The clouds grew darker and bigger as the night led on. The moon wasn't even that visible anymore since all the gloomy clouds took over the sky. All of these signs meant one thing: a storm was here.

Lightning struck.

Heavy rain poured.

The darkness completely enveloped the night.

Luckily for someone, she just arrived at her apartment's building.

Taeyeon sighed in relief just as she realized that she parked her car in time. The rain grew heavier and flood would soon arise if she were to stay on the road any longer. It'll also be troublesome for her because she just got off work.

All in her mind right now was to enter her apartment, take a shower and sleep. Nothing was getting in the way of that.

Well, nothing ever did.

Taeyeon's life has always been stereotypical.

Until now.

When she took her first step on her floor's carpet, lightning struck again, allowing a flash of light to go through the floor's clear window, emphasizing a shivering person covered with a white blanket to be leaning against her door.

Cautiously, her legs started to move towards the figure.

Her head was suddenly filled with thoughts about statements that could make sense with her situation right now. Her heart was also racing to handful negative emotions. Should she be scared? Angry? Why was she here? Is she someone she knows?

Then every single question in her head all came to one conclusion.

She wasn’t going to figure anything out until she actually does something.

So there she stood, hesitating to open and know the answer to all her questions, right in front of the blanket-covered girl sitting on the ground.

It took all of her strength to make the words actually come of out .

“H-Hey, are you okay?” she mumbled, still hesitating a bit.

The girl before her didn’t even move a bit.

Taeyeon was forced to crouch towards down the silent girl, trying to take a peek at her face but the girl was hugging her knees too tightly to the point that her face was rather hidden.

After trying to examine her, she thought that her voice just wasn’t loud enough and spoke once more, “Excuse me, you alright?”

Finally, the shivering girl lifted her head, meeting Taeyeon’s eyes after she did.

She looked so innocent and fragile; like a person that was new to the world…someone that had their eyes filled with brightness and joy but, surprisingly, this girl’s eyes weren’t. They were the complete opposite. Instead, they were filled with fright, loneliness, and above all, pain.

Taeyeon’s mind suddenly went blank with what to do with her.

She still didn’t know what to do even after she got this far. As usual, her over-analytical mind wouldn’t make a complete thought, resorting to no movement from her. So her eyes quickly examined the physical appearance of the person in front of her, hoping to get some clues as to why she was here on her doorstep.

The young woman was soaked from the rain, making her hair dripping wet along with her clothes. All she had with her was the cloth around her and a necklace, which was shaped as a simple square locket, around her neck. It seemed like that necklace was what she was living off at the moment. The tight grip around the chain definitely confirmed the value of it to her.

But all those things weren’t what caught Taeyeon’s eye the most. It was her quivering lip…puffy red eyes…and the tears that were continuing to flow down her cheeks for some unknown reason. It just worsened her train of thought.

Taeyeon and her just kept staring at each for a few more seconds to the point that they looked like they were just sitting there as abandoned and lost people not knowing what to do with each other, but the shorter girl finally snapped out of her enchanted state, allowing Taeyeon to finally take action. But it was also the moment thunder boomed around them, alarming the person in front of her to start fleeing and spare her from explanations and apologies.

A sort of electric bolt ran in Taeyeon’s hand.

For once in her life, she became impulsive.

“No! Don’t go! I won’t hurt you.” She stopped her after quickly standing up and grabbing the drenched girl’s wrist, not caring about the head rush she received after that.

The taller girl turned back to Taeyeon, looking at her with a bit of trust forming in her eyes. She didn’t know what made her stop and look back. She’s never even seen the person ever in her life. How did she have the ability of convincing her that she actually meant her words?

She could just simply shake her hand off and run away.

However, something in Taeyeon’s eyes made her push away all her doubts and just nodded, willing to place herself in her care for the meantime.

Even if it was just a bit, both of their hearts suddenly felt ease between them and some tension started to release in the atmosphere, making Taeyeon’s head a bit clearer. She retracted her hand, not keeping her eyes off the girl and opened the door next to her, saying with as much friendliness as she could emit: “Would you like to come inside?”

The soaked girl eyed Taeyeon up and down one more time before pulling the blanket around her more securely and nodded. She took little steps into the stranger’s apartment as if she expected the woman behind her to push her in, lock the door and close the lights but once again, something inside her kept the doubts lingering in her mind to take over.

Taeyeon smiled silently to herself, walking in after the new friend she’s going to make in a few hours, closing the door.