Prologue

He was in the mall with his mother buying supplies for his first day of school. Shuusei was very excited, in fact so excited that his mother smiled warmly when her much too calm son was hopping from one leg to the other whenever they had to wait in lines. He couldn't wait to learn more about the world. Reading and writing and everything else there was to know in this world.

They had just left the shop where they had bought his writing supplies when Shuusei spotted a crying boy a bit younger than himself all alone on a bench near a fountain. And when he saw that boy he felt a connection to him he could not explain. And he felt that the boy should not be left alone. He didn't know what could happen, he had just a bad feeling he could not explain. So he let go of his mother's hand and ran to the crying boy.

"Hey, you!" he talked to him but the boy didn't react. "Hey. Why are you crying?"

Again the boy did not seem to notice that he was talked to, so Shuusei gently tapped his shoulder and big puffy red eyes looked at him.

"What's wrong?" Shuusei inquired but the boy looked at him questioning and made some strange gestures with his hands which Shuusei could not understand.

"He's deaf. He can't hear you", his mother who had caught up explained. "I guess we can't do anything for him."

But Shuusei shook his head. "He's crying. We have to help him!" he rebutted and thought. No, he could not let this boy alone. So he took out one of his new pens and notebooks and sat down next to the still crying boy. He opened the notebook and started to draw. First a crying face and pointed to the boy and then another face, this time a female one and put a question mark behind it hoping the boy knew the meaning. He pointed to that female face and looked at the boy questioning.

The boy's eyes grew bigger. He didn't seem to expect that anyone would take interest in him. But to answer Shuusei's question he took the pencil from him and crossed the face out and looked at Shuusei in despair.

Shuusei nodded, understanding the problem. He smiled reassuringly and drew another face next to the boy's and signed to himself and then to the face of Hotsuma's mother und nodded encouragingly.

"He has lost his mother and we have to go to the information. Perhaps she can hear.", Shuusei said to his mother

His mother nodded. "But we don't have much time. As soon as his mother is there we have to go" she said.

So Shuusei got up from the bench, took the boy's hand in his and led him to the mall's information box and even before they reached it, the boy on his hand noticed a woman standing there trying to explain something to the man. The boy's eyes lit up and he pulled Shuusei to the woman, seemingly his mother.

"Hotsuma! Thank god! Nothing happened!" The women shouted out and embraced her son. But then she also started to gesture to him and it looked scolding to Shuusei.

"Please, don't be so harsh on him" Shuusei pleaded. "He was really desperate all alone and cried for you."

The boy's – Hotsuma's- mother looked at him. "And you helped him out?"

"Yes. He looked so sad and lost."

Hotsuma tucked on his mother's sleeves and gestured something and his mother answered him quickly. Then Hotsuma gestured something else.

"What did he say?" Shuusei asked.

"He wanted to know what you said, and he wants me to ask you your name. His name's Hotsuma."

"I'm Shuusei. Written like 'Sorrow' and 'Living'" Shuusei replied proud that he already knew how his name was written in Kanji and Hotsuma's mother translated this. Hotsuma thought a bit and again said something to his mother which made her laugh.

"He doesn't like that first Kanji. He wants to think of a nice way to call you in case you two meet again."

Shuusei nodded and smiled at Hotsuma.

"And how do you sign his name?" Shuusei asked curiously.

But then his own mother stepped in. "Shuusei, we don't have time for that now. You still need your books and your dad's coming home soon"

Shuusei didn't want to, but he had no choice. So he took both of Hotsuma's hand in his and looked at him seriously.

"Hotsuma-kun… When we meet next I will be able to talk to you by myself, without anyone having to translate everything! And you have found a nice way to sign my name", he promised the boy and then let go to follow his mother knowing exactly that he would meet Hotsuma again. And he would learn to talk with his hands. There were things grown-ups should not know about when two boys were together.