Sori’s days started to consist of the same old routine: First, she would slowly get out of bed, find something quick to eat, and then continue to read for the rest of the day. She had read more books in the past few weeks than she had in her entire lifetime. She felt that reading was the only way to forget that she was hearing impaired. The only times she would go out would be to either go to the hospital for checkup’s and rehab, or to go to the super market and the book store.

Her mom had only dropped by to see Sori once, and that was to yell at her for what she did to Haejin. Her mother truly seemed to only care about marrying Sori off and getting her pregnant. Her desperation for Sori to get married and have kids was a little overboard. Her father on the other hand, was too busy with work to care for anyone but his money.

The only person Sori was seeing regularly was Dongin. But everyday, Jinyoung would also send her text messages. Jinyoung always sent her messages despite Sori’s plain replies.

“I just finished practice right now. You’ve eaten already, right? Sleep well Sori-ah, and take care” - Jinyoung

“Sori-ah, it’s raining a lot lately, huh? Don’t catch a cold” - Jinyoung

“Sori-ah, let’s meet soon when the weather clears up. You should come and greet the members too” - Jinyoung

In some way, it made Sori smile, but at the same time, she felt apologetic towards him. She was unsure why, but whenever she would think about Jinyoung, her chest began to hurt. She was confused of what these feelings meant, but she assumed she was just feeling bad for ignoring the, unusual, effort he was putting into talking to her.

Suddenly, Sori received a text message from non other than, Jinyoung.

“Sori-ah, I’m near a coffee shop that’s across from your apartment. Let’s meet there in 10 minutes. You’ll come, right? It’s raining outside, so bring an umbrella.”

Sori was unsure of what to reply Jinyoung with. She wanted to go see him, but she wasn’t in the mood to act happy. She felt like she had to put on a show in front of people so they wouldn’t judge her. Since it would be ruder to reject his offer, she decided to go.

“Sori-ah” Jinyoung waved.

“Hello” Sori bowed and sat down awkwardly. She placed her phone on the table since she knew Jinyoung would speak to her via text, which made her feel more awkward.

“You can say simple sentences to me, I’m slowly learning how to read lips” Sori revealed. She didn’t feel very comfortable being the only one talking. She came to hate it.

“Oh, really? That’s great! How have you been lately?” Jinyoung asked.

“I’m fine, I guess” Sori replied.

“Do you feel better?” he questioned.

“Not really” Sori truthfully replied, looking down at the table in front of her. “Jinyoung, can I ask you something?” Sori suddenly said, brining her head back up. “Sure, what is it?”

“Why are you doing all this?” Sori asked, she was always very straightforward when it came to guys.

Jinyoung was hesitant to answer, nervously staring at Sori for a few moments until he reached in his pocket and took out his phone.

“Can’t we be friends? Why, are you uncomfortable with me? Do you hate me?” Jinyoung texted.

“It’s not that I hate you…it’s just…it’s hard for me to be friends with you. We don’t really know all that much about each other, and now my hearing is gone so I feel it’ll be difficult to start a new relationship. I’m just confused as to why you’re worrying about me so much….” Sori confessed.

Jinyoung thought for a second about what to say. He began to type something but was hesitant to send it.

“I think It’s because I’ve grown…to like you Sori…a lot.” Right when Jinyoung was about to send it, someone interrupted.

“Kim Sori! There you are!” Mrs. Kim yelled. Sori turned around to see who Jinyoung was looking at with such a surprised expression.

“Mom? What are you doing here? How did you see me?”

“I could see you from across the street. Let’s go, we have somewhere to be!” Mrs. Kim ordere, grabbing Sori’s arm. Sori didn’t know what was going on. Mrs. Kim used Sori’s disability as an excuse to not tell her where she was going. She can’t hear me anyway, so why should I bother telling her? She’ll refuse if I did too Mrs. Kim thought.

Jinyoung quickly ran outside to stop her. “Mrs. Kim, wait!” he called. “What do you want? I don’t have time for chit-chat.” She snapped.

“Where are you taking her?” Jinyoung asked.

“It’s non of your business, who are you? Her boyfriend? If you are then beat it! She’s going to get engaged soon,” she declared.

A light bulb lit at those words, “You’re taking her to see that creepy tall guy, aren’t you?” Jinyoung said, referring to Haejin.

“Who?” Mrs. Kim asked, confused. Sori was looking at Jinyoung, unaware of what was going on. Her eyes couldn’t catch up with the conversation, which made her feel extremely frustrated and anxious. Jinyoung grabbed Sori's wrist and pushed her towards him, which unlocked the grip Sori’s mom had on her arm.

“Excuse me! What the hell is your problem!” Mrs. Kim yelled.

“Sori-ah, let’s go,” he said, looking at her seriously. Before Sori could ask questions, Jinyoung began to run, pulling her with him.

“What are you doing?” Sori yelled. “Just follow me!” They didn’t have time to open up their umbrellas so their heads began to soak from the pouring rain.

After 5 minutes of running, Jinyoung and Sori went into a bookstore. “What was that all about?” Sori asked, out of breath. Jinyoung put up his index finger, signaling that he needed a minute to breath.

“Your mom” he breathed “was going to take you to see that sasaeng fan of yours.”

“Eh? sasaeng fan.. you mean Haejin!” Sori asked. “Yeah, that guy…" Jinyoung clarified. Sori was staring at Jinyoung with a blank expression. “did I go to far? I messed up didn’t I? I shouldn’t have meddled in” Jinyoung thought, looking at Sori.

Sori suddenly burst out in laughter. “You realized she was going to take me to see Haejin? You really saved me Jinyoung. Did you see the look on my moms face!” she exclaimed, continuing to laugh.

Jinyoung slowly started to laugh along with her. He admired her laughter and her smile. It was the first time that he saw her smile like that. It all began to rush through him; he now knew for sure that he had feelings for Sori. “She’s really beautiful” he thought.

“Let’s stay in here until the rain stops” Sori suggested.

Both Sori and Jinyoung headed to the 'music' section and grabbed a book to pass time. They decided to sit in an empty corner on the floor.

They both quietly read their books without a word. Jinyoung was so focused on what he was reading that he lost track of time. He looked beside him to find Sori fast asleep, with her book wide open on her lap.

 He carefully picked it up and closed it. “She must have trouble sleeping” he thought.

Sori’s head was slowly tilting towards Jinyoung, until finally, it hit his shoulder. Jinyoung gazed at Sori’s sleeping complexion and smiled. He brushed her hair away from her face and slowly leaned his head against hers.

An hour passed by. Both Jinyoung and Sori were fast asleep until someone started to pat Sori on the shoulder.

“Huh-” Sori shot up, bumping Jinyoung's head. “Ow” Jinyoung muttered, rubbing the side of his head.

“The book store is closing soon, you need to leave” one of the employees told them.

“Oh, Sorry...” Jinyoung and Sori mumbled, still half asleep.

“I’ll walk you home” Jinyoung suggested. Sori didn’t refuse since she was quite scared to walk home at night.

As Jinyoung and Sori were approaching her apartment building, Jinyoung spotted someone standing outside the entrance from afar. “Lee Haejin” Jinyoung whispered.

Jinyoung quickly pulled Sori to the side so he wouldn’t see her.

“What’s going on, Jinyoung?” Sori questioned. “It’s Lee Haejin” it was too dark so Sori wasn’t able to read Jinyoung’s lips. Sori looked down in frustration. She felt disadvantaged, the thing she loathed the most since she lost her hearing.

“One second, Sori-ah” Jinyoung said, squeezing one of Sori's hands to reassure her everything was ok.

Jinyoung quickly ran up to Haejin who was with 2 other friends. They all looked drunk.

“What are you doing here, huh?” Jinyoung spat.

“Well look who it is? Pretty boy, come to save the day again?” Haejin sneered. “The security won’t let me in so I’m waiting out here for her. Why don’t you call her down for me?” he asked, patting Jinyoung shoulder. “I think it’s best you leave” Jinyoung coldly replied, shaking his hand off.

“Who do you think you are to tell me what to do, Huh?” Haejin looked like he was about to get violent.

“look, Sori isn’t home right now, she’s… In the hospital, so just beat it!” Jinyoung spat.

“Let’s just leave, Haejin” One of his friends suggested. “The girl's not coming and we already have 3 girls waiting for us at the hotel, let’s just go. We’ll try again next time.”

Jinyoung was disgusted by what his friend had just said. It took every last muscle in his body to hold himself back from doing something. “for Sori’s sake I won’t do anything this time” Jinyoung convinced himself.

“Fine, whatever. See you next time, pretty boy” Haejin sneered as he left.

Jinyoung ran over to Sori and took her hand. “Everything’s okay now” he mouthed to her. “What was going on?” Sori questioned. “There were a few drunk guys standing outside of the apartment so I got the security guard to shoo them away, no worries” Jinyoung said, smiling at her in comfort. As they were walking to her apartment building, Sori’s eyes went back and forth from Jinyoungs hands holding hers, to his protective gaze. Her cheeks became red as butterflies flew inside her stomach “he’s really good looking” she realized, "Wait... what am i saying... why am i even feeling like this? Get it together Kim Sori!" She quickly stopped herself from smiling and looked away before Jinyoung could notice her gaze on his.

Sori awkwardly let go of Jinyoung’s hand once they got to the front of her apartment building.

“Bye, Sori-ah, take care” Jinyoung bowed.

“Thanks for saving me today. See you later” Sori said with a warm smile before heading into her apartment building.

“She said “see you later”. That means, we’ll see each other again” Jinyoung thought, a big smile appeared on Jinyoung's face that he couldn’t get rid of. “see you later” he repeated in his head.

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