"Can you hear yourself?" Mingyu was attentive and intrigued. It made Wonwoo feel special.

"No. I can feel my voice though, if that makes sense. It's like there's a vibration in my throat."

"Ah." Mingyu nodded his head slowly. "You're voice is very nice. It's so low and clear- I think you'd be proud of it if you could hear it."

"Really?"

"Well, I sure as hell love it." Pointy white canines flashed in a smile making Wonwoo blush.

"Anything else?"

"Oh, yes. Do you do sign language to your friends?" Mingyu scrunched up his fists then spread out his hand infront of him repeatedly in attempts to imitate the concept. Little did he know he was signing the word ''.

Wonwoo giggled "I don't have any friends who know I'm deaf other than Soonyoung but, yes, I sign with him."

"That's so cool!" Mingyu squirmed excitedly as if he was 12 years younger.

"Not really." Wonwoo shrugged with a grin.

"Can you teach me? I want to sign to you too!"

Wonwoo felt a wonderful bubbling in his belly. Either the bed had turned to a roller coaster or Wonwoo was just stupidly happy in the presence of the boy with cat-like eyes. He couldn't ignore the fast beating of his heart against his chest. Mingyu wanted to put in effort. He was determined to learn as much about Wonwoo's life as he could. This was so important to Wonwoo- everything about his friend was so precious he never wanted to lose a gem like him again.

"Ok. What do you want to learn?"

"Everything!" His eyes lit up with stars from the sky.

Wonwoo thought for a moment and decided to start with the basics. "This means hello," he moved a flat hand from his head and outwards like a salute.

"This means deaf," First he pointed to his ear then to his mouth. Mingyu copied him clumsily.

"This means yes," Wonwoo scrunched his hand into a fist and nodded it, "and this means no," he the pinched the air with his two first fingers and thumb.

Mingyu got those two easily. "How do you sign your name?"

"You have to spell it out. Like this," Wonwoo spelt out his name with his fingers letting Mingyu take mental note. Then he spelt out Mingyu's name with a finger heart at the end which made them both blush and giggle.

Wonwoo showed him others too: Thank you, my name is, what's your name?, nice to meet you, I understand, I don't understand, sorry, and many more. Mingyu seemed intrigued and asked many questions making Wonwoo feel as comfortable as can be.

"One last thing," Mingyu muttered once the day had melted away and the moon had come to life, "teach me how to sign 'I love you'."

An immense explosion of red petals and flames in his ribcage sent shivers down Wonwoo's spine. All the thoughts in his head muddled into incoherent images and he grinned. He held up his hand with his index finger, pinky and thumb pointing outwards; Mingyu mirrored him. They sat their for several beautiful seconds signing their feelings that spent too long hidden away. Mingyu leaned forward and bounced his hand into Wonwoo's as if he was high-fiving his sign. It was cute.

"Why do you need to know that?" Wonwoo asked eventually.

They both reluctantly dropped their hands and Mingyu smirked.

"It might come in handy." He clicked his fingers and opened his mouth into an over exaggerated smile.

"If you ever make a sign language joke ever again I will remove your hands." Wonwoo sighed but it soon turned into a supressed chuckle.

"You know you loved it." Mingyu pushed him playfully.

"You're lying to yourself." He was right though, Wonwoo did love it.

"I'm tired." The taller lay down ontop of blue bedcovers and shut his eyes with a gentle smile still on his lips.

Wonwoo followed suit and snuggled his head below Mingyu's chin. He could feel a tingling in the back of his neck that spread down his spine and made him want to dance; he was ever so sweetly ecstatic. The latter's breath on the top of his head made him feel sleepy and as his eyes were pulled down by fatigue he felt an arm wrap around his waist. They didn't need the covers to keep them cosy that night; they had eachother and the fires burning in their hearts was enough to heat the entire apartment block.

-

Mingyu was watching a youtube video when Wonwoo woke up. A woman was in the centre of the screen with a white backdrop and was signing the word 'happy' slowly whilst Mingyu followed. Wonwoo began to sit up to watch but as soon as he heard him move the taller quickly switched his phone off and looked over his shoulder.

"Morning!" He grinned and Wonwoo yawned in reply. Then Mingyu took a picture.

"What the hell, Mingyu?!" He desperately tried to snatch the phone out of his hands to delete the monstrosity but Mingyu was just too tall even when sitting down. "Delete it!"

"No!" Mingyu laughed back.

"Now!"

"NEVER!!" Then he leapt off the bed like a giraffe on fire and ran out the room.

"Delete it, Mingyu! I was yawning so wide you could practically see my esophagus." Wonwoo yelled from the bed but got no answer. He had to get up and run all the way to the living room where Mingyu was hiding behind the sofa.

"I can see you." Wonwoo deadpanned and a mischevious burst of laughter responded. "You're acting like a two year old."

Wonwoo gave no warning before jumping over the sofa and snatching Mingyu's phone. He managed to delete the awful photo of him yawning but as soon as that disappeared from the screen another picture of Wonwoo slid into view. He was sleeping on Mingyu's lap with a tiny smile glued to his lips. Wonwoo scrolled passed it to find another photo of him looking at an album cover at the music store and then another of him sleeping ontop of their collapsed pillow fort (that still hadn't been tidied away), and many more of him at various places. In all of them he was looking away from the camera. Mingyu had been collecting pictures of Wonwoo ever since their second meeting at the coffee shop and he had never noticed! He suddenly felt bad for deleting a memory Mingyu wanted to save so he tapped onto the recently deleted folder on Mingyu's iPhone and retreaved his ugly yawning face.

"You're a creep." He said before passing Mingyu his phone back.

"You're just jealous I have pictures of the most beautiful human in the world on my phone and you don't."

"Was that flirting? If it was it isn't working." Wonwoo teased.

"That's just your way of saying 'I love you'." He cooed back.

Wonwoo grabbed a pillow and hurled it at Mingyu's face. The kid had him all figured out but he would never admit that was true. "You're never sleeping around here again."

"Yeah, yeah. You keep telling yourself that, old man." Another pillow to the face. "Hey!"

"You deserved that. Let's watch a movie."

"I'll choose!" Mingyu sang happily and scrambled towards the DVD draw.

After maybe an hour of Wonwoo explaining basic plots of just about every movie in the cupboard Mingyu finally came to the decision to watch 'Coraline' and thank God he was able to put subtitles on because Wonwoo didn't think he could survive through another movie trying to lipread a cartoon character.

"Hey, Wonwoo. Guess what?" Mingyu slipped his arm around the smaller 10 minutes in.

"Sh! I'm trying to listen to the movie. I can't hear it if you speak."

"Oh, sorry." Mingyu shut his mouth and looked back at the screen.

Several minutes passed and Wonwoo nearly burst out laughing before Mingyu finally realised what he had just told him. "Wait, what do you mean you're trying to listen to the movie?"

Wonwoo snorted "I was kidding. You're so gullible."

"Shutup."

"That hurt my feelings."

Mingyu pursed his lips and frowned "Sorry!"

"See? Gullible."

Wonwoo laughed as he was shoved across the sofa and hit by a pillow.

"Anyway. As I was saying, it's our 2 month anniversary tomorr-"

"We're not even together." Wonwoo interrupted.

"You said that the first time yet you still took my presents. We're going out tomorrow whether you like it or not."

Wonwoo buzzed with excitement. To his face he acted like Mingyu was a nuisance but it was only a cover up for the massive dependence he has on him and the undeniable feelings that keep growing stronger by the second.

"Oh and Wonwoo, one more thing."

Wonwoo rolled his eyes and looked up at Mingyu "I'm trying to watch th-"

Mingyu pressed their foreheads together and Wonwoo held his breath. Then their noses touches ever so slightly before he connected their lips and gave the boy with pale skin and sandy hair his oxygen in a kiss like no other. A prick of wonderful electricity resonated on the latter's mouth as he closed his eyes and kissed back. Clumsily and rather awkwardly their lips glided against one anothers and a colony of bright butterflies populated the interior of their entire bodies making every inch of their skin tickle excitedly.

It was Wonwoo's first kiss and he believed it would be his last too because his heart was beating so fast and out of control he was unsure if he could survive through it.

Mingyu pulled away to breath but Wonwoo didn't want it to stop so he dived back in. He loved it- the rush of heavenly wonder through his body, the inexplicable excitement and the undismisable adoration for the man beneath his touch.

A hand ran through his hair and one across his back pulling him closer, if that was even possible. Then it was Wonwoo's turn to pull away.

"Mingyu, I-" His throat clogged again and he found himself struggling to say what he needed so he did the only thing he could when sounds failed him; he signed. Holding up his index finger, pinky, and thumb in a silent "I love you" that somehow screamed louder than words. Mingyu did the same and bounced their hands together like he had before.

Then Wonwoo crossed his middle finger with his index in the same sign. Mingyu didn't know what it meant but Wonwoo was sure he would find out for himself soon enough. He could imagine him later staring at the answer on his phone screen.

His hand said "I really love you" and Wonwoo hoped Mingyu would feel the same way too.