Rain.

            It was coming for them.

            They had to keep going. They needed to run faster. Through the trees and over rocks, they swerved left, right, jumped, and once more. The tall trees loomed over them, casting dark shadows for the monster to hide in. Everything seemed to close in slowly. Rocks became pointed, like knives freshly sharpened; the grassed began to look less and less green, but deader as if foretelling an impending doom.

            They had to keep going. They needed to run faster. The monster raced behind them, never hesitating nor faltering. As quickly as they ran, it ran just as quick. As high as they jumped, it jumped higher. No matter how hard they tried, they could not escape. In the distance, their goal appeared: the gate to the Forest of Nightmares. Their only escape lay right in front of them, but the monster ran right on their tails.

            “Run; I’ll hold it.”

            And the one in the red hood stopped running in attempt to buy his friend some time.

            “No! You’ll die!”

            “Just go!”

Rain is how the sky cries.

            So his friend ran and ran, and he didn’t look back until he made it to the gate. The monster had the taller boy trapped. Behind him were the tall trees, now twisted together in a barrier. To each side of him, the darkness proved itself as too dark; nothing that went in would come out. Now in front of him stood the beast. The monster was one of shadows. It took a form of four harmless boys, but they stood tauntingly, daring the boy to attack it.

            The tall boy could not escape, so he stood and fought. Dodge left, then right, right again, then he jumps back. The bullets from his gun pass right through their shadowy bodies, and his dual swords can barely scratch it. Exhausted and wounded, the boy did his best to defend himself and dodge the monster’s attacks, but he proves no match for the grand beast. The shadow who seems happy, dances around the boy, teasing him. The tall shadow laughs tauntingly, and as it echoed through the forest, fear took a firm hold of both the boy’s mind and his friend’s.

            In one swift movement, the big shadow runs up to the boy. The boy goes limp, and the big shadow picks him up. It’s ever so soft as not to hurt the boy, and turns around to face the boy’s friend. Tauntingly, the monster moves closer, if only so that the friend can get a better look at the boy. His friend can only watch in horror, for the boy in the red hoodie is at the mercy of his tormentors. The short shadow appears beside the big one with a knife in hand. It holds a straight, double edged blade, freshly sharpened, and the handle seemed smooth and black, but looked like wood. The short shadow looks at Changhyun only once before looking at the ground, but he smiled a smile so dark and cruel. In one swift movement he swings the knife down on the boy, as if to stab him, but the four shadows disappear all too quickly.

            The boy in the red hoodie falls to the ground, and his friend rushes forward, checking for any fatal wounds.

            “Tell me you’re alright! You need to be okay!”

            “Changhyun! What’d you do that for?”

            The boy in the red hoodie yells at his friend, as he sits up and his wounds slowly start fading away.

When the sky is sad,

            “Why’d I do what?”

            “Why’d you imagine that the monster didn’t exist? You ruined the adventure!”

            Changhyun was less than excited that something had chased them through a forest and his friend nearly died, but he felt angered that his friend couldn’t even stop to consider how he felt. After all, he could have died.

            “You could’ve died!”

            But not really.

            “Changhyun, this is a dream! I wasn’t actually going to die.”

            “It looked like you were!”

            “But I wasn’t!”

            As the two argued back and forth, the landscape around them slowly faded. Between the two arguing boys, it shifted into a peaceful field, of lush green grass, and a clear blue sky that started turning cloudy and gray.

            “I hate it when you do this! It’s bad enough that I can’t even see you when I’m awake, but if you die while we’re here, then what am I going to do?!”

            “I already told you, I’m not going to die! It’s just a dream, we can do whatever we want. Nothing’s going to kill me, or you, unless we want them to!”

            Dark storm clouds started forming overheard, and the wind started to blow, but the two fighting friends didn’t notice at all.

            “Oh, so then I guess you want to die? Every adventure we’ve gone on, you’ve almost gotten yourself killed by a monster, or smashed by a boulder, or run over by a car, or vaporized by a giant laser, or even eaten by a possessed teddy bear!”

            “Please, at least I have a sense of adventure. All you ever do is whine and complain and nag me about not getting killed! Don’t you know how to live?”

it’ll cry all of its tears on the shoulder of it’s friend.

            Lightning and thunder roared overhead and heavy rain wanted to pour down on their heads. The storm raged through the sky, but both boys stood their ground as if they didn’t notice the storm at all. In fact, Changhyun would be quite glad for the raging storm. It would mask the tears streaming down his face.

            In a soft voice, barely audible above the thunder, Changhyun replied to his friend,

            “That’s what I’m trying to do.”

            Lightning flashed and thunder cracked in the sky above as a noisy silence consumed the pair. Rain threatened to drench them both in a cold reminder of the things to come.

            Two days. Two days are left until their world could change. Four days ago, Changhyun showed up  in this dream world unaware that he was asleep. He met the boy in the red hoodie, and in three days time they traveled not only our world but worlds that could only be imagined.

            The first day, the boy in the red hoodie, showed Changhyun his world: this world of dreams. They raced through a forest, flew through the skies, and found their way to a quaint little house, all while wondering about each other.

            The second day was filled with fun. Both friends felt overjoyed to see each other again, and laughed their time away. The visited the far corners of the earth, from exploring the African savanna to navigating the deepest reaches of the ocean. They saw miraculous sights and wondrous lands like no one had ever seen before.

            The third day, they went on adventure after adventure. They fought crime in the heart of New York City, they recovered ancient treasure from catacombs deep beneath the earth, they battled the darkest evil from distant galaxies, and they even overthrew a tyrannical empire in a land more strange than Wonderland.

            In a grand castle of gram cracker walls and candy cane pillars, in the palace garden on the roof, two boys directed the officials of this candy kingdom to do their bidding. With smiles and laughter, the two rulers gave the strangest of commands that their subjects diligently followed, no matter how ridiculous they became.

            “Now, walk on your hands and balance that vase between your feet!”

            “Oh and jump up and down, while singing a lullaby off key!”

            The two boys howled with laughter as the poor subject did as it was told.

            “Ha…Alright…I’m getting a bit bored. Ooh! Go jump the roof while still doing everything else we told you to do!”

            The boy in the red hoodie followed the candy citizen with excitement as it hopped its way the edge of the roof and palace garden. He never noticed Changhyun, looking less than pleased at his friend’s order. As the subject hopped over the railing and to its death ten stories below, the boy laughed as it broke apart like a doll thrown against a wall. Changhyun merely cringed. Death was not something he wished to encounter any time soon.

            “Oh come on Changhyun, why the long face? That was hilarious! Look at its face, it’s still moving and it’s so confused!”

It used to rain all the time here.

            The boy laughed and laughed, but Changhyun was less than amused. “You shouldn’t be laughing because you just commanded someone to die.”

            Concerned for his friend’s well being, the boy stopped laughing, and approached his friend, “What is it with you and death lately? First you stopped that monster from ‘killing me’ earlier, and now you’re upset because I forced a fake person, that’s made of candy jump off of the roof? What’s up with you?”

            Changhyun, though hesitant, still managed to reply, “Because in a few days, I could die.”

When I was still alone, before he came here,

            The boy in the red hoodie froze. His friend could die, and he didn’t know about it? He felt so confused and worried. He didn’t want to lose the only friend he’s made since he entered this world. He didn’t want to cry again.

            “What do you mean you could die?”

            “…Something…Something bad happened to me, so I’m in the hospital. It’s today, tomorrow, the day after and then my surgery. If I don’t have it then I’ll die, but there’s a 50% chance that I’ll die anyway.”

it used to rain all the time.

            Silence had become an uncommon friend to them. They sat together in that candy castle, lost in their own thoughts. Neither knew what to do, or how to do it. The boy wanted Changhyun to stay with him as much as Changhyun wanted to be there, but if Changhyun were to die, then what could they do?

            If only for now, the boy thought, there needed to be happiness. Changhyun couldn’t feel sad, not when they may only have a few days left together.

            “I’ll do three things for you.”

            Changhyun looked up at his friend in curiosity.

            “I’ll do one thing for you every day before your surgery, starting today, and if I do that, then you’re not allowed to be upset, or sad, or scared. Deal?”

            Changhyun thought for a moment, “Why shouldn’t I be sad or scared?”

I’ve learned never to feel sad, so that it doesn’t rain anymore.

            Without hesitation, the boy replied with confidence, “Because if you’re happy, then you have hope, and if you have hope then there’s a better chance that you’ll live, right?”

            “Alright, I’ll stay happy, but I want you to tell me three secrets about yourself.”

            Slightly shocked, the boy in the red hoodie had to sit down for a moment. He pulled his hood over his head and thought until he finally had something to say.

            “My name is Jonghyun.”

            A wide grin spread across Changhyun’s face. He began to laugh, and collapsed on the ground beside his friend. From under his hoodie, Jonghyun looked to his friend, wondering why he laughed so hard.

            “It’s nice to finally know your name, Jonghyun.”

            And for the first time, since he doesn’t know when, Jonghyun saw rain. The cotton candy clouds didn’t completely cover the sky, but it was enough for chocolate rain to lightly drizzle down on them. Jonghyun frowned. Rain could only appear when someone was sad, and he was not sad.

So, why is it raining again?

            “Changhyun stop.”

            Changhyun looked up at his friend in confusion, laughter slowly dying down. “What’s wrong?”

            “I thought you promised me you wouldn’t be sad.”

            “But I’m not sad.”

            “It’s raining, and it only rains when someone is crying. I don’t feel sad, so I’m not crying. Why are you sad?”

Why is the sky crying?

            Changhyun began to laugh once more. It was Jonghyun’s turn to be confused. He was frustrated that Changhyun seemed to be clouding his pain with smiles and laughter. This world always showed exactly how people felt, and if it was raining, that meant someone was crying.

            “You don’t only cry when you’re sad. You can also cry when you’re happy, you know.”

            Alone, Jonghyun lay on the same grassy field that he and Changhyun always went to. In his bright red hoodie, he laid thinking about Changhyun. Just a little while ago, Changhyun woke up again, leaving Jonghyun all alone.

            “One more day, and then he could be gone forever…”

            That day, Changhyun and Jonghyun had done everything they could do. They visited their favorite places again, they ate their most favorite foods, and they did everything they could to forget about Changhyun’s surgery. But in the back of his mind, Jonghyun could not shake the uneasy feeling that came with the possibility of losing his best and only friend.

            “How long have I been here again?”

            That was the second secret Jonghyun told Changhyun, moments before he vanished. Jonghyun had been in that dream world for as long as he could remember, but he couldn’t remember anything other than his name. His life when he was awake is so foreign to him that he began to question if it existed. Then Changhyun came along and was reminded of how real he really is.

I’m not crying.

            Now, his only grasp of something that’s actually real could be leaving him forever. No, there had to be a way. There needed to be a way for them to stay together. He knows that Changhyun loves it here as much as he loves having someone to talk to, so there must be a way.

            But how?

            “Jonghyun?”

            From thin air, something appeared in the field and loomed over Jonghyun, casting a shadow over his head.

            “Changhyun!”

            Jonghyun jumped up and tackled Changhyun to the ground. He missed Changhyun; he really missed Changhyun, but he didn’t know why. He thinks it’s the fear of losing his friend, but in the back of his mind he knows it’s because of something else as well.

            Changhyun laughed at his friend’s ridiculous antics. It felt strange to be this close but to only have known each other for a few days. Maybe it’s because one night in this dream land feels like forever. Maybe it’s because it’s only the two of them and neither wants to lose the other. Whatever it is, neither Changhyun nor Jonghyun particularly care; they just enjoy being near each other.

            They lay there for a while, enjoying each other’s company. Changhyun looked up at the bright blue sky, decorated with a few wispy clouds. Jonghyun stayed attached to Changhyun, arms wrapped around the other’s waist, a head resting on a chest. It was peaceful, and they wished they could stay like that forever.

            “When you wake up…it’ll be time, right?” Jonghyun asked, cautiously.

            “…Yeah…”

            Changhyun replied after a moment, and then they were enclosed in silence again. From the clear blue sky, droplets of rain started falling down on the boys. The sky darkened, but just barely. Clouds rolled in, but they looked neither dark enough nor big enough to start even a regular rainstorm. For the next few minutes, until they could speak again, they sky gently cried on them, reflecting their wish to stay in this dream forever.

            “Don’t be scared Changhyun.”

At least not out loud.

            Little droplets of rain fell from above, dancing as they hit whatever they chose to fall on. It was small, tiny even, but softly as it could, each droplet kissed with such care a nose, a forehead, a cheek, arms, legs, hands, hair, lips.

            “Just think of me. If you get scared, think of me; find me.”

Do me a favor and smile.

            What thought this rain seemed to have. Each droplet crafted to be cold, but cleansing as if once a drop hit, it carried away just a little bit of the fear stored up in these boys. They rolled off bare skin, taking sadness with it, but soaked into clothes, reminding them that this battle has not yet been won.

            “Whatever you do, don’t worry about whether you live or you die.”

Because when it rains, it means someone is crying.

            Despite the gentle rain, bits of sunlight still shone through the clouds. Its warm rays caress the dewy grass, making the drops of rain shine. The gentle warmth made its way to both boys, and it comforted them. Though the rain washed away the fear, it reminded them that all of this was still very real, yet the sunlight told them not to worry. It told them that if they want to, they really can stay like this forever.

            “I promise to be with you no matter what happens.”

And I want us to cry because we’re happy.

I want to be with you, because it makes me happy.