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It’s been twelve days. Twelve days since he met a certain someone. He was a certain someone who had the tall giant thinking of him all the time. During his morning routine, during his bus ride to his university, during classes, during work and during his bus ride home, Mingyu was thinking of him 24/7.

“That’s gonna be unhealthy for your heart you know”, Seungkwan says as he chews on his gum, flipping through his fashion magazine.

Mingyu and Seungkwan are on shift at the front counter this afternoon, while Soonyoung and Jeonghan are working at the back.

“What’s gonna be unhealthy for my heart?”

“Being all emo about that hot stranger that you’re probably thinking about right now”

“How did you know?”

“I can see your face, you know? You look like a kicked puppy while staring off into space”

Mingyu had stopped denying his supposed crush a while ago. He knew it was useless to go against his “best quality” friend - as Seungkwan names himself. That guy seemed to know everything.

Mingyu continues to scroll through his Facebook feed on the computer while Seungkwan continuously judges the models through the pages he flips on his magazine. Suddenly, Jeonghan bursts out through the back door, looking panicked.

“Holy , Jeonghan! What’s wrong with you?” Seungkwan asks

“I-I think Seungcheol is crying”

Seungkwan quirks up his eyebrow. “Who?”

Mingyu is then reminded of the time he met a glossy haired stranger who was looking for Jeonghan in the store a few days ago. Mingyu looks outside the store’s window – it’s cloudy, but no signs of rain pouring.

“Jeonghan, does he have black hair, wide eyes, a little taller than you?” Mingyu questions.

Jeonghan looks confused for a second, and then slowly nods his head in confirmation. “Why do you ask?”

“I think I met him a few days ago. He came in and was looking for you”

Jeonghan’s eyes widen. He looks like he’s seen a ghost.

“Oh no… no no no. This is bad…” Jeonghan takes off his apron and throws it to Soonyoung who’s just behind him and is just as confused as the rest of them.

Jeonghan runs back inside the back room. He then comes out, swinging his bag strap over his shoulder and runs out the store like a madman.

The three remaining employees stay still in their place, trying to comprehend what had happened to their co-worker who had just ditched their job.

“What the heck was that all about?” Seungkwan asks as he closes his magazine. Mingyu just shrugs. Soonyoung looks like he’s unsure of something; his face contorted with some sort of concentration.

“Soonyoung, why do you look like you know something?”

“Because maybe I do know something” Soonyoung hangs up Jeonghan’s apron on the hook of the back room’s door.

“Jeonghan and I were just talking until he stopped. He then asked me if it was going to rain today. I said it wasn’t and then that’s when he went all weird. He must really like the rain or something”

Seungkwan’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh”

“What?”

“That Seung-whatever dude that Jeonghan mentioned must be Jeonghan’s soulmate”

This time it was Mingyu and Soonyoung’s eyes to pop nearly pop out of their heads.

The rain soulmate occurrence wasn’t anything unusual. It was a system that just happens.

Seokmin had mentioned that he and Soonyoung had found out they were each other’s soulmates two years ago when they were both eating out together, and Soonyoung had taken a bite of Seokmin’s spicy dish. Soonyoung started tearing up at first, but apparently it was so spicy for him that he ended up crying. Seokmin said that he knew that the weather was all good when he looked out the restaurant’s window, but the second Soonyoung started crying, rain was pouring down. He had Soonyoung look up from his plate of tears and looked out the window as well. Soonyoung was slowly chewing on his food, looking confused.  Seokmin immediately pulled out his phone to check the weather forecast just to make sure. He opens up the weather app:

Local Weather – Seoul

Today:   Sunny   29 °C  /  14°C     

Soonyoung stops his tears, and suddenly it’s sunny outside again. Both of their eyes widen. They stare out the window and then stare at each other. To be sure that their assumptions were correct, Seokmin picked up a spoonful of his spicy and shoved it in his best friend’s mouth, causing him to cry again. Seokmin looked out the window – it was raining again. To be even more certain, he quickly called over a waitress and asked her to look out the window and to describe what it was like outside. The confused waitress looked out the restaurant window.

“U-um… it’s quite sunny with not a single cloud in the sky today, sir”

But that wasn’t what Seokmin and Soonyoung saw. It was dark outside, rain was pouring, and they could hear the pattering sounds against the window. They stared at each other, then they smiled, causing Soonyoung’s tears to stop – and so did the rain.

Knowing that their long-haired, angelic-but-also-secretly-the-devil co-worker was having some sort of love crisis, they decided to shrug it off, and continue with their work. They had made an agreement that they would tell the manager if he came and asked about Jeonghan.

And so the day continued, with the constant flipping of magazine pages, scrolling through social media accounts and marking price tags on new books. There were barely any customers as usual besides the college freshman crying over text book prices, an elderly woman flipping the pages through cook books and the annoying customers who didn’t buy anything but read at the store instead.

A few hours later, Seungkwan got a phone call from their job ditching co-worker. Mingyu tried to listen closely, but he couldn’t hear the other end of the phone. Instead, he saw the nods and humming of reassurance from Seungkwan, and the call ended quickly.

“Jeonghan said he wouldn’t be back because he’s dealing with his love life”

Mingyu sighed and rolled his eyes, “As if we didn’t figure that out already”

The clock read 6:30PM, and it was time for Mingyu to head home. Mingyu was the one to lock up the store along with Seungkwan and Soonyoung. They all said their goodbyes and parted ways.

The weather was being a drag. It had been pouring even more and more, and Mingyu didn’t really like catching colds. Luckily, he had brought his umbrella this time.

He took his umbrella from his bag and opened it up above him. He heard a familiar sound – the pattering sounds of rain above him. He was getting closer and closer to the bus stop until he saw someone outside the flower shop. They were carrying flowers from the outside of the store to the inside. He noticed that there was no shelter outside, and that they were getting soaked each time they went outside to carry another pot in.

Mingyu, being the kind-hearted person he was, quickened his steps towards the employee of the store and held the umbrella above their head. The worker who was crouching down to pick up the potted flowers noticed that there was no longer any water soaking his clothes, and looked up. The first thing that Mingyu noticed was the bright, orange hair. It suited him. What suited him even more was that he recognised that the worker had sharp eyes which were something that Mingyu was familiar with - but it wasn't him.

They had sharp eyes, but they resembled more of a cat. Mingyu looked over from his eyes and looked down to his chest where his name tag was pinned: Joshua.

"J-Joshua? That doesn’t sound Korean. Maybe he’s not from here."

They stayed still for a while, the worker clearly confused. Mingyu decided to speak up first.

“Uh…I saw that you were getting wet. I thought I’d help out a little. It would be bad if you caught a cold”

The orange-haired cat-like boy smiled. “Why thank you, but you don’t have to do that you know.” He stood up from his place while carrying the potted flower from the floor.  

“It’s ok. I wanted to”

Joshua stays still to stare at Mingyu for a while, as if contemplating something in his head. They both stand still while Joshua stares at Mingyu, and he starts to wonder if the worker is staring at him because he has something on his face.

The cat eyed male finally speaks up. “There aren’t a lot of people like you”

“Like me? What am I like?”

“Extremely kind – and cute”

Mingyu feels himself heat up as light pink spreads across his cheeks. Joshua just chuckles as he walks inside the store with the potted flowers in his arms. And so, they stay like that for a while – Mingyu holds the umbrella out for Joshua as he continues to move all the potted flowers inside the store. After a while, Joshua picks up the final pot, and Mingyu can’t help but notice how beautiful the small purple flowers are. Joshua stares lovingly at the flowers in his arms and smiles.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?”

Mingyu nods.

“Did you know that some flowers have certain meanings?”

Mingyu just quirks his head to the side, as he is confused to what the orange haired male meant. Joshua chuckles at his cute act.

“Some flowers can have one or multiple meanings to them. I don’t know all of them, but I do know some. For example, this one”, Joshua refers to the flowers in his arms.

“This flower is called Anemone. Anemone is the Greek word for ‘wind flower’. The meaning links to the story of the Greek gods Adonis and Aphrodite. I’m sure you remember all this lame Greek mythology back in high school right?”

Mingyu nods again and cringes. He never wanted to be reminded of high school or as he called it - Satan’s part time imprisonment every day. 

Mingyu enjoys the familiar sound of the rain. He doesn’t realise until now about how much he thinks about the rain. He hates the rain when he forgets his umbrella, resulting in him with wet clothes and a cold. But there are times when he likes to stop and appreciate the rain. It might have been the fact that the familiar sounds of the pattering raindrops above his head was so calming and comforting. It might have been the fact that one time he and his blond friend were on their way to get dinner together on a rainy night while Soonyoung was talking smack about Mingyu’s latest test results. That wasn’t until he slipped in a puddle, which got Soonyoung to stop talking and resulted in Mingyu talking smack about Soonyoung instead. Or it might have been the fact that the rain dropped along with the tears of a certain mysterious stranger on one certain rainy night. The way the certain male wiped away the tears on the palm of his sweater. Mingyu wished he could have wiped them away himself.

Mingyu is there again; the same bus stop that he was at with the captivating stranger from that night. The tall giant looked down at his arms. He was carrying the beautiful purple Anemone flowers from before.

-

Mingyu was in awe. The meanings of the flowers were fascinating. He looked at the flowers in Joshua’s arms. They had water drops on them. It was beautiful the way the rain droplets had glazed over the flowers’ petals and the bright purple colour was mesmerizing.  Mingyu had a sudden thought. He could see that it would look pretty sitting on his window sill while it rained; that way it could remind him of the approaching rain and tell him to bring an umbrella when he was going to go out. It was a silly thought, but the flowers were too beautiful. 

“Hey, I know it’s a little late but… is it okay if I buy this?”

Joshua smiled. “They really are beautiful. I don’t normally let customers buy or order after closing times, but you’re an exception. It’ll be as thanks for covering me from the rain.”

As they both entered the cosy flower store, they were welcomed with a flush of warmth; a contrast from the cold weather outside. Joshua proceeded to go the back room of the store to arrange the flowers.

“It’ll just be a moment”

“Take your time”

Mingyu looked around as he waited. The bright colours of the flowers decorated the walls and the floors; flowers being hung up, and arranged flowers on the floor on display. The light above was warm and illuminated the whole store. Mingyu could live in the store for the rest of his life.

Minutes later, Joshua comes out with the Anemone flowers, wrapped in bright plastic and tied together perfectly with a ribbon. Mingyu pays for the flowers and holds the flowers in his arms.

They exit the store together as Joshua switches off the lights and locks up the store. They both say their thanks and goodbyes, and go their separate ways.

-

The final bus of the night finally arrives, and the tall giant makes his was down the bus to the back seats. The rain drops continue to hit against the window. He pulls his phone and earphones from his pocket and plugs both his ears. He scrolls through his phone and selects a song.

텅 빈 회색 빛 거린 참 허전해

쓸쓸한 기분에 유리창을 열어

내민 두 손위로 떨어진 빗방울

가득 고이는 그리움 나의 맘에 흘러

The empty grey streets, it’s so empty

Feeling blue, I opened the glass window

Rain drops fall onto my hands

The longing starts to well up and flow in my heart

The bus takes off and Mingyu slumps back in his seat. Just as the bus takes off, he looks down the window and sees a familiar figure at the bus stop. Before Mingyu has time to react, it’s too late. Like a flash before his eyes, the bus drives away from the all-too-familiar scene.