2 days passed...or maybe 3. Wonwoo couldn't tell as his blinds stayed stubbornly shut blocking out all signs of life. He didn't care how long he spent bundled up in his covers eating ice cream straight from the pot and drinking warm black currant juice. He knew he was taking this heartbreak way too seriously but he couldn't help feeling continuously low. He had always had a weak heart- he thinks maybe it was because he was carrying too much of a burden in the first place it only took a slight tap to push him over the edge. Either way he didn't know if he could ever get over it. It was ridiculous really. Utterly immature. Wonwoo had no right to feel as if Mingyu had broken up with him or cheated on him because they were never dating in the first place but he still felt completely abandoned and rejected.

He wondered whether things would be different if he had told Mingyu everything about him straight away without all the initial fussing or if Mingyu and the blonde haired guy were always destined to be just like Wonwoo was destined to live alone for the rest of his life.

But a horrid realisation that Wonwoo will never be able to hear anything again if Mingyu was no longer part of his life hit him so hard he thought he might fall unconsciousness. Suddenly a wave of violent dread and panic rushed towards him. He became desperate and insane from the idea. No thought process was involved before he screamed- so loud the windows could've shattered but it wasn't loud enough to fill his broken ears. Scrunching up his face he hit his ear hard with the palm of his hand but it didn't make a difference. Trying to hear again quickly became an indescribable urge and he found himself searching the house for increasingly loud sounds; a glass which he threw against the wall, a rolling pin against a frying pan, continuous yelling and screaming. Thank God his neighbor was out or else she might've thought Wonwoo was being murdered (though in some ways he was by his own heavy emotions).

Another scream filled the air but landed on deaf ears. This time it ended in a pained whine and a sob as Wonwoo collapsed on a kitchen chair. He wanted to die; he knew otherwise he would spend his whole life feeling this worthless. There's something about taking away someones miracle that can completely break them.

Then out of the corner of his tear trodden eyes Wonwoo noticed a pair of white headphones on the kitchen counter and an idea sprung to life. The idea wasn't soothing or gentle, instead it clawed it's way into Wonwoo desperate thoughts and lied to his broken heart.

The albums Mingyu bought him were on his bookshelf next to his favourite book. He took them down and slid one into the disk slot in his laptop still sniffling and crying as he did so.

The first song was titled 'Lean on me' but of course Wonwoo couldn't hear it so he turned up the volume... still nothing. Then a notification interrupted him.

'Listening on a high volume for too long it could result in loss of hearing'

"Try me." Wonwoo muttered and turned it up even higher.

Once the music hit maximum volume Wonwoo let out a waterfall of tears that stained his cheeks and dripped from his chin. The pressing feeling of vibrating headphones against his ears seriously distressed him but he was determined to hear at least one sound- anything to interrupt this dreadful suffering.

As he cried he pushed out broken sobs that echoed loudly around him. He thought that maybe whatever was stopping him from hearing would grow tired and frail if he made enough noise. He hoped somehow he could crack through the barrier in his ears that would let in his painful melody of wails. The poor boy was a mess; an utter wreck, beyond broken and completely torn apart. The heartbreak and hate for himself had become far too much to handle and now his mental stability was slowly eroding.

He needed to be saved and no matter how much he hated the thought of his saviour to be in the form of a tall, tanned man with pointy canines and sparkling eyes fate was obviously against him because that's who came knocking on his door.

At first Wonwoo thought it was the music that said "Wonwoo! Are you ok?" and he instantly stopped sobbing to let the tears fall in silence.

"Open up!" The voice said and Wonwoo realised it was Mingyu at the door and his stomach dropped.

He tried to stay as silent as possible hoping that Mingyu would assume he wasn't home but little did he know music was still playing on top volume through his headphones.

"Wonwoo. I know you're home. Open up or I'm kicking the door down." Normally Wonwoo would have continued to ignore Mingyu but the seriousness in his voice was no joke and Wonwoo legitimately feared for the safety of his front door.

He threw the headphones down triggering a punch of subtle anger which he blamed on the boy outside his apartment. The anger slyly grew larger and larger in his chest as he thundered towards the door and flung it open. Two strong arms swallowed him seconds after and he nearly fell backwards.

"Get off." Wonwoo huffed into Mingyu's chest.

"No." Mingyu squeezed him tighter. His voice was playful and loving as if this was some kind of joke and that angered Wonwoo even more.

"Get the off me!" He pushed against his chest and heaved Mingyu's arms away.

The latter could only stumble back in shock and that's when he noticed Wonwoo's sore eyes and red face and the shaking in his hands. It frightened him.

"Get out of my house." Wonwoo spat but his voice was almost as weak as his heart.

"What happened?" Mingyu didn't want to leave, he wanted to help.

"Don't even bother, Mingyu. Leave me alone." The anger had become so powerful it was making his entire body shake as if his pulse had turned electric. All Wonwoo could think about was Mingyu walking hand in hand with the blonde man and how that could never be him.

"Please tell me what's wrong?" The contrast between Mingyu's calm attitude and Wonwoo's immature rage was almost eerie.

"You! You're whats wrong. If you had never butted into my life I wouldn't be in this !" Wonwoo pointed an accusing finger at the tall man infront of him who's eyes widened with worry.

Mingyu paused and looked at the floor. After a minute's silence he looked back up and said "Ok."

Nothing more, nothing less.

Wonwoo nearly slapped him. "Don't 'ok' me. This isn't something you can just 'ok'."

"You're angry."

"Yeah. No genius!"

"And that's ok."

Nothing about this was ok. The way Wonwoo felt about everything in his life was far from it. He was practically on the verge of being suicidal- Mingyu had no right to call it 'Ok.'

"If you say that word one more-"

"Punch something." Now mingyu had gone insane too apparently.

"What?"

"Punch a wall, break your headphones, throw a plate. Punch me if you want. Do something to vent."

Wonwoo stayed silent. This whole situation was stupid. He wanted Mingyu to leave so he could hate himself alone and without interruptions. None of them moved- they both just stood and stared. Then something snapped in Wonwoo and he slammed the door with enough force to shudder the building. It set off a shockwave of adrenaline that absorbed his mind and body. He punched the wall. It hurt his fist but he was sure the pain in his heart hurt more so he did it again. His knuckles might have been bleeding but he couldn't see passed the tears in his eyes.

"Get all the anger out." Mingyu said as Wonwoo kicked his lamp.

Then he looked back at the former with snot and water running down his face as if to say "Am I doing it right? Please tell me I'm doing something right." The look shattered Mingyu's heart and a warm sting on his cheek told him that he was crying now too.

Wonwoo's knees buckled and he hit the ground hard. Like a bullet Mingyu rushed to his side and enveloped him in a hug so sincere.

Heart renching bursts of spit and air from Wonwoo as he tried to stop himself from crying hurt the tall boy so much. He wanted to fix him but he didn't know how.

"It's ok." A lie from Mingyu in a gentle whisper.

"No, it's not." A truth from Wonwoo in a pained whimper.

"It is." The lies became desperate.

"That's not true. You don't know how I feel."

"Then tell me."

For the first time in forever Wonwoo said exactly what he was thinking and it was the most releaving moment of his life.

"I thought you liked me too." He sniffed and buried his face into the crevice of Mingyu's neck.

"What?"

Wonwoo could feel it coming; the rejection, the embarrassment, the need to escape to a place where feelings didn't exist. The moment suddenly became a lot less releaving and more so agonisingly trepidatious. But it was too late to turn back now.

"I saw you... with your boyfriend. You never told me."

"What are you talking about?"

"You made me think that you felt the same way I did. So I let myself fall for you. Then I saw you holding hands with that guy outside of SVTea and I think you broke my heart." Wonwoo let his feelings flood out in stutters and snivels.

"Wonwoo, that was Minghao."

Minghao. Him. Mingyu's closest friend or rather boyfriend. The guy he took to the music store before he took Wonwoo. The guy he always talked about and missed because he was in China with his family. Him.

"Is Minghao your boyfriend?" Wonwoo pushed.

"No. I don't have a boyfriend. Minghao's like a brother to me." All the while they were speaking Mingyu held on so tightly to the boy in his arms.

"You were holding his hand." Wonwoo pointed out and Mingyu paused.

Moments passed and Mingyu still hadn't spoke so Wonwoo pulled out of their hug and looked him directly in his eyes.

"Wonwoo... Minghao's blind."

"...Minghao's...blind?" Wonwoo echoed.

"He had a tumor behind his eyes and the doctor told him he would loose his eye sight when they removed it... he moved back to China so he could see his parents one last time before his surgery."

"I didn't know." Wonwoo felt awfully guilty as if he had just kicked a kitten off a cliff. He felt embarrassed too. It was stupid of him to assume he was the only person with a disability in this situation.

"He came to visit for the week. That's why I didn't call as much. He's still getting used to it and I wanted to be by his side all the time. I'm sorry." It was such a Mingyu thing to do; give up everything that made him happy to help a friend in need. Wonwoo admired him.

"I needed to hold his hand or else he would faceplant a lampost." Mingyu chuckled then Wonwoo followed suit. "Last time that happened he made me walk into it too because I laughed at him."

Then Mingyu burst out laughing with a smile featuring his wonderful canines and all Wonwoo could think about was hugging him and smiling with him too. So he did and Mingyu cocooned him softly.

"Sorry." Wonwoo muttered once the giggles died down.

"For what?"

"For not knowing. For expecting you to call. And for being selfish." He drew circles with his fingers in the fabric of Mingyu's shirt.

"It's ok."

That word again.

"You can shove 'Ok' up your ."

Mingyu replied with "Ok." and Wonwoo hit his chest which set them off laughing again.

They remained a bundle on the floor of Wonwoo's hallway for hours just chuckling and chatting back their relationship until it felt like it had never been broken.

Eventually Mingyu stood up and lifted Wonwoo off the ground in a lady carry. He squirmed and screamed to be put down but his tall friend just laughed as he carried him down the hallway to the bathroom where he sat him on the side of the bathtub and ran the tap in the sink until the water was warm. With gentle hands he wiped the dry tears from Wonwoo's cheeks with a flannel.

Then Mingyu's thumb strayed towards Wonwoo's bottom lip where he ran it gently againsts the cracks lightly seperating it from the top. They both froze but their hearts fluttered and danced. Mingyu's eyes seemed fixated with the pink skin under his thumb. Both of their stomachs flourished with butterflies when Mingyu finally began to lean in but before he could close his eyes and connect their lips in a spurr-of-the-moment kiss Wonwoo remembered something insanely important.

"Mingyu, I'm deaf." He spoke so fast it was barely audible.

The tall boy stepped back. "What?!"

"I'm deaf... but I can hear you!" Wonwoo knew he sounded insane. He knew this was about to go terribly wrong but he wanted Mingyu to know because he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.

Mingyu looked kind of hurt. "Is this your way of making fun of Minghao because if it is it's not funny."

"No! No, no, no. I would never do that." Wonwoo waved his hands in front of him and shook his head. "I promise."

Mingyu thought for a moment "So, you're deaf? Seriously?" He raised his dark eyebrows and widened his eyes.

"Yes. I lost my hearing when I was 6 from an ear infection. I've spent the rest of my life not being able to hear anything then you came along, and it's completely and utterly insane, but I can hear you!"

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I know. It took me a while to get used too and it sounds like I've made it up but..."

Mingyu didn't look at all convinced and more so offended that Wonwoo would joke about something like this.

Wonwoo felt his mood drop considerably and he frowned and bowed his head. "Sorry, Mingyu. I shouldn't have thrown this at you so soon. I knew you wouldn't understand."

"You're right," Mingyu kneeled down so he could see Wonwoo's eyes. "I don't understand. But please tell me everything so I can."

That's when Wonwoo was certain he had fell in love. Mingyu was kind and cared and was willing to put in effort into a hopeless case like Wonwoo which was exactly what he needed.

"When we first met... when I dropped my wallet and you picked it up I heard your voice and it was the first thing I had heard for 15 years." Wonwoo blushed "That's why I ran away..."

A chuckle in reply comforted the tense atmosphere.

"Then when I spat all my hot chocolate on you in the coffee shop it was because I was surprised to hear your voice again because I was convinced I had imagined it the first time."

"That was cute." Mingyu giggled.

"No it wasn't." Wonwoo laughed. "And then that night when you called me and I was crying it was because I hate how I am. Because I'm deaf."

A frown spread across golden skin. "You don't need to feel like that."

"Well... now that I've told you the truth about my life and I've finally got everything off my shoulders I think I won't feel so worthless anymore."

"Good."

Wonwoo continued his story. He told Mingyu every detail behind the scenes like the fact that he had to watch the whole of Lights Out and some of Finding Nemo with Mingyu without subtitles and even though he pretended to be interested he had no idea what was going on. Mingyu found it halarious but his face froze when a sudden realisation sprung upon him.

"Wait. Does that mean you couldn't use the headphones and the music I bought you?"

Wonwoo bit his lip and nodded guiltily.

"...Oops." Mingyu replied with an apologetic grin. "You should've told me! I even took you to a music store."

"I didn't want to ruin it. You looked so happy talking about those albums." The smaller chuckled.

Wonwoo had been sitting on the side of the bath for an hour now and his backside was starting to hurt. He assumed Mingyu's knees probably hurt too so he stood up and lead him to his room where the sat on the bed opposite eachother. Wonwoo continued to tell him everything up until that very moment.

Mingyu hugged him tight when he finished and told him that he was proud. The word gave Wonwoo butterflies.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" Mingyu asked rather timidly.

"Go ahead." Wonwoo smiled.

A/N: If you like you could comment some questions for Mingyu to ask Wonwoo in the next chapter :)