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Hyesung hurriedly ran towards under advertisement board for shelter. He frowned when he looked up at the sky. The rain was pouring down like torrent. He watched peoples around him were running away to find their shelter too. He sighed in disappointment as he didn’t bring an umbrella with him. He never thought it would rain today. Stupid weather forecast, he mentally cursed. He looked sadly at the paper bag in his hand. If he took the risk and just ran through the rain, he would destroy all the cakes inside. It was such a waste especially when thinking about how he chose every single one of them very carefully and meticulously.

He was so deep in his thought and didn’t realize there was someone else stood beside him. So he almost jumped in surprise when someone muttered, “Excuse me” to him.

“You scared me!” The skinny man held his chest and with much relief, realized that the one who startled him was not a criminal.

“Oh, I’m sorry to scare you. I didn’t mean it. I just wanted to ask you if it’s okay to take shelter here too.” The man quickly apologized and Hyesung just nodded at him. Hyesung saw the man’s right shoulder was sopping with rain so he motioned the man to move closer.

“I’m sorry again.” The man mumbled as he stood a little closer to Hyesung. The advertisement board didn’t provide a spacious room for them standing comfortably. Their shoulders almost touched and somehow it made Hyesung very concerned about their closeness.

“I didn’t expect a rain.” The man suddenly said.

“Yeah, me too.” Hyesung felt himself involuntary tensed. He always panicked when he met a new people and always lost about what to talk. And the fact that the man beside him was really good looking didn’t help at all. So Hyesung looked down to his paper bag and made sure his precious cakes was safe.

“You like the rain?” The man asked slowly but his eyes were fixed to the street in front of them, Hyesung almost thought he imagined the question. What kind of question is that? Should he give the man the honest answer?

“No, I hate it.” Hyesung gave the wrong answer in the end.

The man turned to face him, they were standing close enough to Hyesung could see a little trickles down his cheek from his wet hair. The man didn’t say anything, but looked straight to Hyesung’s eyes before a goofy smile formed on his face. Hyesung looked away immediately in ashamed.

“My name is Eric, by the way.” The man offered his hand to Hyesung.

“Hyesung.” The slender man just wanted to run away when he realized he stuttered. He took a deep breath and fixed his damp hair to calm himself down. Oh , he forgot about his hair! Was his hair still okay after he ran in the rain just now?

“Nice name.” Eric commented. This time Hyesung just mumbled his thank you without looking at him. But strangely he could remember every single thing about the man. His dark hair, his face feature, his black shirt under his jacket, his big round eyes, his slightly dirty white tennis shoes and how he nonchalantly put his both hands in his jeans’ pocket.    

“You have anywhere else to go?” Eric kept talking despite Hyesung’s embarrassment. But at the same time, somehow Hyesung felt happy inside when Eric didn’t give up the conversation. And he felt his cheek heated even though the rain was as heavy as before.

“No. Why?” Hyesung managed to answer.

“Because you looked uncomfortable and jittery.” Eric shrugged but his voice sounded sincere. And that made Hyesung turned his face to Eric. In an instant, Hyesung stopped patting his feet and touching his hair.

“I’m fine.” And just like a magic, as he said those words, he actually felt fine. So Hyesung smiled at Eric even though he didn’t know why.

Eric returned his smile before said, “You’re going somewhere or heading back home?” Eric stretched his hand and let it dripped by the raindrop.

“I just had lunch with my friend at the restaurant over there.” Hyesung pointed his index finger to a direction behind his shoulder.

“Is your house near here?”

“No. Not really. My house is three blocks away from here.”

“You bring your car?” Eric now pulled his hand, flicked it a little before shoved it back to his jeans’ pocket.

“No. Sadly not. The weather was so nice this morning, so I decided to walk here.” And he never counted the possibility of the rain so he didn’t even consider bringing an umbrella with him. “How about you? Is your house near here?” Hyesung asked.

“Yeah, the building in that corner. But I don’t want to ruin my shoes by running this heavy rain. These are new shoes.” He looked down at his shoes before cursed, “Oh, ! When are they become this dirty?”

Hyesung chuckled at Eric’s hilarious whim. But when Eric looked up at him and pouted, Hyesung tried his best to put up a sympathize expression.

“What’s inside the paper bag? It seems important.” Hyesung watched him in disbelief. Eric surely had so many things to ask.

“Cakes. Sliced cakes.” Now Hyesung felt stupid to hug the paper bag all along. “I like sweet dessert.”

“So you hate rain and like sweet dessert. Interesting.” Eric grinned now.

“Why you asked about the rain?” Because he never met someone who asked whether he likes or hates the rain on their first meet. To be honest, Hyesung liked the rain. He liked it the best when drizzling. He would spend his day snuggled in his apartment, opened the window to let the breeze and the rain’s smell flew inside. He would lie on his couch and lazily covered himself by his blanket like a pupa while reading a book. With hot tea or hot cocoa to accompany him, his day would be perfect.

“Because I like them.” Eric answers almost immediately. “Especially the smell of it. You know, the smell when it started to rain after a long sunny day.”

Hyesung couldn’t speak. The sidewalk around them was empty and the street in front of them was also vacant. They were alone, just the two of them. And Hyesung felt a funny tingling crept from his stomach and spread to his whole body. Sent a shiver to his fingertips and lips, and made his heart beating like crazy.

Why the man’s words sounded so romantic to him? About the rain and the smell of it after a long sunny day..

“But I hope the rain won’t take too long because I need to go home soon. I expect a call and she always calls my house number.” Eric stuck out his head and observed the sky.

Oh. Who is she?

“It’s my niece. She’s ten and very cute.” Eric explained like he could read Hyesung’s mind.

“Oh, thank God.”Hyesung nodded in relieved before he realized what he was saying. Eric chuckled to see how Hyesung’s face blushed a second after. 

“Hyesung-shi, wait here.” Suddenly Eric pulled his jacket’s collar high then ran through the rain. Hyesung could only stand and watched as the man slowly disappeared.

Five minutes later, Hyesung finally saw a tall figure walking towards him. He held a huge white umbrella in his hands. Hyesung thought he was going nuts, because he could see Eric smiled even though their distance made it impossible to see his face.

“Where were you going?” Hyesung asked slowly when Eric approached him. He could see Eric was soaking wet and his damp hair was clinging on his face. Eric smiled proudly at his grand return. But Hyesung knew he must be perished with cold.

“There’s a store just over there, Hyesung-shi. So I bought an umbrella for us.”

“You only bought one.” Soon after the words slipped, Hyesung regretted his ungratefulness.

Eric scratched his back head before said, “Well, I thought about take you to my house and then drive you home. That’s why I bought this huge umbrella, so we both can fit under it. It’s the biggest they have on the store.”

Hyesung froze on his ground, and that was nothing to do with rain.

“I hope you don’t mind walk a bit in the rain. Please bear it for a while even though you hate it.” Eric said again when Hyesung only stood motionless and stared blankly.

“When I said I hate the rain, it’s not the truth.” Hyesung said slowly and again he felt a funny tingling inside his stomach. But this time it felt surprisingly warm.

“I knew it.” Eric smiled like a child now. He moved closer to Hyesung and invited him to stand under the umbrella. “Let’s go.”

Hyesung stepped forward (still hugged his precious paper bag carefully to protect it from the rain) and once again stood very close to Eric. Now the feeling was familiar and gratifying. They smiled at each other before began to walk towards Eric’s house.

Both of them liked walking in the rain, but didn’t have anybody who will do it with them.

Now they did.

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A/N

After a really long time, finally I could finish a oneshot.. I hope you guys like it.. ^^