[M] Blue Hour || Yeonbin

two: silence

~

Taehyun and I were quick walking towards the lunchroom, wanting so badly to know what happened.

"Soob, slow down—"

"You didn't see him, and his hearing aids were crushing into pieces... That wasn't an accident, Tae." I said, cutting Taehyun off as I spotted Yeonjun at his usual seat. I ran to him as he took another bite of his sandwich. I tapped his shoulder, making him flinch and look up at me.

I noticed the bruise under his eye had gotten darker and I got worried. I quickly turned to Taehyun, who had taken a seat across from Yeonjun, "Can you ask him if he's doing ok, please?"

Taehyun nodded and signed my question to him. Yeonjun smiled as he looked at me and nodded, telling me he was alright. I sighed in relief as I sat down next to Yeonjun, looking back at Taehyun, "Tell him that he doesn't have to tell us if he doesn't want to."

Taehyun signed to him again, and Yeonjun signed something back, which Taehyun translated, "It's ok. I wanna tell you."

Taehyun signed something back and said as he did it, "Go ahead. I'll translate for Soob."

Yeonjun sighed and started making symbols with his hands as Taehyun translated for me, "I went to the bathroom this morning and I had turned the volume on my hearing aids off because I like it to be quiet sometimes. There were three older boys in the bathroom, and they had that look in their eyes as soon as they saw me. I tried to turn the volume of my hearing aids up as they walked closer to me, but my hands were shaking out of fear and they grabbed me before I was able to do it. I don't know why they grabbed me because I couldn't hear them, but I think they were shouting something at me. Two of the boys held me back as the other one punched and kicked me. It's really difficult to talk when I don't have my hearing aids in, so I just stayed quiet. Once they got bored of hitting me, one of them pulled my hearing aids off. His nails were digging into the side of my head as he pulled them off my ears. Then he threw them on the floor and stomped on them before they left."

Taehyun and I were both speechless for a moment at his story until I heard him sniffle. I turned to him, seeing his eyes glossed over as he tried to avoid looking at us. I gently wrapped my arm around him before he got the wrong idea, making him turn to me. I brought my hand up when I saw a tear escape from his eye, gently wiping it away with my thumb and making sure I didn't hurt him. I wanted to tell him that everything was ok, but I knew he couldn't hear me. He hugged me before I could ask Taehyun to sign something to him, burying his face into my shoulder. I wrapped my other arm around him and rubbed circles on his back, trying anything to help him feel better.

After a minute or two of comforting him, he picked his head back up and looked at me with his red eyes, making a fist and rubbing a circle onto his chest. I shook my head, quickly point to myself and doing the same motion, trying to tell him I was sorry about what happened. I turned to Taehyun and said, "Can you ask him if he can get new ones, please?"

Taehyun nodded and signed the question to him, translating his reply, "Not sure. I have to ask my mom and it would need to go through our insurance. This is the second pair I have to get this year, so I'm not sure if they will pay for it."

Taehyun signed back without me having to ask him, "What happened to the other pair?"

Taehyun translated for me, "They were old and stopped working."

"Can you ask him how much they are?" I said and Taehyun turned to me.

"Hyung, your dad will—"

"Please, Tae... Just ask him."

Taehyun sighed and signed the question for me.

Taehyun translated again, "Over a million won."

"Shit..." I mumbled under my breath before saying, "Can you ask who did this t—"