BGM: Epik High feat Younha - Umbrella

"Don't tell me she left already."

Upon his arrival from the spontaneous ramen-shopping with Yixing in a nearby convenience store, Luhan immediately noticed that Kyungsoo was the only black apron-garbed person left behind the Happy Bubble counter.

Carefully swirling the coffee in his cup, Joonmyun answered, "Yeah, you just missed her."

"She left about five minutes ago with Moonkyu and Jongin," Chanyeol added.

Luhan slumped back into his seat and put the 7-Eleven plastic bag on the table. He couldn't believe that after going through all the trouble of buying ramen in this pouring rain, he would be welcomed by the news that you have already headed home the moment he comes back.

"Ooh~ ramen!" Minseok exclaimed, quickly snatching the bag full of ramen from the table.

Scooting closer to Minseok, Chanyeol joined his hyung in rummaging through the contents of the plastic bag. "Why did you guys buy the milk for? We already have bubble tea here," Chanyeol asked, holding up a carton of milk.

"Because that's not for you," Yixing responded, taking the milk from Chanyeol before putting it back to the plastic bag. "It's for us. Our fridge's almost empty."

Sehun slouched back in his chair and smiled. "I'm tho lucky I thtill live with my parentth."

"That's going to change soon, though. Once the team is finalized, and we get chosen, all of us would have to stay in a dorm for a few years regardless of how near or how far our respective homes are," Joonmyun reminded.

"Ah, dorm life," Kevin sighed, folding his arms at the back of his head. "Or how I like to call it, 'the world of doing your own laundry and cooking your own dinner'."

Yixing, who was seated beside him, suddenly slapped Kevin's thigh. "Cooking your own dinner? I'm the one who always prepare our dinner!" he reminded. "That one time when you microwaved the leftovers doesn't count!"

"Speaking of dinner... are we going to eat those cups of ramen or not?" Minseok asked, looking at Luhan and Yixing's recent purchases that were now displayed on the table. "'Cause I'm really, really starving."

Getting up from his seat, Kyungsoo excused himself from his friends and headed towards the tiny Happy Bubble kitchen. "Wait. I'll just go get us some hot water."

Due to Jongin's undeniable cold and your constant nagging, the pseudo-twins agreed to take your usual route home: walk about two blocks to Hanyang Apartments, board the Blue bus to Apgujeong Station, then ride the train all the way to your respective stops.

"Want to guess what song that guy's listening to right now?"

While on the train to Dogok Station, Jongin suggested you play 'Guess the Song' to help pass the time. The objective of the game, as the name obviously suggests, is to predict the title of the song being listened to by unsuspecting train passengers who disconnect with the rest of the world using their headphones. Although you had a feeling that the guy with the red hat was listening to LeeSsang's Ballerino, you really weren't in the mood for another round of guessing game.

"I'm actually more interested to know why you don't have an umbrella," you revealed.

Raising his left eyebrow, Jongin just kept silent and continued staring at you.

"I mean, what kind of Seoulite forgets to bring an umbrella during jangma?!?" you nagged, crossing your arms against your chest.

Jongin knew that look on your face pretty well. He gets it from his mother and his two noonas whenever they're forcing him to confess about something that he did; that's why he knew that just like the women in his family, you wouldn't drop the subject unless he explains himself. "I did bring an umbrella, okay?" he admitted.

You looked at him suspiciously. "How come you were dripping wet when you arrived, then?"

Sighing in submission, Jongin started telling you about what happened after his extra hours of dance practice. "There was this girl..." he started.

You raised your right eyebrow. "Go on, I'm listening," you said, urging him to continue.

"While I was on my way to the bubble tea shop, I saw this girl. She was waiting outside the company building, all sad and wet from the rain," he paused. "Well, I wasn't sure if she was crying or not, but she definitely looked sad."

A-CHOO!!!

He temporarily stopped speaking when he unexpectedly let out another sneeze. After wiping his nose with a handkerchief, he continued with his story. "Anyway, I came up to her and asked why she was just standing there instead of looking for shelter. She said that she was waiting for Jin-" he paused briefly to correct himself, since he figured you'd understand his story better if he used Lee Jinki's stage name instead. 

"I mean, Onew hyung. She said she was waiting for Onew hyung to come out because she was his fan," he continued. "But by then, I know that SHINee had already left because Taeminnie  and Minho hyung stopped by the practice room to say goodbye, so I asked her to just go home since SHINee had already done the same a few minutes ago..."

Based on Jongin's story about Onew's fan, you already came up with a conclusion regarding his missing umbrella. "You gave her your umbrella, right?"

He nodded slightly and smiled weakly, looking quite embarrassed.

A-CHOO!!!

"I didn't know you were such a sweetheart," you joked, but genuinely proud of your friend's chivalry. After all, not every guy would be willing to brave the cold July rain and risk a cold and a fever just to offer some poor girl his umbrella.

Raising his left eyebrow again, Jongin retorted, "I didn't know you were such a cheeseball."

You punched his arm playfully. "Shut up!" you said, before cracking up due to another one of his loud sneezes.

A-CHOO!!!

Back at the Happy Bubble Tea Shop, Minseok was helping Kyungsoo pour hot water into the cups of instant ramen bought by Luhan and Yixing. Minseok, who had a moment of distraction when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a photo of you and Jihye on Zitao's iPhone, nearly spilled hot water on the poor Chinese boy.

"Sorry, Zitao! Sorry!" he apologized, before stealing another glance at Jihye's face.

While waiting for their instant ramen to settle in the hot water, Chanyeol suddenly pondered about what happened earlier. Seeing you worry about his friend's health made him long for a woman's nurture. Heck, he even wanted the nagging part. "Did you guys notice how Jaemi took care of Jongin earlier?"

"Why? What happened to Jongin?" Luhan asked.

Sehun was playing with the little packet of flavoring for his ramen when he answered. "He came in all drenched in rainwater," he said.

"He probably ran all the way here without an umbrella," Joonmyun added.

Yixing took a peek at the instant ramen inside his cup. After making sure that the noodles were ready, he took out the flavor packet and started shaking it. "What did Jaemi do, then?" he asked, pouring the seasoning into the cup.

"She nagged," Minseok answered, stirring the ramen in his cup. "First, she immediately forced him to change out of his wet clothes, then she practically shoved an entire cup of bitter tea into his throat."

"She reminded me of my mother. It was quite scary," Kyungsoo slightly shivered.

"I was actually envious," Chanyeol admitted, before sipping a spoonful of ramen soup. "I want a girl to take care of me like that, too." 

"Go get thick and athk Yejin noona to take care of you, then," Sehun suggested, earning him a slap in the head from his Chanyeol hyung.

Taking the current discussion as an opportunity to continue their little chit-chat in the convenience store, Yixing asked, "What about you, Luhan? Aren't you jealous?"

"Why would I be jealous?" Luhan asked, before slurping the last bit of a very long strand of noodle.

"Didn't you buy all these cups of ramen for Jaemi?" Yixing teased.

"I told you. I bought ramen because I was craving it, that's all," he declared, before shoving more noodles into his mouth.

Like Yixing, Chanyeol wasn't so convinced with Luhan's answer, so he used it as a chance to even further. "So, you like Jaemi, huh?" he asked, a creepy smile forming on his lips.

"No, I don't!" Luhan denied, albeit too quickly. "I mean, I like her, of course. She's really nice and all. But I don't like her that way."

Kyungsoo widened his eyes. "How come you're so interested in her? You kept on bugging me to tell you who her secret crush is and you even asked Jihye about her ideal type," he asked.

"Yeah, and you flirt with her a lot," Kevin pointed out, before finishing his ramen up to the last drop of soup.

"That's because I have so much fun teasing her! The reactions on her face are so priceless!" Luhan reasoned. All of a sudden, an image of you punching him with all your strength after he sprinkled you with the sweat from his hair popped into his mind, making Luhan smile.

"You're imagining her face right now, aren't you?" Yixing teased, causing Luhan to quickly retort with a very defensive "I'm not!" before turning his attention back to eating ramen.

Zitao, who could barely understand any Korean, seemed to have an idea about what the others were talking about. "Luhan. Jaemi. Like?" he said, before properly asking in Mandarin whether Luhan was really interested in you or not.

Getting a bit frustrated, Luhan sighed. "I already told you, I do-"

"Of course, he does! He's even making extra effort to wake up early just so he could stop by this shop to say hello to Jaemi every morning," Yixing interrupted.

Sehun shook his head. "And all