LOVE KNOWS NO BOUNDARIES...CHAPTER 6/?
Title: Love Knows No Boundaries
Author: tikibuddy91
Characters: Kyungsoo, Daehyun, Hyoyeon, Doojoon, Miyoung (Tiffany), Dasom, and Chanshik (Gongchan)
Word Count: ~4400
Rating: PG
Genre: College, AU, Crossover
Summary: Some of them are college students...You can consider some to be unique...They just feel out of place. Some call it a disability, some call it an ability to prove others wrong. Flirtations lead to relationships, between two parties of people that you could not possibly dream of.
Author Note: After Joonmyeon leaves for class, Kyungsoo deals with the signs that Daehyun had pointed out, and they meet two new friends.
Sign Language Guide
Prologue | Jongdae | Chapter 1 | Daehyun | Chapter 2 | Zitao | Chapter 3 | Kyungsoo | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 |
When Kyungsoo and Daehyun enter the classroom, it takes a few seconds to reach their seats in the front row. The room is almost at full capacity of students. Individual desks are laid out in a clean manner leaving aisles between them. Considering it is a Tuesday morning after a three-day weekend, there are still some college students who have yet to show up.
Daehyun taps Kyungsoo’s shoulder to get his attention, noticing how Kyungsoo is still distracted by the events that happened earlier. Daehyun furrows his eyebrows and shakes his head. [Wrong thought about J-M-senior like you? *Daehyun shakes head again* Need embarrass.] There is a glint in his eyes. [But maybe you like him same??] (What’s wrong with the idea of Joonmyeon-sunbaenim liking you? There’s no need to feel embarrassed, unless you like him too?)
Daehyun chuckles as Kyungsoo’s eyes widen and Kyungsoo does nothing to deny the claim, he can only make a facial expression of helplessness. Daehyun’s smile falters when he puts two and two together and he puts his hand on Kyungsoo’s shoulder, and signs with one hand to Kyungsoo. [Wait wait, you like too? *Daehyun raises his eyebrows* Serious? You fall-in-love real?] (Hold on, you like him too? For real? You’re seriously falling for him?)
Daehyun takes his hand off Kyungsoo’s shoulder, looking amused. [You blurt-fast “going-on-off-around” without self control before, front J-M. Understand all, of-course. *He smiles as he signs the next line in with air of bravado* B-a-g G-yeo-ng-s-u real fall-in-love G-i-m J-u-n-m-yeo-n!] (Earlier, you were rambling like a babbling fool in front of Joonmyeon. Of course, it all makes sense now. Park Kyungsoo has a crush on Kim Joonmyeon!)
Daehyun gives Kyungsoo an eye-smile. As he does so, he notices some students blatantly staring, with mixed reactions of awe or judgment, or glancing at his noiseless monologue. During the last couple weeks, the classroom has gotten used to Daehyun and Kyungsoo’s noiseless conversations before the start of class. Daehyun continues to smile at them, as if to signal them that he is talking about something really good.
Kyungsoo has taken out his Frequency Modulation system microphone, or FM microphone for short, from his backpack. The microphone is given to teachers so that when they talk, their voices are amplified in Kyungsoo’s hearing aids. All the students hear the teachers at normal volume, but Kyungsoo can hear the teachers with such loud clarity that wherever the teacher is in the room lecturing, it seems as if the teacher is next to Kyungsoo, talking to him the whole time. He gets up and walks to the teacher’s speech pedestal and places his microphone on top of it. He returns to his seat, looking at Daehyun with a slight look of apprehension on his face but the faint blush on his face betrays his skeptical feelings.
Sitting down, Kyungsoo brings his hands up and starts to sign small, a deaf characterization of one not being sure of himself. [Guess? Never before feel like that. Meet just-recent! Think rush? *Kyungsoo shakes his head* realize me stare-stare no quick rea- interpreter coming. Oh, H-yo-yeo-n. Discuss later will]. (I guess? I’ve never felt like that before. I mean, we just met! Don’t you think this is a bit rushed? I didn’t even realize I was staring at him without any quick react- oh the interpreter’s coming. It’s Hyoyeon today. We’ll talk about this later).
Just then, a lady with dirty blonde hair has entered the classroom. She has a short height and a good build. The interpreter greets Daehyun and Kyungsoo, giving away her bright personality. [Hello morning you-two! D-J come will, inform. Us-two pair] (Hey there, good morning! Doojoon is coming, just so you know. We’ll be teaming up). Kyungsoo and Daehyun repeat the same greeting back to her. She reaches for a chair that is chained to the table in front of the classroom and unlocks it. Pulling her freed chair to place in front of Kyungsoo and Daehyun, she looks at them with a smile as she sits down, her cheeks emphasizing the curvature of her face. Kim Hyoyeon almost looks foreign but there is a fair amount of Korean features in her.
Hyoyeon continues, [Recent weekend good? Nice vacation few days. *She indicates to Kyungsoo* Your sister on way, meet recent now. So anything interesting what-up?] (Did you have a good weekend? Quite nice we had that three-day weekend off. By the way, your sister is on her way. I just ran into her. Has there been anything interesting going on lately?)
Kyungsoo nods. [O-k, thank inform-me. Weekend good, yeah, studying, matter]. (Ok, thanks for letting me know. I had a good weekend, yeah. Studying and whatnot). Kyungsoo and Hyoyeon look at Daehyun, only to find him giving Kyungsoo a knowing look. Seeing that Kyungsoo and Hyoyeon are expecting him to say something, Daehyun spills the beans to Hyoyeon about a phone number Kyungsoo got from a senior.
Hyoyeon gasps in gleeful surprise, and she looks at Kyungsoo as he starts reddening. Her gasp draws attention from some students, who are now watching the three of them. Some are whispering to each other, wondering what is going on to make the woman look so thrilled. Hyoyeon looks back at Daehyun, asking for more information. Daehyun laughs and goes on about events that happened this morning with Joonmyeon and Kyungsoo’s reactions upon meeting him. Kyungsoo adds in indignantly, [But feel too fast. We meet just-recent! Sure, he know me from his brother my brother narrate, but no-clue how tell him without feeling hurt!] (But, I feel like this is going too fast!! I mean, we just met! Sure, his brother and my brother may have told him things about me, and so have they told me about him, but I don’t know how to tell him that it’s too soon!)
Hyoyeon coos at Kyungsoo, [Awwwww you cute but sound so so sweet! Oh, teacher door. And see D-J] (Aww, you’re so cute but it sounds so sweet! Oops, the teacher is at the door. And Doojoon is here.).
Just then, Miyoung and Doojoon enter through the door. Doojoon goes to sit down next to Daehyun, greeting his deaf students and his teammate. [Morning, how-you-all this wonderful morning? Whoa, Kyungsoo, sun rise this morning and shine-on-you too long, “question-question”? You “red-in-the-face”] (Good morning to you guys, how are you all this fine morning? Whoa, Kyungsoo, did the sun rise up and focus its rays on you for a bit too long? You’re looking red.) Yoon Doojoon is a man of words and wit; he has quite a nice yet charismatic personality, and is a very approachable and fun person. He goofs off with his deaf students every now and then, especially during boring lectures, to keep them interested. Noticing the smirk on his interpreter’s face, Kyungsoo closes his eyes as he slaps his cheeks, his face scrunching in embarrassment of said blush. He wills the blush to go away, as Daehyun fills in Doojoon on what he told Hyoyeon.
Hyoyeon readies herself into interpreter mode after she waves to her friend, Miyoung, the professor of the classroom and Kyungsoo’s older sister. Park Miyoung is one of the teachers for the English 201 Literature Appreciation class. Kyungsoo watches as his sister walks to the pedestal, putting her teacher bag on the computer desk. Once she has her materials out and ready, she returns to the pedestal, picks up the microphone, and clips it onto her clothes. Miyoung glances at him, gently tapping the receiver intermittently, waiting for the “blink once” signal that he can hear her once the microphone activates the connection to his hearing aids. It does not take long as Kyungsoo blinks once slowly at his sister before looking at Hyoyeon.
There is a small group activity to be done in class, based on their assigned readings of Dante’s Inferno. Miyoung asks the class if everyone has read it and understood everything that has happened in the chapters. In a moment of silence, Daehyun and Kyungsoo nod, but then Kyungsoo hears two voices, a shy female and male, replying at the same time. The female voice says “Erm…yes, Professor Park. I’ve read it” before a male voice interrupted her, saying, “I’ve read the assignment but honestly, the descriptions of Hell is a bit too bizarre for me to understand. Like, I get what the Circles of Hell are named for and the sceneries that are described there, but I’m not quite sure as to what Dante is hoping to tell us with the order of sins in accordance to descent.”
Meanwhile, Hyoyeon scans the classroom to look for the two students who are replying. Once she finds them, she points them out for Kyungsoo and Daehyun to see who is talking. The deaf students glance behind them to find a girl who looks very mature, emitting an aura of a prim and dignified nature, along with a guy who looks very wise and genuine with his handsome features. He has soft eyes and dimples, while the girl has a natural looking, pretty face with a nice set of eyes. Both of the students strike Kyungsoo and Daehyun as people with gentle and urbane nature. They look back at Hyoyeon as she continues to interpret what the male student was saying. Kyungsoo glances at his sister, Miyoung, who is nodding in understanding, and then later, asking the female to continue. The girl picks up from where she left off, “I sort of understand what is going on with Dante and his journey down to the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Circles of Hell. However, I’m confused first as to what was going on exactly in the Fifth Circle; Is Virgil blessing Dante or Argenti?”
“Hmm, that is a good question. Take note of this, students, because some of you will be giving us your thoughts on that observation,” Miyoung warns her classroom. “So it seems that everyone is confused as to what is going on with those circles of Hell, am I correct? Is that why no one responded earlier?” Miyoung asks. Immediately she sees a lot of people nodding, and hears mumbled “yes”s and “confused as hell”s. She chuckles and asks the two students that spoke up earlier for their names. The students introduce themselves as Kim Dasom and Gong Chanshik.
For the next fifteen minutes, Miyoung talks with the class and reviews with them the past chapters they have read for their previous assignments. Once the class has understood the consistent themes between their previous and current assignment readings, she informs that she will divide the classroom in groups of four, according to the numbers 1 through 6 that she assigns the students with.
“For the next half an hour,” Miyoung eyes the clock as she instructs the class, “I will give each of your group a strip of paper with a random number, and on it you will find the assigned verses. You will also be given overhead markers and a plastic paper to draw or write your interpretations of these assigned verses today. We will have you guys present your thoughts towards the end of class. Now let me count so you all can meet with your people that have the same numbers.”
When she finishes counting, there are rustling and scrambling as the students move to group up with their members of same numbers. Chanshik and Dasom end up joining Daehyun and Kyungsoo up front. Kyungsoo and Daehyun rotate their desks with their backs facing the wall, getting a full panoramic view of the classroom, as Dasom just brings her seat a little forward, and Chanshik borrows a desk to sit with them in a circle. Hyoyeon sits slightly outside of the circle across from Kyungsoo and Daehyun, between Chanshik and Dasom, while Doojoon still remains to be outside of the circle.
Doojoon then takes over Hyoyeon’s role as interpreter, exchanging shifts, and waits for the group to get comfortable and ready to discuss their part. There is a loud storm of chatter and laughing among the groups already, and Miyoung walks around the room distributing the strips of paper. Kyungsoo’s group is the second to get the strip of paper. Chanshik and Dasom glance at each other before glancing at Daehyun and Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo looks at the paper and shows it to Daehyun before passing it to Dasom and Chanshik. The paper read that they would be focusing on the second half of the Fifth Circle of Hell, which ironically is the one that Dasom is confused about. The group does not start off with the group activity but with curious questions.
“Erm…Hi, I’m Kim Dasom. I know you’re Gong Chanshik, ‘cause we introduced ourselves to Professor Kim earlier,” Chanshik nods as Dasom glances between the four people. “What are your names?”
Loud chatter fills Kyungsoo’s ears as he tries to hear what Dasom is asking…
Out of the corner of his eyes, he sees Doojoon interpreting for both him and Daehyun what Dasom says.
Kyungsoo side-eyes Doojoon and Hyoyeon, before he starts the introduction. “My name is Kyungsoo and…” Kyungsoo trails off, extending his hand to indicate to Daehyun to introduce himself. Daehyun picks up from where Kyungsoo left off, “Ahm D’aeheohn” [I D-ae-h-yeo-n]. Doojoon then voices for Daehyun saying, “And I’m Daehyun.”
Upon hearing the male interpreter’s voice after watching Daehyun sign and talk, Dasom and Chanshik express looks of confusion as they look at each other before focusing their attention at Doojoon.
“Er…” Chanshik says weakly, looking between Daehyun and Doojoon. “Do we have two Daehyuns here? I’m a bit confused. May I ask, what are your names, Mr. and Ms…?”
Doojoon interprets Chanshik’s lines while he and Hyoyeon look at each other. Doojoon answers with an apologetic smile while signing, “I’m afraid we cannot answer that question, sorry.”
Kyungsoo backs him up and imitates Doojoon’s manner of speaking with signing. He speaks a little louder so he can be heard over the noisy classroom.
“They are not part of our group, they are just our interpreters,” Kyungsoo peeks at Doojoon and Hyoyeon, and they look back at him with unfazed faces. “It’s just that they can’t participate or get involved directly with communication between students. They simply have one role: to convey the message between two parties. It might sound harsh, but think of it as if they didn’t exist to the hearing people, or that they like to be ‘anonymous’, if you will.” He feels uncomfortable after saying that, but when Hyoyeon gives him a small smile and a nod, and Doojoon nods at him in agreement, Kyungsoo feels reassured.
Both Dasom and Chanshik still look confused, and Dasom starts, “But…they’re here. We can see them.”
Kyungsoo smiles. With Daehyun watching him, he continues to sign and talk at the same time, “It’s not like that. You see, when you talk to us, it’s necessary and preferred,” he emphasizes on the word, “that you look at us a lot more often than at the interpreters. After all, we are the ones that need to know what you guys are saying, not them. It’s rather rude if you face the interpreters while talking because one, they will feel uncomfortable being brought to attention, and two, Daehyun and I may think that it is not for us to know when we see that you are not looking at us directly even though it really is meant for us. When you talk with us, you look at us; that’s all there is to it. We’re visual people, we have quite skilled and keen eyes. We easily look between you and the interpreters so we can understand what is going on.” Dasom nods, understanding the whole situation.
Noiseless chatter and students bustling in their seats…they seem to talk about things other than Dante’s Inferno.
Chanshik looks slightly impressed. No sounds come from Chanshik’s mouth as he looks at Daehyun and says something.
“Looking at you when I talk, and not at the interpreter, okay, got it. So, wait, when you sign with your hands, he does the talking for you?” Chanshik asks Daehyun directly, but he nods his head towards Doojoon’s direction when he says the last sentence with emphasis on the “he”.
Soon after Chanshik starts talking, Daehyun eyes Doojoon who interprets the question. Daehyun looks back at Chanshik, [Yes, he voice for me. Understand notice he say ‘I’ and ‘me’ while I point-myself, ‘him’ and ‘he’ when I point-him.] Daehyun shifts his body to the left, relatively closer to Doojoon. [Perspective *He then shakes his head before shifting his body back to his original position* perspective-self, different intention. Interpreter deaf student’s voice, hearing student’s hands.]
Doojoon speaks up the moment Daehyun starts signing, “Yes, he voices for me. Notice how when I’m pointing at myself, he says ‘I’ and ‘me’, and when I point to him, he says ‘he’ and ‘him’. Understand that he isn’t talking from his point of view, but he is talking for me from my point of view. Interpreters are the voices for the deaf student, in this case, and the hands for the hearing student.”
Kyungsoo nods and says, “What Daehyun said pretty much tops off the whole discussion,” when he sees Chanshik mouthing “oh!”, fully grasping the concept of deaf communication. He catches his sister’s gaze on him and her raising an eyebrow as to why Kyungsoo and his group have not started working on the activity. He peers around and notices that every group have already gotten down to business, huddling together and acting out lines from their texts. He looks back at his sister and sheepishly grins, before looking back to his group. She shakes her head, amused at her brother’s reaction.
“Er, guys, we should probably get started on the class activity. Five minutes passed already and time is a fair judge for all of us. We have our books, right?” The three group members nod. “Okay, why don’t we go ahead and tackle this, we can talk more about ourselves afterwards.”
Just then, Doojoon switches out with Hyoyeon for a break and passes the role of interpreter to Hyoyeon. For the next twenty-five minutes, the members discuss their assigned verse, and clarify the chapter plot since some members could not understand it from reading solo over the weekend. When it is time to talk about how to present their thoughts to the classroom, Daehyun and Dasom volunteer to write, and Chanshik offers to draw for them.
Whenever Dasom talks and writes at the same time, she follows what Kyungsoo had suggested earlier, looking at Daehyun and Kyungsoo, and not at the interpreter. However, Dasom feels so distracted watching Kyungsoo and Daehyun looking between the paper of their shared thoughts, her and the interpreter, that she has to look down to what she is writing every now and then to keep her mind focused and to not trip on her words. Chanshik often glances at the interpreter when they voice for the deaf group members, and he wonders to himself, Wow, they have quite a huge responsibility to choose the right words to say for Daehyun, and for Kyungsoo if he chooses not to talk. How do they know the right words? There’re so many words to choose from. Being responsible for the illustrations, Chanshik waits for Dasom to finish writing the last few words of their discussion before being handed the paper. It is one-third covered with writing, but he is not too concerned about the leftover blank space underneath. He draws what the group decided to be the best choice of illustration that portrays their interpretation of events in Dante’s Inferno.
The group cooperates quite well and the members end up finishing their discussion with a lot of time to spare. For the last ten minutes of the group work time, they continue their deaf culture discussion from earlier. Now that they are done with the group work, Kyungsoo and Daehyun are aware that the other students are still working on their group work. When they instruct Dasom and Chanshik real-life examples of handling deaf etiquettes, such as getting a deaf person’s attention by waving, tapping, or stomping, they try to do it as discreetly as possible, and with little noise as well.
Once group discussion time is up for the classroom, Kyungsoo hears Miyoung ordering the groups to come up front in numerical order, and using the overhead, show the classroom how they have interpreted their assigned verse. Daehyun and Kyungsoo watch Doojoon switching with Hyoyeon once again, and their professor walking over to the entry door where the light switch is located. As Miyoung turns off all but one light, the students’ eyes quickly adjust to the slight darkness. Daehyun and Kyungsoo do the same, adjusting to the change in lighting to check if Doojoon is still visible, especially with his hands and face. Doojoon is barely visible.
Miyoung asks Kyungsoo and Daehyun if they can see their interpreter and, unfortunately, they shake their heads. So she experiments with the lights, only leaving one switch on to suit to Kyungsoo and Daehyun’s visibility. Once it all works out and Kyungsoo and Daehyun can see their interpreter, Miyoung catches sight of Dasom and Chanshik glancing and smiling at their deaf group members. Kyungsoo and Daehyun, staring at the interpreter, are oblivious to the genuine looks.
“Alright, so Group Number 1~, please come on up and show us what you got,” Miyoung announces and goes to sit down with the student audience as Group Number 1 assemble up front.
Kyungsoo and Daehyun watch their interpreter as they see what the first two groups have to say about the Fourth circle of Hell, which is Greed. There are silly drawings of stick people and interesting backdrop sceneries of their portrayals of Hell. One group, the first of the two groups to talk about the Fifth circle, Anger, comes up to display their written interpretations of their assigned verse. Kyungsoo and his group are next, the last of the two groups for the Fifth Circle of Hell. Kyungsoo places the sheet on top of the overhead. Just as he is about to place the sheet and talks, he does quickly hears the accumulated gasps of “whoa”s and “oh my god”s. He turns around to look at his group members, smirking at Daehyun, Dasom and Chanshik. Chanshik grins back, obviously proud of his work.
As Kyungsoo describes what the illustration shows and explains what they have come up with to interpret the events, Miyoung and the classroom are surprised to see a drawing of such professional quality on the drop-down screen and such an eloquent set of two writings on it as well. Chanshik, and Daehyun add in their thoughts, with Chanshik explaining his drawing intentions and Hyoyeon voicing for Daehyun as he gives the group’s insights about the drawing. The illustration shows two men on a boat, with some kind of a demon next to them, in mid-action of rowing the boat. They are sailing on a sea mixed with dead souls reaching out to them. Chanshik drew some souls that looked frighteningly grotesque. There seems to be a gate or shore on the right side of the paper, and the boat is drawn to be taking the passengers there.
Once Kyungsoo and his group finish, the audience claps for them. It is quite an unexpected reaction for Kyungsoo and the group. Daehyun looks at his fellow members, who are also looking back at him, quite surprised at the reaction. They all share a secret smile with each other and, once they are back to their seats, they give each other little high fives, and sit back to watch the other groups present. Some of the groups have done a similar method as Kyungsoo’s group, their sheets being hybrids of writings and drawings. Once the groups after Kyungsoo’s group had presented, Kyungsoo and Daehyun feel it respectful to clap for them as well. The rest of the classroom has no problem with that as they do the same.
When the last group ends their presentation, Miyoung stands up and goes to turn on all the lights in the classroom. She exclaims “whoa” as she catches herself blinking to adjust to the brightness, and she notices everyone doing the same. Miyoung asks for the classroom to clap for everyone who has given their best efforts to present what they have done for the class.
“You all surpassed my expectations today, this was my first time doing something like this. Having an overhead presentation instead of a seminar-like discussion, it seems like everyone enjoyed this method too, yeah?” A lot of people nod.
“In fact, I was so blown away with some of your thoughts that it makes me almost want to give you a break from reading,” and Miyoung hears the students gasp in anticipation for a couple of less-stressful homework nights. She giggles. “But, I’m not gonna do that.” She hears a mixture of playful groans and actual groans of disappointment, judging by the looks of the students’ faces.
“We’ve already read almost half of the book. Best finish what we started, yeah? We can do it! I suggest if you ever get confused with the text, consult with your group members and other students in this classroom for help. Maybe they can clarify it up for you. Who knows? If they cannot, come talk with me during my office hours. Alright, it seems like we have 15 minutes left so I’ll just let you guys go early, okay?” She hears people packing up their stuff but sees them still seated, almost getting ready to leave.
“Your reading assignment for next class is to read the pages starting with the 7th level of Hell and ending halfway in the 8th level of Hell, stop when you get to the 6th Bolgia. We will have a seminar discussion next time. Class dismissed. See you on Thursday!”
“Oh, Kyunggi- I mean, Park Kyungsoo,” Miyoung catches herself with a giggle, as Kyungsoo looks at her with widened eyes in dismay that his sister had almost called him by a personal nickname in front of the classroom. Hyoyeon covers her mouth as she stifles a giggle. Miyoung clears her throat when she sees some students look weirdly at her. Taking off the microphone from her clothes, she walks over to her brother-student saying, “Park Kyungsoo, don’t forget your microphone.”