#wtpr fanfiction

[sunjaesol]

saeon x heejoo | childhood friends | fluff | drabble

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JONGNO-GU, SEOUL, 2004

BAEK SAEON (14 YEARS OLD)

"Hello... my name... is Saeon... I am... 14 years old..." Saeon slowly signed in front of the mirror.

His fingers moved in a clumsy fashion, similar to a child's chicken scratch. But it was legible enough. Heejoo would understand him.

He repeated it. "Hello, my name is Saeon. I am 14 years old..."

Glancing at his textbook, he tried the next set of signs. "How are you doing? I'm okay."

KSL was surprisingly easy to get a grasp on. It definitely beat studying Latin or French, like his parents expected him to. A lot of the gestures corresponded with actual actions and his facial expressions carried half the load. Flipping to a different page, he wanted to see what some common concepts looked like.

Acceptance. Intolerance. Hate. Friendship. Love.

He went over the words, signing each of them. But he paused on the gesture for love, the slight hesitance betraying emotions buried deep within his subconscious.

To sign 'I love you', he had to make a fist and use his other hand to caress the fist. It was akin water gliding over and embracing a rock in a creek. He repeated the gesture three times, staring intently into the mirror, as though signing it to someone else.

The families didn't often meet up, especially since Ina was deaf and wouldn't be able to communicate smoothly with Saeon. It was sort of weird that she didn't learn KSL like Heejoo, but that wasn't his business to dig into. He had his own stuff to worry about. But he hoped that by the time they met again at some awful dinner, he would be able to chat with Heejoo on her level.

They had little in common. Heejoo was only ten. At the last party, she hid under the table with dolls to stay undetected from her mother. (And he had lied to her mother, pretending he didn't know where she was.) But Heejoo didn't snap at him to eat gross fish, or force him to wear scratchy sweaters and pleated trousers. She just let him exist.

In a way, he wasn't even 'Baek Saeon' in her presence. Just... a boy.

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Saeon and Heejoo had found a tree in the back of her garden with low hanging branches, thick enough to keep their weight, and long enough that allowed them to sit comfortably.

They went four metres high, which was a considerable height for two sheltered children living in the richest suburb of Seoul. Saeon felt a streak of rebellion each time he placed his hands on the rough bark.

(His hands had lost its thick and dirty calluses. They were soft now. But he remembered.)

They each sat on their own branch, facing each other. Heejoo was annoyed, signing fast and erratic about something her mother did. Saeon monitored her gestures and expressions closely, gluing everything together in his head.

He responded, asking follow-up questions. His signing went slower than Heejoo, but she patiently waited for him. He'd never seen Heejoo be impatient.

He could talk as well. Heejoo wasn't deaf. But... well... he liked the quiet. The rustling of the trees, her breaths, faraway cars and little birds scurrying at the tops of the trees had a calming effect on him. No one yelled or scoffed, or anything like that. Heejoo didn't even roll her eyes.

Saeon responded to her, signing: "That sucks. Your mom should just learn KSL."

Heejoo paused, thinking for a beat. And then: "She's thinking about pulling me out of school. She wants me to be home schooled. I guess she doesn't want to pay for my extra needs at school anymore."

His heart dropped to his stomach. He repeated her just to be certain. "Home school?"

Saeon and Heejoo didn't even go to the same school. He went to an all boy's secondary school. It had no impact on his life. And yet, it felt like a personal offense.

The girl nodded, her mouth pulling into a sympathetic smile as though he needed the comfort in this situation.

Saeon frowned. "Let my family pay for it then. They won't even notice the extra expense."

Heejoo smiled. "We're family friends," she signed. "Not married. You can't do that."

A shiver passed through him at the gesture of 'marriage'. The thought repulsed him. Marrying someone with the name 'Baek' attached to himself? No thanks. However, with the way the Baek's and Hong's were mingling, he had a sick feeling about his future. Ina and him were the same age. He wasn't stupid.

She continued signing: "Why don't you speak anymore? I'm not deaf."

Saeon flushed in embarrassment. "I like the silence," he signed. "And I want to get better at KSL."

"You're already good at it."

"You're better," he argued, his gestures firm.

Heejoo paused, her cow eyes staring at him with an indescribable look. It unnerved him. She was very much alive, but she sometimes reminded him of a haunted child from ghost stores.

Her fingers were lethargic—no: hesitant—as they moved. "I like your voice. Speak and sign at the same time."

Saeon's jaw fell slack, stunned, and he stammered out his first actual words of the day: "My voice– it's– whatever!" Resisting a scoff, he spoke and signed, like she asked. "My voice is squeaky nowadays. It sucks."

Right on cue, his voice shot up.

The girl smiled, her nose scrunching, like she was about to laugh out loud. She didn't. "Funny," she signed.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever..."