A/N: Hi, guys! Sorry for not updating for so long. It's just that after I finished "A Chance to Change the Past", I went from author-mode to reader-mode. Hehe. XD

But then, I realized that today, July 6, is my "first anniversary" here in AFF. I can't believe that I've already been here for a year. It feels like so many things already happened to me here, if that makes any sense? Wrote a lot, met a lot of people, and before I know it, I've been here for a year already XD A year is still technically just a short time, I think I can still be considered as fairly new here? But let's hope for more years together here, huh? :3

And since it's my "first anniversary" here, I just had to do an update. So, here's the next chapter.

I hope you all like it! :D

Legend for character lines:

"normal speech"

"typed on iPad/computer/some gadget, or written, or text message"

*signed*

*signed and spoken at the same time*

It took a few minutes of painful, awkward silence before Yunho and Changmin could do anything but gawk at the girl standing in front of them.

The girl shifted her weight from one foot to another and back as two pairs of scrutinizing eyes would not relent from their gaze at her.

Yunho suddenly remembered that it was rude to stare and gave it his best effort to put himself together. He said, “Oh, sorry, we didn’t realize.”

The girl just looked in confusion at Yunho again.

Changmin was snapped out of his reverie and had to stop himself from facepalming. Or hitting Yunho. Yeah, the latter sounded more appealing.

“Hyung, she just told us that she couldn’t hear,” he muttered irritably to Yunho. I mean, why the hell would Yunho just start talking again to the girl when she just told them that she couldn’t hear?

His leader clearly wasn’t using his brains again.

“Oh, right…” Yunho mumbled lamely.

Sometimes, it was really not a wonder why Changmin was considered the brains of TVXQ. Especially now when it was only Yunho with him. At times like this when the leader was hit by moments of stupidity, Changmin looked like even more of the genius that he already was.

Yunho then reached out for his iPad and she quickly handed it back to him.

“Oh, we’re so sorry. We didn’t realize,” Yunho type now instead said.

When Yunho handed it back to her and she read what he said, the girl frowned a bit and shook her head at him. She typed quickly and gave it back to him, offering him a small smile.

“There’s no need to be sorry. I’m used to people not getting at once why I don’t respond to them. You two must have thought I was rude. And I really should be the one apologizing for the accident I had caused a while ago.”

Seeing the very apologetic and guilty look on her face and her nervous stance, Yunho shot another reprimanding look at Changmin, who was just wearing a blank expression as he looked at the girl.

“You don’t have to be sorry, either,” Yunho told her. “It was precisely that- an accident. These things happen. And I’m sorry about my friend’s reaction to you a while ago. He’s a pretty alright guy most of the time, he just has his jerky moments.”

Changmin glared at Yunho when he saw his leader type that, but the girl smiled again when Yunho showed her the iPad.

“I’m Yunho, by the way. And my friend here is Changmin,” Yunho added, introducing themselves.

The girl took the device again from Yunho and typed. “I’m Erin. Nice to meet you two. Oh, and thank you for letting me use your iPad, Yunho-ssi. I usually have my own with me, but I left it at home today and didn’t bother to go back and get it. I didn’t think that I would need it today at all. I was just planning to get a coffee and catch up on my reading, you see…”

“Ah, so I take it you normally communicate to others with your iPad? By typing what you want to say?” Yunho asked her curiously.

“Well, when I’m talking to those who can’t sign, yes.”

Sign?

Both members of the duo were confused for a while, before it finally hit them.

Ah, of course. Sign language.

As Yunho continued to make small talk with Erin and get to know her a bit, she moved to stand beside Yunho so that he could just hold the iPad for her when she was going to type her replies, so that they don’t have to pass it back and forth anymore.

For some reason, this irked Changmin.

He didn’t know why he was so bothered by seeing her so close to Yunho that they were almost touching. And this added to his already confused feelings about her. Oh, yeah, and the guilt that was eating his insides for unleashing his anger on her over something that she didn’t really have any control on, too.

And Changmin knew that they were already very late for their schedule, and that they should leave now. But he didn’t really want to. He couldn’t understand why he didn’t want to be away from this girl. This deaf girl that they’ve just met who had just poured his drink all over his shirt.

This sudden, inexplicable desire to stay with her shocked and unnerved Changmin even more. He took this weirdness as another reason as to why they should leave. Right now.

“Yunho hyung,” Changmin said, interrupting their typed conversation.

Yunho looked up immediately at Changmin upon hearing the urgency in his voice. Erin also looked at uncertainly at Changmin when she saw that Yunho stopped typing and turned to Changmin, making it obvious to her that he had called Yunho’s attention.

“We need to go. We’re already late, and didn’t you say that manager hyung was already calling you?” Changmin reminded his leader shortly.

“Oh, right…” Yunho blinked. Then, he turned back to Erin and told her, “I’m sorry, we have to go now. Our manager is already looking for us.”

Erin  looked a bit disappointed when she read that they have to go (and Changmin couldn’t understand again why he was feeling bad for causing that disappointment and why he wanted to make sure that that expression would never grace her face ever again), but then, her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion when she reached the latter part of Yunho’s message.

“Manager?” was her single-worded reply as she looked up at Yunho questioningly.

“Uhm… we’re actually singers. K-pop idols. We’re called ‘Dong Bang Shin Ki’. And right now, we’re late for a photoshoot for one of the products that we’re endorsing. And our manager had just been ‘kindly reminding’ me about it a while ago…” Yunho explained as best as he could, grimacing a bit.

Erin’s eyes widened so much at that that it seemed like her eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets and drop on the floor. Then, when she got over her shock, her eyes got even wider as she seemed to have realized something, groaning and hitting herself on the forehead. Her cheeks were quite red and she buried her face in her hands.

“What’s wrong?” Yunho asked automatically, surprised by her actions. Then, he remembered again that she couldn’t hear.

Meanwhile, Changmin’s genius brain was coming up short on why the hell he was finding her actions to be utterly adorable.

“What’s wrong?” Yunho typed on the iPad this time and then putting his hand on the girl’s shoulder and shaking her gently so that she’d look up from her hands and read Yunho’s message.

“I can’t believe that I just spilled coffee on someone famous! Oh, God, why do things like this always happen to me? As if it wasn’t bad enough that I’d just spill it on a normal person! I am so, so, SO sorry!” she said, looking completely mortified and embarrassed as she glanced at Chan