Heavy rain was pouring, again….Just like any other days in June, the rain from early morning was relentless. The trees were drenched with water, the air was damp, and in the street, silent umbrellas kept flowing along with the crowd of people.

Two boys, looking out to the park across the house, sighed heavily. Today, they could not play their favorite game called “The Police” on the playground anymore. In the neighborhood with only two male residents, they were being dominated by a evilly powerful person named Umma.

At first, they planed to spend their freetime playing video games, but got bored eventually. They wanted to go out of the house, running, flying, chasing each other freely without being prevented by that stupid pouring rain. They looked at their brother, disappointingly.

Suddenly, they noticed an umbrella, no, a little shadow holding a pink umbrella, heading towards the park. That shadow was a really pretty girl. She already had risen many curiosity inside the two brothers, and they were watching carefully her every movements.

The umbrella, unexpectedly, fell out of the pretty girl’s hold, which made her all panicking. She ran around the playground, despite the heavy rain, calling out noisily: “Star, where are you?” She kept shouting, but only the sound of the rain echoed. The little girl started to cry…

The two boys, now being induced by “man instincts”, ran out of the house.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Yoona…hic…hic…Yoona is finding Star…hic…but it is nowhere to be found…the rain is so heavy…hic”

Not finishing the sentence, she burst out crying. The brothers looked at each other, dumbfounded. They did not have any experience in comforting a crying girl. One of them quickly found his handkerchief and handed it to Yoona:

“Hey, do not cry anymore and tell us what you are looking for? What is Star?”

The girl looked up with her teary eyes, reached out her hand to take the handkerchief. But they forgot they were standing in the rain. The handkerchief was slowly drenched with water.

The kids looked at one another, then turned their eyes to the blurry surrounding. Droplets of water were sprayed hard into their faces. One of the boys quicky grasped the rolling umberella on the wet ground, and let the others squeezed themselves in that tiny shelter.

“Star is a little puppy..hic…very cute…never barks or bites anyone, everytime Yoona feed him, he always my fingers…hic.” The girl said at last, hiccupping.

“Oh that’s it! But how long has he been here, because we never saw a dog before.”

“Yoona found him being abandoned three weeks ago, still so small…hic…planning to ask Appa to let me keep him, but he’s gone now..hic.” She kept crying nonstop, despite the patient comfort from the boys.

The seem-to-be older guy ruffled her hair: “Don’t worry. Maybe he knows it is raining and goes hiding somewhere. Umma said animals are very clever, unlike…u…” The word “us” hang in mid air, just at the right moment.

“Jinja? He will be okay, right?” The girl seems to believe, although the other boy looked at his brother in complete doubt.

“Of course, of course!” Seeing the girl stop crying, he sighed out in relief. It was scary to see girls cry, he did not know why, he just hated that kind of drama.

The other boy suddenly remembered something, they hadn’t introduced their name. Yet, they were here, speaking with each other like bestfriends. He let his wet hair falling messily on his “naturally handsome” forehead and smiled radiantly, showing his teeth:

“What is your name? We live at that house over there. I am….”

“Oh my god! Why are you so wet? And even dare to take a girl here?”

The appearance of the-most-powerful-character had interuppted their talk-in-the-rain. The two boys, upon receiving their mother’s fiery stares, felt their legs turn jelly. They looked at each other, scared. /We are over this time, really./

The mom turned to the girl, much gentler:

“Darling, where is you house? Why are you so wet?”

“Neh, my house is in the small street, I came here to find Star but…” precious droplets of tears started to roll out of her deer eyes. “…but he has gone somewhere..hic..hic.”
“What is Star?” The woman slowly wept away the tears lingering on the little girl’s cheeks.

“He is a small dog…really adorable…I have been waiting for it today…I would bring it home and pet it well...but…hic hic..”

“Oh, stop crying, it is alright. Dogs are a very loyal creature, and if Star and you are destinied to be, you will meet it again. We all are connected by destiny string, a strong and unbreakable tie. If you really love Star and want to see him again, the tie will show you the way.”

The woman smiled, so comforting and caring to the little girl, and gently caressed her hair. The girl could fill the inviting warmth spreading all over her little body. The warmth of a mother.

It was an answer that the three kids never realized, at that time, that it would affect their lives in the future…

Destiny? Yes, if there was no destiny, today, this little girl would not have met this family, not have met these two guys, and all the tangled webs of feelings would not have trapped her later. But, it is destiny, connecting people with one another in a directless way, and nobody knows what will happen to them. Destiny brings us closer, but may it push us apart, also? It is the story sometime far away into the future. All we know is, on that faithful day, Yoona’s string began to be connect.