strawberry-seeded rain

It is a slightly moody day when she first sees him.


He is staring at a group of rainclouds galloping across a dull afternoon sky. She takes note of the subtle ironies of his appearance; his unexciting tie matched with his shirt with rolled-up sleeves, his statuesque and commanding form that gives off an air of gentleness, and his sharp features showcasing his deep, expressive eyes.

She watches him from the corner of her eyes until the bus she has been waiting for stops in front of them. She climbs up the huge white-coated carriage and takes a seat beside a window not far from where he sits.

The minutes tick by and the threatening gray clouds from that afternoon give away and fall down to earth in what might be a never-ending stream. The bus drops her on the seventh stop and she takes out her favorite (and only) umbrella to shield her from the rain. She stops in her tracks when she notices the man drop by the same stop as hers.

The rain is pounding heavily from the roof of the waiting shed yet he has in his hand his bag instead of an umbrella. She moves towards his direction, about to offer him shade, when he makes a run towards the other side of the street. The raindrops, like silver needles falling from the sky, create shapes on his now-sodden back.

Her eyes follow him until his retreating back disappear behind the flood of cars rushing on the rain-battered highway. She smiles a shy smile, heaves a hopeful sigh, and silently wishes to see him again.


Her wish comes true two days after.

He stands on the exact spot where she first saw him, sits on the same seat in the bus, and drops off the same stop. It happens again after a week, and the week after that, until her Tuesdays and Thursdays are synonymous to four o’ clock one-sided trysts with a stranger on that dusty waiting shed a few blocks from her office.

It goes on for more than a month; her looking forward to those even days of the week just to see the young man she has secretly grown fond of.


She gathers courage one Thursday, when the sky suddenly grows dark and starts pouring its anguish to the world below.

The familiar bus appears on a corner and the young man prepares himself for a dash. He is one step away from the raging storm when the raindrops he expected to hammer down his back fail to arrive. He looks up and sees pink-patterned strawberries in exchange for a steel gray sky. His confusion ends when he glances to his side and meets the shy smile of a girl he vaguely remembers knowing.


“Umm, it’s raining hard. You might get wet.”

She speaks to him slowly. “I noticed that we take off on the same stop…” she pauses, her eyes hinting abashment. “A-and I saw that you don’t have an umbrella so…”

He doesn’t wait for her to finish. He touches her arm and offers her a sincere smile as he leads the way towards the bus door.

“Thanks.”

He walks straight towards his favorite seat and motions for her to sit next to him. The water dripping from her folded umbrella creates a small puddle beneath their feet.

“M-my name is Sooyoung. What’s yours?” she stammers as she takes a seat (quite awkwardly) beside him.

He smiles at her shyness and leans his head on one side as he answers her.

“Changmin.”



The next time they see each other on that dusty waiting shed, they sport happy smiles and excited glints in each other’s eyes.

Changmin, Sooyoung finds out, is new to the neighborhood. He makes a living selling real estate and has been to quite a lot of places already. He is witty, smart, and straight-forward. He lends an ear to her stories and seems genuinely interested on her job as a bookkeeper on a newly-built firm.


“Why do you not bring umbrellas to work?”
“I always forget to buy one.”
“You should be glad it doesn’t rain every day.”
“I’m glad you’re always there when it does.”


It is never more than friendship, whatever it might be that they share. At times, she wonders if there could have been a deeper meaning behind all the conversations; yet, she doesn’t ask. Somehow, she is contented seeing him ever Tuesdays and Thursday, their special days of their week. A part of her wants to keep things as they are but an even larger part augurs that everything will eventually come to an end.


The larger part hits it right at the spot.


One cloudy Tuesday, Changmin meets her with a look of melancholy in his eyes. They sit together; closer than all the days they sat together, on what she thinks is her longest ride home.


“Soo, I’m moving to Incheon.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Oh.”


She keeps mum for the rest of the ride until they reach the sixth stop.


“I guess this would be the last time I’d see you then?”
“I guess so…”


They reach the seventh stop to see the earth covered in a soft drizzle.


“I’m sorry, Soo.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
“I’ll miss you.”


Her tears fall harder than the oncoming storm. They stay at the shed until the rain passed. They part ways with a long and tight embrace. She looks at him through misty eyes as he leaves with a sad smile and a strawberry-patterned pink umbrella.


She writes to him as often as she can. He replies every time; address always different from the last. It goes on for a long while until the letters become less frequent.

She stops sending letters on the fifth month. She decides that there’s no use wallowing on a past that will never be. There has been no pain or endless rivers of tears but there exists a hollow gap in her chest that must have went away with him the day he said goodbye.

The memory of that lonely Tuesday afternoon seems far away and she has no plans of bringing it back. She has to move forward.


It is a Monday, almost a year since the first time they met. A slightly moody day and she is staring at a group of rainclouds galloping across a dull afternoon sky. It’s the end of summer and she expects the rainy season to follow soon.

She needs to buy a new umbrella, she tells herself. She hasn’t bought one since the last they saw each other. She always forgets.


The bus arrives as large drops of water started falling from the sky. She clicks on her heels and prepares for a dash across the wet pavement. She was one step away from the pouring rain when a shadows falls over her. She looks up and sees the sky through metal skeletons and translucent sheets. She glances at her side and sees a wavy-haired boy smiling shyly at her.

“It’s raining. You might get wet.”
She remains rooted to the spot as a familiar scene forms in her mind.

“I observed that we take the same stop. You do not have an umbrella so I’ve…”

A smile makes its way to her lips as she gazes at this shy boy speaking words quite familiar to her. She feels the loneliness long shrouding her heart melt away like how the dust peters out as the rain washes them away. She finds herself holding his arm as they walk towards the bus door.

“Thanks.”

It is all she could say.

The boy smiles bashfully as he takes a seat beside her.

“My name is Kyuhyun. What’s yours?”

A/N: for my wonderful loves, Mary-Anne (WontonDumpling) and Liza (icha_em) ♥ thank you for all your words of encouragement :D