[WIP DUMP] no i don't want to finish these
NEVER FINISHING THESE :|| sighs
infinite ; sunggyu/woohyun
The newspaper is white, with black words printed and the monochrome, dull tones of the paper that Woohyun holds, Woohyun thinks, resembles his own life. He stares at the top right hand corner of the paper, the material is rough against the tips of his fingers, and he stares at the cost of the newspaper. He had picked up the newspaper from the nearby bin (at the park and it was in such a perfect condition, it’d have been a waste to have it lying there and meeting banana peels and half-eaten bread) and he wonders how people can afford it while people like him, spent the days fleeting, scourging, finding.
Woohyun sits on the edges of the cement staircase, wind harsh against the cold cheeks, flipping through the papers and he decides to rip it into pieces and hey, who notices if one litters. His fingers curl around the mouth of the bottle of soju, gulping it down hungrily and he starts to see the path in front of him blur (just like how his memories is a blur, there is nothing but blank when he reaches out.)
Nam Woohyun is 21, labeled “man with no future or past” and the neighbors who live in the same block as him, avoid him like as if he’s a plague and maybe, Woohyun thinks, he is a plague. His mind is empty when it comes to memories and the path that lied straight ahead till the day his dyed hair is white, is empty as well and he knows; he has no future. It is a miracle that he has a job (as a food delivery man, though he slacks on the job because he doesn’t like it but yet, he needs a job) and he manages to get past each day.
He sees grey and he feels the whole world rotate slightly and the granite that is harsh against the (almost broken) soles of his shoes and then there’s a flash of white and yellow and then, he sees black.
-
When Nam Woohyun’s eyes flutter to an open, he sees things that he shouldn’t see and that includes him seeing his own physical shell getting hauled into a white vehicle, flashing red in the darkness. The entire area is cordoned off, marked with tapes and he sees the police with clipboards and they’re questioning the driver of the truck and he seems to be getting handcuffed, Woohyun observes.
He isn’t surprised when he doesn’t feel a rush in his blood, no sadness present in his heart that comes across as stabs, no gasps of shock and there’s only a strange nonchalance and Woohyun wonders, is he dead. If this was how dead felt, Woohyun thinks, he should have died earlier because it felt better dead than alive.
He fists his hands and shoves him into the pockets of his jeans and he turns around and he gasps when he sees someone staring at him, and that person, seems to be glowing.
The man in front of him only smiles, eyes curving into crescents and Woohyun blinks when their eyes meet. It’s warm hazel against cold black and Woohyun feels an uncanny connection when the man starts to speak and his voice, it sounds almost familiar though he swears, he has never seen him before.
“Do you want happiness?”
“Yes,” and Woohyun isn’t even sure how his mouth opens and how the word rolls of his tongue.
“I’m Sunggyu, a medium for people who have died,” he pauses and takes a breath and Woohyun does the same, “You can choose now whether you would like to stay here or move onto heaven. Do you have any reasons to stay here?”
“No, please take me to heaven.”
The man, Sunggyu, nods in understanding and he reaches out for Woohyun’s hand. His touch is warm and light, almost like a feather and Woohyun feels the rush in his blood, his blood cells seem to be working harder than usual because it’s the first time in years that someone has touched him.
“You must complete three tasks first before you can go to heaven.”
-
“Sleep first. I’ll bring you to your first task when you’re up.”
Woohyun thinks that the whole Sunggyu and heaven thing is complete bullshit, it’s ridiculous, it’s blasphemous. Something like, “fulfilling three wishes before you die” sounds like utter rubbish and it couldn’t be true, could it?
-
But when Woohyun wakes up to see Sunggyu looking back at him, a peaceful expression on his face, Woohyun knows that his thoughts before sleep were wrong. Woohyun picks himself up from the bed of his apartment (he managed to head back, his shell floating through walls and it’s convenient that he no longer has to struggle to force his keys into his door, because the lock has not been lubricated for ages and Woohyun has no money for lubricant.)
“You’re up, time to meet your first task. Follow me.”
-
Woohyun is brought to a relatively clean but yet, run-down restaurant and Sunggyu halts in front of the store and points to an old lady through the transparent windows of the restaurant and Woohyun has to squint to get a proper look of the old woman. The old woman’s hair is a complete white, it starts from the roots of her hair and her old age reaches her foot and he can see the woman’s difficulty in walking.
Woohyun has instincts and he’s almost about to rush into the restaurant to help the grandmother before Sunggyu pulls him back and a young boy (younger than Woohyun) enters the scene and helps the old lady back to the cash register. He faintly hears sounds of “Grandma! You shouldn’t be walking around!” and there are laughs that follow after. Woohyun takes a glance at Sunggyu and Sunggyu starts to speak, as if reading Woohyun’s mind.
“This old lady is Mrs Kim, she works hard in this restaurant that she runs with Lee Sungjong, whom she found wandering in the streets alone a few years ago and she decided to raise him as her own ever since,” Sunggyu pauses for a breath and Woohyun watches Sunggyu’s throat, he’s swallowing his spit and he looks like he’s choking on the words he’s about to say. “She doesn’t have much time left, maybe a little over a year at the most. But the two of them are completely unprepared. If she leaves, he’s on his own. And he has no means to take care of himself and the restaurant.”
“Help them.”
Before Woohyun is able to open his mouth and direct questions, Sunggyu disappears and he feels himself getting knocked unconscious.
-
When Woohyun wakes up, he finds himself in the hospital and he’s in a perfect condition and there’s tubes connected to various parts of his body, bandages lining his flesh and the doctors around him are staring in amazement and Woohyun stares at one of them. He’s able to feel the silk fibers from beneath his skin and he cringes because he knows he’s unable to afford it and he’s never been the type to have bought insurance.
“You’re discharged, Mr Nam and your medical bills have already been paid for,” the nurse beside him says and her voice is shaking slightly and Woohyun can identify the shock in her voice. Woohyun nods curtly before staring at the doctors, a i-want-you-out look and the doctors immediately excuse themselves and Woohyun lets out a sigh of relief.
He flips to his side, climbing out of the hospital bed when he notices a note on his bedside table and he stares at it. He skims through the content and he scowls slightly before crushing the paper and he dresses himself.
He’s off for his first task.
-
He takes careful steps before entering the restaurant, putting on a rather pleasant smile on his face. The restaurant is empty and he looks around, looking for the old lady and she isn’t anywhere. He frowns slightly, knowing that the wind chime had sounded once he arrived, hence there should have been someone present.
His train of thoughts are broken when he hears a voice chime from behind him, “Welcome!”
“Hi,” Woohyun starts to speak up. “I saw the job vacancy sheet from outside and I’m looking for a job.”
exo ; yixing/luhan
In 2714, the world no longer communicates with their tongues. The rulers of the new world have claimed words to be harmful, as there is only harm to words, and its usage has since been abolished. The world of now only communicates using technology. Children no longer meet eyes with their teachers; they learn by looking at a screen. Troublemakers are no more, or rather, they dare not exist. Teenagers no longer possess cell phones, they have everything they need installed in a single device, called the EYN (Everything You Need). Parents no longer have the need to lecture their children; the kids are silent and robotic. Grandparents no longer have the need to complain about filial piety, praying that their children take care of them still, because it is ingrained in the pink meat of their heads to do so.
In 2714, the world does not have words. In 2714, the world does not have a common language spoken by everyone. In 2714, the world has no sound.
Long gone are the hushed whispers in classrooms. Long gone are the constant tapping sounds of touch screen phones in the subway. Long gone are teachers shouting at kids who play truant. Long gone is the hustle and bustle of the city. Long gone are parents lecturing their children, making sure they don’t mix with the wrong crowd. Long gone are grandparents sighing to themselves as they sit on their rocking chairs.
In 2714, long gone is sound.
-
Luhan has lived an extremely orderly life all his 22 years of existence. He has been praised for being blessed with good looks, a beautiful stoic face and the countless A's that grace his report cards. He has a huge social circle, friends he'll smile together with as they chat about the most mundane of topics. People smile at him when they walk past him, though they might be strangers; it is the norm for strangers to smile at each other. A veil of a beautiful and friendly World is painted over these plastic actions. Luhan doesn’t say anything because rules in the World are strict and going against the rules results in nothing but humiliation for the rest of the Offender's family members. Nothing is known of what happens to Offenders; the Government keeps it a secret but Luhan has an idea.
Luhan has a decent job in the government, working as a small secretary even though he has a whole set of straight A's. Straight A's don’t matter in the World. Academic achievements, personal achievements, none of it matters in the World. You only need connections and money and you’d be able to reach the top and access the very best of gadgets in the World. The Government covers the unsightly with wallpaper, saying that the best come from the best and hence, they will be rewarded accordingly.
However, Luhan does not need all these, he is content with what he has.
There is nothing that Luhan lacks in his life, he thinks to himself. He snaps out of his daze however, realizing that he had been spacing out for a while. It is never good for people to space out in this World, Luhan knows and he smiles at the men in black who are walking in his direction.
Are you okay? One of them questions and Luhan nods, with a (fake) smile.
Of course, I apologize, Luhan responds, a sheepish grin gracing his features. I was just carried away with thinking of what I should have for dinner tonight.
Of course, the man responds and he bows at Luhan, before walking away.
It is never good for people to space out in the World. Spacing out means that one is thinking and the Government does not encourage overthinking. They prefer a tightly controlled mind where they can predict everyone’s thoughts. Spacing out means chances of rebellion and Luhan knows of stories where people had been taken out, executed for planning rebellion. Luhan likes to think; the mere fact that his brain is working more than it should brings about an adrenaline rush in his veins.
Luhan thinks the World does not lack anything. Not with the Government that aims for perfection and nothing more. Everyone’s life is regulated and there’s something that people are going to do, are planning to do. There is routine.
But maybe, the World lacks a bit of disorder (sound).
-
It is a norm for every dystopian society to have a group of people who are different from the “normal” humans. There is a group of “traditional people” in 2714, for they are the ones to have survived through the “Great Change”, as the leaders of the Government would put it as. They are the ones who can still feel the laughter bubble in their throats and words roll off their tongues. They are the ones who can speak.
There is a reason why the “traditional people” still live to this date, in the tightly controlled World. The leaders of the “traditional people” have made a pact with the Government leaders, they were to lead a life of their own and not teach the “normal” people the way of speech. It would be against the laws of both the lives of the “normal people” and the “traditional people” to teach the way of speech to the “normal people”. The Government leaders do not want the “normal people” to be corrupted. Speech is corruption.
The Government does not execute the “traditional people” if they fail to abide the law. The Government upholds a white image of innocence to the people and instead, something else happens to them. But I, the narrator, will not be in charge of telling you what it is.
There would be no story if I had told you.
-
Zhang Yixing has grown up listening to constant laughter ringing in his ears. For as long as he could remember, he has never led a single day without laughter and hearing people speak. Though the tones of speech are different, Zhang Yixing has grown to love the fact that people that he know can speak. When his best friend is jealous of another male who is getting close to his crush, when his mother is angry at his father, when the young children of their people are jumping about; these are sounds that he has grown to adore.
Yixing has an affinity with languages, something that he has grown to love more and more with every passing year. He likes the different annotations that each language has; how each language can sound so different but yet, contain the same meaning; how two languages can come across as the components of a rose; one the thorns and the other the petals, if you will. Yixing masters the art of learning languages, speaking more languages than the eldest man of their people knows. Yixing thanks the existence of the textbooks, acidic pages thinned with yellow and yet, readable and in his hands.
His fingertips are calloused, rough over the years of playing the guitar. A guitar is a monument and there are only few that know the art of playing it, of playing a musical instrument, actually. Musical instruments are few and rare, for most of them were destroyed during the Great Change. Yixing is blessed that his parents are of a higher rank than the normal people and they had the chance to receive the guitar he now plays from the Leaders of their people.
Yixing starts to strum as his mind starts to drift. His eyes shift to look in the distance, where the supposedly “normal people” reside in. There is no physical barrier between the living quarters of the “normal people” and the “traditional people” but there is a mental barrier that Yixing knows very well. He does not feel the urge to be classified as one of the “normal people” because he knows that if he were “normal”, he would not be able to hear the sounds he loves.
He closes his eyes and he does wonder, however, how the “normal people” are like. He has never met any of them before and he only hears of them in stories. Apparently, they are just like him, them. They are normal, with eyes and noses and ears and a human body. They are all humans but yet, the “traditional people” are called “traditional” while the people who do not know of sound have the title of “normal” plastered on them.
Sometimes, Yixing feels the want to be thought of as “normal” too.
-
Luhan breathes out loudly as he walks further and further into the distance, a cup of coffee in his hands, a backpack slung over one shoulder. It is one of his weekly escapades to secluded places of the city, where he would sit down and draw his surroundings. Today is different because Luhan decides to walk in the other direction, in the direction of where the “traditional people” live. There is nothing but barren land, yellowed grass and Luhan simply continues to walk further and further, up the slight slope because there’s nothing that he sees. He does not want to turn back, if he did, then, he would have made his way to where he’s standing pointless.
He pauses in his footsteps when he sees a male; he sees only his back, clad in a checkered shirt and sitting on a rock. Luhan does not do anything, except have his hand grip his cup of coffee even tighter and forms an ‘O’ with his mouth when the male turns.
There is something foreign in his arms, Luhan has never seen it before, and the male shoots him a strange glance, questioning and his mouth opens.
“Who are you?”
-
Zhang Yixing is taken by surprise when he sees a boy, a boy that he has never seen before in his entire life. There are few who are able to distract him from his guitar playing and this man, someone he's never even met, is able to do so. Yixing thinks that he’s a “normal person”, cringing when he sees the male’s surprised reaction when he spoke. It is an expected reaction from a “normal person” when they hear a sound for the first time.
Yixing stands up on his feet and he prepares to walk away. He knows better than to be seen interacting with a “normal person” but he is pulled back and he turns back only to see the male, huge doe eyes staring back at him. “Yes?” he questions and he forgets, forgets that the male cannot respond.
The male flails, panicking for a moment before he starts to tap furiously away at his EYN. A screen forms on top of his watch and he turns it to face Yixing. Yixing reads words off the screen. It’s lucky that he knows the language that is used in the World, English is still used but it isn’t spoken. He decides, compared to a technology-advanced world where sound communication is devoid, he would prefer a world that isn’t as advanced and filled with sounds.
I’m Luhan. Please don’t go. I do not mean any harm.
I just came to find inspiration to draw something.
Can you stay?
Yixing never pens himself to be a model, he knows the reason why Luhan asks him to stay, Luhan wants to draw him. Yixing sighs, nods and he sits back down and Luhan smiles and there’s something that pokes Yixing in the stomach and he is attracted, strangely attracted to Luhan’s smile.
Yixing simply sits down, pulling his guitar over his knee again and Luhan settles himself on a patch of grass, several meters away and brings out his sketchbook and pencils. Luhan blinks up at Yixing, as if saying, do something; don’t mind me.
The silence that rings in the air is awkward and Yixing isn’t used to it. He doesn’t like the silence so he coughs and mumbles out, “Do you want to hear me play the guitar?” Luhan blinks up at him again, confused and Yixing realizes, the guitar is a musical instrument and Luhan is a “normal person” who has probably never seen it before. The Government has erased all traces of sound-related objects and even though it’d have been great if the “normal people” learnt about these instruments, the Government doesn’t include them in their textbooks. “This object,” Yixing says, lifting up his guitar slightly.
Luhan’s mouth moves to form an ‘O’ shape and he nods excitedly, just like a little child. Yixing turns away, looking down at his guitar and he starts to strum one of his favourite songs. He sings as well as he started to get more, more and more into the song. Yixing looks at Luhan from the corner of his eye, Luhan is staring at him, staring with a starstruck expression. When Luhan seems to have noticed Yixing’s gaze on him, he snaps out of his daze and the pencil is lodged between his fingers again.
この光の向こうには 自由などなかったんだ
(Behind this light, there wasn’t freedom)**
-
When Luhan returns home, another page of his sketchbook filled, he feels strangely different. There is a feeling that he feels that he is not able to tell apart, it is something that he has not learnt in the textbooks. He was surprised when he first heard the instrument, was it called a guitar?, play. It was a musical sound and Yixing’s voice had complemented the instrument extremely well.
The words that Yixing spoke; Luhan did not understand the tongue. Luhan makes a note to find out more about the tongues. Nothing has been said about research of the speeches, the Government has not punished, removed any human that was doing research of the speeches. That was simply because there was nothing that they could do research with. All materials had ceased to exist.
But Luhan has met Yixing.
-
Yixing isn’t surprised when Luhan returns the next day, the day after and the days that follow. Yixing brings different material with each time, something that is related to the magic of speech and Luhan only looks more and more fascinated with the idea of speaking.
What’s that? Yixing simply smiles at he responds in English, the only language, Yixing has discovered, that Luhan knows, “It’s a harmonica.”
Yixing had to beg one of his closest friends, Chanyeol, to lend him his monument, the harmonica. The harmonica is beauty, Yixing thinks, and he brings the instrument to his lips, blowing at it and Luhan’s eyes are wide, filled with curiosity.
Yixing plays a tune and there are no words. Luhan closes his eyes and his body moves together with the tune, the wind, almost as if the wind was moving along to the tune that Yixing was playing.
Luhan grows to love sound.
-
Luhan is home again but this time, there is no new addition to his sketchbook. He boots up his laptop before touching at the screen and everything is magnified on the transparent screen that is in front of his bed. He leans back in his bed, glasses over his huge eyes and he reads off the screen.
What happens if a “normal person” wants to know how to speak?
There are no related searches, no searches that appear.
-
Will you teach me how to speak?
-
Yixing and Luhan meet each other at the same spot as they first met every Sunday, at the same time. Luhan listens to Yixing sing as Yixing belts out notes and plays his guitar. The meetings have now become their weekly escapades and Luhan suddenly taps on his shoulder, fingers pressing at the screen of his EYN. Can you teach me how to say words of affection?
Yixing is taken by surprise, he had never expected such a request. He knows how to say I love you, in so many languages but he has never gotten the chance to hear it coming out of his mouth. Yixing nods though, “Repeat after me,” he says and Luhan nods as he blinks. The older, albeit younger-looking, shifts closer to Yixing and Yixing can’t help but turn pink at the closer distance.
“Sa,” Yixing speaks and he looks at Luhan, gaze strong but encouraging. Luhan struggles to speak, struggles to have his vocal chords working for he had never known how to speak since birth and it had been only two weeks ago since he had started lessons with Yixing, learning how to speak and every week, he would return home with a sore throat and he would secretly make warm honey milk for himself, under the disguise of “a sudden love for the drink”.
But Luhan tries and he falters, falters, falters. “Th….” No. “Tha…” No. “S…” Closer. “Sa…”
Yixing can’t help but let out a proud smile upon hearing Luhan mumble out his first letter and he pats the older’s head when Luhan rubs at his throat. His throat is burning, it’s painful but Yixing thinks that the effort is endearing and the rawness of Luhan’s voice is even more beautiful than the sounds made by the guitar when he plucks at the strings.
“That’s good. Now, rang,” Yixing says this time and Luhan has less difficulty in trying to pronounce the words, in having the words come out of his mouth.
“Rang,” Luhan’s enunciation of the word is perfect and Yixing frowns slightly because he remembers having a much more difficult time trying to pronounce the word, mixing up Korean and English.
“And hae.” Luhan giggles as he says the syllabus and he pieces them together, like beads into a friendship bracelet, “saranghae” and Yixing tries not to flail at Luhan’s genuine innocence.
Hehehe, I just confessed to you.
Yixing blinks in disbelief, face slowly turning red as his brain starts to process Luhan’s words and his heart is palpitating so fast, so fast. “u-u-u-u-u-u-uh….u-u-u-u-uh…”
Hehehe, is ‘stuttering’ another tongue or something?
Is that another way to say words of affection? o:
notes:
* ‘cangjie’ is traditionally credited with the invention of the Chinese characters.
** the gazettE - miseinen
infinite ; sunggyu/woohyun
The newspaper is white, with black words printed and the monochrome, dull tones of the paper that Woohyun holds, Woohyun thinks, resembles his own life. He stares at the top right hand corner of the paper, the material is rough against the tips of his fingers, and he stares at the cost of the newspaper. He had picked up the newspaper from the nearby bin (at the park and it was in such a perfect condition, it’d have been a waste to have it lying there and meeting banana peels and half-eaten bread) and he wonders how people can afford it while people like him, spent the days fleeting, scourging, finding.
Woohyun sits on the edges of the cement staircase, wind harsh against the cold cheeks, flipping through the papers and he decides to rip it into pieces and hey, who notices if one litters. His fingers curl around the mouth of the bottle of soju, gulping it down hungrily and he starts to see the path in front of him blur (just like how his memories is a blur, there is nothing but blank when he reaches out.)
Nam Woohyun is 21, labeled “man with no future or past” and the neighbors who live in the same block as him, avoid him like as if he’s a plague and maybe, Woohyun thinks, he is a plague. His mind is empty when it comes to memories and the path that lied straight ahead till the day his dyed hair is white, is empty as well and he knows; he has no future. It is a miracle that he has a job (as a food delivery man, though he slacks on the job because he doesn’t like it but yet, he needs a job) and he manages to get past each day.
He sees grey and he feels the whole world rotate slightly and the granite that is harsh against the (almost broken) soles of his shoes and then there’s a flash of white and yellow and then, he sees black.
-
When Nam Woohyun’s eyes flutter to an open, he sees things that he shouldn’t see and that includes him seeing his own physical shell getting hauled into a white vehicle, flashing red in the darkness. The entire area is cordoned off, marked with tapes and he sees the police with clipboards and they’re questioning the driver of the truck and he seems to be getting handcuffed, Woohyun observes.
He isn’t surprised when he doesn’t feel a rush in his blood, no sadness present in his heart that comes across as stabs, no gasps of shock and there’s only a strange nonchalance and Woohyun wonders, is he dead. If this was how dead felt, Woohyun thinks, he should have died earlier because it felt better dead than alive.
He fists his hands and shoves him into the pockets of his jeans and he turns around and he gasps when he sees someone staring at him, and that person, seems to be glowing.
The man in front of him only smiles, eyes curving into crescents and Woohyun blinks when their eyes meet. It’s warm hazel against cold black and Woohyun feels an uncanny connection when the man starts to speak and his voice, it sounds almost familiar though he swears, he has never seen him before.
“Do you want happiness?”
“Yes,” and Woohyun isn’t even sure how his mouth opens and how the word rolls of his tongue.
“I’m Sunggyu, a medium for people who have died,” he pauses and takes a breath and Woohyun does the same, “You can choose now whether you would like to stay here or move onto heaven. Do you have any reasons to stay here?”
“No, please take me to heaven.”
The man, Sunggyu, nods in understanding and he reaches out for Woohyun’s hand. His touch is warm and light, almost like a feather and Woohyun feels the rush in his blood, his blood cells seem to be working harder than usual because it’s the first time in years that someone has touched him.
“You must complete three tasks first before you can go to heaven.”
-
“Sleep first. I’ll bring you to your first task when you’re up.”
Woohyun thinks that the whole Sunggyu and heaven thing is complete bullshit, it’s ridiculous, it’s blasphemous. Something like, “fulfilling three wishes before you die” sounds like utter rubbish and it couldn’t be true, could it?
-
But when Woohyun wakes up to see Sunggyu looking back at him, a peaceful expression on his face, Woohyun knows that his thoughts before sleep were wrong. Woohyun picks himself up from the bed of his apartment (he managed to head back, his shell floating through walls and it’s convenient that he no longer has to struggle to force his keys into his door, because the lock has not been lubricated for ages and Woohyun has no money for lubricant.)
“You’re up, time to meet your first task. Follow me.”
-
Woohyun is brought to a relatively clean but yet, run-down restaurant and Sunggyu halts in front of the store and points to an old lady through the transparent windows of the restaurant and Woohyun has to squint to get a proper look of the old woman. The old woman’s hair is a complete white, it starts from the roots of her hair and her old age reaches her foot and he can see the woman’s difficulty in walking.
Woohyun has instincts and he’s almost about to rush into the restaurant to help the grandmother before Sunggyu pulls him back and a young boy (younger than Woohyun) enters the scene and helps the old lady back to the cash register. He faintly hears sounds of “Grandma! You shouldn’t be walking around!” and there are laughs that follow after. Woohyun takes a glance at Sunggyu and Sunggyu starts to speak, as if reading Woohyun’s mind.
“This old lady is Mrs Kim, she works hard in this restaurant that she runs with Lee Sungjong, whom she found wandering in the streets alone a few years ago and she decided to raise him as her own ever since,” Sunggyu pauses for a breath and Woohyun watches Sunggyu’s throat, he’s swallowing his spit and he looks like he’s choking on the words he’s about to say. “She doesn’t have much time left, maybe a little over a year at the most. But the two of them are completely unprepared. If she leaves, he’s on his own. And he has no means to take care of himself and the restaurant.”
“Help them.”
Before Woohyun is able to open his mouth and direct questions, Sunggyu disappears and he feels himself getting knocked unconscious.
-
When Woohyun wakes up, he finds himself in the hospital and he’s in a perfect condition and there’s tubes connected to various parts of his body, bandages lining his flesh and the doctors around him are staring in amazement and Woohyun stares at one of them. He’s able to feel the silk fibers from beneath his skin and he cringes because he knows he’s unable to afford it and he’s never been the type to have bought insurance.
“You’re discharged, Mr Nam and your medical bills have already been paid for,” the nurse beside him says and her voice is shaking slightly and Woohyun can identify the shock in her voice. Woohyun nods curtly before staring at the doctors, a i-want-you-out look and the doctors immediately excuse themselves and Woohyun lets out a sigh of relief.
He flips to his side, climbing out of the hospital bed when he notices a note on his bedside table and he stares at it. He skims through the content and he scowls slightly before crushing the paper and he dresses himself.
He’s off for his first task.
-
He takes careful steps before entering the restaurant, putting on a rather pleasant smile on his face. The restaurant is empty and he looks around, looking for the old lady and she isn’t anywhere. He frowns slightly, knowing that the wind chime had sounded once he arrived, hence there should have been someone present.
His train of thoughts are broken when he hears a voice chime from behind him, “Welcome!”
“Hi,” Woohyun starts to speak up. “I saw the job vacancy sheet from outside and I’m looking for a job.”
exo ; yixing/luhan
In 2714, the world no longer communicates with their tongues. The rulers of the new world have claimed words to be harmful, as there is only harm to words, and its usage has since been abolished. The world of now only communicates using technology. Children no longer meet eyes with their teachers; they learn by looking at a screen. Troublemakers are no more, or rather, they dare not exist. Teenagers no longer possess cell phones, they have everything they need installed in a single device, called the EYN (Everything You Need). Parents no longer have the need to lecture their children; the kids are silent and robotic. Grandparents no longer have the need to complain about filial piety, praying that their children take care of them still, because it is ingrained in the pink meat of their heads to do so.
In 2714, the world does not have words. In 2714, the world does not have a common language spoken by everyone. In 2714, the world has no sound.
Long gone are the hushed whispers in classrooms. Long gone are the constant tapping sounds of touch screen phones in the subway. Long gone are teachers shouting at kids who play truant. Long gone is the hustle and bustle of the city. Long gone are parents lecturing their children, making sure they don’t mix with the wrong crowd. Long gone are grandparents sighing to themselves as they sit on their rocking chairs.
In 2714, long gone is sound.
-
Luhan has lived an extremely orderly life all his 22 years of existence. He has been praised for being blessed with good looks, a beautiful stoic face and the countless A's that grace his report cards. He has a huge social circle, friends he'll smile together with as they chat about the most mundane of topics. People smile at him when they walk past him, though they might be strangers; it is the norm for strangers to smile at each other. A veil of a beautiful and friendly World is painted over these plastic actions. Luhan doesn’t say anything because rules in the World are strict and going against the rules results in nothing but humiliation for the rest of the Offender's family members. Nothing is known of what happens to Offenders; the Government keeps it a secret but Luhan has an idea.
Luhan has a decent job in the government, working as a small secretary even though he has a whole set of straight A's. Straight A's don’t matter in the World. Academic achievements, personal achievements, none of it matters in the World. You only need connections and money and you’d be able to reach the top and access the very best of gadgets in the World. The Government covers the unsightly with wallpaper, saying that the best come from the best and hence, they will be rewarded accordingly.
However, Luhan does not need all these, he is content with what he has.
There is nothing that Luhan lacks in his life, he thinks to himself. He snaps out of his daze however, realizing that he had been spacing out for a while. It is never good for people to space out in this World, Luhan knows and he smiles at the men in black who are walking in his direction.
Are you okay? One of them questions and Luhan nods, with a (fake) smile.
Of course, I apologize, Luhan responds, a sheepish grin gracing his features. I was just carried away with thinking of what I should have for dinner tonight.
Of course, the man responds and he bows at Luhan, before walking away.
It is never good for people to space out in the World. Spacing out means that one is thinking and the Government does not encourage overthinking. They prefer a tightly controlled mind where they can predict everyone’s thoughts. Spacing out means chances of rebellion and Luhan knows of stories where people had been taken out, executed for planning rebellion. Luhan likes to think; the mere fact that his brain is working more than it should brings about an adrenaline rush in his veins.
Luhan thinks the World does not lack anything. Not with the Government that aims for perfection and nothing more. Everyone’s life is regulated and there’s something that people are going to do, are planning to do. There is routine.
But maybe, the World lacks a bit of disorder (sound).
-
It is a norm for every dystopian society to have a group of people who are different from the “normal” humans. There is a group of “traditional people” in 2714, for they are the ones to have survived through the “Great Change”, as the leaders of the Government would put it as. They are the ones who can still feel the laughter bubble in their throats and words roll off their tongues. They are the ones who can speak.
There is a reason why the “traditional people” still live to this date, in the tightly controlled World. The leaders of the “traditional people” have made a pact with the Government leaders, they were to lead a life of their own and not teach the “normal” people the way of speech. It would be against the laws of both the lives of the “normal people” and the “traditional people” to teach the way of speech to the “normal people”. The Government leaders do not want the “normal people” to be corrupted. Speech is corruption.
The Government does not execute the “traditional people” if they fail to abide the law. The Government upholds a white image of innocence to the people and instead, something else happens to them. But I, the narrator, will not be in charge of telling you what it is.
There would be no story if I had told you.
-
Zhang Yixing has grown up listening to constant laughter ringing in his ears. For as long as he could remember, he has never led a single day without laughter and hearing people speak. Though the tones of speech are different, Zhang Yixing has grown to love the fact that people that he know can speak. When his best friend is jealous of another male who is getting close to his crush, when his mother is angry at his father, when the young children of their people are jumping about; these are sounds that he has grown to adore.
Yixing has an affinity with languages, something that he has grown to love more and more with every passing year. He likes the different annotations that each language has; how each language can sound so different but yet, contain the same meaning; how two languages can come across as the components of a rose; one the thorns and the other the petals, if you will. Yixing masters the art of learning languages, speaking more languages than the eldest man of their people knows. Yixing thanks the existence of the textbooks, acidic pages thinned with yellow and yet, readable and in his hands.
His fingertips are calloused, rough over the years of playing the guitar. A guitar is a monument and there are only few that know the art of playing it, of playing a musical instrument, actually. Musical instruments are few and rare, for most of them were destroyed during the Great Change. Yixing is blessed that his parents are of a higher rank than the normal people and they had the chance to receive the guitar he now plays from the Leaders of their people.
Yixing starts to strum as his mind starts to drift. His eyes shift to look in the distance, where the supposedly “normal people” reside in. There is no physical barrier between the living quarters of the “normal people” and the “traditional people” but there is a mental barrier that Yixing knows very well. He does not feel the urge to be classified as one of the “normal people” because he knows that if he were “normal”, he would not be able to hear the sounds he loves.
He closes his eyes and he does wonder, however, how the “normal people” are like. He has never met any of them before and he only hears of them in stories. Apparently, they are just like him, them. They are normal, with eyes and noses and ears and a human body. They are all humans but yet, the “traditional people” are called “traditional” while the people who do not know of sound have the title of “normal” plastered on them.
Sometimes, Yixing feels the want to be thought of as “normal” too.
-
Luhan breathes out loudly as he walks further and further into the distance, a cup of coffee in his hands, a backpack slung over one shoulder. It is one of his weekly escapades to secluded places of the city, where he would sit down and draw his surroundings. Today is different because Luhan decides to walk in the other direction, in the direction of where the “traditional people” live. There is nothing but barren land, yellowed grass and Luhan simply continues to walk further and further, up the slight slope because there’s nothing that he sees. He does not want to turn back, if he did, then, he would have made his way to where he’s standing pointless.
He pauses in his footsteps when he sees a male; he sees only his back, clad in a checkered shirt and sitting on a rock. Luhan does not do anything, except have his hand grip his cup of coffee even tighter and forms an ‘O’ with his mouth when the male turns.
There is something foreign in his arms, Luhan has never seen it before, and the male shoots him a strange glance, questioning and his mouth opens.
“Who are you?”
-
Zhang Yixing is taken by surprise when he sees a boy, a boy that he has never seen before in his entire life. There are few who are able to distract him from his guitar playing and this man, someone he's never even met, is able to do so. Yixing thinks that he’s a “normal person”, cringing when he sees the male’s surprised reaction when he spoke. It is an expected reaction from a “normal person” when they hear a sound for the first time.
Yixing stands up on his feet and he prepares to walk away. He knows better than to be seen interacting with a “normal person” but he is pulled back and he turns back only to see the male, huge doe eyes staring back at him. “Yes?” he questions and he forgets, forgets that the male cannot respond.
The male flails, panicking for a moment before he starts to tap furiously away at his EYN. A screen forms on top of his watch and he turns it to face Yixing. Yixing reads words off the screen. It’s lucky that he knows the language that is used in the World, English is still used but it isn’t spoken. He decides, compared to a technology-advanced world where sound communication is devoid, he would prefer a world that isn’t as advanced and filled with sounds.
I’m Luhan. Please don’t go. I do not mean any harm.
I just came to find inspiration to draw something.
Can you stay?
Yixing never pens himself to be a model, he knows the reason why Luhan asks him to stay, Luhan wants to draw him. Yixing sighs, nods and he sits back down and Luhan smiles and there’s something that pokes Yixing in the stomach and he is attracted, strangely attracted to Luhan’s smile.
Yixing simply sits down, pulling his guitar over his knee again and Luhan settles himself on a patch of grass, several meters away and brings out his sketchbook and pencils. Luhan blinks up at Yixing, as if saying, do something; don’t mind me.
The silence that rings in the air is awkward and Yixing isn’t used to it. He doesn’t like the silence so he coughs and mumbles out, “Do you want to hear me play the guitar?” Luhan blinks up at him again, confused and Yixing realizes, the guitar is a musical instrument and Luhan is a “normal person” who has probably never seen it before. The Government has erased all traces of sound-related objects and even though it’d have been great if the “normal people” learnt about these instruments, the Government doesn’t include them in their textbooks. “This object,” Yixing says, lifting up his guitar slightly.
Luhan’s mouth moves to form an ‘O’ shape and he nods excitedly, just like a little child. Yixing turns away, looking down at his guitar and he starts to strum one of his favourite songs. He sings as well as he started to get more, more and more into the song. Yixing looks at Luhan from the corner of his eye, Luhan is staring at him, staring with a starstruck expression. When Luhan seems to have noticed Yixing’s gaze on him, he snaps out of his daze and the pencil is lodged between his fingers again.
この光の向こうには 自由などなかったんだ
(Behind this light, there wasn’t freedom)**
-
When Luhan returns home, another page of his sketchbook filled, he feels strangely different. There is a feeling that he feels that he is not able to tell apart, it is something that he has not learnt in the textbooks. He was surprised when he first heard the instrument, was it called a guitar?, play. It was a musical sound and Yixing’s voice had complemented the instrument extremely well.
The words that Yixing spoke; Luhan did not understand the tongue. Luhan makes a note to find out more about the tongues. Nothing has been said about research of the speeches, the Government has not punished, removed any human that was doing research of the speeches. That was simply because there was nothing that they could do research with. All materials had ceased to exist.
But Luhan has met Yixing.
-
Yixing isn’t surprised when Luhan returns the next day, the day after and the days that follow. Yixing brings different material with each time, something that is related to the magic of speech and Luhan only looks more and more fascinated with the idea of speaking.
What’s that? Yixing simply smiles at he responds in English, the only language, Yixing has discovered, that Luhan knows, “It’s a harmonica.”
Yixing had to beg one of his closest friends, Chanyeol, to lend him his monument, the harmonica. The harmonica is beauty, Yixing thinks, and he brings the instrument to his lips, blowing at it and Luhan’s eyes are wide, filled with curiosity.
Yixing plays a tune and there are no words. Luhan closes his eyes and his body moves together with the tune, the wind, almost as if the wind was moving along to the tune that Yixing was playing.
Luhan grows to love sound.
-
Luhan is home again but this time, there is no new addition to his sketchbook. He boots up his laptop before touching at the screen and everything is magnified on the transparent screen that is in front of his bed. He leans back in his bed, glasses over his huge eyes and he reads off the screen.
What happens if a “normal person” wants to know how to speak?
There are no related searches, no searches that appear.
-
Will you teach me how to speak?
-
Yixing and Luhan meet each other at the same spot as they first met every Sunday, at the same time. Luhan listens to Yixing sing as Yixing belts out notes and plays his guitar. The meetings have now become their weekly escapades and Luhan suddenly taps on his shoulder, fingers pressing at the screen of his EYN. Can you teach me how to say words of affection?
Yixing is taken by surprise, he had never expected such a request. He knows how to say I love you, in so many languages but he has never gotten the chance to hear it coming out of his mouth. Yixing nods though, “Repeat after me,” he says and Luhan nods as he blinks. The older, albeit younger-looking, shifts closer to Yixing and Yixing can’t help but turn pink at the closer distance.
“Sa,” Yixing speaks and he looks at Luhan, gaze strong but encouraging. Luhan struggles to speak, struggles to have his vocal chords working for he had never known how to speak since birth and it had been only two weeks ago since he had started lessons with Yixing, learning how to speak and every week, he would return home with a sore throat and he would secretly make warm honey milk for himself, under the disguise of “a sudden love for the drink”.
But Luhan tries and he falters, falters, falters. “Th….” No. “Tha…” No. “S…” Closer. “Sa…”
Yixing can’t help but let out a proud smile upon hearing Luhan mumble out his first letter and he pats the older’s head when Luhan rubs at his throat. His throat is burning, it’s painful but Yixing thinks that the effort is endearing and the rawness of Luhan’s voice is even more beautiful than the sounds made by the guitar when he plucks at the strings.
“That’s good. Now, rang,” Yixing says this time and Luhan has less difficulty in trying to pronounce the words, in having the words come out of his mouth.
“Rang,” Luhan’s enunciation of the word is perfect and Yixing frowns slightly because he remembers having a much more difficult time trying to pronounce the word, mixing up Korean and English.
“And hae.” Luhan giggles as he says the syllabus and he pieces them together, like beads into a friendship bracelet, “saranghae” and Yixing tries not to flail at Luhan’s genuine innocence.
Hehehe, I just confessed to you.
Yixing blinks in disbelief, face slowly turning red as his brain starts to process Luhan’s words and his heart is palpitating so fast, so fast. “u-u-u-u-u-u-uh….u-u-u-u-uh…”
Hehehe, is ‘stuttering’ another tongue or something?
Is that another way to say words of affection? o:
notes:
* ‘cangjie’ is traditionally credited with the invention of the Chinese characters.
** the gazettE - miseinen