I never knew about the suffocating closeness of a person’s polyester jacket, the dripping rain coming from someone else’s umbrella, the squeaking sounds of a thousand pair of shoes going in the same direction until I entered high school. When I was a kid the sky seemed so much closer, like it was within the reach of my hand. But now it seemed so distant, so far away. That’s why I love rain, it made me feel so much closer to the silver linings of the clouds and the lightning dancing through them. On these days, I found my feet automatically exiting the train station instead of transferring to the subway.

I accidentally stepped on a puddle and the rain splattered all over my uniform trousers. “Aish…” I took a couple more steps to finally reach the patio that had a wooden roof covering it.

It was different today however, there was another person there. I bowed and smiled slightly at the man sitting there. His suit was neatly tucked in at just the right places and his hair was combed to perfection. It was as if he had spent hours on it. I sat down at my normal spot and stared at the water stream running in front of me. The sound of water trickling accompanied with the falling rain was beyond comforting. Maybe it was the reason why this garden intrigued me so much that I would skip school just to come here.