“It’s raining again,” Ara mumbled as the three of us stood at the balcony of our class. She held out her right hand and sighed, “I’ll get wet again.”

“Why does it have to rain? It’s too cold,” whined Nana, rubbing her arms up and down.

I stared at the dull, gray sky and reached out both of my hands towards the rain. It felt refreshing when the raindrops touched my palms. I had always loved rain. When I was little, I used to play outside, running and dancing in the rain with my sisters until we were soaked to the skin—it  was one of my greatest memories.

“Miyeon-ah, I don’t know whether you notice it or not but recently, Sungyeol has been bothering you almost everyday.” Nana told me, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.  “I smell something fishy…”

“Really?” I lifted my eyebrows. At the corner of my eye, I could see Ara dropping her gaze to the ground. “Well, I didn’t know about that. He’s always around, talking to everyone. Isn’t that normal?”

“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Nana smiled sheepishly at me, leaning herself against the banister. I averted her teasing gaze and stayed quiet. “What do you think, Ara-ya?”

“Oh,” Ara answered simply.

“Rain, rain go away!” Nana held up her hands towards the sky.

~~v~~

“Miyeon-ah, aren’t you going home yet?” Nana stood behind me as I arranged my textbooks in my locker that was located at the back of our class.

“No,” I shook my head. “I’m going to arrange these textbooks first. You should go without me.”

“Are you sure?” Nana asked as she looked around the class. “Yaa, this class looks really creepy when it’s empty. Aren’t you scared being alone in here?”

“I’m fine,” I chuckled and patted her shoulder. “Go, or else it’ll rain more.”

“Okay then,” Nana smiled and held up her hand to give me a small wave. “Take care.”

“Oh.”

By the time I’d finished arranging my textbooks; almost everyone had left the block. I gathered my stuff and walked out of the class. The sky was drizzling. I took a whiff of the scent of rain and smiled to myself. Then I headed straight to the main gate with my red mini umbrella sheltering me from the rain.

“Wow, it’s so cold out here.” Sungyeol appeared beside me and made a peace sign when I looked at him. “You’re alone again.”

“I’m okay with that.” I smiled. I took a glance at his pink umbrella and chuckled.

“What?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing, it’s just that you look weird using that umbrella. It’s not yours, right?”

“It’s my mother’s.”  He answered with a short laugh. “You know, yesterday, my mom left the windows of her car open and the car got soaked through. She had to use a hair dryer to dry the seats.”

I laughed and shook my head. Sungyeol could make anyone laugh easily. Although he always fooled around childishly, he would always put a smile on everyone’s face or apologize when someone got mad at him. He was the likeable type of person. No one seemed to hate him. He was always surrounded by people.

“The entrance exam is 2 months away. Are you ready?” he asked, stomping on the ground to make a splash. Luckily, the splash didn’t hit me.

“I’m not sure. There’s still so much to learn.” I heaved a deep sigh and held out my hand to feel the rain.

“Yeah…” Sungyeol nodded, staring up at the sky with one of his hand reaching out towards the rain. “Can you smell the rain?”

“Huh?” his question caused me to blink twice. I smiled at him and nodded. “Yes, I can smell it. Usually, I would ask that question but I can’t believe you would be the one asking me that.”

“Someone had asked me that question before but I can’t remember who.” He narrowed his eyes, trying to recall anything about the question but then he just shrugged. “What kind of smell is the rain? I don’t think it has any smell.”

“Light, refreshing and earthy.” I answered. “It smells nicer when the rain stops. Petrichor; the smell of earth after rain. Isn’t it beautiful how one word can describe everything?”

“You’re so poetic, Song Miyeon.” Sungyeol chuckled. “I can’t even smell the rain.”

“Too bad.”