Taehyung walks down the busy streets of people getting ready for the new year, people going into stores to buy whatever food and drinks they might need. He's scared of everyone around him and making a wrong move or getting run over by a car that he wouldn't hear coming. But he felt he needed to get out, its his birthday and he is not letting being deaf ruin his day, he's always loved his birthday, even if he just got a cupcake with a single candle on it.

Its his first birthday being deaf but that doesn't mean his birthday should change. He takes a deep breath, earphones in, hands in his pockets, gripping into the inside. He looks at every shop trying to find which one he should go in.

I want, food, something sweet, He thinks to himself, maybe I should buy myself a nice gift. I should eat something though. Ugh human contact.
He passes by a ramen shop where a blonde boy is passing out flyers. He looks at him and the boy smiles and says something Taehyung looks at him sympathetically and the boy tilts his head, "Taehyung" he says and Taehyung reads his lips and looks at him surprised.
He walks closer and the boy puts the flyers under his arm and signs the word, "hello" but not the sign for it, he spells it out.

"Do I know you" Taehyung asks confused and Jin shakes his head. 

"I'm the son of your mom's friend, she showed me a picture of you once, but I'm in a grade above you so I never see you"

"Sorry can you slow down" Taehyung asks and he nods his head
"I'm Jin" he signs, one of the only few things he can sign.
"My mom... is friends with yours" he signs, putting some pauses as he remember the signs he needs.
"How did you know I was deaf?" Taehyung asks out loud 
"I overheard my mom talking with yours" he says and Taehyung pays close attention to Jin's lips, reading every word. 

Jin's mom met Taehyungs mom the day after she saw the apartment for the first time, She had tears in her eyes as she walked down the block, Jin's mom saw her and asked what was wrong, They introduced themselves and laughed that they both married a man with the same last name, the bounded over that and the fact that both their sons are independent in some ways, Taehyung living alone, and Jin working. Whenever Taehyung's mom is in town she always stops by.  

"It's, nice to meet you" he says putting out his hand and Jin happily shakes it. 

"Let me treat you to something to eat" he says taking Taehyungs hand and bringing him inside. The bell going off signaling that someone just walked in.

"Aye, I'm going to be his waiter" Jin says to Jimin who's wiping down a table he shrugs and puts his hands out for the flyers, Jin grabs a menu and gives Jimin the flyers. 

Jimin leaves the rag on the table and Jin sighs knowing he is the one who is going to have to pick it up.  Jin leads Taehyung to what he thinks is the best table, it is right in the corner of the room where you can sit, unbothered. You can look anywhere you want, Jin calls this, the godlike seat. You can over view anything. 

"To drink" Jin signs Taehyung finds it cute that Jin is trying his best to communicate in the easiest way, and he is thankful Jin only knows first level signs, because he isn't even good at a lot of stuff yet, he's still new to signing. 

"water" Taehyung says out loud and jin smiles and turns away, passing the table Park Jimin was almost finished wiping down, He grabs the rag and finishes it before going behind the bar and throwing it into a bin. He gets a glass of water and looks into the kitchen hoping the other workers would be off lunch break soon so he could take his and maybe talk to Taehyung longer. 

He goes over to the table where the menu Taehyung is holding is covering his face. He smiles and puts the glass down, the impact the glass has when meeting the table caused Taehyung to feel it, "Thank you" he says before even looking up. He puts the menu down, Jin has a pen and a note pad ready to write down his order, Taehyung just points to the word in the menu '자장면' (Jajangmyeon, Black bean noodles). 

Jin goes into the kitchen and tells the chef the order before going around looking for the other workers. JImin is outside passing flyers. Jin goes into the room thats set there for employees to just relax on their time off. 

Hyungwon is sitting there reading a magazine, "And when is your break over?" Jin asks being one of the oldest people here, he gets to use that 'I'm half annoyed, but I need you to do something for me' voice. "Two minutes" Hyungwon says his face slightly turning red, he knows he is taking a longer break than he should. 

"okay, be prepared its almost lunch hour" Jin says his voice going back to his normally overly happy self. Lunch hour, is the rush hour, many people come in no matter what day it is. 

Jin sits across Taehyung and taps on the wooden table, Taehyung looks up.

"You know surroundings by vibrations, cool" Jin says and Taehyung shrugs 

"I guess, just like to know my surroundings, I have to depend on that more than sound"  

A few minutes later Hyungwon comes out with the plate in hand, he places it in front of Taehyung before rushing to the door to great customers who just came in. 

"enjoy" Jin signs and Taehyung signs a thank you, before he starts eating getting black bean paste all over his face, Jin laughs and pulls out some napkins from his waist apron and places them in front of Taehyung. He writes on a napkin with a pen putting his phone number, and that the food was already paid for, before getting up and leaving to help Hyungwon. Hyungwon just started working there and Jin knows it would be hard for Hyungwon to work alone without anyone near to help him out. 

Taehyung finishes his meal then sees the napkin, he puts Jin's number in his phone and looks around for Jin before leaving. Jin is nowhere in sight, he decides to text him instead, he walks out of the now busy restaurant and texts Jin saying thanks for the meal. 

He continues his birthday mission, walking into a bakery, he sees the girl smiling behind the counter. He's the only one in there and he shyly points at the chocolate cake with chocolate icing on the bottom shelf where all the cakes are displayed, she happily takes it out and puts it into a box. She doesn't say much knowing he has his earphones in and when she puts in the price in the machine and says "that'll be twenty dollars" Taehyung just looks at the number on the screen facing him above the cash register. He gives her the twenty and she hands him the box with a receipt on top attached to it with a pink round sticker. 

"Thank you" Taehyung says with a smile that makes the girls face turn a light pink. Taehyung leaves happily with a cake in his hand, his stomach well-fed he was ready to get the last thing he'd want. A gift. Holding onto the box for his life he walks into a small corner shop, one of his favorites, he would enjoy it a lot more if he could enjoy the music they sold and played inside. He walks past the aisles of records and CDs, he makes his way to the back wall where they have accessories like earphones, and band merchandise. 

He grabs a pair of blue earphones that caught his attention, he has one jacket that doesn't have earphones to go with it, his black hoodie. He smiles as he takes the container off of the stick its hanging on. Perfect, he thinks to himself, one arm around the cake box the other placing the earphones on the counter, he buys them and then leaves the store. Making his way past all the happy smiling people, laughing, talking. He tries not paying attention to any of them on his walk home. Snow still on the ground. Maybe I should've bought myself a scarf.  He thinks watching everyone else wearing one walking past him. 

Once he enters the apartment complex he rushes up the stairs and puts the earphones on top of the cake box as he looks for his keys, theres two ways to open the door, one the keys, two having a pin. Taehyung preferred the old fashion way of opening it by key, after all if someone saw his pin they would be able to get in, and the pin wouldn't keep him safe if the power went out, so needing keys made him feel secure sometimes. 

Once inside he puts the cake down and uses scissors to cut the plastic the earphones are trapped in. He happily puts the earphones in his black hoodie before taking off the jacket he is wearing and hanging it in the closet. He searches the kitchen drawers knowing he had a candle in one of them. 

He finds the candle and takes out a lighter putting the one candle carefully in the middle he thinks of what his wish should be before even lighting it. Shakily he lights the candle and puts the lighter down. He closes his eyes tightly, remembering his last birthday where his friends obnoxiously sang happy birthday to him making the song longer than it should have lasted. He smiles at the thought and blows out the candle, his eyes still closed, his wish not for his hearing to be back because he knew that would be too much, maybe unrealistic. He wishes for his new friendships to last longer than the ones in the past. When thinking of this, Jungkook's face came to mind first.