Sanity vs. Soulmate | JeongCheol x SVT

5

I rang the doorbell. I totally didn't trip over my loose lace, fell nose first against it and thereby nullified any possibility of further procrastination. Nope. Not at all. So after bravely ringing the doorbell with my finger (!) I waited for what felt like ages - it was probably only a matter of seconds but I was in a state of panic so time slowed down - until I heard steps approaching the door. Then I bolted the hell out of there and hid together with my pink unicorn behind one of the cherry trees.

YA! YOU THOUGHT! HOW CAN YOU NOT QUESTION ME WHEN I START TALKING ABOUT HEARING SOMETHING - and let's forget about the mystery man Seungcheol for a second! Really, I am disappointed by you guys...

Let me rephrase the above: I waited for a few seconds before my inner athlete decided to start working on my sprinting and hid together with a pink unicorn behind one of the cherry trees. Turned out I ran just in time. The door opened shortly after and revealed a child's head.

Wait, what? Did Jihoon have a younger brother I forgot about? It seemed like it. When the guy turned his head around, I was stunned. He was probably around twelve or fourteen years old and looked almost identical to Jihoon. Even his eyes had the same fearsome glint in them!

I slowly pushed myself up from my crouched position and signalled the unicorn to stay hidden while I would go check out the situation. After receiving an approving nod and an encouraging nudge, I took one last deep breath and made my way to the door before the child would decide to close it again. Secretly brushing my clothes off, I tried making it look like I didn't just hid behind a tree, but I think it didn't work judging by the look of utter disbelief Jihoon's brother was giving me.

To be fair, I would most likely look equally dumbfounded if a stranger suddenly decided to hide in my garden...

I cautiously approached the still staring guy. This situation reminded me a bit of the other day when Seungcheol was behaving similarly. But this time it was a thousand times more awkward.
"Ehhh... Hi..." I trailed off before I even said anything. God, this is so embarrassing. I didn't know Jihoon had a brother!!! I am internally crying!! And cringing. But mostly crying.
"I... ehm... is your brother home by any chance?" There. I said it. It's done. Can I leave now?

Have you ever seen eyebrows disappear? Well I have. Just now. And then he continued to stare at me with this puzzled expression of his. Raised eyebrows, wrinkled forehead, curious eyes and a slight hint of a smirk tugging on the left corner of his mouth. All in all, this toddler seemed to question my sanity.
Well, GET IN LINE BITCH, BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE!!

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves. "So? Is he home?"
What happened next pulled the rug out from under my feet.

"I don't have a brother."

The sentence itself was shocking enough, but what caught me even more off guard was the way he said it! HE SPOKE IN SIGN LANGUAGE!! This mf spoke using sign language.
My head felt like it would explode...

Let me summarise this real quick: There lived a guy in Jihoon's old house, looking almost identical to young Jihoon, telling me in sign language that he has no brother, while the name tag on the letterbox clearly stated Lee. WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!

My confusion must have been very apparent since small Jihoon started laughing. Not that I could hear it, but the crinkling of his eyes, the wide open mouth and the slightly tilting of his head gave him away. It looked really weird though. I still find it strange to watch people laughing. Without sound it's just such a cringe behaviour. Even worse than sneezing! Just imagine someone breathing weirdly while opening their mouth... okay that sounded wrong but you get what I mean, right?

"Are you deaf?"

Probably not the most sensible choice of words but my hands had once again been faster than my brain.

"Nope. But you are."

RUDE. Yes, I had been blunt but this dwarf wasn't any better!!

"How did you know?"

I became quite good at hiding my disability. Normally people didn't catch on to it this easily. Jesus, not even my coworkers had realised it up to now! So how did this guy find out about it after simply staring at me for a couple of seconds?? And how did he know sign language? I barely know any people who do!!

"Because we all do."

You WHAT now???? WHO IN THE NAME OF HOLY JISOO IS ALL????? AND WHAT KIND OF ANSWER IS THIS ANYWAYS??? I DIDN'T ASK WHO ELES KNOWS. I ASKED HOW YOU KNEW ABOUT IT. I ASKED HOW. NOT WHO. HOWWWW!!

I was quick to more or less sign those exact thoughts, when I realised he wasn't deaf and I could very well save myself the trouble of using sign language. So that's exactly what I did.

"Who is we? And why do you all know? HOW do you all know?"

"You really don't recognise me, do you."

The Jihoon dwarf was still signing, which I appreciated greatly. Lip reading would be way too stressful at this point, since I was already completely overwhelmed by everything else!
His words though took me by surprise once again. Recognise... him?

We both stood in silence - this pun wasn't intended. The dwarf was watching me while I was watching him. You would have thought I finally realised what was going on, but I didn't. I just stood there, blank mind, speechless.

WHO TF WAS THIS DWARF?????

And then I did what I do best. I turned around and fled the scene.

I didn't go very far though. I just went behind the cherry tree, sat down next to the unicorn, rested my head against the tree trunk and closed my eyes.
I probably just proved to the small human, how crazy I really am, but I didn't care anymore at this point. I needed time to think.