My feet swayed over the leaves that littered the ground, burned with the colours of autumn. I felt a rush of air fly past me and turned to see a group of girls rushing over to a boy sitting on a park bench nearby with his acoustic guitar. The girls crowded around him and I stopped to see what was going on. Two girls refused to stand next to each other and no one dared to stand between them leaving a gap for me to see through. The boy then began pulling at the strings from his guitar. *Sigh* I looked down and disturbed the calmness of the leaves still lingering on the green grass, hoping to distract myself from ever looking at him again. Here I am, with the torturing curiosity as to why those girls are happily overcrowding around this boy, curious of how the serenity of the park turned into a chaotic one with all of these girls' giggles and squeals, curious of how each of the strings when pulled at sounded like, because right now, I'm starting to forget how each of them sounded.

Flashback

I am an admitted spoiled little brat when I was a kid. I liked everyone to be at my beckon and call. I liked being the center of everyone's attention. Basically I was selfish, a common trait among the little bratty kids. It was this one time when I was playing on monkey bars at the park. My mom was below me, constantly trying her best not to let me fall. Her arms were always shot up, ready to catch me if I did fall. But I was too mischievous, I've managed to trick her in some way to leave me alone, and when she did, karma fell heavily on me. All I could remember was falling down into a cemented ground.

When I woke up again I was in an unfamiliar room. Fluorescent lights hung above my head that gave me a frightening feeling as a child. My head was pounding, it felt like it was sewn in half. I brushed my hand over my aching head and felt a few nearly-healed stitches planted on me that stung whenever I touched it. I was too occupied with the pain and with adapting to the brightness of my environment that I have yet to notice a man in a white lab gown coming towards me. 

“Hello… name… am… doctor… can … hear…?” I could just barely make out a few of his words. I frowned. What was he saying? Was he making fun of me or something?

“I can’t hear you could you please say that again?” I knew what I was saying but I could barely hear myself either. The man turned and walked towards my parents. I strained my ears but I still couldn’t hear much. What is going on? Why... can't I hear anything?

I tried screaming, which eventually captured the attention of the man and my parents, but only a small cry flooded my eardrums.

My dad met my eyes and I can see from his face how much he wanted to cry. He was holding my mom, who buried her lovely face in between her hands, she was obviously crying, the constant rise and fall of her shoulders proved she was. The man sighed but he eventually turned to my dad, patting his shoulders to console him and then exited the room with a heavy heart. 

Heavy breaths. Nerves cracking. My eyes shifted at a fast pace from one object to another. My mom left the room but my dad remained. I looked up to check what he was doing, but surprisingly, he was already near me. He gave me a faint smile but all I could give for a response was a stare, a hurting and plain stare. He shut his eyes tight and eventually threw his arms around me, crushing me in between his biceps, burying me in his embrace. I could hear him mumble some words, but to my disappointment, the mumbles didn't straighten out the way they should be. 

“WHY CAN’T I HEAR YOU?” I screamed, he hugged me tighter. This time, like my mom, my dad started to cry. 

And that's when I knew my life would never be the same ever again.

A couple of days later after my discharge from the hospital, a woman came to my home. I was stuck like glue to my mom so that wherever she went, I was sure to follow. The trauma from my accident was enough to scare me out of being reckless ever again. I was bought a whiteboard as a mean of communication, since I haven't learned how to understand people through lip reading, people communicated with me by writing what they have to say in the whiteboard. 

The woman learned how to earn my trust in just a snap, her warm presence and her friendly character just kept drawing me in to her. 

"Annyeong, I am Pil sook-songsaengnim. Nice to meet you" The woman wrote neatly on my whiteboard. She then handed out her hand for a shake but I was too shy to shake them for myself.

“My name is Harmony.” I couldn’t hear myself but by her responsive smile, I knew she had heard me.

Pil Sook-songsaengnim taught me, at first, the basics of sign language and lip reading, but the difficulty gradually increasing each visit. She had managed to teach my parents sign language as well, she said they might need it in case I get confused with reading their lips. I lost my hearing gradually over the past year, from the soft murmurs, they became silent tunes. 

Flashback end*

I was home-schooled for 2 years, but out of my own request, my parents eventually sent me to high school. As much as possible, I didn't want anyone to know I was deaf, I was good in lip reading, so I felt confident about hiding it. It's not because I was afraid they might bully me, but rather, it was because I didn't want anyone adjusting for me because I was unable to hear because that would certainly hurt me, it would hurt me a lot. It was hard seeing my parents adjust for me, the pain from them should at least be enough for me. My teachers were the only ones who knew about my condition and they helped me out by giving me a copy of their lecture everytime the lesson ended. 

As he finished playing all the girls around him started clapping. It was nearing dawn, so I should most probably go home. I got up from where I currently sat and walked away. As I walked past the huge crowd of girls, I tripped on something but it was too late for me to realize I tripped on someone's foot. As I pushed myself off the ground I looked up at the girl. She was saying something but the sun's brightness made a visible shadow that prevented me from reading her lips. I pushed myself off the ground and got up. I took a glance back at the girl again but the disgusting face of hers greeted my eyes.

“Didn't you hear me? I said; ‘Aren’t you going to apologize?’ What?! Are you deaf or something? Huh?!" Now her lips were readable as she stood up to face me. She was shorter than me by a few inches, not that I cared. She continued blabbering useless words and I just sighed in between her great monologue.

"Why you---" She obviously was pissed off with me not giving a single damn as to what she was saying. She motioned to slap me, but someone managed to prevent her from creating a fool out of herself.

"I saw you trip her, there's no reason for you to pretend you didn't." The guy who was playing the guitar said as she held out the girl's hand out of my way.

"O-Oppa..." The girl curled her eyebrows.

"I expect an apology to this girl." He said as he shifted his gaze towards me.

The girl huffed angrily, she didn't apologize, or maybe I was just unable to hear it but she eventually walked away with heavy foot stomps. Probably like an angry 8-year-old.

"S-Sorry about that, my sister's just so childish, I apologize on her behalf." The boy turned to me as he scratched his head with his left hand for his right hand was occupied by his lovely guitar.

"Ah, no, that was fine." I replied with a chuckle. "Didn't think people would still do that at this age."

He chuckled, revealing his wonderful set of teeth. He was lovely, like his precious guitar, so much unlike his angry wolf sister. 

"I'm Jinyoung by the way, Jung Jinyoung." He said.

I think I was too much focused on reading his lips that I wasn't able to respond to him quickly. I ended up leaving him wondering why my eyes were focused somewhere else. 

"Is there something on my face?" He asked as he made faces while wiping ridiculously at an invisible piece of  dirt on his face.

"A-Aniyaaa~ I-I was just..." I hesitated. Should I tell him? Should I tell him about my condition? "...I was lip reading." I continued. He seemed nice and I doubt we'd meet again, I probably have my mind made up into forcing myself not to come back to this park anymore.

"Y-You were what?' He asked, confused.

"Lip reading."

"But, isn't that what people who-"

"Yes, that's what we do." I cut him off.

"But you don't seem deaf."

"Guess I'd take that as a compliment."

"Oh please do. But hey, do I get to know your name, or...?"

"It's Harmony." I smiled.

"Harmony? Hm, it's pretty, not a name I would expect-"

"From a deaf person? Yeah, most probably."

"I didn't say it to sound mean though, I just thought they were ironically put together."

"Yeah, I know." I chuckled. He seemed nice, a nice and humorous guy to be exact and I can't help but soften up to him everytime he spoke. It's like complete melody whenever he did, which saddened me to know I could never hear it.

"Please help me make it up to you." He said. "I was wondering, do you like bubble tea?"

As we sat across each other at a bubble tea shop, we've decided to take the opportunity to know each other. It turned out we had a lot in common, from our favorite artists down to our favorite hobby. I had a wonderful time with him, I didn't think I've laughed this hard ever in my life ever since my accident. Surprisingly, my cheeks heated up whenever I said I liked something and he would reply ‘No, way, me too.’ Or vice-versa. When we finished with our bubble tea he took out his phone.

“Hear let’s trade numbers.” He said as he munched down a bubble.

Without hesistations, I pulled out my phone as well and typed in "Jung Jinyoung" on my contacts list.

As I went to school the next day I was surprised to see Jinyoung walking just a few meters away from where I was. I immediately brightened up at the sight of a familiar face and it was as if my feet carried me towards him.

“Hello.” I greeted him.

“Hey... what brings you here? Are you perhaps stalking me?” He gave me a suspicious look.

“What? No. I go here." I shook my head.

“Ehhhhhh? No way, me too!” His jaw dropped but he eventually gave me his signature smile.

*Kriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiingggggggggggggggggggg!*

"And that's our cue." He sighed.

"Yeah, I guess, I should see you later?" I raised both of my eyebrows.

"Yeah, we probably should, how about lunch? Your treat?" He joked.

"I-I didn't bring extra money with me..." 

"I was just kidding! See you at lunch, Harmony!" And then he waved goodbye.

At lunch time I walked into the cafeteria and got my lunch. As I was holding my tray looking for an empty table I spotted one over in the corner. So I sat down and began to eat. Suddenly I felt someone sit next to me. I looked up to see Jinyoung with his soft brown hair, beaming at me. I had a puzzled look on my face.

“Don’t tell me, you forgot.” I tilted my head in confusion and he pouted, “You promised you were going to have lunch with me today.”  I sat u