For years, I had lived with a secret: I could hear thoughts, every word left unsaid, every unspoken desire, every whispered wish - I'd heard it all. Only my best friend, Mateo, knew about it until Kael arrived.
He was beautiful and dangerous, but most importantly, silent.
For the first time, the whispers stopped.
Like a void, he seemed to be impossible to hear.
But somehow, that silence was louder than anything I'd ever known.
Everywhere I turned, he was there. Waiting, watching, holding something just out of my reach.
And somehow it felt like, he could hear me, however. Was he like me?
But then why could I not hear him like anyone else?
And what would I hear... if I could?
Kalen couldn't stop himself in time, before he asked in a whisper, "What are you so afraid of, Hwan?"
And it felt like hours passed before Hwan spoke.
"I don't want to be alone," he said then, and Kalen thought it looked like it physically hurt him to say it. "But I'm not sure...if I deserve not to be."
***
Or, Kalen is in love with the taste of lemons and the scent of rainy summer days and kind hearts.
Suddenly he sees everything he loves in Hwan.