After the Little Mute Found His Brother

[Not-quite-stepbrothers; childhood friends]

[Straight-laced before he figures himself out, shameless flirt afterward: the pursuer × clingy sweetheart who can’t speak but is lightning-fast with sign language]

After a fire took away his voice, Yu Youzhe was sent to an orphanage.

In a corner of the orphanage, he found a boy who seemed to have fallen from the sky.

The boy was a year older than him. He was the son of one of the orphanage’s volunteer workers, and his name was Ji Juekang. Before long, he became Yu Youzhe’s older brother.

Yu Youzhe found a new home, and he and Ji Juekang slowly grew up together.

-

All of Ji Juekang’s friends knew he had a clingy little brother who had stuck to him ever since they were kids. Ji Juekang was immensely proud of it. If circumstances allowed, he’d have stuffed Yu Youzhe into his pocket and carried him around everywhere.

But after Ji Juekang started high school, Yu Youzhe seemed to stop clinging to him so much.

Ji Juekang was bewildered and worried. Was it just puberty?

Yu Youzhe had no idea what his brother was fretting over. Then one day, he heard Ji Juekang say something in a conspiratorial tone and jolted, spilling water all over the table.

“Youzhe, did you know two guys can date each other?”

Reading Guide:

1. First love for both leads, in body and heart; they’re completely devoted to each other. No switching or splitting them up.

2. The story starts when they’re kids and develops slowly.

3. The leads aren’t related by blood and aren’t legally brothers.

4. The setting is partly fictionalized. Some real-life events are mentioned, while others are skipped.

5. Natural sign language uses a different word order from spoken language. For readability, the signs in the story are written in spoken-language order.

Theme: Let’s build a loving home together!