Strawberry Milk

Two

"...and then, he told all those girls to 'get lost'. It was so mean, but I couldn't say anything because all of those girls were his fans, so it's none of my business," Hyojong complained as Ari nodded, sipping her milk while swinging her legs on the bench. "But you know what the weirdest thing is? Those girls were still squealing and praising him like 'oh my god, he's so hot when he's mean' and 'I like bad boys' or whatever."

Ari raised her hand to her mouth, covering her small titter.

"It's just- Oh," Hyojong paused as he stared at Ari.

"What?" A startled Ari questioned.

He smiled warmly, "I just realised you're smiling more now. You have a really pretty smile."

Contrary to her understanding of herself, Ari felt her face flushing, and she faced forwards to avoid his eyes, a little afraid of why her heart was pounding so speedily. "That has nothing to do with what you were saying."

Hyojong grinned and pointed out, "At times like this, you're supposed to accept the compliment and say thank you."

"Well then," Ari turned back with a blushing face. "Thank you." Upon seeing Hyojong's eyes narrowing with his smile, Ari continued, "You were saying?"

"Oh, well, Jungkook. I just don't understand why that guy's so popular. I mean, his personality is just..."

"I think he's very kind though. I see him sometimes, since the home economics room is close to the media and film room."

"Oh right, he's in the film club as well."

"He seems friendly and cheerful when I see him with his friends, and he greets me when he sees me. He also helped me find something once. He is kind," Ari said, reminding herself of when Jungkook found the hearing aid for her. 

"Oh? That's a little weird, he never talks to girls..." Hyojong eyed Ari, before leaning closer in interrogation. "Then does Ari have a little crush on the bad boy?"

"A crush...?" Ari murmured as she inched away from Hyojong.

"You know, someone you like and you wanna be closer with them. You get butterflies when you talk with them and you miss them when you can't see them. You wanna hold hands and do couple stuff with them."

Heat began to rise in Ari's body as she realised what the word meant, and it was the imagination of herself laughing with Hyojong on this bench that she seemed to have defined to be her crush. She took a big sip of the strawberry milk to calm herself.

Noting her flustered reaction, Hyojong sat back up straight. "Sorry, it might be a bit too early for you to know about love yet." He scratched the back of his head and sighed.

Ari murmured to herself, almost soundlessly so Hyojong couldn't hear. "No... I might have already begun to understand it..." She filled her mouth with strawberry milk.

. . .

"Umm, I'm a little curious about something..." Hyojong began, fidgeting with his fingers and looking at Ari cautiously. "But I don't know if I should say it..."

Ari averted her eyes for a second. "Is it about my hearing?"

He nodded slowly, with wary eyes.

"What do you want to know?"

"...If you don't wear your hearing aids, you can't hear anything, right?" Hyojong asked, halting for confirmation.

"Almost nothing. I can hear sounds around 70 decibels and higher in my right ear, and about 100 decibels in my left without them."

"Umm..." It was as if Ari could see the confusion on his face. 

"I can hear a dog barking nearby in my right ear, and a helicopter nearby in my left ear, though they are quiet. Anything louder than those, I can hear better."

"I see... Does that mean you can read lips and speak sign language?"

Ari nodded. "I learnt it in case anything happened, but I'm not that good in either of them."

"That's still really amazing," he smiled, "Speaking out loud is so hard sometimes, I wanna learn some sign language too! Do you think you could teach me?"

"I could, but I don't see how that would benefit. It's similar to spoken language, it may sometimes be difficult to sign too."

"Oh, really?" He faced downward and pouted, "I guess my hands won't move if I'm nervous as well."

"Plus, it's rather useless if the person you're talking to doesn't understand sign language."

"Oh, that's true too. I didn't think of that..." Hyojong sulked.

Immediately furrowing her brows once she saw his expression, Ari patted Hyojong's shoulder so he'd turn to her attention. "You can do it," she said in sign language, with a small smile that she'd been practicing.

Hyojong blinked mindlessly. "What does that mean?"

"It means 'you can do it'," Ari explained, "Even if you're nervous, as long as you're being sincere, I think your message will be well received."

Hyojong gleamed, bringing his fist to his mouth. "You're really cute."

Immediately, Ari's face reddened, and she grumbled, "Thank you... but I don't think I like compliments."

"Well then I guess I'll keep complimenting you until you get used to them," he chuckled jokingly.

"That's mean..."

"There was someone who said that too, even though compliments are only said to make the other person feel good." Hyojong looked to the distance longingly, and Ari could only ponder what he meant. He turned back in an instant, startling Ari as she jumped back a little. "Actually, I think you two would make great friends."

Dumbfounded, Ari voiced, "Huh?"

"I have someone I want you to meet."

"Oh. Is this person the reason for your longing expression, and the reason you wanted to learn sign language?"

Hyojong gave an embarrassed laugh, scratching his cheek awkwardly and averting his eyes. "Yeah..."

Ari had mixed feelings about his idea, noticing the emotions this person evoked in Hyojong. She couldn't exactly understand her own emotions, but she knew it wasn't a happy feeling. "I think it'll be interesting to see the person making you so troubled," she said after some thought.