With each droplet of rain as it cascaded onto the wet streets of Seoul, the sky seemed to grow even darker under the coverage of the ominous, grey clouds that gave no end to an once clear sky, bouncing off the rims of passerby’s umbrellas, off the ledges on the ceilings of the small boutiques littered across a now empty street as a certain boy watched their family’s personal driver, Junmyeon, load the last box onto the large haul truck before disappearing into the driver’s seat, awaiting their departure. Baekhyun turned his attention back to his best friend, Sehun, offering a sad smile and a gentle pat on the younger’s shoulders as he pulled the crying male into a tight embrace.

“Stop crying like a girl Hun-ah, it’s not like I’m disappearing forever, you can always come and visit me in the country or I’ll come back to Seoul, it’s only a few hours drive.”

Pulling back, he heaved a small sigh at the younger’s appearance, snot and tears all mixed together in a miserable and pathetic sight, it’s amazing how someone like Sehun has such a soft and vulnerable side with that seemingly cold and nonchalant outer appearance of his he always likes to put forth.

“Why can’t you just stay in Seoul, you don’t have to follow your parents to the village just because your dad got offered a position as mayor there, you can always stay at my house, or live in the school’s dormitory, hell, you can even move in with Soojung.” With a sniff, Sehun gave his last weak attempt to hold back his best friend from moving away a try, only to be responded with a skeptical glance from the receiving end of the party. It was a pathetic attempt and he knew it, but for someone like Sehun, who didn’t have a lot of friends nor even made an effort to try and attempt to not look everyone else, the idea that Baekhyun is moving away was a devastating thought, but it was reality and he knew he had to learn and accept it as much as he didn’t want to. With a defeated sigh, he gave one last wipe at his nose and glanced up under his thick eyelashes now coated with drops of both the rain and his own tears. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell Soojung though? You know better than anyone else that she’s going to murder you when she finds out right?”

With a small nod of his head in confirmation, Baekhyun bit down on his lower lip in thought and dismissed his mother yelling at him to ‘quit the sob-fest and get a move on it’ with an absent minded wave of his hand towards the general direction. Soojung. His girlfriend, and soon to be ex when she finds out that he didn’t tell her he was leaving, he really didn’t understand his purpose in doing so either, other than the fact that he knew their relationship was as dead as the withering roses under the winter weather, they were young, they fell in love and fell out of it, he knew, she knew, it was a mutual understanding without a verbal confirmation. To be honest, Baekhyun only saw attraction in Soojung because let’s face it, she was hot, and Soojung only returned the infatuation with the same intentions. They were both attractive, rich, well-liked and popular, and in the end, their relationship was to only do the entire school a favor by hooking up with the hottest opposite , to create the it-couple every school has, and Baekhyun saw no point in telling her of his departure. She was going to get pissed, throw a few curse words at him telling him to ‘go die in a hole’, and that was it, because they both knew there were no feelings attached, just a sense of betrayal that a companion didn’t bother with his time telling someone he tried to force feelings upon that he was leaving, moving, and most likely never coming back, because in the end, they didn’t love each other, they didn’t hate each other, it wasn’t like they didn’t care for each other because they thought about the other’s well being, they were just friends, even though neither of them confirmed the idea through words, they both already accepted it.

“If she’s willing to drive all the way to the countryside, I don’t think I’m getting slapped anytime soon.” With a small chuckle, Baekhyun gave a frustrated ‘Aish’ at the repeatedly loud honking of the truck, most likely in courtesy of his impatient mother who couldn’t wait to begin living life as the wife of the village’s new mayor, shallow as it is, for a housewife like Mrs.Byun, this was the future she had been hoping for the day she stepped into the Byun household, and she wasn’t going to let his son eat up the time sobbing farewell to a friend. Little did she know however, that she wasn’t going to live a long, nor peaceful life in the small city just a few hours away from Seoul as she had expected, because fate was only sneering cruelly at the family as the truck’s engine was ignited, signaling the beginning of a long roller coaster ride.

Flashing a lopsided grin at Sehun, Baekhyun gave the other one last quick hug before jogging off and climbing on the back seat of the truck, shutting the door behind him as he sat down, rolling down the window and yelling at his best friend whom he’ll be leaving behind to go back home since he didn’t want him to catch a cold drowning in the rain and sobbing, and as the truck pulled away and the mist enveloped Sehun’s disappearing figure, Baekhyun eventually settled back down and glanced up at his beaming father, glowing with pride and anticipation, obviously excited for this new life. Just like his wife, this had also been his dream, and even though it was a relatively small city, becoming mayor promised a wealthy life, and even though the family was more than well off in terms of finance back in Seoul, this was a whole new level of authority. However, in contrast to his parent’s excited chatter, Baekhyun felt his own eyes burn with tears, he was leaving behind the large, metro city life that he, the spoiled city boy had grown so used to for the past seventeen years of his life, he was leaving behind his friends, his private institution that he grew strangely fond of for some small god damned city he never even heard of. He admit, being the only child of a relatively rich family, Baekhyun was spoiled, just a little bit shallow, and very judgemental, and he didn’t want to spend the next few years of his life rotting in the countryside.

But the boy who didn’t believe in fate was stepping into the very hands of fate, who was not only offering the rain that was slowly approaching with each mile of driving closer to their new life, but also the sun that was slowly peeking out through the dark, grey clouds. Fate was offering him tears, betrayal, jealousy, loneliness, and death. But fate was also offering him warmth, growth and love. And it began the moment Junmyeon announced they have arrived at their destination, it began the moment the rain stopped pounding against the car window in surrender to the approaching sun, it began the moment Baekhyun stole a momentary glance at the tall brunette boy, whom he would later find out was called Park Chanyeol, riding a bike with a pot of lilacs resting safely on the basket secured at the front of the bicycle, it began at that very moment, although neither of the boys knew it.