It wasn't that Minho couldn't speak. He wasn't mute.

It wasn't that Minho couldn't hear. He wasn't deaf.

It was only his choice to not speaking anymore.

It was the easiest way to run away- a true runaway was too soon and too complicated  for a fifteen year old boy-, yet still remaining in the same place.

He was in the middle of his adolescence, as he was slowly growing out of his clothes, he grew out from the naivety and childhood too. It didn't take long for him to realize, the world isn't as pretty and happy place as he imagined- so he chose to ran away to a world that he built up. His parents were going crazy about his sudden mute- they even reached that point where they beat him up to hear anything from him, but it didn't  help also. Minho was strong in mind, if he decided something, it won't change.

After years and years fight against the silence, his parents grew tired of him- and made him go to hospital. To a mental hospital.

Minho was boiling with anger. He was normal, he knew he was normal. It was a choice not a disability.

They think, I'm crazy! he screamed in his head as they made their way to the hospital but in his face, there wasn't a slightest change. He didn't let anything show on his face, he just blankly stared out of the windows as he tried his best to piss his parents off for the last time- a last revenge for sending him to the hospital- with shut them out.

"Hey there! What's your name? Where are you from? How old are you? You look older than me but who knows! Haha!"

It continued for like forever-  it did felt like forever to Minho-, he couldn't even close the boy out because he kept kicking in his mental doors with his annoyingly loud voice. Minho could swear it was on purpose from the side of the nurses whom tried to seduce him but only earned some cold glare.

"You don't talk much as I see." the boy stopped for a moment and Minho took it as he could just run away in this mere second or he won't have another chance, but the boy took a deep breath and began again, didn't even paying attention the way Minho disappointedly fell back on the couch nor the grimace what was plastered on his face since the boy started to speak. He just smiled brightly with his pearly teeth and Minho found himself thinking of why the boy was there since he looked normal- aside from his word vomiting. "It's okay, I talk for two. I'm the simpler Lee Taemin."

Minho didn't know what was 'the simpler' indicative for but he just tossed it away with thinking,

'He's just a weirdo.'

He didn't speak for two, he spoke for a thousand. Minho found himself listening to him a bunch of times and there were times also, when he only realized what he was doing when his mouth was half open to answer on of Taemin's silly questions.

Taemin didn't make his life easier at all. He was always stuck next to Minho and telling his day from the moment he woke up until the moment he was with Minho- even if Minho and Taemin shared the same memories of the day. He still couldn't close Taemin out because he kept putting his feet in to block Minho to close the door. If once he will be able to shut him out, then there won't be problem with anything.

"Ah, Minho don't like chocolate milk. Can you replace it with simple milk?" Taemin called out for one of the nurses who served them dinner and she handed him a carton of milk with an unhappy face, yet Taemin smiled so brightly at her- sometimes Minho didn't understand it how the nurses kept the frown on their faces when Taemin was smiling like this, sometimes he even found himself smiling back to him. Minho just sent questioning gaze toward his roommate.  "What? Do you think I didn't notice last time, when you changed it with empty carton?"

Breakfast, lunch and dinner time were the only times when Taemin stayed silent until he wolfed down the whole meal. Minho always watched amused as the other eat everything in such a short amount of time in a charge to speak again.

"Anyway," Taemin started. "the doctors said I'm close to letting out, and I wanted to thank you for it."

Until this point, Minho still didn't know what was Taemin's problem. He had some guesses but neither was true. He thought Taemin might be anorexic- he was pretty skinny- but then their first meal together, he tossed away this idea as he saw the boy eat more than Minho thinks he could have ever eat. The he thought it was because of his speaking because if Minho could be closed here for not speaking, Taemin could be closed to speak so much. But this wasn't the case as the doctors looked happy to see Taemin speak a lot. He even thought the boy might be depressed but no, Minho haven't seen a person so bright before.

Minho pulled up an eyebrow to ask why with his mimic.

"So you didn't know? You were a big part to make him go away." and the boy didn't made any intentions to continue who was he, and Minho died to ask it but man handled it. His curiosity won't win over himself. He rather concentrated to the food ahead of him, avoiding thinking about how boring will be the silent after Taemin's colourful ramblings.

It was weird how easily he hold back his cynic bastard self. Surprisingly, he didn't even kill Taemin in his mind- as he did to the other who annoyed him. And believe him, Taemin was the most annoying one he has ever met. Minho really wondered why didn't he find Taemin so annoying as others- for example the whole mental hospital- found him. He heard all those hatred toward Taemin- what he didn't fully understand, the boy was hardly anything but rainbows, bunnies and marshmallows- and sometimes he wondered if Taemin heard them thought.

He did.

One an early Wednesday- when Taemin has group session and Minho doesn't, so he can sleep a little more- a very upset and angry Taemin rushed into their room what Minho liked to call it cell because that was it- and without asking it, he laid down next to Minho.

"Minho, do I speak a lot?" the boy turned to Minho, not caring of the intimacy of the situation when they faced to each other and there wasn't place for any of them to move and their nose almost touched. On the other hand, Minho was aware of it- but he brushed it off. It felt nice that Taemin was this comfortable with him but in the same time, he wanted to toss him away because there wasn't a scarier thing than letting someone close to himself.

Minho mindlessly nodded because that was the truth. Taemin's face dropped.

"Am I really annoying?" his eyes were so dark and lifeless, it truly made Minho scared- seeing the always so lively Taemin in this condition.

Minho nodded again, unaware of his movements. He saw tears forming in the other's eyes, he took the boy's face into his hands and massaged his cheeks to comfort him. He wanted to protect Taemin from all the bad things out there and he felt so useless to not to be able to do it.

"Do I annoy you?" Taemin asked lastly, just a quiet whispering as Minho pulled him closer to himself until the point their lips touched in a firm kiss and Minho believed it was the right answer to this question.

Slowly Minho put it together, piece by piece like a puzzle that the boy had slipped personality. He had to put it together because it was the only thing Taemin didn't ever mention.

He wanted to protect him from the bad but, what could he do when the bad was inside of him? He knew because he overheard a conservation between a new doctor who got Taemin's case and Taemin.

"Is he still there?" the doctor asked, concern was heard in his voice.

"Yes, but he hasn't come out for a while." he heard Taemin trying to hide a growing smile in his voice. But that wasn't new to Minho, Taemin was always smiling. "My roommate- Minho- helps me with him."

"Isn't he the one who don't speak?"

"Yes, he is. But he listens." Minho imagined Taemin to blush a little. Once between his ramblings, Taemin told Minho that there were no one to listen to him. Not his parents- he said, they were like strangers, living under the same roof, yet not knowing anything from the other- and he hasn't found friends to speak. No one who would be interested in him. "He doesn't come out when I'm busy talking. Especially with Minho."

"You can't burden him always. You have to teach yourself keeping him out of your mind." as the doctor said it, Minho wanted to yell at him. He was glad that Taemin was speaking to him, that Minho himself could help Taemin a little- when Taemin taught him that the world wasn't as bad as he thought, and showed him a whole new world.

All smile disappeared from Taemin's voice when he replied.

"Okay. I'll try."

After that, Taemin didn't say a word to Minho. Not even when Minho sat next to him and asked in his own way that what's wrong with him. Taemin just shook his head, stood up and searched a point where he could be alone.

Minho was afraid that something will happen.

And it did.

Taemin broke down. He cried and whispered in himself, when Minho stepped through the door of their shared room. He stopped immediately- his heart broke because of the sight immediately too.

"Minho, help me. He's back." Taemin said in normal volume when he realized that Minho was standing behind him. He looked so desperate. He turned back to the wall and murmured something in himself incoherently. When he turned back to Minho again, Taemin was another person, crying yet smiling brightly and calmly said, "No, no. Don't help me. I'm fine by myself."

 Minho wanted to tell him comforting words, to make him stop crying. But he couldn't and it wasn't because of his promise to himself but because the words he wanted to say died down in his throat. He wanted to say something- anything- so he didn't have to watch the boy in this state, but he couldn't. It angered him so much, so he just pulled the boy closer to himself and offered him a shoulder to rely and cry on.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry." the changes in his personalities were obvious. Taemin wanted help, he didn't. He wanted Taemin to believe he was such a burden to everyone, that he was useless, he should just go and die. Minho heard a sentence that made something click in himself.

"You makes even his life miserable."

Minho knew it was about him, so he took all of his strength- both outside and inside- to walk to Taemin, took his face into his arm, not caring if his hold will leave a bruise afterwards, he didn't want to see him in this state when he can change it.

For the first time in years, Minho spoke- raspy and husky from the lack of using- but understandable because he saw Taemin still crying but not whispering to himself. He's gone, now. Minho repeated the same simple sentence over and over to make sure Taemin fully understood him, until the other embraced him and giggled a little.

"Talk to me."

an/ i don't know what to feel about it but i hope you like it :-)