"Good morning Soo-jin," Shu-hua greeted as per usual, taking her seat beside her.

It's been a few months into the new school year, and their class has changed a little. There are familiar faces from their class last year, but there are also a few new faces. None that Shu-hua can't handle though, her new friends have pretty much warmed up to her already.

Soo-jin, on the other hand, has tried to communicate with these new friends, but it seems as if everyone loses their patience with her. Shu-hua has offered to translate her sign language, but that can only go so far. It's difficult to sign and translate during a group conversation, nor is it comfortable to have a translator in a personal conversation.

Soo-jin doesn't mind though, she enjoys the personal time and space she gets. Seeing Shu-hua swarmed by friends and the occasional admirer from another class is already exhausting for her, she's content with her new friend, she's done a lot to try and communicate with her sincerely, and even tries to help her expand her social circle.

She tries to include Soo-jin in conversation, not excessively, as she knows she feels a little awkward, but just letting others know that she's right there.

Soo-jin occasionally gets a little jealous, just a tiny bit. It wasn't about Shu-hua's popularity, she doesn't mind that, but it's about her attention. Maybe it's because Shu-hua was her first friend, or maybe it was because she was her 'soulmate' or whatever, she hasn't grasped the concept of soulmates yet, or maybe it was because she didn't want her to get bored of her.

She sticks with Shu-hua and tries to be more friendly with others. You can usually find her with a notebook in her hand, organised with tabs and stickers, each page written with sentences, phrases and words to make conversation a little easier. It's the same method that she used before, but this new notebook is less exhaustive, and slowly, people don't mind talking to her again. It isn't much of her concern, she just thought that if she could talk more with those around Shu-hua, she would have a reason to be near her.

As time passed, it was common to see a girl walking along the hallways surrounded by people, and a taller girl following right behind the crowd, a book in