Interlude Part 5

"Hakyeon"

Summer 2001

(A/N: In 2001, Hakyeon and Namjoon would be 11 years old, Jung Hwa 9 and Ha Na 8 years old.)

It was a sky-clear day and the sun was bringing light and warm to the people below it. Hakyeon was standing in his bedroom where the rays of the sun lit up everything around him, and he was in the middle of buttoning his shirt. After tucking his shirt into the well fitted pants, he looked at himself in the mirror and then sent himself a quick wink, but he almost had a heart attack when he heard a sigh coming from behind.

"Why is my brother so weird," said Jung Hwa and walked into his room.

"Why is my little sister so annoying?" said Hakyeon and stuck out his tongue and then quickly left his bedroom.

"Wait!" yelled Jung Hwa and ran after him, "are you going over to the Kim's?"

"Yes," said Hakyeon without stopping or slowing down his pace.

"Great, I will come with you," said Jung Hwa, "I will help Ha Na get ready."

Hakyeon suddenly stopped in his tracks and Jung Hwa nearly walked into his back.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Hakyeon, "Ha Na doesn't go to our school."

"So?" said Jung Hwa and walked past Hakyeon and outside. Hakyeon just sighed and followed right behind her until they reached the house next to theirs. Somehow, Jung Hwa had become very close with Ha Na this past year and she even started learning sign language. Hakyeon didn't understand his little sister or why she was putting in this amount of effort, but it didn't have anything to do with him, so he just pushed the thought away.

After getting a lift by Eun Ji, the three kids reached the school and found their way to the gym hall where the party would be held. The summer holiday was just around the corner and as always, the school threw a party as a way of parting before the end of the school year. As for Hakyeon and Namjoon, this party held a special meaning since it would be their last, before enrolling in middle school after summer holiday.

Hakyeon looked at all the students having fun dancing, chatting with each other and stuffing themselves with candy and soda drinks. It was a fact that every parent picking up their child tonight would receive one completely hyped on sugar, but that was one of the beauties of the school party.

"I am going to introduce Ha Na to some friends," said Jung Hwa and walked away holding Ha Na's hand tight.

"They sure are good friends," said Hakyeon to Namjoon and he nodded.

"I am glad Ha Na finally has a friend," said Namjoon and Hakyeon looked at him utterly confused. Did she not have friends before? What about the people at her own school? They would probably be even better at sign language than Jung Hwa. So why did she hang out with his sister instead of other deaf people?

Again, Hakyeon had to push away the thoughts he had and tried to focus on the party, but for some reason that wasn't as easy as first expected.

"Hakyeon!" said Sung Jin, one of Hakyeon's underclassmen at school, "I can't believe you are leaving. I am so sad!"

"I am just going to middle school," said Hakyeon, "you will go there in one year and we will see each other again."

"Really?" said Sung Jin with a delighted smile, "then this is not goodbye!"

"No it is not, we will still be seeing each other again before you know it."

"That is s-" as Sung Jin kept talking, Hakyeon's eyes caught interest in something else and for a minute he forgot to listen. What his eye had caught was Ha Na. She was standing by the wall not far away, she wasn't with Jung Hwa, but instead she was standing in the middle of some girls, who for some reason, gave Hakyeon a bad feeling.

"Hakyeon?"

"I am sorry Sung Jin I will be right back," said Hakyeon and walked away without hesitating. Instead of barging in without knowing the situation, he went to the table next to them and pretended he was just eating candy when in fact he was listening to everything that was being said.

"Are you really deaf?" said one girl in a mocking tone.

"Why are you even here?" added another one, flipping her hair back.

"You always cling to Jung Hwa, I am sure you are an annoyance to her."

"Why aren't you answering, I can see your eyes following my lips."

"Ew she is looking at your lips, she is disgusting," said one of the girls and pushed Ha Na so her back met the wall.

"We want to hang out with Jung Hwa too, but she is too busy taking care of you!" Another girl pushed Ha Na against the wall and Hakyeon heard a silent cry from her.

"Oh so you have a voice, why don't you use it then?" The first girl that pushed Ha Na stepped closer to her and raised her hand, but before she could hit Ha Na across her cheek, someone grabbed it. The girl looked up and was frightened by the deadly stare coming from Hakyeon.

"It is Jung Hwa's brother," wishpered one of the girls.

"Is he friends with the deaf girl too?" whispered another one.

"Aren't you going to let go?" asked the girl whose wrist was still held by Hakyeons hand.

"Are you going to leave when I let go?" asked Hakyeon without breaking eye contact and the girl slowly nodded. Hakyeon released his grip and the girl hurried away with the rest of her friends.

Hakyeon turned around and looked at Ha Na who still had a frightened look in her eyes. He wanted to ask if she was alright, but he didn't do so, because he knew she wouldn't understand. Instead he looked carefully to see if she had any bruises, but it looked like she got away with nothing but a shock.

"Hey, what is going on over here?" Hakyeon turned around by the sound of his sister's voice.

"Nothing really," said Hakyeon, "bye." Jung Hwa and Ha Na watched as Hakyeon disappeared into the mass of students.

"Did something happen?" signed Jung Hwa and Ha Na shook her head, "are you sure? You look sad."

"I am fine," signed Ha Na and tried to send Jung Hwa a smile, but in the process she ended up making eye contact with one of the girls from before who just sent her a glare.

"Actually, I don't feel so good," signed Ha Na, "I think I will just go home."

"Wait, Ha Na!" signed Jung Hwa but she had already turned around and started walking away. She walked right past Namjoon and Hakyeon who were talking to some classmates.

"Wasn't that my sister?" asked Namjoon.

"I think so," said Hakyeon and seemed uninterested.

"Oppa, Ha Na is leaving!" said Jung Hwa while looking at Hakyeon.

"Why is she leaving?" asked Namjoon.

"I don't know, she has been acting weird since earlier," said Jung Hwa. Hakyeon looked at the girls who were still standing in the corner of the room, whispering to each other.

"Little sister, can you help me out?" asked Hakyeon.

"Sure."

Ha Na was standing outside where the sun had begun to set and she looked at the colors that would blend so well together in the horizon. When she looked at a scene like that she really understood that God was the biggest artist of them all and she tried to think about how lucky she was to be able to experience such a sight. Focusing on thoughts like that seemed to push the unhappy ones away, at least for a little while.

Suddenly she felt a gentle poke on her shoulder and she turned around and was startled when she saw Hakyeon standing in front of her. Even though he was at their house all the time, she had never spoken to him before and he always seemed to avoid her, so seeing him standing there in front of her somehow made her heart start racing.

While Hakyeon was still just standing in front of her, Ha Na noticed Jung Hwa peaking out from behind him with a smile.

"I promised to translate for him," signed she. 

Once Hakyeon knew he had her attention, he began speaking and Jung Hwa did her best to follow along in sign language.

"You are not going home," he began, already making Ha Na's eyes widen from the first sentence, "you are not going to care about those girls. You are going to stay and have fun and go home late and you will lay in bed thinking about all the fun things that has happened tonight. Okay?"

Ha Na was startled, to say the least and she didn't know if she should look at Jung Hwa or Hakyeon, so she just kept shifting her eyes back and forth. When Hakyeon saw Ha Na's confused face he began speaking again.

"Let us go inside, we will go dancing." Ha Na immediately started signing and Hakyeon looked at Jung Hwa.

"What did she say?" asked Hakyeon.

"She said that since she can't hear the music, she can't dance."

Ha Na had a sad look in her eyes, like she somehow wanted to go dancing and Hakyeon somehow felt the need to make her. So without thinking about it any more Hakyeon grabbed Ha Na's hand and he dragged her with him despite her desperate attempt to make him let go. 

But Hakyeon didn't let go and in the matter of seconds the were both standing on the dance floor surrounded by many other students who were dancing like there was no tomorrow. Hakyeon looked at Ha Na and saw her frightened eyes and felt her body shaking, but he didn't want to let go. Instead he took her arms and pulled them so they were wrapped around his neck and then put his own arms around her back. He gently started moving from side to side, along to the beat of the song. When he felt Ha Na loosen up a bit, he turned up the speed a little and after a while he had her swinging and turning and jumping around with the biggest smile on her face.

"See, you don't have to hear the music to feel the music," said Hakyeon, not caring anymore if she didn't understand. 

"You know, one day I will become a great dancer and I will dance to all the best songs ever made, so you can feel the music that you are not able to hear."

Ha Na looked at Hakyeon and noticed his lips moving, but she had no idea what he was talking about. All she knew was that there was a smile on his face which reassured her that what he was saying was something good. Something worthy of a wholehearted smile.

Being completely engaged in the moment, it surprised Hakyeon when the song ended and he just stopped out of nowhere, Ha Na doing the same. They stood there for a while, looking at each other. A new song began and Hakyeon was ready to set off once again, but he never even took a step forward when two arm wrapped around him and he was enveloped in a warm hug. It didn't last long, but for Hakyeon it felt like hours passed by before Ha Na released herself from him and again stood there looking at him with her cute smile and pretty eyes. After bringing himself back to reality Hakyeon held out his hand to ask for another dance and Ha Na gladly took it and let Hakyeon swing her across the dance floor, not even caring that the girls where eyeing her from afar. Hakyeon didn't care either, he was hypnotized by her smile, by her laugh and by her sparkling eyes that were reflecting the lights from the above them.

"I am sorry I have avoided you until now," said Hakyeon while turning Ha Na around, "but I will make sure to never do that again, I will stay by your side. Me, Jung Hwa and your brother, we will make sure to protect you from all the bad things. I promise."

Hello everyone!

I hope you enjoyed this interlude, if I think back, this was probably my most favorite interlude to write, so I hope you liked it. Reading it again while proofreading it, really made me emotional.

Fact #5 about sign language 

One sign in sign language can have multiple meanings and mouth movements and context help determine what meaning the sign has. In my opinion, this has both pros and cons.

The pros are, if every word had a different sign, it would be hard to remember everything. This way you can learn new signs by someone explaining "it is the same as this sign".

The cons on the other hand is understand which word people mean when they use a sign that has different meaning. Not everyone is good at using mouth movements, so it can be quite a challenge sometimes and that is when you start spelling it out.

Please remember leaving a comment before you move on and take good care of yourself!

Love, Annalise~