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the first time hyunjoon says i love you, juyeon nearly cries. okay sure, you"re right, juyeon does sound like he"s being a bit dramatic but, give him a break.
when juyeon first met hyunjoon he didn"t realize he was deaf; he thought hyunjoon was just an asshole, really. he didn"t realize he was deaf until juyeon had asked him why he never talked to him until hyunjoons interpreter, jacob, had to break the news to him.
"he"s deaf, juyeon." jacob had said as nice as possible.
".....oh." juyeons mouth gaped open, feeling like the asshole here instead of hyunjoon. instead of leaving the conversation just like that, juyeon was even more interested now.
"why doesn"t he talk then? is something wrong?" jacob nearly rolled his eyes at how insensitive juyeon was being towards hyunjoon at the moment.
"he"s nonverbal- or mute however you"d like to put it but, he doesn"t talk, bottom line. " jacob told him. hyunjoon tapped on jacobs shoulder to get his attention, once jacob looked back at him, hyunjoon began signing something to him.
"i"ve got to go, juyeon. i"ll see you around, hopefully," jacob said as he walked away with hyunjoon.
as soon as he"d gotten back to his dorm, juyeon threw himself on his bed, screaming face down onto his blankets. kevin, his roommate, simply raised an eyebrow at him, in confusion. setting his phone down from where he was on the bed, he asked juyeon, "what"s wrong this time?"
juyeon looked up from where he was face down on his bed, "you know hyunjoon?"
"the deaf kid?"
"yeah, him," juyeon rubbed his hands over his face, groaning, he continued on, "i didn"t know he was deaf-"
"are you kidding me? like deadass? you"re for real?" kevin asked, juyeon slowly nodded only for kevin to burst out laughing.
"and i might"ve accidentally been an asshole to him because i thought he was being an asshole to me but, jacob had to break it to me," juyeon said.
kevin stared at him,"you fucked up big time."
juyeon threw his hands in the air, "i know! even though jacob probably will never talk to me again because of how rude i was, i kind of want to talk to him."
"who? jacob?"
"no, hyunjoon," juyeon smiled to himself, "plus, he"s actually kind of hot....
kevin shrugged, "maybe you should learn sign language so you can actually talk to him?"
and so he did. it took awhile to learn the basics alphabet but, with jacob being so nice (even if jacob did dislike him because of how rude he was the first time, jacob still was happy someone wanted to communicate with hyunjoon) he began learning faster and more complicated words.
anyway, you get the gist of what happened. they talked, they ended up dating and nearly seven years later, they"re here.
juyeon had initially planned to propose somewhere fancy and where he knew hyunjoon would love but, you know, life gets in the way.
(more so, juyeon forgot that kevin wanted his entire friend group to come to canada for his birthday week, when he was actually going to propose to hyunjoon during that week.)
hyunjoon was always highly afraid of airports, juyeon didn"t know but, he never pushed hyunjoon to tell him why. hyunjoon always clinged to juyeon at airports, especially if they were busy, like they were now. juyeon didn"t prepare for the airport to be so busy that they could barely even walk next to each other. kevins birthday was around winter break for everyone in school which made everything worse; the prices, the lines, literally everything.
after they"d gone through security and boarded the plane, hyunjoon sighed, sitting on his seat in the middle. juyeon sat on the seat by the walkway. not even a minute after they"d gotten seated, hyunjoon tapped juyeon. looking at hyunjoon, he signed to juyeon, "i"m bored." juyeon stared blankly at his boyfriend, "what do you want me to do?" juyeon asked.
hyunjoon had actually gotten a lot better at reading lips, when juyeon had first begun talking with hyunjoon and when he couldn"t remember a word in sign language, instead of juyeon just saying the word, most of the time they"d have to play charades for one word. it was hell for twenty minutes or more but, juyeon actually did like it because of the time he got to spend with hyunjoon.
hyunjoon shrugged, he signed, "i don"t know, do something?" juyeon let a chuckle, "you want me to do a trick or something? like a dog, or what?"
hyunjoon shrugged once again, his lips curling upwards into a smile, he signed, "yeah, you could do that."
before juyeon could even get a response in, a woman across from the aisle called out to him,"hey" she said. the woman appeared to be a tourist, probably from the states if juyeon had to guess. the woman already made juyeon feel uncomfortable, juyeon was already questioning how this interaction was about to go down.
"hi," juyeon said back, his english wasn"t great he"d have to say, even if he did take like all four years of it in high school and one year in college, the most he could do is hold a basic conversation and this was already pushing it.
"he"s deaf, right?" she asked, too sweet to be sincere. juyeon nodded,"yeah, he"s uh- my boyfriend so-" juyeon only really added that part in because he"s seen too many people think they were only friends and that meant they could flirt with hyunjoon in front of him.
the woman was clearly taken aback by the fact that they"re dating,"oh wow, you"re so brave for doing that. i used to date a deaf guy, too. broke up with him though because i couldn"t understand him when he spoke. couldn"t enunciate his words enough, you know?"
juyeon nodded, smiled insincerely and turned back to hyunjoon and signed to him,"this woman is fucking crazy."
hyunjoon lifted his left eyebrow is disbelief and looked over juyeon to look at her, looking back at juyeon he signed, "looks like it too."
hyunjoon sighed, leaning back into the chair. soon, the plane began taking off and hyunjoon was sitting there as if nothing was happening. it didn"t seem to bother him which made a lot of sense, he didn"t have to hear any of the rattling of the plane, which always made juyeon feel like they were going to crash but, they never did and they got to canada safely.
once they both got their luggage, juyeon began looking for kevin to hear the loudest scream ever, "juyeon! over here!" juyeon led both hyunjoon and himself to where, juyeon swears, kevin was vibrating with excitement. at kevins side was jacob, who nearly tackled hyunjoon with a huge hug. they later left the airport in kevins car.
as soon as they"d arrived at kevins and jacobs house, kevin showed them to the guest room that both juyeon and hyunjoon would be staying in. juyeon set his luggage down next to the bed, while hyunjoon began opening his suitcase and organizing his clothing. as juyeon began attempting to leave the room sneakily, he felt a pair of eyes on his back. juyeon turned around and there his boyfriend was, staring at him as he was still organizing his clothes without drifting his eyes away.
hyunjoon didn"t say anything to juyeon but juyeon felt like he had to tell him what he was doing. juyeon scratched the back of his neck nervously, "uh.. i"m.. i"m just going to ask kevin what we"re going to be doing this week."
hyunjoon peered his eyes at him and nodded slowly as if he didn"t believe a single word he"d said. juyeon quickly left, as soon as he closed the door juyeon let out a breath he didn"t know he was holding.
as if kevin could sense how tense juyeon was in the moment, kevin began talking very loudly for juyeon to immediately shush him.
"what?" kevin whispered, confused.
"he might hear you," juyeon whispered, tensely.
"who? hyunjoon?" kevin asked and when juyeon nodded, kevin deadpanned, "your boyfriend is deaf, juyeon."
"i know, i know but like-" juyeon tried explaining himself, and he sighed when he couldn"t think of an excuse.
"whatever," juyeon sighed, dragging kevin to his own room,"we need to talk about something."
kevin tensed up when juyeon turned around to lock the door.
"please don"t tell me you"re breaking up with hyunjoon," kevin groaned, "you guys are so cute together and no offense, but i would absolutely kill you if you broke up with hyunjoon."
juyeon furrowed his eyebrows, "what? no, i was planning on doing the opposite." kevin stared at him, thinking about was the opposite of breaking up was.
"i want to marry him, dumbass!" juyeon shouted, juyeon sighed, throwing himself on kevins" bed face down.
juyeon reminded kevin of their college years, whenever juyeon would come back from a date with hyunjoon, he"d always be screaming, face down on his bed, screaming about the same thing, about how hyunjoon was so cute.
kevin sat down next to juyeon on the bed, who had now turned over staring at the ceiling with his hands resting on his stomach.
"i don"t know what to do, like i want to marry him but i don"t want to make it all cliché so it"s easily forgettable and i just," juyeon sighed, "i don"t know."
laying down on the bed, kevin sighed, "y"know when i proposed, it wasn"t cute. like, at all, it"s embarrassing, if anything."
juyeon looked at him, one of his eyebrows lifted, "really?"
kevin nodded,"yes. i felt so dumb and i was sleep deprived at the time so, i literally had no filter. jacob and i were on a date and i could tell that jacob could tell that i wasn"t interested in it at all but, for some reason i thought that because he knew- he thought that i was going to break up with him?"
juyeon laughed aloud, "oh my god."
"-and because of that, i literally started crying like a two year old, telling him "no please don"t break up with me" and i deadass gave him the ring and was like "i wanna marry you so bad" while i was crying."
juyeon laughed even harder, small wheezes cutting into his laughs, as he calmed down from the laughing fit, juyeon quietly asked,"is that.....is that why you"ve never told me?"
after a long break of silence, kevin broke off the silence,".......yes."
"so....any ideas for that oh-so special proposal after you"ve heard mine?" kevin jokingly asked, to which juyeon hummed in response, not saying anything until he held up one finger, tilting his head to one side, "actually, i do have one."
^_________^
kevin sighed, parking the car on the side of the road. kevin got out of the car, along with the others.
pulling juyeon closely, kevin whispered, "are you ready?"
juyeon furrowed his eyebrows, "what? i"m not gonna propose like, right away. i"m gonna wait for him to settle in, play with the cats for a bit and then hit him with the i wanna be with you for forever stuff."
kevin slowly nodded,"alright, alright."
they soon walked into the cat cafe, slipping their shoes off at the door. juyeon soon ordered his and hyunjoons drinks while kevin was staring at him nervously, unsure when he"d surprise him.
once hyunjoon and juyeon finished their own drinks, they went into another room and hyunjoon quickly began playing with a small orange cat.
juyeon sat down at a circular table nearby, watching hyunjoon play with the cat fondly. juyeon was nearly one thousand percent he wanted to propose, i mean, they"d been dating for seven, almost eight years and juyeon would do anything to make sure hyunjoon was happy.
jacob slid next to juyeon, in the seat across from him, glancing at him then back at hyunjoon, jacob asked him, "so when are you going to propose?"
juyeon nearly choked on his spit from the bluntness that jacob had said,"what? where"d you hear that?"
sighing, jacob explained,"hyunjoon may be deaf but, incase you haven"t noticed, i"m not. also, i heard you yelling at kevin that you wanted to marry him and knowing you, you"d want to do it immediately and you wouldn"t want to do it at those touristy spots "cause literally everyone does that. "
juyeons face fell,"..... huh, alright."
"i trust you though, juyeon. you"re the only person i"ve seen who"s been with hyunjoon who looks at him like he"s their entire world. i"m glad you guys met," jacob said, softly smiling at the fact that his best friend had finally found his love.
"alright, fuck it, i"m doing it now," juyeon exhaled, getting up from the chair.
"what?" juyeon heard jacob say from his spot in the chair.
juyeon sat down next to hyunjoon, where he was petting the same orange cat as he has been previously.
"hey," juyeon said, smiling at hyunjoon, and petting the cat once then leading his attention to the boy in front of him. hyunjoon glanced up at juyeon, smiling softly at him.
"i have something to tell you, promise you won"t freak out?" juyeon told hyunjoon. hyunjoon lifted his left eyebrow in confusion, but still nodded.
juyeon slid out the small velvet box from his back pocket, he slowly opened the box, revealing the silver band. hyunjoon gasped, covering his mouth is shock.
"marry me?" juyeon asked, to which hyunjoon nodded quickly with tears in his eyes, threatening to fall out.
slipping the ring on hyunjoons ring finger, juyeon enveloped hyunjoon in a hug. lifting his head up with his thumb, juyeon wiped away his tears, "hey, hey don"t cry, joonie."
looking up at juyeon, hyunjoon mumbled something unintelligible, "what?" juyeon asked, shocked and intrigued as to what hyunjoon could be saying.
"i l"ve y"u" hyunjoon slurred, smiling up at juyeon. even though, at this point juyeon blocked out everything except hyunjoon in this moment, he could hear jacob and kevin freaking out over the fact that hyunjoon, their very own baby, was one, getting married and two, speaking.
juyeons eyes teared up at the sound of hyunjoons sweet, angelic voice, not realizing that he let tears fall from his eyes. he didn"t realize it until, hyunjoon reached up to his face to wipe away the tears as juyeon did with hyunjoon.
hyunjoon smiled at him, sweetly, "nooo," he said stretching out the o, "d"n"t cry!"
juyeon still did cry, though.