It's been pouring rain on and off lately, the days are turning gray and it’s so cold all the time, I hate this season. I have forgotten how close it was thanks to my girlfriend occupying my mind most of the time serving as a cute distraction, but today thinking of her won’t distract me from the awful weather, not when I have to walk Yeri to her school and then go all the way to mine while the rain keeps soaking us every time a gust of wind passes.

Yeri helps make everything bearable, when our neighbors said she couldn’t drive us to school she got so excited about it, she loves playing under the rain, and  the sight of my little sister kicking every puddle with her little rain boots and wearing her bright yellow raincoat is enough to cheer me up a little bit.

“Yeri, sweetie, please slow down.” I call her over seeing her getting a little too far away, but of course, she doesn’t listen. “I should’ve called Seulgi.” But I didn’t, I’ve been feeling a little weird around Seulgi since mom said the word love about us, made me more aware of everything, every little thing she does and doesn’t, be it how long her eyelashes are or how her voice goes unintentionally a little bit higher when I make her nervous.

I’ve been completely overwhelmed by it, when I’m with her and when we are apart. But the thing is, I already felt this before, I was aware of it, I just didn’t know it. She has always made me feel everything that can be felt at the same time, I just don’t think I’m so sure of that these intense feelings are. “That sounds a lot like denial.” I mock myself, because really, I don’t see how can I possibly feel more for her.

A sudden loud thunder caughts me off guard making me yelp surprised and almost drop my umbrella, Yeri also gets startled, she stops her kicking the water to look back at me wide eyed. “Scary?” I mimic her expression, the little one nods running back to my side and grabbing my hand right away.

“That was so loud.” She says amazed.

“It really was.” I squeeze her hand softly. “It’s raining harder too.” I complain, we’re still so far away from her school, it's my fault, when I saw it was still raining this morning when we woke up I thought it’d down, not pick up again, with added thunders too.

“Can you call Seulgi?” Little Yeri yells not finding the rain as fun anymore.

“That’s a great idea sweetie, but we have to find cover first.” I agree with my little sister checking if she’s well protected from the rain, there’s no way we can keep walking, the wind is becoming too strong turning my umbrella almost useless.

The rain makes it hard to see, the drops of water sticking to my glasses don’t help my current situation, but I still manage to spot a bus stop at the other side of the street, being careful with the little one, I make her hold the umbrella to lift her up in my arms. “Oh you’re heavy, and you’re getting bigger.” I joke and kiss her nose. “Please stop growing?”

“No way.” She replies giggling.

Seeing a chance, we proceed to run to the other side of the street to take cover but my poor sight makes me step on a deep puddle on the road when we’re almost at the other side, it nearly makes us fall, but I manage to keep my balance somehow.

“You ok?” Yeri asks once we’re safe from the rain.

“Yes, I’m ok sweetie.” I say looking down at my soaked shoes and jeans. “Shi-”

“You can’t say that!” She covers my mouth showing an angry expression by furrowing her little brows. “No swearing.”

“I was going to say shoot.” I inform her suppressing my laughter. “What do you think I was going to say?” I ask her raising my brows and widening my eyes playfully, she just grins in response as I put her down and take my phone out.

“Seulgi says it when I beat her at stuff.” She refers, of course, to the times Seulgi spends her visits playing video games with her because I’m too busy, like the very considerate girlfriend she is.

“Oh, she’s so good.” I groan with the phone on my ear waiting for her to pick up the call, it’s still very early,  she has to be at home. “Seulgi!” I cheer as soon as she’s on the other line. “Hi."

“Hey babe, what’s going on?”

“You see...we need your help, we’re kind of trapped in the rain at the moment.”

“Trapped? Wasn’t your neighbor driving you there?”

“She couldn’t today.” I confess to her, oh I know what’s coming next.

“Then why didn’t you ask me to take you?!” She says clearly upset. “Ah, forget it, where are you?”

“I’m sorry…” I put my most apologetic voice to use, I don’t like worrying her. “You know the bus stop on the way to Yeri’s school?” Seulgi knows where it is, she has driven there more than I’d like to admit.

“I’m on my way, don’t move.” She commands.

“Thank you, honey.”

“No, no, you won’t fix this calling me cute names.” Her being upset shouldn’t make me happy but it does, hard not to be when she does it out of worry, makes getting my legs drenched in suspicious looking water almost worth it.

“But you know I wil- Ah!” My attempt to turn her mood around is interrupted by a passing speeding car splashing water all over us, and the jerk drives off without even noticing what they caused! “What the hell!”

Oh, I hate rain.

“What’s going on?” She asks worried.

“Nothing, just please come save me.” I whine to her already wishing the day was over.

“Ok babe, I’ll be there soon.” At least she’s not upset anymore.

“Thank you.”

The short interaction almost made me forget about this day bad start and the current state of my appearance, almost. The second loud thunder of the day brings me back to real life ending the illusion, I look around first startled by the sound then I look down at the soaked clothes and sigh dejected, at least Yeri’s coat protected her from the sudden attack.

“Are you ok, sweetie?” I kneel down in front of her to clean her face with my already wet sweater, she nods letting herself be pampered while I try to calm my fast beating heart, wouldn’t be nice to show Yeri her older sister got scared by a thunder.

We spot Seulgi’s shiny sports car after what it seems an eternity, a cold eternity, she slowly parks her car as close as she can from the small bus stop, she rolls the window down and grins to us cheekily. “You ladies ordered a ride?” But her grin disappears when she sees my current state. “Babe, what happened to you?” I shrug helping Yeri get in the car first.

“Rain happened.” I explain once I’m beside her.

“Oh, please, don’t pout at me like that.” She mumbles looking at me with worry, smiling just a little bit, Seulgi takes her seatbelt off and turns to the backseat giving her attention to her biggest fan. “You good?” I hear them do that ridiculous long secret handshake. “Good, now can you open the gym bag over there and pass me the small towel inside?” I hear Yeri laughing, I turn around and see Seulgi cleaning my sister’s face. “There.” She says sticking her tongue out at her. “Your turn.” She says giving me her attention.

“I can do it myself, thank you.” I try to take the towel from her but she fights back.

“Let it happen.” She says swatting my hands away and quickly cleaning my face, I laugh at her silliness letting her do whatever she wants. “That’s better, no more pouting.” She says when she’s done looking at me with caring eyes. “What exactly happened to your clothes?”

“Got my foot stuck in a very deep puddle and then some jerk splashed water all over me with a car.” I roll my eyes feeling getting upset again.

“Bad morning, huh?” Seulgi pecks me lips for comfort.

“Ew, no kissing! I’ll tell mom.” My girlfriend smiles against my lips hearing Yeri’s threat and pecks me again

“But your sister is so pretty, I can’t help it! I’m sorry!” She whines to her as if she were a child and kisses me again.

“No, Stop!”

“Seriously, stop or she will tell on us.” I kiss her one last time lingering for a brief moment. “Or do you want another week added to our sentence?” She whines and pouts in an exaggerated manner putting her hands back on the steering wheel.

“Fine but when this punishment thing is over I want what I was promised.” She says not being able to hold down the little tug on her lips, of course, she means about what I offered her the day of the last game. I mutter a yes honey just for her causing her ears to turn red. “Alright.” She grins sheepishly as she drives us away.

“Seulgi, seatbelt.” I whine hearing the distinctive beeping alarm go off, she scoffs amused like she always does when I remind her about it.

“Yes, mom.”

The way to Yeri’s school is quiet, I occupy my time by discreetly looking over at Seulgi, she’s humming the tune coming out of her music player while Yeri is at the back playing with her phone. She has her hair in a ponytail today, I like when she does, her face gets completely exposed this way and I can admire better, her lips wear a very fine and light orange tinted color today, probably because of our makeup conversation yesterday, it suits her so well.

She’s wearing my yellow hoodie again, accompanied by her classic team’s jacket over it, she always goes on and on about me wearing her stuff being something special, like her jean jacket which I wear every day. I get it now, the only thing missing on it is my name on the back which would be really nice to have, Seulgi glances at me and smirks knowingly after meeting my eyes.

“We’re here.” She announces stopping the car oblivious of my thoughts and blush spreading through my face. “See you soon, bud.” She says turning around towards the little girl.

“Have everything on you?” I ask her remembering my responsibilities.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t forget your lunch box.” I remind her, she looks at me wide eyes when she hears that.

“Uh, oh.” She grimaces. “I forgot it at home, sorry.” I close my eyes and sigh through my nose to release some frustration, Seulgi squeezes my hand to comfort me and it does help, I show her a small smile and proceed to take out my lunch from my backpack. “I’m sorry.” Yeri repeats when I handle the bag to her.

“It’s my fault for not checking at home.” I say as sweet as possible to the pouting little girl, it really isn’t her fault, I give her my umbrella for extra protection seeing the pouring rain from the window. “It’s ok sweetie, now go, and have a great day.” We both watch her run towards the building until she disappears from our sight.

“So…” Seulgi cheerfully starts now that we’re alone. “You like staring, huh?” She keeps her eyes on the road with a playful smile on her lips. “I get it, I’m too nice to look at.” I roll my eyes but agree with her inside, she’s really nice to look at.

We finally reach our school with a lot of time to spare for us but Seulgi seems to have other plans getting off the vehicle as soon as we park. “You have practice today?” I ask her watching her take her gym bag, she says nothing coming to my side to open the door for me.

“No, but I can’t let you spend the day like this so we’re going to go change.” She says as I hug her arm to get closer and protect myself from the rain under her umbrella. “Or do you want to get sick? Don’t fight me, just follow me. ” She says before I can question her about it.

We dash through the halls not giving any time to anyone to notice us, not that any of our friends are here this early, Seulgi drags me inside the gym locker rooms and throws the big bag on top of one of the benches, she then pushes me to the same bench and makes me sit still.