Sometimes he couldn’t help but wonder if the world would ever stop turning. 

The walls were white and the floors were tiled. Across the room there was a boy crying. From the distance Kris couldn’t tell what was wrong, but from the bored look plastered on the kid’s mother’s face, it was probably wasn’t anything serious. 

A hand suddenly fell on Kris’ shoulder; startled, Kris turned around to see Dr. Kim smiling down at him. Once she had his attention she began to wave her hands around while moving her lips. 

Unfortunately, no sound came out, or at least — not to Kris. 

That’s right, Kris was deaf. Well, recently deaf. Unable to keep up with her hand movements, and too lazy to attempt lipreading —a skill he had not yet mastered— Kris merely shook his head and stood up. Understanding his mood Dr. Kim smiled at him before turning around, leading him to her office. 

This was his last check up. It had been two months and six days since it happened, and finally Kris was being cleared to leave the hospital and go home.  

Dr. Kim had been Kris’ doctor during his stay, and she understood his non-motivated state of mind at the thought of learning sign language, or anything else that would improve his situation. Every time they had a session she would write to him —their preferred method of communication: she would right and Kris would nod or shake his head, depending on his mood— and lecture him on the importance of moving on. 

To Dr. Kim, moving on meant learning sign language, getting a job where he wasn’t required to hear, and adapting to everyday life as a disabled person. Like always, Dr. Kim would lecture and Kris wouldn’t listen, not that he could hear anyways. 

Dr. Kim finished writing and slid the notepad over to Kris. “It’s your last check up, have you given any consideration into what you are planing to do next?” 

Kris shrugged; he assumed he would be going back to his apartment and live there until his savings couldn’t cover the rent anymore, after that, he didn’t know. 

Dr. Kim sighed, at least, it looked like she did. Her shoulders raised slightly and her chest expanded, before they fell back down slowly and she hunched over slightly. Kris had taken to observing people in the past two months, not like he had anything better to do. 

After scribbling some more on her note pad she pushed it back to him. “You’re not mute you know, you can still talk even if you can’t hear it. Also, stop acting like this is the end of the world, your life will go on. Your “done with life” attitude is getting old, I know your just not putting in the effort cause your lazy.”

Kris couldn’t say much, he was lazy. Dr. Kim was right, Kris wasn’t mute, but he couldn’t hear his own voice anyways so why bother? 

In all reality, Kris was more lost then anything else. He didn’t feel too helpless, and he definitely didn’t feel pity for himself, but he didn’t know where to go from here. 

The accident had been an unfortunate situation and Kris had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Before it happened he was a recent college graduate, bumming around for a month or so trying to figure out where to go next. This deaf-thing honestly didn’t change much in regards to those plans. 

“I signed you up for a state-appointed tutor.” 

That caught Kris’ attention. His eyes widened and he looked at Dr. Kim in shock. Before he could protest she snatched the notepad back and continued. “Even if you decide to become a hermit and never leave your house, there will come a time in the future when you need to communicate using sign language, not everyone will be able write to you.”

Kris became frustrated, why couldn’t everyone just leave him alone and let him sulk in his apartment for the indefinite future. 

She wrote more. “Listen. He will come to your apartment twice a week for an hour. You don’t need to go out and do anything, just follow his lessons and pick up —at the very least— conversational sign language. There will be a time when you need it.” 

Dr. Kim and him “talked” for a while later and, unfortunately, the following Tuesday at four in the afternoon, Kris found himself impatiently waiting for his stupid tutor to arrive. 

It was weird being back in his house, now that his house didn’t have any noise. It didn’t take him long to realize all the things he used in his everyday life that required sound. 

In the mornings he could set the alarm on his phone, but it’s not like he would be able to hear it. It took a few trial and error mornings before he rigged a temporary solution. While waiting for his new vibrating watch to arrive, Kris put his phone in his pocket and set the vibrate alarm on high. It didn’t work perfectly, and sometimes he slept through it, but it was doable. 

Another time he almost burned down the apartment. On his second day home he made himself noodles. He had the noodles on the stove, forgot to turn the stove off, and then left to let them sit for five minutes. Needless to say, he took a short nap —stupid, he knows— and the next thing he knew, his elderly landlord was shaking him awake and her husband was fanning the smoke out of the room. 

Those were only a few examples of his new, everyday problems. Nevertheless Kris was working through each problem as they came, taking everyday one day at a time. 

Kris grumbled to himself, his tutor was fifteen minutes late. 

It then occurred to Kris, how would be hear if someone was knocking on his door, or ringing the bell? He had also left his door locked so it wasn’t like his tutor could walk right in. 

With a frustrated sigh —and another problem to add to his growing list— Kris walked over to the door and opened it. Sure enough there was someone standing outside, typing furiously on his phone. 

Hearing Kris open the door, the boy looked up —yes, boy, the kid couldn’t be more than eighteen— and smiled at Kris in relief. He began to sign something to Kris, before realization flashed across his face, and he moved to shuffle through his bag. He pulled out and notepad and quickly jotted down something before handing it to Kris. 

“Hi, I’m Tao, nice to meet you! (: I’m your state-appointed tutor.” 

Kris mentally noted the smily face emoji and sighed before pushing his door open wider to let the kid inside. 

With another smile —it was starting to get tiring how happy this kid was— Tao walked past Kris and entered the apartment. Not wanting the kid —Tao— to feel burdened, Kris walked by him and sat down at his kitchen table before motioning to the empty seat across from him. 

Once Tao was settled, he looked to Kris expectingly; Kris raised his eye-brow. Tao quickly wrote to him again, “You aren’t going to introduce yourself?” 

Kris scoffed and continued to stare at Tao with boredom. Tao, now showing the beginning tell-tale-signs of frustration, took something else out of his bag: a small white board and markers. Before writing, “These should be easier than sharing a notepad, and it saves paper.” He smiled again. 

Kris was about to do something, he didn’t really know what, when the kid pulled out another white board from his bag and proceeded to hand it to Kris. 

Kris look confused at the white board in his hands. They were going to talk using these? He guessed it made sense— not that he would say much, but still. 

“You’re Kris right?” 

Kris nodded.

“I’m Tao, your state-appointed sign language tutor.” 

Uncapping the marker Kris finally wrote, “You said that already.” 

Tao flinched slightly at the implied annoyance, but continued on anyways. “Dr. Kim told me that you can talk, you just refuse too. Why?” 

Kris scowled and stood up— this boy was annoying and pushing, two things Kris didn’t like. 

Tao hastily began writing again when he saw Kris move to leave. “I’m sorry! Wait! I shouldn’t have been so forward.” 

Again, Kris scowled before sitting back down. This kid was going to continue to turn up at his house two days a week no matter if he liked it or not— he would have to deal with him either way, no need to make their relationship worse by kicking him out. 

Tao smiled hesitantly before writing. “I can tell you don’t like me all that much, but this is my job, I want to try and help you the best I can.” 

Kris knew that, and that was why he wasn’t kicking the kid out. It didn’t mean though, that Kris wouldn’t knowingly act immature and make his job difficult though— deaf or not deaf, Kris was still Kris. 

“I can see we won’t get very far today, but for future reference I will being coming Tuesday and Saturday afternoons from four to five. Please leave your door unlocked so I can enter when I arrive, and also, please look over this short pamphlet on greetings in sign language.” 

Tao waited for Kris to read through it before he smiled —again— at Kris and held out his hand. 

Not acting too unreasonable, Kris roughly grabbed the kids and and shook it. 

Quickly pulling away from the rough grip, Tao nodded and hastily grabbed his bag and rushed out of the apartment. 

Kris grumbled before grabbing the pamphlet and tossing it in the trash can— not at all thinking about how soft Tao’s hands were, or his eyes gleamed when he smiled. Not at all. 

Stupid tutor.