For the third time this week, Soojung ditched her driver. And she was fairly certain her mom would yell at her again.

            But, despite the prospect of being yelled at to look forward to, right now, right here, she felt she had never made a better decision as she sat in the pouring rain, waiting for the bus to come.

            As the rain continued to fall, she watched the cars zoom by, splashing up a mess to mix with the flurry of water. At that point in time, Soojung was lonely, physically speaking. But she swore she never felt more at peace than when she sat in the rain, getting her hair soaked. And she mentally cursed the person that slid in beside her, breaking her moment.

            A bad impression. That was Jung Soojung’s first impression of Kim Jongin.

            When she turned to the right to glare at the perpetrator, she was met with a mop of wet black hair and the warmest brown eyes she had ever seen. And she felt that maybe she melted a little then and there.

            “You don’t have an umbrella either?” he asked. Soojung gritted her teeth. She really hated making small talk.

            “No,” she snapped, her tone cold, so much so that it surprised even herself a little. Well, maybe that might get him off my back, she thought.

            “I guess you’re also missing a personality,” he muttered.

            That hurt. Then again, it wasn’t like her to react to snide comments. If she could out-silence treatment her own mother, the most imposing female on the planet, she was sure she could out-silence a random, ignorant boy.

            She hadn’t counted on him grabbing her piano books, sheltered from the rain under her backpack and sweater.

            “Hey, give it back!” she snapped, as the annoying boy next to her started flitting through them. Panic rose in . Sure, her mom would be upset she had taken the bus to piano lessons and gotten drenched in the process. But if her mother ever laid eyes on soaking piano books? Jung Soojung would be finished, having only lived for twelve relatively miserable years.

            “Not until you apologize for your attitude. I should’ve known elite musicians were all a snobby bunch,” the boy replied cheekily, smiling a little at the increasingly frantic girl next to him.

            “Don’t you have manners?!” Soojung was practically hyperventilating.

            “You’re one to talk,” he smartly replied, “I told you I’d return them when you apologize.”

            What a dilemma. This really shouldn’t have happened and Soojung’s previously amazing day was taking a dive.

            “I’m sorry, okay?” she practically screamed. The boy, with all his insufferable nature, handed her books back to her and she snatched them in a frenzy, hurrying to throw her backpack and sweater back over them.

            A few minutes of silence.

            “Elite musicians are not a snobby bunch,” she started stiffly, half shocking the boy out of his brooding. He glanced at the shorter girl, her hair stuck to her face, her clothes utterly drenched, and her head held up in indignation. Cute.

            “Trust me, my friend Sehun plays the violin and I want to punch him in the face half the time.”

            She raised an eyebrow. He conceded.

            “But… he dances too so maybe dancers are a snobby bunch. But then, that would make me snobby and I’m really not.”

            She raised her other eyebrow. He conceded for a second time.

            “Fine, maybe you think I’m snobby. But it’s all perspectives, goodness!”

            Soojung’s lips turned up at the boy’s excuses. He spoke up again.

            “My name’s Jongin by the way.”

            “I’m Soojung.”

            “It’s terrible meeting you,” they said at the same time, then burst out laughing. Well, that rather crushed her first impression of him. Soojung’s mother had always told her never to talk to strangers… but Jongin seemed harmless enough and plus, she’d probably never meet him again. It was only a matter of seconds before the bus rolled in and Soojung got up to leave. She was halfway through taking a step when he suddenly grabbed her arm.

            “I’ll see you around, Soojung,” he remarked, his chocolate brown eyes staring straight at the girl. Soojung smiled slightly.

            “I doubt it,” she laughed, “but it actually was nice meeting you Jongin.”

            “Don’t worry, I’m certain I’ll see you again,” he replied. What an oddball, she thought. An oddball she met in the rain.

            “Alright, Jongin. I’ll take your word for it. Later.” And she ran for the bus, tracking puddles of water in and getting a solid glare from the pudgy bus driver.

            It wasn’t until she had settled into a seat, and looked out the window at the figure still seated at the bus stop, disappearing into the fog, that Soojung realized for the first time, she had felt at peace sitting and talking with someone.

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