“It’s raining.”

“I know.”

“Jong Hyun?”

“Yes?”

“It’s raining.”

“I know.

Jong Hyun pulled out his umbrella and pushed the button for it to open wide under the canopy where he was standing.

“Are you still worried about the rain?” he asked.

“One of us is bound to get wet.  Umbrellas aren’t like buildings.  They always let some of the water in.”

“But you said you wanted to eat out today.”

She turned away from the rain to face Jong Hyun.  “I said that yesterday when the sun was shining and I could wear any pair of shoes without worrying about water damage.”

“And now?”

“Now nowhere is safe!” she said as she pointed to the water hammering the sidewalk.

Jong Hyun raised his hand and smoothed her hair.  “But?”

She took a step toward him and pulled his arm around her shoulders.  “But I’m still hungry, and you already came all this way to take me someplace to eat.”

He raised the umbrella above both their heads and stared into the rain.  He tightened his grip around her so she would be more completely under the portable cover from the rain.  When the water started dripping onto his shoulder, he simply tilted the umbrella away from him so it would run onto the ground to her side, and he was being hit directly by the rain.

“Rice, noodles, or meat?”

She stopped walking for a moment to look at the shop names around them.

“There are a fair number of noodle houses here, but not naegmyeon.  I had that a few days ago.”

“That’s fair.  And no ramyeon.  We eat that too much when we’re rushed for time.”

She thought for a moment as they continued walking.

“What about shabu shabu?”

Jong Hyun pursed his lips and glared at her.

“That isn’t really noodles.”

“No,” she said as she pointed to a store.  “But there’s meat, noodles, and rice if we do it right.”

He waited until she was fully inside the door before closing the umbrella and slipping it into the bucket by the door.

“So this is your way of saying that you really couldn’t decide which of those you wanted?” he asked as he followed her downstairs.

“Pretty much,” she said before walking to an empty table and telling the server that there were two of them and that they would want rice at the end.

“Is this place any good?” he asked as he pushed the water off his shoulder.

She looked around.  “It looks good, doesn’t it?  I’ve never been here.”

“You’ve lived here all this time and you’ve not been to a restaurant so close to home?”

She shrugged.  “Shabu shabu isn’t really something that makes sense to eat alone.”

“I guess that’s true.”

He pulled spoons and chopsticks from the box on the table while she poured water for both of them.

“Plus, it’s easier to cook at home than to come out for every meal.”

Jong Hyun dropped his chopsticks in the banchan in the middle of the table.  “Then why are we eating here?  We could have had dinner at your apartment.”

She pushed the vegetables into the pot with the broth and stirred them with her chopsticks.

“But that isn’t eating out,” she told him over the steam.

Jong Hyun nodded as he filled a small dish with dipping sauce.  It was easy to watch the girl across the table mess with the contents of the hot pot in preparation for lunch because it looked so natural, but they had always had an understanding that if one cooked, the other did set up.

“Is this enough meat?” she asked as she pointed to the basket.

“Do you think you’ll eat more than that?”

She shook her head.  “No.  I don’t usually eat much of it.  I’m asking if you’ll want more.  I can get another helping of meat if you’ll eat it.”

Jong Hyun picked up a small leaf of kimchi and tasted it to see if he would be enjoying it or wishing for something more like his mom’s.  “In that case, no.  This should be enough unless you’re really hungry.”

She pulled a piece of cooked meat from the hot pot and held it in front of his mouth to signal that she wasn’t particularly hungry.

They didn’t sit in silence as they ate, but no one would have been able to hear or understand the whispers they exchanged over the typical din of a half-full restaurant.  They exchanged recent stories from work and started to look at their schedules for the next few weeks to see if it was even worth it to try and plan the next time they would see one another.  With the ongoing rush for SHINee to make progress in Japan, they both decided to play it by ear on the surface, but the way they were kicking at one another under the table would have signaled to anyone watching that they wanted to ditch the idea of having to fit into such a ridiculous schedule all together and act like a normal couple for once.  Their lunch felt like it moved quickly, but the clock said that they had been sitting at the table for over 45 minutes by the time the last spoonful of fried rice was finished.

“That was a perfect lunch for a day like today,” Jong Hyun said as he put his wallet away.

She stepped jogged up the stairs and looked to the street.

“Oh, it stopped raining.  I guess that’s an even more perfect end to a lunch like that.”

Jong Hyun took the stairs quietly until he was two steps below her.  As he made it to the top, he s he arms around her waist and pulled her against his chest.

“Not a terrible thing to see after eating.” 

He pressed his lips against the side of her neck before pushing her out into the street.  She adjusted her coat as she took a few steps along the sidewalk as he caught up to her.

“So, what will we do now?” she asked as she swung her arms around in the crisp air.

Jong Hyun smiled as he watched her dance in the middle of the street.  She was running ahead of him, but he knew she would tire out soon and wait for him to catch up regardless of his pace.  They hadn’t been able to spend much time together, but he knew her well enough to be confident about her movements.

“We could get ice cream,” he said.

She stopped for a moment to consider the idea then quickly shook her head.

“Too cold,” she told him before continuing down the street.

He looked across the street.  “Coffee?”

She turned and skipped backward as she shook her head.  “Nope.  I had some before you picked me up.”

Jong Hyun stopped in his tracks and just stared at her.  “You eliminated half the date.”

“Sorry,” she shrugged.  “It was early and cold, and I was tired with a broken heater.  Coffee was the perfect solution.”

“We could have just made this a coffee date if your heater is broken, you know.”

She stopped skipping but continued to shake her head.  “But then I’d still be hungry.  There are flaws in all of your plans.”

She turned to continue down the street, but something in a store window on her way around caught her attention, and she stopped mid-rotation to stare.

Jong Hyun walked up to her and threw his arm around her waist.  He looked in to see a coat that had often made him think of her as he walked passed it.  She didn’t seem very phased by anything he did because she was so focused on the shop window.

“We could go shopping,” he said realizing that she probably wouldn’t hear him.

After a few more moments of glassy-eyed staring, she turned to Jong Hyun and made her eyes as round as she could manage and pushed her lips out into a pout that Jong Hyun could never scale as more cute or y.

“Could we go shopping, Jong Hyun?  Just for a little while?  I promise I won’t try on everything in the store.  I just want to look at one thing.”

Jong Hyun made his face look appropriately shocked before saying, “Shopping?  I don’t know why I didn’t think of that myself.  It sounds like a good idea, but I don’t think these shops have anything you’d like.”

“You just suggested shopping, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“So you don’t mind if I go in there for that coat?”

He shook his head.

“Okay then!”

She started up the steps to the shop door, but she was stopped short by Jong Hyun’s fingers wrapped around her wrist.

“What?” she asked as she stared at his hand.

“I want to buy it for you.”

Her eyes opened in shock.

“I’ve seen it in a few shops, but I never have time enough to go in and buy it.  I’m glad you like it as much as I thought you would.”

She rushed against him to brush her lips against his.

“I’m glad you know me so well,” she said with a smile before running into the shop.

Jong Hyun chuckled to himself as he followed her into the store.  She was already talking to a salesperson for help in finding her size when he found her in the maze of winter clothes.

“Can I help you, sir?” someone in a very nice suit asked.

Jong Hyun smiled and pointed to his girl.  “I’m her bank for the day, so my purpose will come later.”

The employee nodded.  “She has good taste.  That’s a nice coat, but most women think the embellishment is in the wrong place.”

Jong Hyun turned to face the man straight on.  “What do you mean?  I like it.”

“Ah, I see you have good taste too.”

“Flattery is a good parlor trick in your job, but I really do want to know why so few people like that coat.”

The salesman walked to the display and started to point out different details of the garment.

“Many women prefer double-ed pea coats lately because that’s what’s in style, but this is single-ed.  It’s slightly fitted and goes to the mid-thigh on most women which is a strange combination since usually coats that are so long tend to be a bit looser around this hips, but this hugs slightly.  There’s also the silly issue that it’s dark brown and many people prefer black since it matches everything, but the right shade of brown can be just as versatile.”

Jong Hyun took a seat in one of the chairs near the dressing rooms, something he figured they’d done specifically for men waiting for women to try on different clothes.

“That all sounds ridiculous,” he said as he situated his bag on the chair next to him.

“It is, quite, but it’s how people shop.”

“I guess so,” Jong Hyun shrugged, “but I don’t understand the embellishment issue.”

The man turned the display so Jong Hyun could see the back.  At the small of the back, there was a matte gold bow sew flush against the jacket.

“They think the gold is tacky,” the man said.  “They think it comes out of nowhere and cheapens the look, but the buttons on the front sparkle gold in the sun.  That’s just something no one can see in the shop.”

As a look of disappointment flashed in the salesman’s eyes, Jong Hyun’s girl came out in the coat over a blush-colored dress that fell to just above her knees.

“You said you would only try on one thing,” he said as he stood to walk over to her.

“Well,” she said as she turned to look over her shoulder into the mirror to see if the outfit passed the test, “the outfit I had on didn’t really match this coat, and I wanted to see a complete picture of what this would look like on me.”

Jong Hyun shook his head and turned to look at a wall of accessories he’d noticed on his  way into the shop.

“Can you hand me that scarf there?” he asked of the salesman.

The man walked to the wall, pulled down a scarf of brown with hints of gold, and handed it to Jong Hyun.

“I think this really completes the look,” he said as he wrapped the scarf around her neck.

She turned to face the mirror full-on to see the full effect.  “I like it,” she said as Jong Hyun smiled over her shoulder.

Jong Hyun pulled his wallet from his jacket and handed his new friend the salesman one of his cards.

“The coat, sir?” the man asked.

“The look, please,” Jong Hyun said before turning back to the girl.  “Go change back, though.  I don’t think it’s quite cold enough to be wearing this outfit.”

She nodded.  “I wasn’t going to wear this back out there anyway.”

“Why?” he asked, shocked.

She pointed to her feet.  “These shoes are not right for this dress.”

She turned and walked back into the changing room as Jong Hyun completed his purchase at the counter.

“A girl who likes a simple look,” the salesman said as he handed Jong Hyun his copy of the receipt, “but who still has high standards of every outfit.  Hold on to that.”

“I plan to,” Jong Hyun replied.

Just then, she came out wearing her normal clothes and holding the new outfit out in front of her like it was a snake.

“Why are you holding it that way?” he asked as the salesman walked to take it from her.

Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him.  “I just saw the price.  It’s too much.  I can pay for it.”

Jong Hyun sighed and took the bag the staff handed him.  “If you think it’s too expensive, then you definitely can’t afford it.  Allow yourself something nice.”  He turned to his new friend and took the bag.  “Thank you for your help.”

As Jong Hyun assured the salesman he would come back soon to buy more from the store, he saw the girl standing by the window staring silently.

“Jong Hyun,” she said.

“Yes?”

She pointed out the window.  “It’s raining.”

“Is it?”

“Yes,” she nodded.  “I think I hear an old man snoring because the water is coming down like those buckets at water parks.”

“It sounds like our shoes might get a little wet on the way home, then,” he said.

“I think more than that will get soaked,” she replied.

He looked puzzled.

“Jong Hyun?”

“Yes?”

“You realize you left the umbrella, right?”

Jong Hyun checked his bag and realized that in his happiness that the rain had stopped when they left the restaurant, he had left his umbrella in the bucket by the door.

“Well, I realize now.”

Jong Hyun walked back to the counter and placed the back on top next to the sign pad.

“Excuse me, can I keep this here until I can get it where it won’t get soaked on the way back?”

The salesman smiled and took the bag.  “Absolutely.  We can hold it for up to a week or deliver it for you, if that’s easier.”

Jong Hyun wrote an address on a slip of paper and slid the paper into the bag with the new clothes.  “I’ll count on you, then.”

“Of course,” the salesman said.  “We’ll send it tomorrow.”

“Jong Hyun?”

He turned to look back out the window where the water was falling in sheets.

“Yeah?”

“How are we going to get home?”

He peaked his head out the door and looked down the street to where her apartment building was.

“We’ll run?”

She looked at him in disgust as he walked outside and stood in the rain.  “You’re crazy.”

“Hurry up.  The faster we get back, the faster you’ll be dry.”

She pointed across the street.  “We could always wait in a coffee shop until the rain stops.  Then we could walk home and not be wet.”

“There are flaws in all your plans,” he mused.  “You had coffee earlier today.  Hurry and come out.  I can see your place from here.”

“Of course you can,” she said as she stepped outside.  “We ate here because it’s the street in front of my apartment.”

Jong Hyun reached forward and grabbed her hand.  “Hurry,” he yelled over the rain as he began to pull her down the street.  “If you get sick within the next two weeks, I don’t want you blaming me and this day for giving you a cold.”

The couple sprinted through the rain to get to the maze of a parking lot that led to the entrance of the correct apartment building.  As she punched the code into the keypad to get into the building, the sudden burst of exercise started to catch up to them as they panted against their lack of breath.  When the door beeped open, she pulled Jong Hyun into the waiting elevator and hit the button for the 23^rd floor.

“Why do you live so far from the bottom?” he asked through staggered breaths.

“I think the better question is why I didn’t use a purse that was more rain-appropriate.”  She pulled a book from her bag and held it up to show him the soggy edges.  “My stuff is kind of ruined.”

Jong Hyun reached over and pushed some of her soaking hair off her face as the elevator doors slid open.

“Let’s hurry and get warm,” she said over her shoulder as she walked over to her door and pressed yet another code into a new and different keypad.

As soon as they were shoeless and in the apartment, clothes began to be peeled off of bodies and thrown onto the tiled kitchen floor.  Jong Hyun’s tease-less strip down to his underoos took considerably less time than her layer-by-layer disrobe was taking, so he slid down the hallway to the bathroom to start the shower running.

“It’s warm not hot,” he said as he pulled her inside and pushed the glass door into its place.

Her teeth chattered slightly as she said, “It’s perfect.”

Jong Hyun pushed her under the shower of water and buried his fingers in her hair.  Bubbles forms along her as he rubbed shampoo into her scalp.  He combed her hair with his fingers until he couldn’t feel any of the cold rain water and the goosebumps on her stomach disappeared.  When he saw she was warm, he let the shampoo wash down her back, careful not to let it run into her eyes.

“Better?” he asked.

“Much.  Your turn.”

She wrapped her now warm arms around his still shivering middle and spun so their positions were switched.  She filled a loofa with soap and began to scrub his back.  He let the water run over his chest for a bit before turning so she could wash his front and limbs.  As the shower pushed the suds off Jong Hyun’s body, he was privy to the view of her using the remaining soap on the loofa to wash herself.

“My dirt is all over that,” he told her while shampooing his own hair.

“What?” she asked jokingly.  “You mean all that dirt that you accumulated by eating lunch and running in the rain?  You were freshly showered when you got her this morning.”

Jong Hyun inhaled some of the shampoo that was running down in his face in his failed attempt at mock-surprise at her knowing he had arrived straight from the shower for lunch.

“My turn,” she said as she pushed him out of the way so she could wash away the soap.

Jong Hyun slipped out of the shower while she finished and found a some of the pajamas he left at her apartment in case of surprise sleepovers and a towel next to the sink.  He patted himself dry and slipped on the track pants and t-shirt just as she cut the water.  When she opened the door, he handed her the towel that was hanging on the rail next to the shower.

“I’m going to start the laundry and finish the tea you started.”

“How did you know I started tea?” she asked as she wrapped the towel around her chest.

“I just had a feeling.”

He threw his towel on the floor just outside the door and grabbed both their underwear.  He walked with his feet on the towel in an effort to collect all the water they had trailed down the hallway on their way into the bathroom.  When he made it to the kitchen, he gathered their wet clothes in the mostly dry towel and threw them all in the washer.  He pulled two mugs from the cupboard and tossed a teabag into each before unplugging the whistling electric kettle.

“I want to wash the towel,” she called from the bathroom as he poured the water.

Jong Hyun picked up the mugs and made his way toward the living room.  “I didn’t start the machine.  Throw it in and push start when you’re ready.”

“Oh,” she mused as she rubbed the towel against her hair.  “Thanks.”

He set the mugs of hot tea on the table in front of the couch and switched on the TV to some nonsense channel.  He took a sip of the scalding liquid before deciding grabbing a blanket and lying down would be a much more effective way of warding off the chill of the rain.

“The machine is running,” she said as she came into the living room.  “Why are we watching Ninja Assassin?”

Jong Hyun shrugged.  “The weather forecast and the TV guide said Rain today.”

She laughed half-heartedly.

“Come get under the blanket.  You can’t be very warm in those shorts.”

She climbed under the blanket Jong Hyun had spread over himself, and he pulled his arms out from underneath the cover to wrap them around her shoulders.

“You’re quite warm,” she said.

“I’m not wearing shorts and a tank top.”

She frowned against his chest.  “It’s what was clean.”

They lay watching the movie for about ten minutes before the first commercial break began inappropriately advertising kids shows.

“What kid would be allowed to watch this movie?” Jong Hyun asked sleepily.

“Maybe it’s for parents watching to know when these things are on normally,” she sighed.

“What person over 23 would be watching Ninja Assassin?”

She thought for a moment.  “You may have a point.” 

She looked at the mugs of tea that no longer billowed steam and unearthed her hand from the abundance of blanket to point to them.  “I think the tea is cool enough to drink now.”

She started to push herself to sit up, but Jong Hyun tightened his grip around her shoulders.

“We could always just stay like this to get warm,” he yawned.

She laid back down and pressed her lips against the side of his neck before getting comfortable.

“Sounds like a plan.”

It didn’t take long for her to feel in his breathing that he’d fallen asleep, and the rhythm of the rain against the window had her following him into dreamland not long later.