Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THE RAIN IS cold. Cha Jaehwa can feel the heaviness in the back of her dry throat, sore from hoarsely yelling her friend's name on the outskirts of the ring like a deranged woman.
The teen holds her umbrella only slightly higher than her head, ignoring the soft spray of droplets that the wind carries onto her clothes.
Teeth pick and pull at her chapped lips, working their way through the flesh as though it would give her the sustenance to endure what felt like an eternity waiting.
Ahn Suho always takes his sweet time after a match, and Cha Jaehwa always waits for him outside the gym, for whatever reasons they had once established when they were in middle school.
Her fingers start to ache from holding the handle, slippery with the downpour that manages to catch Jaehwa before she can shield herself away from it.
Muddy shoes catch her uninterested eyes, and she focuses on the brown splotches that surround her white soles with a frown. Now she's mad at Ahn Suho — When is she not, really — For making her act as his personal escort.
Honestly, he's lucky she loves him enough to put up with such unfairness.
The rain continues, rhythmically dancing across the empty streets; Jaehwa is the only one left outside, and she curses lowly, kicking a stray pebble into the roads. It skips once before getting swept away by a small current forming against the sidewalk.
Soft pattering cannot mask the heavy footfalls that have become oh so familiar to Cha Jaehwa, and she turns towards the sound with a scowl adorning her face.
"Took you long enough." Jaehwa allows her lips to quirk upwards in the slightest, towards the boy approaching her. "It's almost midnight."
Ahn Suho chuckles in a way that rises from his stomach to his throat in a velvety manner, eyes bright even beneath the dark sky.
His hair is wet from the shower, and still even more from the rain. A plush towel hangs over his neck, and the thin white shirt and windbreaker he's wearing do little to shield him away from the cold.
"Did you wait long? I lost track of time in the showers." Suho grins softly, and Jaehwa gets the feeling that he's aware that he can get away with anything when he does so.
"You piss me off." She mutters instead, pushing the back of his head so the teen is forced to lean forward.
He falls in perfect synchrony with Jaehwa and his fingers untangle her own from their slipping grip on the umbrella. For a moment, she thinks Suho plans to be a gentleman — For once in his pathetically boring life — But instead the boy tilts it towards himself, allowing the rain to soak through Jaehwa's hoodie.
Jaehwa yells a few obscene words and maybe makes a few gestures before Suho's laughter becomes pain-filled yells, and they end up the way they started; Jaehwa, her hands secure against the umbrella handle, and Suho, rubbing his sore ear, head tilted in the slightest in order to fit within the protection Jaehwa's umbrella provides.
