-my thoughts will echo your name until i see you again-

 “This museum’s got an exhibition going on. You can buy any painting you want.”

 She had the fantastic ability of writing while walking, as if she was absolutely sure she wasn’t going to bump into any tree or lamp post or any person. Sehun nodded, furrowing his brows at her hand writing, a funny smile crawling up on his face. Why did every of her 2B pencil remind him of Bae Joohyun?

 Irene pointed across the street when they stopped at the zebra crossing. And with her pointer, she drew the route in the air. Sehun nodded once again, getting used to all these invisible drawings in the air. His heart bloomed at how she was putting in all this effort to communicate with him to make him feel more involved, perhaps this was how she lived but he felt extremely grateful. 

 They crossed the road, her arm still around his. His heart danced in his chest as he looked around the town, trying his best to not smile like an idiot. Cobblestone paths got lost in the depths of the city. The sidewalks were in a marriage of sounds, bicycles, chattering, footsteps. High heels clicked the ground all around the two of them, people minded their own business, no one looked anywhere but straight ahead. In this space of calculated time and pressure of deadlines, New York was the most alive, yet the iciest. To have someone on his side, constantly looking up at his face to see if he was alright, Sehun thought he must be lucky, to not be alone in a foreign land.

 They bought their passes from the counter and he paid this time, even though she insisted. Irene was older than him by two years. But her bright smile and innocent eyes made him want to keep her in his pocket. She was tiny. But she was strong, carrying the weight of her world on her little shoulders, the slightly difficult world of hers. Majestic walls surrounded them as they entered the exhibition. Warm beige walls welcomed them. Irene was quick to get her phone out. Her arm slipped from around his but Sehun was too distracted by the queer painting on the wall to notice.

 Sehun found the gaunt lady lonely in this painting and was about to dive deeper when he realized the absence of the solid warmth and the constant sound of pencil against paper.

 “Don’t,” he tried to stop her with a hand but she sneaked out of his reach and kept clicking pictures, pictures she might want to delete later because Sehun knew he was horrible with cameras. She only smiled at him through her skin. Sehun found her jumping around to keep him in her gallery adorable. “Done?” he asked when she finally reached out for his hand and lowered the phone.

 With a cute smile, she nodded, her hair bouncing up and down. Irene guided him through the silence in the exhibition. Sehun watched curious minds lost in the curves of paintbrushes. The golden light accompanied the sunlight streaming through the glass windows that were taller than him, covered with flimsy white curtains to set the mood right. Sehun knew Jennie would’ve loved this place. There was literature in the air, words of poets drawn on strong canvas so that the ones who couldn’t hear would hear them. Sehun thought, perhaps that is why Irene seemed so happy. In this place, she could hear.

 They stopped before several paintings. Sehun watched her while she watched the art. He tapped her shoulder and pointed at her chest, asking her to put on the glasses hanging about on her first button. Irene’s eyes widened, as if telling him, “I thought the painters made the drawings blur intentionally.” Sehun chuckled as she wore her glasses. Clear frames...like Joohyun.

 Sehun’s face was clouded with a frown now. His eyes drank in the soft features of the woman in the picture before himself. In his mind, from his dreams, by the words she had sent him, Sehun had drawn a celestial picture of Joohyun. But he had no idea what Joohyun looked like. Sometimes, in the back of his mind, while doing his usual chores, he would come to the realization that he will have to let Bae Joohyun fade into his memories one day--the sooner the better. Irene was standing right before him, examining his restless face as he tried to find something in this particular painting. With a confused pair of eyes, she nudged him on the shoulder. Broken out of his thoughts, Sehun jerked beside her. 

 Her hasty fingers wrote down in her paper. “Do you wanna buy this?”

 Sehun smiled and then it became quite bashful. “I….well, it’s the end of the month. I don’t have much cash left in my pocket.”

 Irene smiled along. “Damn, we’re the same. I’m quite broke too,” she wrote.

 Sehun nodded, well that was natural because the both of them were surviving upon scholarships. While he had his income and his father’s money, she had only her family who were backing her up. “But I can still take you to one-two dates. Don’t worry,” he said as they left the painting to itself. 

 Irene nodded, as if excited. Sehun could only smile at her enthusiasm. “You’re shy,” she wrote in her notebook. Sehun his lower lip before looking away, as if embarrassed. “But the good shy. I like it very much,” she quickly scribbled down and showed it to him. 

 “Thank you,” he chuckled, clueless as to what to say while they walked with their arms. “Uh...you’re quite bold. I think that’s a good...combination?”

 She nodded with all her heart, her smile spreading on her face. Sehun wanted to ask her a lot of things when she nodded like that, it seemed as if she just never minded anyone’s comments and accepted them easily with a smile but the questions in his mind might make her uncomfortable. Questions like, can you do sign language? Do you think you can be cured? How long have you been like this? Since birth? Have you ever heard a song? Don’t you ever want to talk? Sehun knew these questions would most probably make her see him in a different light but he wanted to feed his curiosity too. Not today, of course.

 Half an hour of fooling around among serious minds analyzing the paintings, they were finally walking out of the museum, closer than