It had rained the next morning. Hyunjung was woken up by the sonorous pitter patter of raindrops hammering on her bedroom window. She sat up groggily and traced her fingertips on the window lightly, leaving condensation marks on the glass. Hyunjung always did find rainy days to be her ideal days. She loved the sound the rain made when it hit the ground, it put her mind at ease and made her hours of solitude indoors extra special. But why today of all days? She was going out today and she couldn't remember where she had put her umbrella. Great. 

She swung her legs onto the edge of her bed and stood up. She walked to her vanity table and contemplated her reflection in the mirror; her hair was disarrayed and looked like a bird's nest. Meh, she'll brush it later. She yawned and plodded out of her bedroom, shutting the door gently behind her and went to the kitchen. Her uncle beckoned her over to sit at the table to eat breakfast. "Hyunjung? You never wake up this early in the weekend, are you going out today?" 

She took a bowl and spoon from the cupboards and sat in her seat. "I'm going to the arcade at one o'clock," she said, grabbing handfuls of cereal into her bowl. Uncle Hyunwoo looked at her amusedly. "One o'clock? It's only eight?"

"Hmmm?" Hyunjung looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "I guess I'm just excited, this is the first time someone's invited me."

"That new student?" Uncle Hyunwoo asked her.

"It wasn't him, it was someone else, but Taehyung was invited as well. So I think he'll be there," she replied. "Unless he decides not to show up." She muttered the last bit quietly to herself. She didn't know much about Taehyung, but based on her current judgment of him, she thought that was probably something he would do.

Her uncle creased his eyebrows. "His name is Taehyung? I know a friend of mine who has a son named Taehyung." 

Hyunjung opened the milk carton and poured it into her cereal. "Really?"

Her uncle nodded but then shook his head again. “It's probably not him though,” he said, taking the milk from her and pouring it into his own cereal bowl. 

"Oh," was all Hyunjung answered. It wasn't like she cared much, there were a lot of people with the same name these days anyway.

"I didn't know you had another friend other than Taehyung? You'll have to introduce me to them sometime," her uncle said.

Hyunjung took a bite from her cereal and looked up at him. "Of course!" she exclaimed happily.  

The rain continued to hammer down outside. 

*   *   *

"Hyuuung! Dad says to come down for breakfast." 

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there in a minute," Taehyung answered. He took his earphones out and heard his little brother run back downstairs. He opened his curtains and looked outside; the roof of his dad's car danced with spray and the rain fell as oversized droplets, forming puddles on the pavement. He scowled and hoped the weather would improve in the afternoon, he did not want to walk to the arcade when the rain was that heavy. He sighed and walked out his bedroom and went downstairs. The smell of savoury porridge aded the air and he saw his dad and younger brother already sat at the table. "Taehyung! Good morning," his dad greeted.

Taehyung went over to them and sat down. "Morning dad, morning Taewon."

His younger brother waved in response, passing him a bowl of hot porridge.

"Thanks," Taehyung said. “By the way, I'll be going out with some classmates to the arcade today in the afternoon.”

"Do you need a lift?" his dad asked, turning round to glance at the window. "The rain looks like it's not going to stop anytime soon."

"I'll be fine. I'll take a bus and use an umbrella. I know where I'm going anyway," he replied. His dad nodded and scraped more porridge into Taewon's bowl. "It's strange, you're not really the type to want to go to these kind of outings. In the past, you blatantly refused every time one of your classmates asked you." 

Taehyung merely shrugged. "Yeah, but this time I was pretty much dragged into it without wanting too." 

His dad chuckled. "Dragged into it?"

"This classmate of mine asked one of her friends if I could be invited," Taehyung said, "I only talked to her for the first time that day. But I had the impression she would keep pestering me about it until I agreed to go."

His dad snickered and he looked at him miserably. "Dad. It's not funny," he said. 

"Hyung, what's her name?" Taewon asked curiously. Taehyung turned to look at him. "Her name?" he repeated. Taewon nodded.

"Hyunjung," Taehyung replied.

"Hyunjung?" Their dad said. "Sounds familiar..." He tapped his chin, thinking. "Never mind." 

Taewon gave his older brother a grin, which looked more like a smile of mockery to Taehyung. "A giiiirl asked you," Taewon said in a teasing tone.

"And your point is?" Taehyung responded, arching one of his eyebrows at him. His little brother smiled innocently.

"Nothiiiiiiing," he said cheekily.

Taehyung massaged his temples, "I'm being mocked by a 10 year-old." Although Taewon was seven years younger, there were many times when his nervy way with words made him question how this boy would turn out several years later. 

Their dad laughed. "Taewon, leave your hyung alone," he said, patting Taehyung on the back. "It's been a while since he's gone out and talked to some friends."

The corners of Taewon's lips twitched up. "It's been a while since he's talked to a girl," he said, which earned a significant amount of silence between them. Taehyung swore he could hear Taewon and their dad stifling their giggles. They always laugh when this kind of thing is brought up. He sighed, picking up his empty bowl and stood up. "I'm finished. Can I be excused from the table?"

Their dad and Taewon nodded, who both looked like they were trying hard to restrain their laughs. Taehyung put his bowl in the sink and went over to the bottom of the stairs. "I'll be in my room if you need me."

As he went up he still heard the sounds of the rain pattering on the roof, which overlapped with the laughter of Taewon and his dad. 

*   *   *

Hyunjung had less than an hour left until she had to leave for the arcade. She had spent the majority of the morning looking for her umbrella that she still hadn't found. Luck didn't seem to ever want to be on her side. This reminded her of what had happened last year on the first day of school; she couldn't find her school socks and she was late for the orientation ceremony. That didn't exactly leave the greatest first impression and since then, she had always put her school socks in the same place so that she would be able to find them. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case with anything else, which made her more prone to lose her own belongings.

She looked once more under her bed for the umbrella, but like all the previous times, she met with the same result. She puffed her cheeks. "Where did I put that damn thing?" she said, placing her hands on her hips. Her best bet was just to hope that the rain would calm down when she had to leave.

"Uuuuncle..." she called as she walked into the kitchen. She found him sitting at the table chopping some vegetables for the food for tonight. The kitchen was where her uncle spent most of his time during the day; he loved cooking and in Hyunjung's eyes, he was an expert. Too bad she didn't possess the same level of culinary skill. 

"What is it?" he said.

Hyunjung went over to him and sat at the table. "Have you happened to have seen my umbrella anywhere?" she asked. "It's the purple one with the black spots." 

"Didn't you leave it at your parents' house when you went to visit them?" 

"Ah... That's probably why I can't find it," she said, placing her elbow on the table and resting her chin on her hands. "I'll be fine with just my coat. I'll be going to the arcade in a minute."

Despite her anticipation, Hyunjung still felt nervous. This was her first time going on an outing with her classmates. What was she going to do when she arrived there? Talk to them? Run back home?  She didn't know. "Uncle? What do you say when you want to be friends with someone?" 

Uncle Hyunwoo looked at her oddly. "I thought you would've already known. You've managed to be friends with Taehyung, didn't you?"

She laughed awkwardly, remembering how she had first talked to Taehyung. "Yeah, but you see... I didn't really approach him in the most appropriate way and I'm pretty sure he hasn't got the most positive first impression of me either. I want to know how to approach people the right way, without sounding like I'm too desperate." 

"This isn't something you should overthink so much," her uncle said. "Nothing's wrong with just going over to them and saying something friendly. If you can do that comfortably, I'm sure you'll be able to make friends." 

She wanted to be friends with other people. She wanted to be closer to Taehyung and Jungkook. She wanted to make the extra effort. "Thanks uncle, I'll keep that in mind." 

She put her coat on. "Bye uncle! I'll see you later!"

"Be home before five o'clock," he said sternly.

"I will!" Hyunjung said, opening the door. She was greeted with a downpour of rain. Hesitantly, she took a few steps forward before her uncle called out to her again. "And Hyunjung!"

She turned round. Uncle Hyunwoo waved at her and smiled. "Have fun, okay?" 

She gave him a reassuring smile and continued to walk through the unmercy of the rain. 

She gripped the hood of her coat tighter over her head. She was shivering. A bus stopped just ahead of her and people were going out of it. Maybe it would've been better to take the bus instead of walking. Though, she always tried to avoid riding one; being cramped in a vehicle with a bunch of people that you don't know didn't seem very appealing. But in this scenario, she wished she took a bus. She would've probably arrived at the arcade sooner and she would've been sheltered from the rain. All Hyunjung saw at the moment was rain, rain and more rain. She heard faint footsteps not far from behind.  

"You idiot." 

Hyunjung froze, recognising the voice. She gingerly turned round and saw Taehyung holding an umbrella over his head. "At least be like any other logical human and bring an umbrella," he said. Hyunjung simply blinked at him.Taehyung rolled his eyes and walked to her, close enough so that both of them were sheltered under the umbrella. "You're welcome," he said, not looking at her. Hyunjung shoved her hands in her coat pockets.

"Thank you, Taehyung," she replied gratefully. He glanced at her as they both continued to walk forwards. No further words were exchanged between them. But it wasn't like the awkward silence from yesterday. 

"Look Taehyung, you can see the arcade from here." Hyunjung pointed out as they saw the neon lights from outside of the arcade. She saw Jungkook stood outside, sheltered by the rain with an umbrella.

"Hyunjung! Taehyung!" He waved at them, smiling brightly. They hurriedly went over to him. 

"You finally made it." Jungkook said, motioning them into the arcade. "Everyone's already inside." 

Hyunjung and Taehyung looked at each other and stepped into the arcade. Hyunjung was awed by the atmosphere when she entered. There were so many people. Music and sounds from the games came in all directions and drowned in her ears. Taehyung glanced at her. "You're that amazed?" he said, putting his umbrella down. She nodded in response, still eyeing all the game consoles and vending machines. Taehyung also looked around before going to get game tokens. Jungkook went over to Hyunjung and tapped her on the shoulder. "I'll introduce you to some of my friends later. I've already told them about you." 

"Really?" 

"Yep," he replied, grabbing her hand tightly and dragging her over towards a claw crane game. Hyunjung was startled by the sudden action. She looked around quickly looking for Taehyung but she couldn't spot him anywhere. She focused her attention back on Jungkook. He inserted a token into the machine. "Hyunjung, try getting one of the plushies at the bottom." 

She nodded, looking at him. Jungkook looked at her back in return, waiting for her to say something. Hyunjung cleared . "Can you let go of my hand, please?"

Jungkook immediately let go of her hand. "Sorry! I forgot." 

Hyunjung gave him an imperceptible nod. "It's okay," she said as she used the joystick to move the claw. She focused on trying to get a purple bunny.

Jungkook leaned his head closer to the glass of the machine. "Hyunjung you're really bad at this," he said, chuckling as he watched her continue to struggle. She frowned, creasing her eyebrows before giving up.

"How are you supposed to win this?" she said, crossing her arms. Jungkook laughed. "Don't worry, I'm just as bad as you are." 

"HEY JUNGKOOK! YOU PROMISED A GAME OF AIR HOCKEY WITH ME!" 

"Jimin, you know everyone else can hear you, right?" Jungkook said as he turned his head to Jimin's direction. Jimin marched over to Jungkook. "I've already asked you when we arrived, but you went back outside and told us that you had to wait for someone." He looked quickly at Hyunjung then looked back at Jungkook. "Then you made me wait even longer and it turns out you were already playing a different game!" 

"I was just about to," Jungkook replied. 

"Sure you were," Jimin said, gesturing him to go back to the air hockey table. Jungkook sighed. "I'll catch up with you later Hyunjung. I'm going to go beat Jimin at air hockey first." 

"Okay," Hyunjung replied. She stood there awkwardly, looking round. She caught a glimpse of Taehyung at a vending machine buying a Coke. She was about to walk over to him when someone tapped her lightly on the shoulder. Hyunjung turned and found she was face to face with probably the prettiest girl she ever saw. 

"I'm Shinae. You're Hyunjung, right?"