Stray Kids Ship Oneshots (BOOK 2 !)

133-Seungbin: Words

Title: Words

Ship: Seungbin

TW: Panic attack

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Seungmin never particularly cared to dabble in socializing—not after the incident of house catching on fire. The scars on that covered his face and hands weren't the worst thing that came from it, but rather, the brain injury that came from it.

He was sure that if his best friends, Felix and Jisung, hadn't sat down to learn sign language with him, college would have been out of the picture. His notes only got him so far when the professors words just sounded like a jumble of gibberish to his brain. It was like listening to someone speak another language, but he recognized the sounds. All the sounds of his native language were still recognizable, but the sounds just didn't fit together to make words. No matter how hard he listened, no matter how hard to repeated the sounds back to himself (which he found he couldn't do that anymore either), he couldn't comprehend the language anymore.

Aphasia was just like that.

Seungmin sat in his shared dorm room. His roommate, Felix, left to go hang out with some of the people Jisung had been mingling with. A bunch of gym bros that he had started hanging out with outside of the gym. They did ask the younger to go, but Seungmin refused. There was no point in going if he wasn't going to be able to understand any of them. Instead, he opted to try and decipher some of the extra notes Jisung had taken during their music theory class.

Now, it wasn't the notes that was the problem, the problem was Jisung's hand writing. He always took extra notes on things the professor was saying during their lectures to make the notes make a little more sense while Seungmin took notes for the both of them. Seungmin would have been much more appreciated of it if Jisung's handwriting was a bit more eligible. The Aphasia didn't affect him too much with reading, but he definitely couldn't read like he used to.

With a frustrated sigh, Seungmin glanced up at the sound of the door clicking unlocked. He wasn't surprised to see Felix or Jisung come in, but he couldn't help the look of disbelief as two other guys followed in after them.

They were clearly the guys Jisung worked out with. They both had a lot of muscle mass that made Seungmin look like a stick. He felt like shrinking under their gaze, especially when they lifted their hands and spoke words that sounded like mash to him.

Jisung let out a chuckle as he waved at Seungmin. He signed a quick apology while Seungmin glared at him.

"You know why I said I didn't wanna go and you bring them here?" It probably wasn't the nicest thing to say when they were in earshot, but it wasn't like Seungmin's words always came out as he wanted them to. Sometimes his own words sounded like mush to others.

He knew they came out just as he wanted them to when the two strangers froze up in newfound awkwardness.

Felix raised his hands to sign. "They wanted brownies. Who am I to say no to making brownies? Besides! You need to make friends beside us."

Jisung jutted his thumb out at Felix as if to agree with him.

Seungmin raised his own hands. "I can't understand them." He signed, hoping to save himself from embarrassment. Last thing he needed was a bunch of strangers knowing that he just didn't understand a single word anyone was saying like some newborn baby.

"We teach them." Felix signed. "Well, me and Jisung."

Seungmin stood, pushing Jisung's notes out to the end of the table. "No." He gathered up his own notes and left the front room to his own bedroom. Felix and Jisung were enough in his life. They were part of his peace. He was not about to let some strangers throw some rocks at it in an attempt to make some friends.