A storm was coming, probably. There were clouds gathering at the far west sky. I stood by the window and looked out. My dorm was close to the hospital that my best friend was admitted to. Jongin broke his leg a few days ago. It’s almost been a week. I felt bad for his jazz and ballet (and disco) leg. The wind was fierce, I sneezed at the cold. People say, when you sneeze, someone is thinking of you. It was Jongin-ah who should have been sneezing, damn, man.

An hour before dusk, I finally got my lazy out of the little dorm cot and decided to go check on my best friend. I grabbed my favorite denim jacket, it was darn chilly outside. It would rain any moment now. As I walked down the pathway, I wished I had a muffler. My ears were freezing.

I stopped at the Chanyeol hyung’s dad’s coffee shop to grab an Espresso for Jongin. He liked bitter things, just like his attitude and temper. I laughed silently at my own joke.

 “Tell him hi and we might go to visit him today after my shift.” Minseok hyung said while handing me the cups. We both liked Minseok hyung’s coffees. They were the best.

“Ye, hyung, will do.” I nodded and smiled at him. He was probably the only person I respected outside my family.

“Tell him to heal fast and come back to oppa soon.” Chanyeol hyung joked but the sincerity and concern was evident in his voice. I nodded and bid farewell to them. “Bye, Sehun-ah!” Yixing hyung played his guitar as he sang, making me laugh.

A strong gush of wind hit me again when I stepped outside, piercing my ears with cold. I was about ten yards away from the concrete hospital entrance when I spotted that girl.

That girl with rainbow hair.

I grew a habit of staring at her when she goes to school every morning. Her school is right opposite to mine, allowing me to see her every single day. That is, if she goes to school every day. I even missed school some days to see her, and there were days when I’d be waiting for her but she hadn’t attended school that day at all.

She had tied a messy pony tail, her hair danced to the winds, a set of red headphones clang on her head. She moved with the music. The red light was lit, and she started to cross the road. Her eyes moved here and there, anywhere but the roads, anywhere but the cars, the vehicles.

Anywhere but me.

While she was right at the centre, some dude, maybe he was on crack, speeded on a sleek, black car and almost hit her.

Maybe she was lucky, or maybe it was me who dropped the coffee cups, ran to her from the back and shoved her out of the path.

I heard a loud thunder. Then I saw stars.

 

Someone was calling. Someone said ‘sleep.’ It smelled like jasmine. Was a dreaming? Or already dead and in heaven?

When I opened my eyes, a bright hue surrounded me. Ah, heaven.

My eyes were blurry. Through the blur I saw a girl with deep brown hair with scarlet dyes staring at me with big eyes.

Her voice sounded like it was coming from a hollow.

“Are you awake? Hello? Are you okay?”

“Water.” I hadn’t noticed how thirsty I was. My throat burned. But nothing came out. I said again, “Water.” This time a cracked voice was all I could let out of myself.

“Ah, ye, the medications are supposed to make you thirsty. Here.” She handed me a glass of water and I took it down in one shot. I kept the glass at the bed stand and snapped my head to take a better look at her face. She looked familiar but I couldn’t remember her. Her eyes were a weird color, like smoke and sand and earth, they were kind of wet to some extent. She wasn’t looking at me. Her eyes were at the window, where the clear view of the coming storm could be seen. I heard a thunder.

“It’s gonna rain.” She sighed, looking lost. Rain did things to girls, that much I knew. But I wanted to figure out who she was. Damn, my head hurt like crazy. I tried to get up that was until I realized my legs were numb.

“What happened?” I asked with a less hoarse voice then before.

She looked at me finally. She had long lashes. Something about that face was familiar. I had seen a similar face.

Only, where?

“Ah, sorry, I forgot to thank you. You saved my sister from an accident, the car hit your legs, so they bandaged it. I should call the nurse, you shouldn’t walk for about a week. Thank you so much.” She smiled. That smile…

I just remembered her.

 

The girl was about to get out of the room, she looked like she was in a hurry. She hit the bedpost once. Twice. She looked at the window and smiled, saying “Sorry,” and she stretched her hands and started to walk again, searching for the door.

She was blind. Why was she blind? What the… She couldn’t be blind. That’s definitely not the girl whom Chanyeol hyung’s in love with. It’s a small world after all.

Just as she walked out of the room, through the glass window I saw Miss Rainbow hair.

“What the hell, Zee? I’ve been looking everywhere for you! You almost got me a heart attack!” she screamed at the blind chick.

“Uh, this room…” the smokey eyes started but the other girl stopped her midway.

“No room! This is not my room.”

 “But, you...”

 “Let’s go, I’m hungry!”

“But…”

I shrugged and sighed. I turned my head to the window, slowly massaging one of my legs.

“Hi, oh a bandage on your head, what happened?” a familiar voice made me snap my head right away.

“She was almost hit by a car when a-” said the blind girl.

“God, I heard from a nurse, this hurts, damn, it’s just a bruise, don’t worry oppa,” the Rainbow haired smiled to Minseok hyung. Something ached.

“Rin, you…” he sighed, “Let’s go get you some food.” He said as he smiled to her.

“Sure, boyfriend.” Rin said blushing.

My heart stopped for a second, my lungs tackled some knocked out air. My pupils dilated.

Boyfriend? She had a boyfriend? And it was none other than my most favorite senior?

I tried to cool myself with the thought that my heart was aching like never before only because Minseok hyung kept such a big secret from me.

The truth was locked away safely.

I watched them walk away, hand in hand, Minseok hyung’s arms surrounding her and one of her hands buried in his pocket.

I heard a thunder.

I limped close to the door, I wanted to go out of this sick environment. I felt nauseated.

“SEI-AH!” Someone screamed, definitely Chanyeol hyung who had no manners to maintain, even while in the hospital. “I can’t believe it!” he said and I heard a loud giggling, probably from the blind chick. I didn’t want to look at the window. I didn’t want to remember what I had seen there last time.

“Wee~” he was probably spinning her. Bastard, playing with a girl right in front of my room while I was still dealing with a terrible heart ache.

I slowly tumbled towards the door in order to catch his attention or something. My legs hurt like they were set to fire; it burned everywhere, straight down my waist to my right foot. It took forever to finally go to the door. I couldn’t find any familiar face other than my best friend Jongin’s.

His face hit me like a gale. It portrayed the scenery outside my window. Shock, pain, darkness, more pain. He looked as if he had lost all the purposes of his life. I waved. He didn’t look. He just grabbed on to the door knob of the gate at the open end of the alley like his life depended on it. For the first time in history he looked…weak. I felt sorry for punching him in kindergarten.

Not knowing what to do at the given situation, I decided to get some wind on my face.

The window was nice and big. And locked. I forced the window open which took a millennium and by tha time it had started to drizzle.

The curtains blew at my face as I stood there with my eyes closed, feeling the moment, the cold wind, the smell of earth filling my nostrils.

And a laughter, like magic, filled my ears. I shot my eyes open and glanced down at the hospital garden. There were roses and dandelions. And the girl with rainbow hair, laughing, her eyes closed, her arms stretched. I wanted to run to her arms and pick her up and spin her, make her laugh more loudly. But it was someone else’s role. Minseok hyung appeared and hugged her from the back, rocking her a bit. She giggled and blushed; meanwhile, I stared at her like stupid.

My heart ached again. Minseok hyung’s fault. He didn’t tell me about his…girlfriend. Totally Minseok hyung’s fault.

My eyes skipped to the mirror that hung on the opposite wall when I turned. My expression was like that of Jongin’s in the alley mouth.

I looked at her again. She wasn’t looking at me.

Obviously.

I was wind and no one sees the wind.