STORM CHASING [Love in the Air | PayuxRain]

one

He was freefalling in a cliff of loss and grief.

Rain swallowed again, pushing whatever was building in his throat. He swallowed harder and felt his throat hurt even more. As if someone was choking him. As if someone was killing him.

"What the fuck is this? What... what is the point?"

As he tried to find sense in this house, he felt a hand gently touch his shoulder. Rain looked to his right. It was Sky.

Sky wasn't smiling. He never once told Rain congratulations for finishing the house. He just stood there staring at Rain with this knowing gaze of his. Because he knew. Sky knew how broken Rain was there was no chance of piecing him back.

Rain stared back at Sky. The smile he'd perfected had dropped like it was never there. He just stood there gazing back, telling Sky without opening his mouth that he couldn't hold the façade any longer. He couldn't take it a second more.

He had reached the last of his thread.

Sky bit his bottom lip as he took a step forward. With his drawn brows, he reached for Rain. He grabbed Rain and wordlessly pulled him in the tightest hug Rain had refused for five damn long years.

When Rain's chin found Sky's shoulder, he shattered. The tears he'd held in for 1825 days fell one by one. And from the back of his throat, the silent scream for P'Payu's name came.

"They are right, Sky," Rain shamelessly cried. He buried his face into his best friend's shoulder. "He's never coming back. He will never come back."

Sky didn't say he was wrong. And Rain was thankful. Because he had grown so damn tired of false hopes and dreams. He didn't need them.

If P'Payu was alive, he'd have come back by now. He wouldn't leave him to toil like an empty husk, existing but not living.

P'Payu wouldn't allow him to build their dream house all alone. He wouldn't leave him alone. Period.

But it's been five years since the site they were working on at the top of Mt Himil collapsed. Out of the thirty people in the area, twenty were severely injured. Eight died on the spot. Two were missing.

One of the missing was P'Payu.

"He's never coming back, Sky. He left me behind..."

Sky didn't respond. The telltale shaking of Sky's shoulders told Rain enough. His best friend was crying with him and for him. And it hurt all the more seeing P'Pai quietly approaching them.

The man had a serious expression, eyes red. He moved in haste and didn't hesitate opening his arms. Prapai covered both Sky and him with his arms offering comfort, even when he himself was left devastated for the loss of a dear friend. Silently, P'Pai also began weeping. All of them did.

Prapai and Sky. P'Payu and him.

"The four of us had so many plans." Rain squeezed his eyes shut. "But now it is just us three. And at night it is just... it's just the miserable me."

He hated P'Payu so much for being gone this long. He hated him. He loved him. He despised him. He was longing for him.

If Rain knew that phone call would be the last, he should have dropped everything he was doing and followed Payu at Mt Himil. They had just come back from their beach trip that week and Payu was called in urgently to check on the commercial structure being built there. Both of them were still sun-kissed and glowing from all the fun things they did in the mornings and the passionate bond they shared those nights.

He should have gone with Payu on Mt Himil to check on the site. Then at least he could have gone missing or died with him.

He with P'Payu should be holding the ribbon together. But it was just him. The ribbon felt like a snake slinking around his fingers, piercing his flesh. The ring on his finger had never felt so heavy too.