a small whisper

-02-

"Jeongguk because apparently you're so smart for the class, go get the senior practice exam papers from Mr Yung, which you can take, because again you think you're too smart" the teacher rolled her eyes making everyone cheer the teacher.
Jeongguk grabbed his bag and ran out the room. He sighed as he knew that Mr Yung's class was towards the top of the school meaning he would have to trek up the stairs. So he began his journey, looking up seeing the many stair cases. He focused on getting to the top till finally he reached the floor he needed.

He searched around till he found the right classroom. What he failed to remember as he trekked up the long flights of stairs was that his social anxiety wouldn't be able to cope knocking on the door and asking for the papers. He couldn't remember if Mr Yung knew sign language or not and if he didn't he didn't know what else to do.

He was knocked out his thoughts when his shaking hand was already moving towards the door. Impulse movements. Jeongguk was in for it now. He heard what once was a loud classroom turned to dead silence and heard a loud 'come in'. He swallowed a thick lump before opening the door and walking in.

"Hi, how can I help you?" Mr Yung asked the small boy who was barely in the classroom.
Jeongguk scanned his head to the classroom with around 30-40 people there.
Usually he would reach out to the notepad but he was completely frozen.
"Hello? Can I help you kid?" the teacher asked again but all he could feel was his chest tightening.

He didn't even hear a chair scrape across the floor. Till finally something came into his blurry vision.
"Hey don't panic, you're fine. Take a breath"
Jeongguk did as he was told and took a deep breath.
He came to his senses and noticed the tiger hybrid from the other day.
"Sign language to me" Tae whispered. "You don't need to use a notepad with me" Tae encouraged.

Jeongguk slowly began to hand sign, unsure if Tae was being real or not.
"He wants to know if you have any spare practice papers, apparently Miss Kang asked" Taehyung said to the teacher while blocking Jeongguk from everyone's view so the boy couldn't stress out from their stares.
"Uh yeah sure here, can I ask who it's for?"
Tae grabbed the set of papers and looked at the younger once again. Jeongguk was quick to sign language.

"The teacher wanted Jeongguk to try harder work so she suggested to come to you" Taehyung nodded making the teacher smile.
"Ah well that's great! These should be good, do you know if the teacher wants you back for the rest of the lesson?"
Jeongguk shook his head knowing that the woman hated his guts and would do anything to get rid of him.
"Well why don't you stay here and if you need help i'll be here to help. You can sit next to Taehyung as you already know him"

Jeongguk bowed out of gratitude and followed Taehyung back to his seat. He took the test papers and began while everyone else worked on some worksheets. Without even realising it, as the boy was so oblivious, the person next to him was stealing as many glances as he could. But they weren't your perverted type of glances, they were sweet and innocent. Taehyung was taking in all the details of the younger as his eyebrows moved only slightly when he came to a challenging question.

He wasn't going to lie to himself. The boy was beautiful, everything about him was beautiful. The small moles on his face which were dotted around in random places. His soft, doe eyes which looked so elegant and innocent for the harsh world around them. Jeongguk was the prettiest boy he's ever seen and he admitted it to himself.

Jeongguk frowned as he couldn't do a certain question. He was tapping his pen anxiously, till he felt a tap on his arm. He turned to the side to see Taehyung looking at him softly.
"Want some help?" Tae asked, which Jeongguk slowly replied to with a nod.
Taehyung smiled and quickly showed the younger what to do. Which with a bit of patience Jeongguk finally understood it with the help of the elder.

->

The bell rang and everyone packed away. Tae looked at the younger who had a clueless face displayed.
"Are you okay?" Taehyung asked gently.
Jeongguk nodded and turned to his as they walked out of the classroom together.
'How do you know sign language?' Jeongguk asked with his hands.
"My cousin had hearing difficulties when she was born so we all learned sign language so she didn't have any difficulties with communicating. But luckily as years passed she slowly and luckily grew out of it"

Jeongguk slowly smiled and signed 'i'm so happy she grew out of it'
"Me too" Taehyung nodded and turned to him.
"Do you- maybe want to meet up after school?"
Jeongguk paused and looked at Tae with bright eyes.
'Really? you want to?'
"Of course, I want to get to know you better" Tae confidently smiled.
'I'd love to' Jeongguk blushed, hoping Taehyung didn't notice.

He was surprised, very surprised. A person he met not so long ago wanted to meet up after school. That's never happened to Jeongguk. He was never the one to be seen with a friend. No one liked the mute, they were uncomfortable. Apparently a small, innocent boy could make a masses of people feel uncomfortable, and drove them to dislike him. He would constantly be tripped up in the corridor or be thrown around like he was worthless and a waste of space. He hated how they had power over him.

He was constantly being belittled, whether it's by a human or a hybrid, either way he felt like he was at the bottom of the ranking system and it wasn't great. So he finally felt a hint of excitement. Because deep down he hoped that this man standing next to him would mean a great deal to him and vice versa.