“So you’re telling me that this guy’s deaf and knows how to dance?” my best friend, Amber, queries, glancing at me like I was spewing nonsense. Which in her defense is totally understandable considering the fact that she’s been trying to set me up with a bunch of her guy friends for the past two years…But I’ve kept declining her offers because of the boy in question. Not only that, but I have never spoken a word to him and now it seems we’re becoming actual friends and I’m pretty sure she believed nothing would have ever happened between us. Especially since I can be quite a coward when it comes to courting boys.

But that’s beside the point now.

“Mmhmm,” I reply, rolling onto my stomach to see her reaction. I had been lying on my back, staring at the ceiling as she worked on a research paper.

We were in her dorm—well, we always hung out in her dorm because mine was usually too messy and too much of a hassle to even find a place for another person to sit. And my roommate’s kinda y so I’m perfectly fine with designating her dorm as our go to hangout spot. Plus, her roommate’s mom always stocked their mini fridge with a bunch of those Starbucks iced coffees and she let us drink them since she only drank them when she had early classes—which she didn’t this quarter—so more coffee for us.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she says, clicking the save button on her report before spinning on her desk chair to face me. “I just can’t believe you are actually talking—well writing—to him after all this time. Hopefully you don’t scare him away when he finds out you’ve been stalking him for two years,” she teases and I threaten to spill my coffee on her laptop. She just laughs and I roll my eyes.

“He’s not going to find out, I mean, there’s nothing to find out,” I play off. “Even if something does bloom between the two of us, there would be no reason to tell him that I actually knew of him for longer than just a couple weeks… I’m sure a lot of people recognize him with that hair of his. You knew who he was when I mentioned him the first time,” I point out.

Amber just shakes her head and I know it’s because I’m trying too hard to defend myself for something she was just joking about it. “Relax it’s not a big deal. Just make sure you introduce me to his dance friends when you infiltrate their dance studio.” I raise an eyebrow at her. “What? I’ve always wanted to chill with dancers. They can teach me new moves—although my moves are already pretty outstanding,” she says wiping invisible dust off her shoulder.

“You’re practically friends with the entire school, do you really need more?” I interject. Amber was quite popular since she had a lot of extracurricular activities and she was so easy to get along with so it was no surprise really that people wanted to befriend her. “Plus, all you need is me,” I say, placing a hand under my chin to display my face arrogantly.

She rolls her eyes and turns back to her report. “Don’t you need to go study sign language or something…” she sarcastically remarks.

And even though I know she’s joking, the idea resides in my mind longer than I intended it to.

“…It’s not too late to crash a class, is it?”

Her head snaps towards my direction to see if I’m being serious and when she notices that I wasn’t kidding, she chuckles and turns back to her laptop.

“Deadline’s on Friday, you psycho.”

* * *

I’m practically out of breath when I reach the Foreign Language building, but at least I’m on time. As soon as I realized it wasn’t too late to add a class, I looked up sign language class times and to my luck there was a Wednesday class at one—which I had to run to in order to make it on time, but I made it nonetheless.

As I took a seat in the classroom, the level of my desperation starts to finally sink in and I wonder why I’m even sitting in the class in the first place. A boy I had just met had somehow swayed me to learn a language solely for him and he hadn’t even said a word to me—not that he could anyway.

But still.

I have been wanting to learn a new language though… Although sign language isn’t exactly what I had in mind, it still fit the requirements for GE, so it wasn’t like my rash decision was completely outrageous. Plus, Amber’s a good enough friend to stop me from doing something stupid.

At least I hope she is…

I glance down at my hands as I wait for the teacher to get to the class wondering if I’ll be able to catch on to sign language okay. I do play the piano after all, so I assume they’re limber enough to easily mold into shapes easily.

I’m doing finger stretches when the professor comes in, and I’m a little surprised and relieved because I assumed this professor was going to be the same interpreter from class. I suddenly feel like I should be worried that I’m so paranoid of everything all of a sudden because of a stupid boy, but feelings like this are normal when it comes to crushes. Every emotion is heightened and I can’t think straight sometimes and I do rash things—like signing up for a sign language class—but it’s already too late to back out as the professor passes out signed add slips to the newcomers.

I try not to feel like I’m signing my life away to this boy as I sign the slip, but it kind of feels that way anyway. I tuck the slip into a folder in my bag and pay attention to the professor, who just introduced herself as Ms. Hwang.

She jumps straight into lesson to help us newcomers catch up with what she taught the class last class, which was just the basic alphabet and a few common phrases. Thankfully it’s nothing too difficult, so I’m able to catch on right away.

I kind of loved the way words were able to just flow out of my hands without saying anything—especially since I wasn’t necessarily the best with words. I was so excited to actually have a conversation with Mark without having to use a notebook and pen.

But at the same time, I want to wait it out until I’m fluent enough to have an actual conversation with him. It did mean that I’d have to hide the fact that I’m taking a sign language class, but I don’t think it’ll be too difficult. Especially since we’ll only see each other on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It’ll be worth the wait.

* * *

When I get out of class, Amber is standing outside, leaning on the wall as she scrolls through her phone. She looks up and meets eyes with me and waves. “This is sign language for ‘Hello’,” she jokes as she approaches me.

“Shut up. I actually learned a lot today and I’m not gonna lie, I kinda love it,” I confess.

“You love it because you’ll be able to communicate with your lover or because you actually love the language?” she asks, as she guides us to the cafeteria. I figured she finished her report and was hungry, but had no one else to eat with so she waited up for me. She never liked eating alone—which was also a reason people liked her so much because she loves taking people out to eat.

“Probably both,” I reply honestly. “I’m kind of glad I took this class though. I already feel brand new doors opening for me and so many more career options to explore.” I already feel Amber’s side eye, but I continue gushing. “I know I sound ridiculous after just one class, but it all just feels right Amber. I can’t explain it.”

“Can you sign it?” she jokes and I bull a bunch of random gestures and she looks genuinely impressed. “Did you just curse me out in sign language?”

I just laugh as I realize there’s a lot more use to this new language than just communicating with a certain someone.
 

forgive me darlings, it's been a rough couple months and marks not even in this chapter omg, but it's summer now let's hope I actually use my time wisely... I'd love to finish this by the end of the month, but I'm sure we all know how I am about following through with timelines...... 

Oh well, sorry for keeping you all waiting ;A; (which by the way how are there so many of you there's only two chapters of this jghlerhgkehrglujheargueg) okay, I'll see you in next update, which will hopefully be soon ok. In the mean time, watch I Got7 it's hilarious c: