It was only my second time using the new umbrella, and yet one of the small metals managed to break. I didn't even do anything except using it properly. Well, that's what you get from buying cheap umbrellas, my mind told me.

To be honest, I shouldn't be the one to blame. It seemed like every umbrella hated me. Even my Mum wondered about it too, which was one of the reasons why she refused to buy me a new one in case the current one broke. That's why I wasn't going to tell her that I needed a new umbrella. I would just buy it when I had enough money.

I had just finished school when it suddenly started raining. Unfortunately my umbrella broke. Mum had some grocery shopping to do so she wouldn't be able to pick me up because she usually got home near dinner (and I didn't want her to know about my umbrella). I forgot to bring my phone. And the bus stop was quite far from my school entrance.

Normally I wouldn't mind walking because that's what I always did every day. But seeing that it rained like crazy, I would rather just stay longer in school and wait until it stopped. Mum would understand.

Then again, our school was pretty scary especially at night. There were a lot of stories about it being haunted. I had never seen anything weird yet, but of course I still didn't want to stay back alone until late. What if something happened to me and I couldn't make it back?

I sighed as I folded the umbrella again and put it inside my bag. I'd been waiting in the school cafeteria after my last class ended, thinking that the rain would probably stop soon. But it got worse. Even with an umbrella, I would still get wet because of the strong wind. And I would get sick immediately because I had a weak immune system.

I let out another sigh. I took a seat on the stairs I was currently on, just watching the rain fall from the sky in front of the school front door. There were only a few students left because school ended hours ago. I knew none of them, so I couldn't exactly talk to them.

"Oh, you're still here."

I looked back to see a pair of boy's shoes that belonged to Lee Junho, my neighbour and my friend. We used to play at each other's houses a lot before. But ever since he got into Junior High, we stopped doing it because of our endless homework and tests. And we didn't really meet each other in school either since we had different schedules.

"It's raining."

He snorted and took a seat right beside me. "I can see that," he replied. "Why didn't you go home before then? It wasn't this heavy."

It was embarrassing so I just mumbled, "My umbrella broke," as I turned to pay more attention to my hands on my lap. I was sure that he didn't hear a single thing, but I really didn't care.

"What?" he prompted and leaned closer to me. Just like I predicted, he didn't catch what I told him. "Speak up."

I changed my mind and shook my head, knowing that he would make fun of me for having the situation. "Nothing."

He clicked his tongue and nudged me with his elbow. "It can't be nothing because that's just impossible," he said before taking a few seconds to pause. He then seemed to realise something because he suddenly had a smirk on his face. "I know. You were waiting for me, right?"

I gave him an annoyed look.

"Ah, I should have excused myself early," he continued, pretending not to notice, "Sorry about that. The teacher still wanted us to stay back even though we finished early. You must be really bored waiting for me." He gave me another grin.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disbelief. "I see you're still as boastful."

"And you're still rude," he said as he nudged me again. "Ya~ I'm your senior. You should be more polite to me. Call me sunbae*."

"No," I replied, shaking my head once again. "We only differ by one year anyway."

"Why not?" he whined. As soon as he saw me shrugging off my shoulders, he let out a deep breath and gave up. "Fine. But really, what are you doing here? Won't your mother be looking for you?"

"She's probably still doing her weekly grocery shopping so she wouldn't know."

"Well, did you tell her you're going to be here?"

I stayed quiet instead, contemplating whether to tell him or not. I didn't want him to start nagging me for my carelessness. He can be really annoying when he wants to.

"You didn't, did you?" he said. He clicked his tongue at me again before opening his backpack. He took out his own phone. But suddenly, "AH!" he shouted.

"What? What happened?" I asked with a hand on my chest, feeling my speedy heartbeats.

Junho turned to me with a sad look, showing me his phone. "It died."

I hit him with my free hand. "I thought something else happened." My heart was still pounding because of his sudden scream. I really thought something bad happened. He got the phone as a congratulatory gift for graduating from Elementary School. From then on, he really cared for his phone as if it was his pet.

He put back his phone (very carefully) before turning to me. "Where's your phone?"

"I left it at home," I answered and hurriedly continued before he interrupted, "because I was in a hurry! And besides, there's no battery left."

"Why didn't you ... You know what, never mind about that. You still didn't answer the other question: what are you still doing here?"

I sighed before deciding to just answer him, "I'm waiting for the rain to completely stop."

"That's going to take awhile. Well, what happened to your umbrella?" He seemed to have come to a realisation because before I could even open my mouth to say anything, he already beat me to it. "Ya~ Don't tell me: you broke it again?" He then started laughing like a maniac.

I pouted. I told you he would make fun of me. "It's not my fault," I mumbled as I looked away, feeling shy for having been found out. "It just ... broke." I paused. "Mum's going to kill me. She just bought it not too long ago."

He sighed blissfully as he finally finished laughing his head off. "She won't," he replied before getting his bag again. This time, he took out his own umbrella. "Come, let's go."

"In this weather?" I asked. And as if it heard me, a set of lightning was seen, followed by some thunder.

He looked at the view in front of us in worry. "Well, would you rather stay here and have both of our Mums scolded us for not knowing where we are?"

On our way to the bus stop, all we did was fight. The umbrella was too small for the both of us. He didn't even allow me to touch his umbrella, afraid that I might break it. I could only roll my eyes because I didn't want the passersby to think that I was violent.

Suddenly when we were just a few metres away from our destination, a strong (not to mention, very cold) wind came blowing in the area. As a reflex, I held onto my skirt because I didn't want anyone to see something that they shouldn't see. Meanwhile, Junho had to hold onto his umbrella so he wouldn't lose it. But of course as a result, it was ruined; it turned inside out. We were soaking wet by that time.

"Let's just run," I suggested. But unfortunately the bus stop was full of people, be it standing or sitting.

It took us around five minutes to finally find a shelter. Most of the shops actually kicked us out because we're dropping water everywhere. Other times, there were too many people so we couldn't even get in. In the end, we got inside a phone booth not too far from the bus stop even though we had to stand really close because of the small space.

We spent some more time fighting again; this time it's about coins. I wanted to call Mum to tell her about our conditions, but I didn't bring any and he started nagging me for it. In the end though, being the nice person that he actually is, he gave me his card instead. Thankfully there was still some credit inside.

"Do you have something to drink?" Junho suddenly asked. "Or even a sweet, I don't mind."

I smirked, ready to make a joke about it. But before I could respond anything to his question, I suddenly had the urge to sneeze. And when it did come, I immediately covered my mouth with my hand, not really caring if it's dirty or not.

"You still haven't changed, huh?" he said as he took out a packet of tissue from my bag and offered me a sheet. "Still have a weak immune system."

I mumbled a thank you and wiped my face and hands with it. "It's the rain."

"Rain doesn't make you sick. It's the cold weather. Did you bring any jacket?"

"Yeah, inside," I answered before I suddenly sneezed again. "Ah, this stinks." I repeated the previous routine once again. I looked back to see him still searching inside my bag. "Found it yet?"

"Yupp!" he finally replied, taking out my jacket along with my water bottle. Apparently he was very thirsty, because he finished everything right after he passed me the jacket. Instead of saying anything, he just gave me his boyish smile and put the bottle inside again. "Give me your bag. I'm going out so you can wear your jacket inside."

It was a surprise that he volunteered to get out without me having to ask him to. Like I said, he's actually a nice guy. It's just that he always has something to say (or nag) to me before doing anything. So when I saw him opening up his now-fixed umbrella to stand outside and give me some space on his own accord, I smiled at his kindness.

"What?" he said, narrowing his eyes at me, possibly noticing my sudden smile.

I shook my head and wore the jacket. "Nothing."

He brushed it off because he then said, "Too bad you're wearing a skirt." He helped me out with the bag. "You must be really cold."

"Wanna trade?"

He gave me a forced laugh and a soft hit on my head. "You're so funny." He then put my hood up. "Let's go to the bus stop now. It's a bit empty." He gestured me to get out of the phone booth and follow him.

Around 10 minutes later, a bus that goes to our neighbourhood came. Thankfully there were only a few passengers, so we managed to get seats. I just hoped that our attires were dry enough so we wouldn't wet anything. Getting scolded by people was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to go home.

"Next time when it rains," Junho suddenly started a conversation, "even if you already have an umbrella, let's go home together."

"Then I'll have to wait for you to finish your extra class," I complained.

"Just in case your umbrella breaks again."

Pouting, I nudged his side with my elbow. "You sound like you're hoping for it to break." I sighed as I got more comfortable in my seat, since it was a long ride home. "It's really weird, you know. I use umbrellas like normal people do. Then why did mine always break so easily? Even yours turned inside out just now when I didn't even touch it."

"Maybe you did something bad in your past life," he joked. "Now every umbrella is taking a revenge on you."

Scoffing in amusement, I replied, "Maybe. And now I'm cursed. Every umbrella nearby that I touch or even see breaks."

Both of us then started laughing, catching almost everyone's attention for being too loud. I immediately stopped and nudged him to do the same. He was still laughing but in a lower volume, much to everyone's delight.

"But you know what's even weirder?" I continued as Junho finally sobered up. "How come Mum's umbrella never breaks even once?"

He kept quiet for a while. "Maybe she was a heroine in her past life?" he said as he shrugged off his shoulders. "And I was just a normal person who saw you doing something bad once. That's why my umbrella turned inside out just now."

"Sorry about that, by the way," I sighed. "I feel like it's my fault. Maybe I should've gone home earlier."

"No, don't say that," he replied as he nudged me. "Think of it like ... maybe a strange reunion? We haven't talked properly in years." He paused. "So what's new?"

I snorted at his question. "Well except for the fact that I have a lot of tests and homework coming up, nothing special. What about you? Finally managed to beat Yeeun sunbaenim*?"

There had been a lot of rumours going around the school about these two. Yeeun sunbaenim just came to our school at the start of the year, but she managed to kick Junho down to the 2^nd rank in their class. I heard that he let her do it because he kind of had a crush on her. But I didn't know for sure.

"Ya~ You call her sunbaenim, but not to me?" He shook his head in disbelief. "Well to answer your question: no, she's still number one in class. But I really couldn't care less."

"Really? I heard you had a crush on her."

All of the sudden, he widened his eyes and started blushing on his cheek and ears. "I don't have a crush on her!" he yelled, shocking everyone on the bus.

I immediately shushed him so we wouldn't get kicked out since we're still one bus stop away from our stop. And it was still raining. "Okay, I get it," I hissed in a low voice. "You didn't have to tell the whole bus."

"Of all people, I never really thought that you would believe in those rumours," he said as he pouted like a kid. "She's my rival. How could I have a crush on her?"

"Why not? She's really pretty and smart too."

"You're supposed to be on my side."

The thing about Junho is he sometimes acts childish even though I'm younger than him. But he also knows when to get serious, which is one of the reasons why he has a lot of friends even until today.

"Okay, fine. If you say you have no crush on her, I believe you," I said before standing up because we were almost at our stop. "But really," I looked back at him, "not even a really tiny crush?"

"Why does it sound like you want me to like her?"

I had to wait until we're off the bus just in case I had to run so he wouldn't hit me. And once the bus did stop and I was on the ground once again, I turned around and said, "It's just fun teasing you." I quickly grinned and ran away before he realised what I just said.

"YA~!" I heard him saying as he followed suit.

I was happily running so he wouldn't catch up when suddenly I sneezed again, causing me to stop. "Ah, why is this happening to me?" I mumbled as I took out a tissue from my pocket.

"See, that's what you get from running away from me," Junho said – or more like panted – as he finally caught up with me. He pulled me closer so I could stand under his umbrella. "Your mother is going to kill me if you're sick."

"She is," I replied as we continued walking to my house.

He hit me on the head. "Shut up or I'm leaving you here."

"Then I'll tell my Mum and yours that it's your fault for making me sick."

"You're mean."

We spent the rest of the short journey with talking about anything that came to mind. It was fun, just like those days when we used to go home together. I kind of missed that moment.

It might sound weird but I was a bit grateful that it rained that day. Otherwise, we might not be able to joke around like that any time soon.