It was a dark and stormy night. Rain hit hard against the windows. Jongdae flipped yet again on bed. His parents had gone to bed long ago, just like he had, but unlike him, they were probably in dreamland thinking about each other. Jongdae can’t decide if the rain is the one stopping him from going to sleep, or the rhythmic sound of raindrops are going to aid him in falling asleep. All because of that stupid cup of coffee that Minseok made me drink.

If Minseok’s name was ever mentioned in school, it would be “oh, the coffee lover?” instead of “oh, the one who sticks by that curly haired guy ninety nine percent of the time?” And Jongdae held a grudge against that. He wanted to be acknowledged as Minseok’s best friend, but instead he was always overshadowed by coffee. The stupid liquid that was always burning hot that tasted so bitter and was the reason that was keeping him awake now.

They were in the same class, had the same after school activities and lived near each other. Since neither child were outgoing enough to bother to socialise much, they constantly stuck by each other. And of course, ever the coffee lover Minseok just had to convince Jongdae to have a taste of his latest brew, making him walk over to his place two houses down the road so that Jongdae could “taste the coffee at its best”.

Jongdae fumed at the thought of this afternoon. Minseok had made him waste so much time! Absentmindedly getting out of bed, he opens the curtain wide with one pull. Kim Minseok, you are lucky its raining so hard. Next time you make me drink that wretched liquid again and I’ll go over to scream in your ear. The moon shone brightly despite the downpour and Jongdae took a moment to relish the view before him, since he can’t fall asleep anyway. It was then, that he spotted a strange figure lying on the grass patch outside his house.

If he hadn’t been looking hard enough, Jongdae wouldn’t have noticed it. Before the blurry lenses under the rain, it - Jongdae couldn’t be sure it was a male or female - was just a shade darker than the grass. He frowned. No one, and he meant no one, should be out without shelter under the rain, not even stray kittens. Well, no kitten would be brainless enough to remain out in this heavy rain, but then why was this- human there? Lightning flashed, and for the briefest of moments, Jongdae saw his face. And that was when he realised he had to get the stranger out of the rain as fast as possible. He couldn’t put it past his conscience to not bother about this poor man, lying homeless right outside his house.

Grabbing a jacket and an umbrella, Jongdae slipped on a pair of slippers, before wrestling with the lock on the door, and pushed it open to no avail. It was only a few seconds later did he realise he had to pull it open. It had slipped his mind in his anxiousness to get to the stranger. Opening the umbrella, he sprinted to shelter the figure, whom he could see was in long black overalls.

On closer inspection, Jongdae finds that it is a boy. He can’t be more than three years older than me. What is he doing here? Why is he here? Questions filled his mind, but he pushed them back. That can come later when he finally got some colour into the boy’s cheeks that were currently deathly pale.

“Hey. Wake up.” he said softly at first, before realizing there was no chance he would hear it over the thundering patter of rain. Not wanting to shout, Jongdae tentatively reached his other hand which was not holding the umbrella out towards the boy and shook him gently. Bloodshot eyes greet him immediately, and he nearly falls back in surprise. Had the boy been crying? He couldn’t tell if the water on the stranger’s face were salty or acidic. He withdrew his hand in surprise

Jongdae sees the stranger’s lips move, but since he can’t lip read, he doesn’t get the message until he gets forcefully shoved to the ground in surprise. “Hey! Excuse me, you can’t stay here!” he hollers, cringing from the feeling of his now soaked pajamas against his skin.

“Leave me alone! Please!” grunts the stranger, as he makes another attempt to push Jongdae away. The stranger fails miserably, though it was probably more because he had barely used much strength than because Jongdae was strong.  “You cannot stay here.” Jongdae repeats, calmer this time.

“Why? Why can’t I stay here? Why is every single person hell bent on chasing me out? What have I done wrong?” came a pained reply, muffled after the stranger decided to turn his back against Jongdae. Jongdae couldn’t tell whether the stranger was crying before, but now the fresh batch of tears that were about to flow was obvious. And he was panicking. It was of course not his intention to make the stranger even more upset, and by “you cannot stay here” he meant going into his house… wait, did that even make sense? He wanted to bring a person he just met who might have mental issues into the house in the dead of the night? Jongdae then decided that it was ridiculous but rather necessary, for the boy’s survival. Pa and Ma might always complain about how I am always so foolishly kind, but I bet they would do just the same as what I have done. Hopefully they wouldn’t kill me for being extreme this time though… Now how do I get this dumbo into the house?

With renewed determination, Jongdae tries to touch the stranger again. “Hey I can’t really hear you right now, how about going inside to talk?” he moved closer to the stranger so that he could hear, despite the already close proximity from sharing the umbrella. The stranger turned his head around to look at him immediately. “Would you really want me in your house?” he gripped Jongdae’s arm with icy cold fingers, causing Jongdae to wince a little.

“Well, I don’t want want you to come in, but I can’t just leave someone out in this weather condition like this can I? Come on in.” The eye contact with the stranger was making him strangely uncomfortable.

[A/N] This will probably be a 2/3 shot. Sorry for the not very long chapter haha I promise the next one will be longer.