When he was much younger, Bang YongGuk had convinced his twin, YongNam to start a band with him. YongNam wasn’t exactly fond of making noise, especially with homemade instruments, instead preferring the much quieter hobby of colouring. But, after much instance from YongGuk, he ended up sitting behind several empty ice cream tubs with a wooden spoon in one hand and a spatula in the other while YongGuk himself was standing in front of him screaming - or as he saw it, singing - nonsense into their older sister Natasha’s hairbrush. YongGuk, although the only one enjoying himself – until the point at which Natasha found them and screeched about them messing around in her things – did often see his twin smiling slightly in the corner of his eye.

As they grew older, their tastes and interests grew further apart, until the point where they eventually curved back around into a similar ideals and plans. Both twins had always admired their fathers work. Their father was a world renowned scientist, studying at a large biomechanical laboratory. His research had never been fully comprehensible to the young twins, but there were some things that were easier to grasp than others. YongNam understood more of the engineering than YongGuk did, however YongGuk did grasp some of the biological concepts, both earlier on than their father thought was possible. Thus, they strived from an early age to enter a similar field to their father.

They entered the same school and for several years were in the same class. However, the more tests that came, the more assessments that got sent home, the more YongGuk seemed to fall behind his twin. The knowledge was there, it was obvious to everyone. It just didn’t seem to make it down on to the paper. Neither YongGuk’s father nor his mother seemed to be able to find the reason behind it. His teachers all stated that YongGuk handed his work in on time that he managed to at least complete it; the work however, never made sense until YongGuk himself read what he had written aloud.

So, in his third year of primary school YongGuk’s mother eventually had to watch as YongGuk wrote his homework with the help of YongNam. It would forever confuse the Bang family as to why YongGuk never seemed to be able to write what he wanted to say. When it came to numbers he didn’t have any problems, they spoke for themselves. Yet, when it came to literacy that was a different story.

Words just didn’t seem to work for YongGuk. They just didn’t flow correctly. Grammar, spelling, punctuation… None of it made sense to him. He would write exactly what he needed to in his head, but when it was translated on paper, no one was able to understand what his symbol like words meant. His parents hired several tutors for him over the course of his primary school life, but when none of them, not even a literary therapist could help correct his mistakes, couldn’t help teach him how to correctly write words, they started too asked for special consideration for him during tests.

As they started high school, YongNam attempted to help his brother during assessment tasks, writing what YongGuk told him to in order to at least give his twin the credit he deserved. This eventually subsided when YongNam had his own high grades to maintain. YongGuk never felt any sort of hatred toward YongNam for his dwindling help. He understood. 

YongGuk understood quite well that he was different. That he was smart, that his written words didn’t match anything teachers wanted them to be. That they didn’t match what he wanted to say. He knew quite well that there wasn’t much hope for him if he couldn’t fix his problem. But he was so sure that it would make sense to someone other than himself someday. He was positive that he would be able to become a scientist just like his father.

It was toward his last few years of high school that YongGuk started to get partnered with students his age as the schools attempt to better prepare him for future life. Since he insisted on attending university they made an extra effort in attempting to translate his writing. Several of his peers refused to continue to work with him after a two or so classes of attempted translation work.

They didn’t hate YongGuk, no one could. Students were either too afraid of his height and deep voice or besotted by his adorable personality to hate him.

 But working with him was another story. It made things difficult for them, their social life struggled as it took hours for YongGuk to write out a day’s notes in more readable hangul. It took him time to research assessments and slowly iterate what he wanted to be written.

It didn’t take long before the majority of the school turned down the idea of working with YongGuk as a translator. The school even offered it as an extra credit class, which several students would attend a handful of times before deciding that the effort that went into it was too much in preparation for the future.

But, YongGuk never gave up in attempting to write like the other students. He was determined to do well in order to attend the university he needed in order to become a biologist.

It was around his second last year of high school that Kim HimChan got transferred to the same school as YongGuk. It wasn’t a big deal, no one really paid any attention to the new student. Rumours did spread about him though, as they do. Many of them revolved around the number of girlfriends he had and how often he got what he wanted because of his pretty face. HimChan never paid attention to them, there was no point, rumours where, after all, just rumours.

Kim HimChan wasn’t an honour student. He didn’t get the greatest marks in the world, nor did he play teacher’s pet. He had no time to pay attention to girls and therefore didn’t have a girlfriend – or more than one. If anything, HimChan was one of the more normal students. The more boring students. It was just that he had a pretty face. That’s why people often assumed that he was an angel in other areas of life as well. When in fact, other than his pretty face, he felt he didn’t have much to offer society.

That was until he was assigned as YongGuk’s new tutor, quite against his will, three months into his first term at the school.

HimChan had of course heard rumours of YongGuk. He didn’t believe them, how could he when they were so contradictory. Some said that he was someone to be feared, that he would eat you alive if you said the wrong thing to him. Others said that he was the biggest teddy bear with a passion for the environment. The only thing everyone seemed to agree on was that there was something wrong with his mind. That he was illiterate or dyslexic or something along those lines.

This was all HimChan had to go one when his homeroom teacher told him that he had been assigned as the boy’s new tutor. Honestly, with such contradictory rumours, he didn’t know whether to expect a tall brooding boy with murder in his eyes or a larger boy with a misunderstood grin. So, when he walked in to the boy’s classroom on the following day he was surprised to find an average sized boy with a cute smile on his face.

“You must be my new tutor.” He said, his voice was deep and completely supported the rumours surrounding his supposed murderous intent. However, his tone was nothing more than cheerful.

HimChan nodded, bowing slowly and slightly, “I’m Kim HimChan.”

YongGuk bowed in return, “Bang YongGuk…”

They end up across from each other at the desk, sitting in silence for two minutes, both avoiding eye contact where possible. For both of them it felt like an eternity.

YongGuk, deciding it was time, moved to set out his books on the table. All, to him, completely legible.

“So…” HimChan started, shuffling his feet under the desk, as YongGuk opened a note book. “I’m honestly not sure what it is that I am actually meant to be helping you with so… Yeah…”

That made YongGuk chuckle, he hadn’t expected someone to tutor him without any clue as to what it was that he needed to tutor him for. All of his previous student partners had wanted to get straight to the point, hoping to be the first to decipher the riddle that was his illegible handwriting. He pushed his note books toward the other, and pointed at his work.

“This,” he muttered, “Is what seems to be my problem.”

HimChan nodded, and pulled the book closer, reading through its content as best as he could, forehead furrowed and eyes focused. YongGuk had waited for that moment, that look that said the other would give up, but it never came. It surprised him.

Minutes passed, HimChan spending a copious amount of time on each line, treating every page as if it were a fragile artifact at a museum. The further into the note book he got, the tighter the lines in his forehead became, until they slowly softened and seemingly disappeared as his eyes widened and lips curled into a smile.

“You write in a code?”

YongGuk’s eyes widened. No one had ever managed to see his work that way before. No one had ever seen his work as anything more than a jumbled mess of symbols that were claimed to be letters. Instead they had thought that YongGuk was lying about not being dyslexic, that he was lying about having been tested. Never in his entire school life had anyone suggested that the mess of half letters and numbers, squiggles and lines could ever be code. 

“I’ll take that as a yes?” Himchan asked, scratching his nose and continuing to shuffle his feet.

“I guess.” YongGuk muttered, honestly, he wasn’t sure. He had never been sure about his work, as he had always been taught that the way he wrote was wrong, but never able to get out of the habit of doing so.

“Do you mind if I borrow your note books for today?”

A shrug from YongGuk was all that could be provided for HimChan. YongGuk couldn’t exactly say ‘no’, HimChan obviously wanted to help him out, otherwise he wouldn’t have signed up for the extra work. 

“I promise I will give it back tomorrow.” HimChan smiles, stuffing the books into his backpack before waving a goodbye and leaving the school, and YongGuk.