From the day he asked me to hang out with him, Daesung intrudes my solitude more often. He joins me at lunch once or twice. Some days, he steals one of my earbuds and listens to my kind of music with me. He smiles at me everytime he meets my gaze. As much as I enjoy being alone, I really don't mind having him accompany here and there. I guess he's gradually becoming my friend.

We even exchange our phone numbers. I've got his contact and he's got mine. I rarely send or receive texts. I use my phone mostly to listen to music, surf the internet when I don't have my laptop with me, watch the time and date or note down something I want to remember. But now, my phone no longer always stays quiet, as it sometimes “Ding” with Daesung’s texts coming. Like tonight, when I’ve just grabbed  a book  and about to crawl onto my bed, a green bubble appears on my phone screen. It is a message. From Daesung.

"Hey, what you been up to?"

I stare at my phone for like 2 minutes before I can type out a reply.

"Nothing much, I’m going to read a book before bedtime. You?"

It takes Daesung no more than thirty seconds to text me back, like he's doing nothing but texting me.

"I'm thinking about this weekend. Is there anything you wanna do particularly?"

That's really a hard question for me. I’ve never gone out to a carnival before.

“I don’t know”. I hit “send” and regret immediately. Am I replying him too curtly? Then my phone blinks again

“It’s a carnival so there’s going to be fireworks. We can watch it nice and clear from the riverside. How does it sound?”

“Great, I think. I’ve never watched fireworks though”

“Jesus, Seunghyun :)). So fireworks it is, and we can wander around some bookshops before that, can’t we?”

“I’d love to”

“So 5pm this Saturday ok? Bedtime now. Good night, big boy”

He said goodnight already. I mentally curse myself for not trying to reply more properly so that our conversation would be longer. I keep re-reading the texts from Daesung for like fifty times before turning off the light. This weekend I’m gonna go watch fireworks for the first time in my life. I find myself looking forward to the weekend hangout more than I think.

~oOo~

But life is always full of surprises, and not all surprises are pleasant. I wake up early on Saturday, only to find the sun is gone missing. The sky is gun metal grey with a sickly cast of green and the air feels heavy. I walk downstairs to the kitchen and hear my mom talking to my dad

“The weather forecast says a typhoon is coming soon, so you’d better not drive today honey. I heard that they’re going to cancel the carnival too if the weather is not better by the afternoon. Oh hi Seunghyun, you’re up. Breakfast’s ready”

The carnival may get canceled? That means there will be no fireworks? My heart sinks and I lose my appetite. I make myself a cup of coffee and head back to my room. It’s just 8 in the morning and there’s still a chance, right? The storm may come and go quickly before the carnival starts. I wonder if Daesung is hoping the same as I’m doing now.

Looking out the window, I realize it’s going nothing but worse. Thunder begins to rumble, at first it is so faint that I think I might have imagined it. Then the rumbling grows louder and louder. Very quickly the eastern sky turns black. The speed at which the black clouds appear astonishes me. The wind increases in intensity. I can see the trees bend precariously to one side as though they are going to fall ov