The next morning, I stealthily waltzed through to kitchen, quickly grabbing some grapes from the fridge and a granola bar, and headed out the door before I ran into my mom.

I was already on the bus and watching the dark clouds swirl in the sky when I realized I had forgotten a bottle of water and the red umbrella. By the time I made it to school, it was sprinkling and I only prayed it stopped before school ended and I had to walk to the bus stop and all the way home from there. I loved rain, but not being soaked and forced to trudge through it.

It started to slack off around lunchtime after pouring for a couple of hours. The clouds looked to be parting to reveal sunshine and I thought I would get off the hook there for a little bit.

The rain must’ve added to the stress of upcoming exams and dampened everyone’s mood, though. Instead of lingering in hallways and being rowdy, everyone skulked from classroom to classroom, barely exchanging any words with classmates. It was odd to see everyone to act as such but it was something happened every year and couldn’t be avoided.

I think possibly the best thing about my day was having my cast off and being able to open my locker with any trouble. Tao noticed it, too.

“Hey, you got your cast off!” he said, pointing at my right hand.

My last three fingers looked a tiny bit crooked but they still worked and I was thankful for that. I wriggled them at Tao.

“I got it off yesterday.”

He leaned on Sehun’s locker since said male was nowhere to be seen. Something told me he was out smoking behind the school but I didn’t ask his friends for information.

“Sehun told me what happened. Do you want me to break her witchy fingernailed fingers for you?” He tried to menacingly crack his knuckles but it only resulted in him looking like an angry kitten.

I shook my head with a small giggle. “No, that’s okay. There’s been enough drama for me,” I told him.

“You just let me know,” he said, pointing a finger at me before heading away for class. “I know wushu!”

I followed in his direction a few moments later, ready to get the day over with so I could go home and hopefully escape the rain. When the last bell finally rang, I was ready to sprint when my teacher called me aside to tell me how well I had been doing in her class. I thanked her in surprise because I usually did her work at the last minute. When she was finally finished talking about her lovely subject that frankly bored me for the most part, I slipped out of the room and went to grab my things before leaving. So far the rain had quit and I didn’t want to push it.

Tao wasn’t around this time when I was getting my books from my locker and no one else was either. The teacher had kept me longer than I had initially thought, but at least that meant less traffic in the parking lot, I thought as I headed out of the back exit.

I hadn’t more than stepped outside when an arm looped through mine and dragged me right back inside the door.

“What—?”

Sehun merely hauled me down the hallway, not appearing to mind the dwindling amount of students still lingering in the school.

“What are you doing?” I asked, nearly tumbling to the floor with the measure of speed he was using.

At my demand, he slowed a bit, but held onto my arm and cleared his throat. “Tao said you got your cast off,” he noted conversationally as he looked down at my hand draped over his arm.

I blinked at him gapingly before pulling at my arm. “Let go of me,” I insisted quietly, uneasily noticing the few stares we got as I passed some classmates. “There’s a reason I go out the back door.”

He grabbed hold of my arm with his other hand, keeping me from going anywhere. “Well, there’s a reason I’m taking you out the front one today,” he gritted back at me.

I let loose a scoff but ceased my attempts to get away.

“Should we turn back? I’m sure Namjoon wouldn’t mind a small chat with you as you leave,” he said brusquely.

My eyes grew wide and I reflexively looked behind us as if Namjoon stood there. Gulping, I turned my head back and looked up at Sehun, about to question if Namjoon was actually outside. His set jaw said enough and any further complaints died on my lips. The stares from my peers standing around didn’t feel important any longer just as Sehun’s hand slid down my arm into the grip of my fingers. He promptly strode out of the school with me in tow, bypassing the parking lot entirely although I saw several VIPs lingering and thought I’d seen Jongin still there too.

I waited till we were out of the gate to speak up.

“Do you reckon he was . . .” waiting for me?

Sehun got the gist of what I meant and shrugged. “I dunno. He’s just a punk that likes loiter.”

One of my eyebrows rose a little. “You’re a punk, too,” I mumbled under my breath, pretending look across the street at something interesting.

He didn’t protest or say anything in reply and I thought for a moment I had cause offense and he was mad. But when I looked over, he was only gazing ahead, his face inexpressive. Trailing away from his face, my eyes landed on our hands and I sighed, wondering how he always managed to do it.

“Are you walking me home again?” I eventually asked just after I noticed we were about to pass the bus stop.

He halted his steps and craned his neck like he had only just seen the bus stop also. He stared for a moment before looking at me.

“Do you want me to?”

I wanted to tell him no, tell him to go home and I could just get on a bus, that it made more sense for him to just leave me here because his house wasn’t much further, and that him walking me home would only make my family even more probing. The only thing I did was purse my lips and hold tighter to his hand. And he took that as a yes and resumed walking.

What are we doing? That question hit my mind as I noticed a couple on the opposing street. They were holding hands and the guy was talking animatedly about something to his girlfriend. When that word came to mind, girlfriend, a pit opened in my stomach and I craned my neck to look down at mine and Sehun’s hands. My chest started to burn from an unknown and anxious feeling inside. I opened my mouth to tell him never mind; I could walk home alone or go back to the bus stop.

“Did you bring your umbrella again?” he asked suddenly.

I looked up swiftly, thinking I’d been caught staring. “No. Why—?” The word had no chance to finish leaving my mouth when thunder rumbled. I jumped and looked towards the sky.

“Run,” Sehun advised abruptly, tugging my hand. A second later, a fat raindrop hit me directly on the forehead. I followed after him quickly, struggling a bit to keep up with his fast pace due to his longer legs as the sky opened up entirely, pouring out more rain than it had all day to the point where it was hard to see more than a couple of feet in front of us. All I saw was Sehun look over his shoulder, appearing to be amused, before turning back and pulling me off the sidewalk. It was a moment, in which I panicked  and grabbed hold of the back of his blazer with my other hand because I couldn’t see, until the rain had stopped raining over us. Sehun stopped running and looped an arm around my shoulders to pull me further under shelter, drawing me closer to him.

I thought I had lost my mind for a second before I blinked away the raindrops in my eyes and looked up to see fancy architecture. It was a church. The church I had stopped in front of that time I first went to Sehun’s house to be exact. He had walked by me and I followed him. Had that been when everything went to hell, I wondered ironically. I had not a clue what was going on anymore, that I did know.

Sehun’s hand dropped from my shoulder to the spot between my shoulder blades, gaining my attention.

His dark hair had been soaked and was sticking to his face, almost in his eyes, and his eyelashes brushed it every time he blinked at me. He didn’t have the bruises and scratches like last time when I had seen him doused from rain and he wasn’t on the verge of a mental break down. He hadn’t called me an ugly cow or attempted to make me miserable in weeks. He had held my hand and helped me steer clear of Kim Namjoon.

“Still want me to walk you home?”

I precipitously noticed just how close we were and stepped away. “No, it’s okay,” I said. After a second, I figured that was only a rhetorical question and directed my attention to the rain.

“It’ll probably let up in a few minutes,” he commented, watching the thick curtain of water fall off the roof of the church.

I nodded, eyes roaming to look around the church’s porch. The stained glass windows of the doors were lit brilliantly, prompting me to walk over to get a better look.

“Have you ever been in here?” Sehun asked as I gazed up at the dove that was elegantly gleaming in the glass above the doors. I shook my head.

I pulled my eye away from the glass when Sehun brushed past me and opened one of the doors on the left.

“Sehun, are we allowed?” I asked, hurrying over.

“Aren’t you always allowed in a church?” he retorted, holding the door open for me.

Thinking he had a point, I stepped inside. My mouth dropped in awe when I caught sight of the inside. It was dimly lit, glowing and marvelous. Six pillars were stationed on either side, holding up the beautiful house of marble, reds, and golds. Dark mahogany pews were perfectly aligned all the way to the sanctuary.  

I passed the statues of Jesus on the cross and angels surrounding him and the confessionals, looking closely at every delicate detail. Sehun followed silently behind me as I moved to the center aisle of the pews to get an overall view. I tapped my knuckles against my chin, gazing up at the stunning and enormous stained glass windows and trying to neglect the cold I was beginning to feel from the air conditioner and my soggy clothes. The cloudy sky outside darkened the colors of the windows but they were still just as breathtaking.

“It’s beautiful,” was the only adjective I could ma