People’s thoughts could be separated into two, positive and negative. At night when they were burnt out and weary from the day, most of them were negative. And although he himself was already exhausted enough, Jinyoung had no choice but listen as he was swayed by the bus’ motion.

If it was just them tired from work or study, it was often still fine. But he was also forced to hear about how the girl two rows in front of him flunked her exam and was scared to go home, or how the man sitting at the back corner wanted to stop working because he was harassed by his superior everyday but couldn’t. They just flowed into his head and he had no way to block it. Of course he had gotten used to it and learned to ignored them, but sometimes when he had a bad day or in a bad shape, the negativity would break through his defense and drained him dry. Before, he could just avoid rush hours, sacrificing his sleep to go earlier than workers and students then went home before them, but after he accepted to tutor some elementary kids, he couldn’t. Being around kids was his salvation, their pure minds still blissfully innocent from the wickedness of the world. He thought there was no harm in letting his wall down around them, but he just found out how wrong he was.

That day was especially bad for Jinyoung. He saved a girl from getting scammed on the way to his lecture that morning. The scammer told her he was from a talent agency when he actually was going to take her money and run away. He really should’ve learned his lesson not to into others business because while it ended well for her, it did not for Jinyoung. He arrived late to his class and got chewed by the lecturer who happened to hate him because he corrected him once when he was teaching. He also used his lateness as an excuse to refuse the assignment he had spent three sleepless night for when he could hear him cackled in his head.

As if it was not enough, the kid who he had been tutoring for half a year and he had grown fond of, was surrounded with negative thoughts because his parents had a big fight the day before and he was blaming himself. That was why he stay away from people, because hearing negative thoughts from the ones he held dear was the hardest. And to make it worse, it was snowing. The cold always made him felt sluggish, and the hueless ice brought back bad memories he would rather forget.

Jinyoung sighed as the bus stopped, letting two passengers in. It meant more thoughts forcing their way to his mind. Fortunately there was nothing negative from both of them, because he could feel the back of his head throbbing. Maybe it was the result of neglecting sleep for three consecutive night, and everything that happened to him that day didn’t help. He just wanted to sink into the comfort of his bed and sleep, but there was still fifteen minutes minutes before he could do that. He sighed again for the second time since he rode the bus and who knew the count that day as he rested his head over the window, watching cars passed by.

Just when he thought he should buy a car as soon as he graduated and had enough to buy one no matter how much of a junk it would be, he could hear someone singing. Not through his ears, but his mind. It was louder than any other voices, but it was not deafening at all. Instead, the loudness of that soft melody smothered around him like a blanket, warm and cozy, dulling the pain on his head. It was a song he had never heard before, and he fell in love at the first listen.

He looked around, searching for the owner of that sound. It was one of the men that just got in, sitting on the opposite side of the row he was in. Just like him, the stranger leaned his head on the window, but with closed eyes. His dark mullet, which he realized was actually dyed blue when he looked closely, was pushed back by what seemed to be a misused neck warmer, showing the width of his forehead. Usually, people either sang or hummed when they played a song in their head, but there was no sound escaped through his closed lips. If Jinyoung couldn’t hear his mind, he could have been mistaken as asleep.

Following the stranger, Jinyoung closed his eyes and enjoyed the song. He wondered if the voice he heard was his or the original singer. Then the voice continued on to another song, so it was most possibly the man’s voice or he just liked the singer so much. Whoever owned that voice, he liked it so much. It was the kind of voice that soothed you and smoothly drew you in, but felt like it was a fog veiling the fire inside the singer. He was so curious, but he couldn’t possibly ask without the other thinking he was a creep.

The song stopped, and he almost whined. Only after that he realized that while he was listening to the songs, other thoughts didn’t bother him. In fact, he didn’t hear them at all. Maybe he just didn’t pay attention to them, too focused on the songs, but it never happened before. He opened his eyes, watching in confusion as the man got up and climb down the bus. His gaze followed him walking opposite the bus until he couldn’t see him anymore.

Jinyoung’s head was filled with questions. Who, why, and how. His eyes was pulled toward the seat that was occupied by the stranger, noticing a yellow book laying on the next seat. It looked like a notebook. He didn’t see that before the stranger got in, and there was no one sitting on that seat the whole time, so it was most probably his. He shifted to reach out for the book and opened it. It was filled with handwritten music notes. He played piano when he was younger, so he could read it. He recognized the songs he just heard written in it. So those songs was definitely composed by the man, and the singer was him. He looked for an identity, which he found on the back of the front cover.

Im Jaebum. Music Composition Major. S University.

Jinyoung’s college.

--

“Jinyoung, we’re gonna have lunch now, do you wanna go with us?”

Jinyoung had heard the asker’s intention from way before, but turned out he wasn’t quick enough to disappear from the class before it was verbalized. He turned around to see Jackson smiling broadly at him, his earth-colored hair peeked under his snapback.

“Sorry, I have something to do.” It wasn’t the first time Jinyoung used that excuse, though that might be one of the few times he was not lying. He could see the smile was dimmed by disappointment like a kicked puppy, and he brushed away the guilt before it got the best of him, like he always did.

“Okay then, maybe next time,” Jackson said. He turned around and Jinyoung watched as the figure got farther away. He really couldn’t get why Jackson kept bothering to talk to him when others had given up from the first few try, no matter how hard he rejected him. Turned out being able to read people thoughts didn’t mean understanding what they were thinking. The only thing he knew was that the man didn’t have a crush on him. Heck, he was head over heels for a guy called Mark, daydreaming about him everyday. While it relieved him, it only confused him more. He shook his head and went on to do what he planned to do.

The upside of being able to read people’s mind was you didn’t need to ask people for direction. You could just look for someone who was thinking of the same place you were going and follow them, which was exactly what Jinyoung were doing to find Faculty of Music building. Another one was he could find the right person to ask for the one he was looking for, and that was how he found out when there was no class, Im Jaebum from Music Composition could always be seen hanging at the backyard.

The information he got was spot on. He really found Im Jaebum there. However, the picture he saw was astonishing. The blue haired man, which color was a beautiful azure under the sunlight, was lying down on the grass under the shade of a big tree, surrounded by cats. There was one spread out from his shoulder to his chest, one on his stomach, one circled around his head, one curled under his spread out arm, and one nuzzling against his hips. It made him wondered what did he do to make all of them could defenselessly napping with him like that.

When Jinyoung finally stood beside the man, the arm covering his eyes shifted, revealing a pair of dark orbs and two moles lining on his left eyelid. He blinked, pushing the cat sleeping on his chest aside gently and moved the cat on his stomach to his lap so he could sit up.

“Um, you’re Jaebum right? My name is Jinyoung. I found your music book in the bus last night, so I’m here to return it,” Jinyoung said, answering all the questions in the man’s head. The drowsy face sparked up at the sight of the yellow book, which was snatched away in a second from his hand. The owner flipped through the pages in silence, looking at each of them like they were his long lost baby. Maybe it was not the book but the song instead. He was so focused on the book that he forgot Jinyoung’s existence. Jinyoung sat beside him, glad he decided to return the book.

“I happened to look inside to find out whose it was. Your songs are all so good, I really like it.”

Only then the man turned pay attention to him, eyes disappeared as sun rose on his face in the form of blinding smile. He could tell he was really proud of his songs. He couldn’t help but thinking he was a quiet person though, since there was no word spoken yet through the other’s mouth even though he actually felt grateful to him. Maybe he was just shy with strangers. He wanted to hear him talk though, or even better, sing. So much he didn’t think far of what he was saying.

“Your voice is nice too, it suited your songs really well. I hope I can hear it again, can I?”

Instead of looking happier, the compliment erased the smile from Jaebum’s face, and it left him confused. He could even see a glint of anger in the other’s eyes, hearing him thinking that he was mocking him. Then he stood up abruptly, surprising all the cats, and walked away as fast as he could.

Jinyoung stay there, trying to keep up with the man’s jumbled up thoughts and figured out what made him so mad. Did he say something wrong? Did he thought it was weird that he knew how his voice sounded like when they never met? If he was studying music, sure many people had heard him sing right? He knew music department held performances regularly, showing what their student got. He never went to one though since there were always so many people there that would gave him headache, but Jaebum wouldn’t know that right? Then a word he caught explained everything, and he felt like strangling himself on the tree he was under from how stupid he was.

A mute. He just asked a mute man to sing. Brilliant.

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P. S.:

Anybody still mourning over Jaebum's mullet? Because I am. And Voices by Stray Kids is my favorite song from I am Who album, hence the title. Still wishing to see a dance practice video for it, even though I know it's an empty hope TT Anyway, what do you think about this story? I hope you like it :))