“Oh, sorry oppa.”

They walked quickly under the howling wind and rain; Minho was anxious to get back home. He had this nagging feeling that was hovering over his head like a storm cloud. He just knew something was wrong.

“Hurry up!” IU was falling back and had to struggle to keep up with Minho’s long strides. It had only been 5 minutes and IU was already out of breath. And she’s a singer!

They walked quickly under the dim street lights of Seoul; the storm was getting worse.

“I’m sorry but I won’t be walking you inside when we get there, ok?” he said, in-between the loud claps of thunder.

“Uhm, ok. Are you sure, Minho-oppa? You should really dry up at my place first.”

“No.”

Although she could not read his expression, she knew just by the tone of his voice that Minho was tense and angry.

She slyly raised her arm and held up the jacket that covered them. Minho’s arm was over her shoulder to block her from as much of the rain as possible.

What a gentleman, she thought. I envy his future lover.

The tension in Minho was so tangible that you could bite it and make love to it on the ground. IU pitied the older man. No doubt he was stressing out about his upcoming solo album. Who hasn’t heard about that?

 She inched her cold fingers on top of Minho’s to comfort him as they held up the jacket together.

“I was holding it just fine,” he said surprisingly jokingly. 

“You were.” She shot a smile up at him when she remembered that it was too dark to see anything. “I just…” She paused, losing her trace of thought. “Oppa, do you like me?” she blurted.

Minho stopped walking for a fraction of a second. He contemplated the younger girl. “What kind of a question is that?”

She felt her face go completely red. Thank god it was so dark and wet.

Why in the ing world did you say that?! UGH you should be asking him if anything’s wrong, because CLEARLY there is. WHY ARE YOU SO CONCIETED!? If your hand wasn’t holding his hand I’d just about smack your stupid face right now!

Before she could say anything else to cover up her embarrassment, Minho laughed. “’Course I do.”

I hope you’re satisfied, her mind again, making her redden like a beet once again.

They walked in silence. Minho looked like he was gliding over the slippery pavement; he was so damn fast! IU had to practically run to keep up with him.

Without warning, she disappeared from under Minho’s jacket.

It took the athletic man about a minute to realize her absence. Terrified, he looked back to see that she had fallen. She was crouched on her hands and knees a few yards back, panting. The rain drenched her within seconds. Her soaked and dripping clothes clung limply onto her shivering body.

A few drunken hobos loitering on the side of a dingy building whooped.

“OH CRAP!” He ran up to her crouched form, picking her up gently. He let her go when she whimpered in pain. “Aigo, are you ok noona?”

“I tripped over myself,” she said quite forlornly.

“Don’t walk so fast next time,” he advised. She looked like she wanted to beat the daylights out of him. “Where does it hurt?”

“Eeeeverywheeerree,” she moaned, falling back into his hands.

“Awh, you poor little thing! No, seriously. We don’t have much time,” he rejected as he looked up to the sky.

She pouted. “My knee,” she pointed. Minho expertly rolled up her tight pant leg up to her knee. It was bleeding. He let the rain rinse most of it away. She shivered from the exposure.

At that instant, one of the grimy hobos whistled in obvious pleasure.

 “YAH! YOU S! HERE, WHY DON’T YOU GO BUY SOME MAGAZINES OR SOMETHING, YOU SICKOS.” He threw an uncounted wad of cash at the lazy bums, where they watched it fall in the gutter.

“Pft. We don’t need your pity money, young man.”

What?! Pity money?!

“Well what do you want from us?” They merely laughed contently to themselves. “YAH! DON’T MAKE ME GOURGE YOUR EYES OUT,” he shouted as he quickly covered the frightened girl with his well-built and masculine body.

“HAH! PRICELESS! You think we were enjoying that? I’m terribly sorry but we mistook it for a wet dog,” a hobo with a long braided white beard crinkled his nose in disgust as he his beard.

Minho looked down at IU to see that she looked like she had just been slapped across the face. was agape. Well, now that you mention it…she does…sorta…

“Well, then what were you hooting at earlier?”

“Well, first, I shouted at that thing covered in feathers to get out of the way,” said bearded wonder. His pals nodded. “And dayum! You shoulda seen that thing he did there, eh?” he nudged the guy next to him. “I would pity that poor boy but…unf.” He rubbed his hands together deliciously.

“What the hell are you talking about? Poor boy? What?”

A man wearing a badly painted trash bag nodded his head at the small dark alley a few feet across from them. He then pointed to the binoculars on his lap and smiled a toothless and shameless grin.

Minho didn’t comprehend until IU yelped, “Is there someone in trouble over there?”

“Did you hear something bark?” The hobos laughed as they slapped their knees in glee.

IU blushed, saying it more to Minho now, “They said ‘poor boy.’ We have to do something!”

“But what about your knee?”

“I suppose its fine,” she rolled her eyes. She quickly got up and ignored the hand Minho offered, rolling her pants back down.

“MOOOOVE!” the hobos immediately yelled.

“I-I don’t know about this…you can never trust hobos,” Minho said nervously.

BUY FOR TIME! BUY FOR TIME!

Please recommend me if you like this. Because I would…OMG SO APPRECIATE IT SO MUCH @Q@

*fondles your feet*