Pre · Epilogue

Rain

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It was raining. Drops masked the silence with the sounds of irregular taps—a beat in time with the cacophony of nature. There was no rhythm; there was no melody. Yet it was definitely not silence. As distracting as the sound was, it was pleasant in its own way. Sometimes silence could be more deafening than the sound of raindrops—so deafening one could even lose her own mind. In fact, that was how it felt for Bae Joohyun. There was a comfort and a calmness in the tapping noise that she found difficult to explain. If it wasn’t for the rain, she would not be sitting this still. If it wasn’t for the rain, she would have most certainly lost her mind.

On that gloomy monsoon in the middle of the year, Joohyun’s appetite, her will to get up from bed, and her smile had all vanished. She wanted to be alone, and that was all she had been up to all day. Amidst the despair looming over the empty room that day, a soft purple blanket nuzzled her in a warm embrace. Her bed carried her as she lay; her pillow supported her head. A stuffed bear wearing a blue hoodie adoringly watched over her from the chair in the corner as it leaned its head against the wall. Joohyun glanced back at her inanimate bear friend but had to look away immediately. She could not hold her gaze for too long.

After a while, she left the comfort of her bed and grabbed the long blue umbrella hanging on her clothes rack. Without thinking much, she just ran outside out of a whim. The young lady ran and ran as fast as her small feet could carry her—not bothering to put up the umbrella she brought with her. The splashing with every sprint did not bother her; the falling drops soaking her clothes did not concern her one bit. With heavily breathing lungs and a rapidly beating heart, her small figure plopped on a bench under the shelter of a lone bus stop. There she stayed and sat ever so still, listening to the comforting dissonance—listening to the rain. The taps distracted her from the chaos of her thoughts. The sounds masked the beating of her distraught heart. Even though she was at a false sense of peace, it was better than no peace at all.

Suddenly, a flash of light… a clap of thunder… The lone girl gasped and accidentally dropped her blue umbrella. For a while, she stared at the blue umbrella lying on the floor, and then she looked up toward her again. The view of the road before her seems to be turning into a blur. At that moment, the barriers got broken; all her sadness flowed out as tears from her beautiful, yet sorrowful eyes. With a blink, pellets of liquid crystal rolled down her cheeks; some clung to her long, curved eyelashes. She heavily breathed in the cool air and released it all with a long sigh. Yet no matter how much she tried to catch her breath, the rain in her heart continued, just like the unending shower from the skies. Through the blur, figures slowly started fading, and down at her feet, a blurred face formed by lights came into view from the puddles of water…

Don’t disappear… Please stay…