Taehyung wakes up to his ears ringing rather than the alarm that’s not supposed to ring for another three hours. It’s four in the morning and he can’t fall asleep from the annoying buzz that’s going through his ears. It was like this on most nights, the noise that made silence impossible. Curling himself into a fetal position, he pressed his palms onto his ears; the pressure relaxing his mind a little before letting it go to think about everything. Stuff like death was a scary concept to Taehyung. Through the dark he could see the outlines of Jimin and Jungkook. He could go and get one of them to cuddle with him but there was concert rehearsals the next morning so he decided against the alluring idea. 

The next morning, they all gather in the van. Taehyung is literally bouncing with happiness when Yoongi lets him use his new pair of headphones. The experience is cut short when Seokjin pulls one earbud out. “Even manager-hyung could hear that, and he’s sitting up front with the rest of the idiots screaming their butts off.” Taehyung doesn’t say anything ‘cause to him, the volume was just right.

He tells himself that it’ll pass soon enough and how it wasn’t permanent. The ringing that was bugging him for almost a month was just a thing that singers went through normally. It was hard to keep the idea alive when he was straining to hear what Jimin was humming or what Namjoon was trying to tell him about the new album.

Lately, he’s been starting to tune people out when he can’t quite hear what they are saying. Only nodding when he assumes it’s his turn to give a response.

It was temporary. Not a big deal.

New Year’s comes around and the members all leave to hang with their families for a while. As he hugs Jimin, Taehyung can’t help but strain to hear what Jimin is trying to say to him. “Don’t party too hard without me there. And make sure you don’t hug your dog to death.”

“Puh-lease, there’ll only be a party if I’m there.”

“Whatever you say, see you in a week Taehyunggie.”

When they hug, Taehyung hears Jimin’s breath as he pulls away from the kiss he placed on his cheek. It was going to be a long week.

After spending a week with his family, his hearing doesn’t get any better. He’s an hour late to practice since he didn’t hear his alarm clock go off. 

“This is what you get for not sleeping at the dorms. No one’s there to drag you to practice.”

“Maybe I just get better sleep without your snoring hyung.” Namjoon gave him a jokingly glare before turning back to the speakers.

They are practicing one of their new songs but Taehyung keeps on missing his cue to join in the chorus; throwing the rest of the vocals in a heap of frustration. 

“We can change out the song to another one.” But Taehyung doesn’t want to change the song; he knows how hard Yoongi worked on it and how proud he was of it so he was not going to just put the song on the recall list. 

“No, just try to cue me in when it’s almost my turn. I can do it.” Seokjin isn’t convinced but tells Namjoon to replay the song anyways. It takes about three more tries before he comes into he song at the perfect time. They take a break and Taehyung slumps against the mirror watching the others. He watches as Hoseok and Seokjin come up to him and move their mouths but he doesn't catch what their trying to say. 

“Stop it! I can’t hear what you’re trying to say. Stop it!”

“What? I’m not speaking in gibberish, what do you mean?”

Taehyung focuses in Hoseok’s mouth before responding. “Exactly, what do you mean? I can’t hear you!”

“Are you joking right now ‘cause I really don’t know if you’re serious or not.”

The look of fear and confusion tells the two of them that Taehyung was not joking.

“Go get manager hyung. Quickly.” They watch as Hoseok moves at the speed of light out of the practice room.

“But rehearsals.” Seokjin gives him a look before shaking his head.

“Doesn’t matter right now. We’ll figure it out. Let me go tell the others, or did you want to do it yourself?”

“I wouldn’t really be able to tell what they’re trying to say anyways.”

“How come you can understand me though?”

“You don’t talk fast, I can read your lips.”

“Well, let’s go find Namjoon.”

The doctor tells Taehyung it could be permanent; they go to several of other doctors but get the same response each time. His deafness was noise induced and could never come back. It would slowly start to fade away until he couldn’t hear a thing.

Practices for the concert still went on, much to the constant assurance from Taehyung that it was alright and he could do it. He had their debut songs and dances all memorized from all the practicing they did back then. 

“Are you sure about this?” Jungkook looks at him and speaks as slowly as possible.

“I can still sing Kookie, it’s just my ears that are just bipolar.”

They eat the rest of their lunch in silence.

Halfway on their tour, they’re resting in a hotel in Japan and are hoping to get as much sleep as possible. Taehyung walks into the room he’s sharing with Jimin, with he said boy deeply engrossed with one of his own signing books.

“What are you doing?”

“Reading.” Taehyung gives him a look that he knows Jimin can’t see before taking the book from Jimin’s lap. “Hey! I was reading that!”

“You don’t need to suffer with me. Signing is hard.”

Jimin moves his hand awkwardly but Taehyung can get the message. His manager had been making him practice signing for weeks now; turns out it actually came out handy when he watched as Jimin signed “I like poo” instead of “I like you”.

At the concerts, Taehyung uses vibrations from the speakers to count on when he comes into a song. During dress rehearsal he feels a staccato like sound before turning to see Jimin yelling out “Tae” non-stop into a microphone. “Can you hear me?!” He nods and Jimin gives a sigh of relief. It’s that night after the concert, Taehyung comes out of the shower and looks around the dorm. He can’t hear anything anymore.

The members are all worried, much less for the fact that their concert may be cancelled but more for the fact that Taehyung has locked himself in one of the vocal rooms practicing until his voice goes raw. But he doesn’t know that.

They still perform at concerts but only with songs that Taehyung is confident in performing. The fans don’t question it and they don’t bring the topic up. 

The final concert for their tour is over and it’s been months since Taehyung has even heard a bird chirp in the morning. The members are all heading to bed for the first time in a while but Taehyung can’t shake the uneasiness that’s come over him. He walks to the Bangtan room and locks the door. It’s been months since he’s heard his own voice, he can’t even pronounce some words since he doesn’t know how they sound and he’s been forgetting what some of their own songs sound like. He lets out a sob before sitting against the door. They would have to start preparing for a new album, but how would they do that when he couldn’t even hear? Fear was replaced with frustration as he started to throw everything he saw. He hoped it made noise. Hoped it sounded loud. He was shaking until he heard the door unlock and Namjoon run in with the key in his hand. His mouth made out Jimin’s name and within five seconds the boy came running in. Taehyung dropped the albums that were in his hands and fell into the hug that was offered. Jimin lightly patted his head and he could feel the vibrations that were coming from his throat. He was humming a tune. He cried harder, even when he couldn’t hear, he still fell asleep to Jimin’s voice.

They all agreed that they would take a small break. Just for a few weeks. 

“Jiminnie?”

“Yeah?”

“You should go hang with the others more. Make some friends with other bands and some of the rookies from our company.”

Taehyung’s gotten really great at reading people’s mouth when they talk; whenever he and Jimin are too tired to sign they just sit face to face and talk.

“You bored of me?”

“No. It’s just I’m not that fun to hang with much anymore. You don’t need to force yourself to hang with me. It isn’t fair to you.”

“Listen. Or no watch. You could be blind or in a coma but I would still rather hang with you than anybody else. Plus, I have faith that it’ll come back.”

“Thank you.”

Jimin gives him his signature smile before closing his eyes to take a nap.

It was their debut anniversary and out of the seven members, Taehyung surprisingly didn’t wake up last. Crazy Jimin always put a timer for the rice cooker. Who in the world did that? It was ringing for the past five minutes and somehow no one else in the dorm noticed it. He threw away the timer after using the butcher knife to break it in half. Music was coming from the Bangtan room as he stabbed a straw into his strawberry milk. He heard thumping sounds before he turned to see Jimin with a look of distress plastered on his face.

“My mom bought me that timer! That’s how I know when the rice is ready when it’s my turn to make the rice! You know how Yoongi gets all antsy when the rice is overcooked! God Tae, only you would wake up to beat the crap out of a timer. Wait! You can hear that? You can hear!”

Taehyung stands there with his mouth wide open. Everything is so loud. He drops the milk onto the ground before pouncing on Jimin. Tears were running down his face and he hears Jimin laugh. 

“I told you it would come back.” The sound of his voice was so soothing to Taehyung and he feels Jimin’s tears on his shirt. “But I’m serious about that timer. You need to get me a new one.”

“Anything. I’ll get you anything. Thank you.”

Taehyung didn’t need to look to know the smile that was on Jimin’s face.

Hey guys! I hoped you liked this story! Thanks for reading it!. I hope that you can leave a comment? Gah, I am so demanding (insert awkward wave) but it really means a lot to me when you guys leave a comment~ I'll talk to you guys in my next story! Oh and please, add me as a friend if you guys want to talk, I'm down to just chatting~ 

Have a great day/night/afternoon/evening/etc~

meiscribbles.