The rain is cruel, don’t you think? It’s like a friend who turns up unannounced to a party they weren’t invited to or someone who interrupts you during a conversation. A conversation they weren’t involved in. All in all, rain is evil.

These thoughts are similar to those of a small boy with hair as dark as charcoal and large, doe eyes: the irises deeper than the darkest shade of black. He curses his luck. How did he get himself into this situation? Just a minute ago, he was surrounded by his beloved friends with the brilliant invention commonly known as the umbrella. Where did those beloved umbrella-carrying friends go? Now he is stood under a sheltered bus stop, praying that a knight in shining armour will shield him from the rain.

“Hey… Kyungsoo?” Sharply turning his head, he catches a glimpse of a tall, lean figure approaching him. He groans and discontinues his interest when there is no umbrella to be seen. Social activity – killjoy!

“Kyungsoo, d’you have an umbrella?” The figure asks, concerned. He stands next to Kyungsoo and ruffles his hair to make himself appear more dashing. In reality, it just splashes a few sprinkles of water over the smaller (slightly irritated) boy.

“No. That’s why I’m fending for myself under this bus station,” He replies bluntly, crossing his arms to add some sass. What can he say? He’s a man of very few words.

“Hey, could you at least look at me?” Kyungsoo nervously turns to face (or rather gape) at the evidently agitated person in front of him. He has golden skin; the colour of summer beaches on the Caribbean Islands, ruffled chocolate-brown hair, chapped lips quirked into a sly smirk and a glint in his eyes that just screams handsome. Kyungsoo is fully aware that he’s drooling a second Gyeonghogang River but that’s beside the point.

“Are you gonna keep staring at me or--”

“Marry me.” He blurts out.

“What?”

“What?”

“I’m pretty sure you just said--”

“I didn’t say anything.” His eyes are so wide it appears that the whites of his eyes are dilating as well as the pupils.

“Yeah, sure. Just my wild imagination telling me that you said--”

“Hey, Kai, what’s that over there?!” He jerks his hand to point at thin air and when the other has his back turned, he makes a full sprint away from the embarrassing situation he got himself caught into.

Suddenly, a speeding car appears out of nowhere and races straight towards Kyungsoo. Since he’s blindly running, he doesn’t notice the car’s headlights blaring at his frail body which is about to ragdoll into space considering how fast it’s going. That is until a firm set of arms wrap around his waist and tug him backwards. The car zooms past and Kyungsoo is left dazed. All relevant and irrelevant thoughts are vaporised from his mind. He stares blankly, unable to process anything.

“You should watch where you’re going,” Kai speaks sternly as if he is a parental figure.

“K-Kai...?” Kyungsoo turns his face away from him, disallowing the other to catch a glimpse of the pink tinge on his cheeks.

“That idiot nearly hit you,” He growls under his breath, keeping his arms stationary around the latter’s waist. Kyungsoo inwardly squeals to himself when he realises that this is almost too romantic for a movie scene.

“Thanks for, um…” He murmurs. A flush of embarrassment spreads across his squishy cheeks like wildfire. Not knowing how to finish the sentence, he shuffles his feet in an awkward manner.

“It’s alright. Do you want me to take you home?”

“I’m not a little kid.”

“With that height you look like one.” A magnificent grin sprawls across his face and he lifts his arms in front of his face to prepare himself for his impending doom.

“HEY!” Kyungsoo cries, launching an attack that consists of sissy slaps and punches.

A shiny, black car pulls up beside the walkway. Abruptly, it halts the attack. The rain is pelting against the glorious paintwork so fiercely it could be mistaken for hailstones. Kai takes a violent step forward, flings the back door open and tugs on Kyungsoo’s arm. He drags them both into the car and shuts the door before either of them has the chance to register what is happening. A woman turns her head to take a look at the imposter in her car.

“Who’s this?” She asks curiously, smiling sweetly at Kyungsoo who looks as terrified as someone who has boarded the wrong plane flight.

“Oh, this is… um…”

“My name is Do Kyungsoo. It is a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.” He bows his head slightly, intending to be as polite as possible. This shocks Kai at first. How did he manage to switch himself from embarrassed and awkward to serious and polite?

“Th-thank you.” She responds, a hint of confusion in her voice. Usually, Kai's friends are pretty forward and skip the polite introduction.

“Mom, can we drive Kyungsoo home? He doesn’t have anyone to take him.”

“Where does he live?”

“I live in the east district.” Kyungsoo buts in.

“Okay”, she says cheerily, “off to the east district we go!”

There are plenty of perplexing emotions swirling around in Kyungsoo’s head, he just isn’t quite sure what they are or what they mean. What are they intending to do? They swirl among his incoherent thoughts like a whirlwind: jumbling them up and leaving the debris a complete mess. If only he was in a JRPG… The worlds there are always full of sunshine and rainbows and there’s always a happy ending. Then again, battling monsters isn’t the most ideal thing to be doing…