Kihyun’s eyes shot open.  Hands instantly coming up to defend himself as his tired mind tried to shake the dark dream.  It had been a bad week for sleeping, it was always a bad week leading up to starting school again, but the last week had been particularly horrible.  He turned his head and frowned as he saw Hyunwoo’s arm dangling off his bed across from him.  He was still safe; he was at still at home.  With Hyunwoo close nothing can harm him, Hyunwoo would protect him.

                Kihyun closed his eyes tightly and repeated his mantra in his head.  Like he had done for the last fourteen years he had lived with the boy.

                “What’s wrong Hyunnie?”  Hyunwoo’s gruff voice asked causing Kihyun to jump a little.  “Is it about the new year again?  I’m sorry we couldn’t make it work so we were in the same class, but the office assured me that all the teachers would be aware of your condition.  You don’t have to worry, but if it does become an issue we will talk to the office again.  Okay?”  As always Kihyun didn’t answer, just nodded to what his brother was saying.  Hyunwoo let out a long sign, “come here you brat, I’m not going to let you go to school looking like a skinny panda again.”

                There was a shuffle as Hyunwoo rolled over to face the wall and pressed himself as close to it as possible to fall back asleep and Kihyun was grateful.  Hyunwoo always understood him, always took care of his fears like this.  Carefully Kihyun moved over to his brother’s bed, crawling on top of the blankets and pulling the spare they kept at the foot of the bed over his arms.  It was as close as Kihyun had ever allowed himself to sleep next to someone.

                “Don’t worry so much Hyunnie; Hoon wouldn’t want you to worry.  Mama definitely wouldn’t have wanted that either, okay?”  There was a small sniff and Kihyun froze in adjusting the blanket on his shoulder.  Hyunwoo rarely cried, Kihyun never knew how to deal with it when he did.  “Kihyun, I know you don’t like it, but just for tonight, can I sleep facing you?”  Kihyun’s heart hurt, his protector was scared and in pain, it wasn’t something Kihyun ever liked to see.

                With a crooked finger he slowly traced a ‘yes’ on to Hyunwoo’s bare shoulder.  It was almost instantaneous that the boy rolled over to look at Kihyun with tears in his eyes.  “Thank you Hyunnie.”  Kihyun gave his brother his best smile before scooting as close to the edge of the bed as possible, the wide gap between them gave Kihyun little comfort.

 

~

 

                “Okay, now you know to text me if you have any problems at all.”  Hyunwoo said, turning to face Kihyun at the entrance of his class.  “And all the teachers have been made aware of the reasons you have to step out, so if you need to leave please don’t torture yourself by staying.  You still need to text me.  If anyone bothers you, text me, if…”  Hyunwoo stopped as Kihyun lifted a braced hand with a small smile.

                I will text you if anything happens, promise.  It was stiff and barely legible due to his braces, but after years of therapy for his hands, it was the only amount of communication Kihyun would do.

                “Fine, I get it, I’ll stop babying you.”  Hyunwoo held his hands up in front of him with a smile.  He started to back away slowly before his nose twitched.  “Don’t go making friends with the wrong sort of people Kihyun, please, I don’t think I can take that worry.”

                Kihyun rolled his eyes as Hyunwoo continued to back away with a smile, mouthing good luck as he went.  With a quick meditating breath Kihyun knocked on the door, the sound was muffled, but loud enough to pause the teacher in her lesson.

                He entered the room on an exhale, shuffling over to the teacher, determinedly staring at the floor. 

                “You must be Kihyun.”  She said lightly, flipping a sheet over in her hand.  The attendance, Kihyun realized.  “Class, I would like to introduce your new classmate, Kihyun.”  Kihyun did a quick bow to the class, looking over all the heads in the room to the decorated back wall.  “Now I want you all to understand, Kihyun is a mute.  He cannot talk.  So please give him time to write his responses down.”  Kihyun felt the blush of shame rise on his cheeks.  Of course they would have to make that kind of announcement to the whole class.  “Kihyun why don’t you take the empty seat in the back next the door, you will be Hyungwon’s seat mate.”

                Kihyun bobbed his head to show that he had heard and made his way to the only empty seat available next to a sleeping boy.

                “Class please open your workbooks to where we left off yesterday.  Kihyun that would be page 53, come see me after class if you have any questions.”  Kihyun nodded, trying to stop the blush that now heading towards his ears.  He opened his English text to the correct page, letting out a silent breath he had been holding.  It was a section that he had already covered at his previous school…last year.  Kihyun grimaced as the teacher began her lesson, if this was where they were in their last year of High school Kihyun was worried he wasn’t going to learn anything more than he already had.

                Classes droned on, his seatmate slept through every single one of them.  Not one teacher made an effort to wake him at all.  The only reason Kihyun wasn’t worried he was seeing things was because this other classmates would turn and look at the boy when he would sigh and hum into his arms.  He had no problems with his lessons either.  In almost every class he was ahead, by chapters maybe even books. 

                And he had no problems.  None of the teachers questioned his recorder during the class, most likely understanding that he would have a hard time keeping up with note taking.  When they did ask him to answer a question; they would wait patiently for him to write the answer in a big enough scrawl for them to read at the front.  None of the teachers seemed to have a problem with his disability.  None except for this math teacher who had given Kihyun a rude sneer when he flipped through attendance.

                “Kihyun!  How about you tell us the answer to number two.”  Kihyun gulped.  He held up two of his gloved fingers high enough that the teacher would be able to see, but the man had turned his back as Kihyun’s hand made it to the air, marker poised on the board for an answer.  Kihyun frowned and dropped his hand, as he did so the teacher turned with a glare.  “Well Kihyun?  I didn’t hear anything.”  Frustrated, Kihyun wrote a giant number two, large enough to fill an entire sheet of his note book and lifted it above his head, the teacher turned around again.

                “We are waiting Kihyun.  Why must you insist holding the class up like this?”  Kihyun frowned, never had a teacher acted like such a jerk to him before, not on the first day meeting him.

                There was a smack of lips next to him as his seatmate shifted in his sleep.

                “Kihyun!  Answer me please, the answer for number two is…?”  Kihyun could feel tears prickling at the corner of his eyes as he tried again, holding his fingers up in the correct amount.

                “He says its two you ing cretin.”  A deep voice rumbled next to him, causing Kihyun to jump and his teacher to hastily drop his marker, suddenly pale.

                “Oh, Hyungwon, I didn’t realize you were here today.”

                “Shut the up and continue the damn lesson, don’t let me catch you pulling this bull again.”

                The teacher scrambled, picking up his marker from where it had rolled across the floor and quickly writing the number two next to the equation on the board.  “Yes, Kihyun was correct the answer is two, now can anyone tell me how Kihyun came up with this answer?” 

                Kihyun tilted his head in study of his math teacher.  Gone was the rude arrogant man from earlier and in his placed was a pale hunched figure that would constantly glance at the door like he expected someone to come walking through the doors at any moment.

                The boy next to him yawned and pressed his fist to his cheek, staring at Kihyun’s shocked figure.  “Sorry about him.  He forgets he shouldn’t be a or bully people.” 

                Kihyun gave him a small smile and quickly wrote a thank you note sliding the book between him so the boy could read it.

                Hyungwon yawned again, giving him a sleepy smile.  “I like you kid.  Do me a favor and kick me awake for the next period, I have something to do for free time and then I’ll show you around the school for lunch.  Okay?  We’ll meet under the big tree in the courtyard.”

                Kihyun nodded with a small smile and watched in amazement as Hyungwon promptly fell back asleep.