naturally freaked out.

And by a strange blonde girl nonetheless.

She started to scribble in her notebook, pretending to write meaningful things. Anything to make her look preoccupied.

And when the strange girl had suddenly tapped her shoulder, well that most certainly didn't help calm her frayed nerves.

But after the initial shock of being acknowledged, she let the strange girl borrow her pen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taeyeon blinked.

What was she doing here?

After all the torture she went through to clean this place, she was back, sitting on the shady park bench in the back of the park by herself.

And she didn't even get in trouble this time.

Why was she here?

For some reason, she looked over to her left, and was disappointed to see that SHE wasn't there.

The girl from yesterday with the earbuds and baby brown eyes. 

She sighed, and resolved to wait a little longer. It wasn't helping that her ADHD was acting up and she wanted nothing more than to get up and look for the brunette herself

But that was a silly thought, and she vanquished it instantly.

After all, where could she even search?

She found himself waiting for a good half hour; a perfectly good half hour spent sitting on a park bench waiting for a girl who she would probably never see again.

But there was something different about the girl. Too bad she didn't know what it was. Frankly though, she was quite curious.

Just as she was about to give up, SHE came.

Dark brown eyes lit up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jessica has actually arrived at the park bench ten minutes after Taeyeon had.

She was walking to her little secluded spot where no one ever sat, and froze when she saw the girl with blonde hair from yesterday sitting in the same spot she had yesterday. 

She slowly started to retreat, hiding behind large trees, but stopped and amusedly watched as the blonde started to kick her feet up in the air.

After internally debating to herself whether she should go home, or to the girl (who she realized was obviously waiting for her) she decided to go to the strange blonde girl. After all, it wasn't polite to keep people waiting right?

It took her another few minutes to gather up the courage to walk to the bench and actually sit down on the other side.

When she finally did, she shot the strange blonde girl the slightest smile of acknowledgement and sat down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She smiled at her!

She smiled at her!

It was a small smile, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Taeyeon grinned to herself happily. Maybe she was starting to warm up to her.

After a brief second of hesitation, Taeyeon edged closer to the brunette, halving the distance but still leaving a comfortable gap between them. "What're ya listening to?" She grinned at the other girl.

The girl pointed to her earphones, and went back to scribbling in her notebook with her pink pen.

This time, however, Taeyeon was prepared. She took out a little pack of Post-Its she'd just purchased from the convenience store that morning and a purple ballpoint pen. She quickly wrote her question on it before tearing it out and sticking the sheet on the bench between them.

"What are you listening to?"

Jessica noticed the bright green Post-It, and read it. She arched her eyebrow just the slightest bit. Normally she was rather reluctant to talk to strangers, but she couldn't help but want to entertain the strange girl. Something told her she was different, and frankly she was curious. Smiling to herself at the stranger's inquisitive nature, she leaned over and wrote

"A special song."

Taeyeon looked at it, entranced at the neat, straight handwriting. The reply lit the flame of curiosity in her heart, and she knew she was hooked. She scribbled back

"Can I listen too?"

The reply was instant

"No it's embarrassing."

She shrugged to herself, and decided not to push it. Taking another Post-it, she wrote

"What's your name? I'm Taeyeon."

Jessica glanced over to see the blonde girl holding out a Post-It. She hesitantly took it, read it, and glanced up to see the short blonde girl beaming at her with the dorkiest, cutest grin, complete with perfect straight white teeth and a completely adorable dimple on one side of her chin.

"Jessica Jung."

"Jessica Jung…" Taeyeon thought, completely enthralled by the foreign name. She grinned and quickly got another Post-It.

"What's your favorite color?"

Jessica smiled a little this childish question. Taeyeon grinned. If her best friend Tiffany had found out she'd asked that, she would've smacked Taeyeon upside the head and told her to man up. Even though that had nothing to do with anything at hand, that was just how Tiffany operated. The girl made absolutely no sense.

But Jessica did no such thing.

She leaned over her blue notebook and wrote

"White."

"White? That's so cool…" Taeyeon internally grinned, and wrote another question. 

"What kind of food do you like?"

"Chinese."

"What kind of fruit do you like?"

"Watermelon."

Taeyeon continued to ask menial conversational questions. They continued their good humored conversation, neither saying a single word.

"What grade are you in?"

"Tenth."

She smiled happily. So Jessica was in her grade.

"Me too! What's your favorite subject in school?"

"History."

Her Post-It supply begun rapidly decreasing, and soon she was at her last one. On the last one she wrote 

"What kind of music do you like?"

Jessica didn't immediately respond. Taeyeon looked up just in time to see a brief flash of pain cross Jessica's baby brown eyes.

She wrote back

"Pop."

Taeyeon didn't fail to notice the slight quiver in her neat, aligned writing.

She decided not to press the matter, as to not hurt the other's feelings.

Jessica wasn't looking at her, staring off into the sky with those thoughtful brown eyes.

Taeyeon turned over the back of the last Post-It note and wrote

"Can I have your number? Email works too." She handed it to Jessica. 

Jessica shook her head slightly and wrote "I don't have one."

"It's not nice to lie." Taeyeon wrote back, making a pouty face as she looked up at the brunette.

The brunette sighed a little. She sounded sad. 

Taeyeon was fresh out of Post-Its, so she gestured to Jessica's notebook. She tore out a piece of paper for the blonde, who took it and wrote

"I'll be here tomorrow then, if you want."

Jessica read the note, and nodded, then abruptly got up and walked away, snapping her blue notebook shut.

Taeyeon gathered all their Post-Its in 
a neat pile. 

"I wonder what that was about…" she internally mused.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was there the next day.

Taeyeon grinned happily, and quickly went up to meet her.

"Hi." She waved, with a big fat grin. Jessica had her earbuds in again. She smiled a small, shy smile and waved back.

Taeyeon held up two brand-new packs of pink Post-Its, still holding her grin. Jessica smiled back, holding up her own pack of purple Post-Its.

Taeyeon sat down next to her, closer than yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised when the brunette didn't back away. She was struggling tried to open a pack, but was delighted to suddenly find a purple Post-It stuck on her pale arm.

"It's good to see you again."

She grinned happily. The brunette seemed to have warmed up a little to her. She was glad, because she'd feel a little awkward being here.

"It's good to see you too." She wrote back. "Are you here everyday?"

She read the question quickly, and scribbled a reply "Yeah, if the weather's nice. I always come here."

The blonde nodded as she read the response. "Okay. I guess it's private and quiet here right?"

"Yeah. It's quiet." Jessica thought, rolling her eyes at the irony of the situation. Taeyeon didn't notice though, and wrote "So do you like writing?" Gesturing to the blue notebook. 

She looked at the blonde and grinned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blonde continued to come see her. It seemed that she came specifically to be with the brunette. Jessica herself went there everyday anyways, but Taeyeon kept coming with more pink Post-Its, not even questioning why the younger girl had never taken out her earbuds.

"I hope you like frappachino's." Taeyeon handed her a bright pink Post-It as soon as she sat down. Jessica looked up to see the girl holding two caramel frappachino's from Starbucks, extending one to her with her usual dorky smile.

Jessica couldn't help but smile. "I love them." She wrote back, happily accepting the blonde's gift. 

Taeyeon grinned and wrote back, continuing their conversation. They wrote like that for some time, until Taeyeon wrote "Do you play any instruments?"

There it was again, that look of pain in her eyes. The blonde observed her closely. She wrote back 

"I used to sing."

"Used to?" Taeyeon's not-so-neat handwriting scrawled beneath her response.

"I don't anymore." was the laconic reply.

Taeyeon frowned in confusion. She didn't like the look of sadness that Jessica wore whenever she brought up the subject of music. It made her upset. Taeyeon didn't like being upset. It didn't suit her happy, bright personality. Or her hair, for that matter.

"Oh I see." She wrote back. They stopped writing for a little while and sat in the normal silence.

A few minutes later, Jessica stuck a pink Post-It on Taeyeon's notebook. 

"Would you like to listen to my song?" 

Taeyeon quickly looked up with sparkling wide eyes and nodded enthusiastically.

Jessica took out her earbuds and handed them to the blonde, who eagerly accepted. She put them in her ears and waited.

Silence.

She frowned, and pushed them in her ears a little more. Again, nothing.

"I can't hear anything." She said, giving the brunette a confused glance as she took out the earbuds. Jessica visibly flinched when the older spoke, and she scribbled hastily on another Post-It.

The nostalgic look on her face didn't go unnoticed. 

Taeyeon looked up at her. She started making hand motions that the blonde instantly recognized as sign language. She didn't understand it, but she recognized it as the motions that the deaf or mute used to communicate. Unbeknownst to her, Jessica had signed "I'm sorry, but I'm deaf."

She saw that look of despair once again cross those baby brown eyes. Eyes that she'd somehow grown quite find of. Suddenly everything made sense. Why she was so sad when Taeyeon mentioned music, why she couldn't hear her at their first meeting, why she never spoke. Especially why she was so sad when Taeyeon mentioned singing. She must've loved it very much.

Everything suddenly fell silent. There were no birds chirping, or animals fussing about. No people, no wind, no cars, nothing.

She wondered if this was what Jessica had to endure everyday.

She looked at the brunette again, wide dark eyes searching apprehensive baby brown. Jessica looked terrified. She seemed ready to break down, hands trembling slightly. Taeyeon recognized anxiety, almost as if the brunette was frightened. 

The blonde wrote painfully slow on a Post-It, and Jessica looked over at her. She was scared. Scared of what Taeyeon might think. Scared of what could happen. She took a deep shuddering breath and braced herself.

Taeyeon finally stopped writing, and took Jessica's wrist in her hand. Flipping it over, she stuck the pink Post-It on Jessica's pale skin.

"You're perfect to me."

Suddenly the wind picked up again, gently ruffling their hair. The birds started to chirp again, and the sound of leaves rustling returned. A jogger ran by, casting the two a quick glance. The distant squeals of children and calls of parents resumed. The atmosphere was lively again. 

Jessica looked up to be greeted with Taeyeon's bright, comforting smile. She returned the smile tentatively, looking away. 

Taeyeon couldn't stop grinning. She felt blessed. She'd finally found something in her life she really cared about and wanted to protect. She felt blessed to meet this girl, and blessed that she could hear and see, and sing. She swore to herself she'd never let music go, for both their sakes. She remembered the despairing look in her eyes, and promised she'd do anything she could to prevent that from coming to Jessica again.

"You're perfect to me…"