Jihun woke up with the sun glaring in his face. The sound of birds chirping in the distance succeed in shattering the silence of his house. He sighed. Another day of needing to socialize, he thought. He got ready and picked up his breakfast, an apple, before heading out and began his morning walk towards his campus. It was way too early for a normal student to start their journey to school. Jihun was, however, far from normal. He prefers to go out when the streets of Seoul were still mostly bared from pedestrians. He hated the way he was forced to make physical contact with them as he pushed his way through the busy streets leading to his university.

He had just barely reached the gates of his university when the sky decided to gift him a morning shower. Great, he thought. It turned from bloody hot to soaking wet in a matter of seconds. With no shelter in sight, Jihun guessed he had to resort to running the entire length of the open pathway to get to his campus. He carried his bag above his head as a desperate form of shelter and was about to sprint, when he felt an arm slinging across his shoulder. Jihun froze. Not only from the sudden action, but also from the physical contact that was ed upon him.

The stranger’s impossibly tall height made it hard for Jihun to see his face in the position that he was in. He was about to struggle against the tight hold when he noticed the umbrella that was sheltering them from the unrelenting rain going on.

“Let me help you to the entrance,” a deep, baritone voice whispered in his ear. Jihun could hear it ringing clearly in his head, despite the laborious pattering of raindrops against the roof of their shared umbrella. Jihun doesn’t normally accept help from strangers, but there was something oddly comforting about this stranger that couldn’t be put into words. He meekly nodded his head as a form of acceptance. He could hear the sound of his heartbeat competing against the pitter-patter of the raindrops as the stranger continued to hold him close while making their way towards the entrance.

The distance seemed longer than he remembered. Jihun could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks, dusting it a pretty pink colour. He had never experienced being held by another. He surely didn’t get held by his mother, as far as he can remember. They reached the doors of the campus after minutes of struggling against the torrid winds. The stranger let go of Jihun and lowered down his umbrella. Jihun panicked as he felt a sense of loss when the warmth on his shoulder was replaced by the cold wind.

The stranger had his head down, his damp hair sticking to his forehead. Jihun was puzzled as to why this stranger is soaking wet when he himself is acceptably dry. Heat engulfed his fa