When Sunshine Looks Like You

Chapter 1: The Blue Umbrella

Pond held a deeply personal, entirely unreasonable vendetta against rain.

He didn't have a tragic backstory. No dramatic childhood trauma involving being abandoned in a hurricane, no lost puppies in a thunderstorm. He simply hated it because it was inconvenient. It ruined his good shoes, made his clothes cling to him in a deeply tragic manner, turned the roads into a muddy obstacle course, and most unforgivably ,it forced him to face his own fatal flaw: he could not, under any circumstances, remember to bring an umbrella.

"Look",Pond argued with himself in the quiet sanctuary of his own mind, " I am a capable human being. I remember complex formulas. I remember my friends' birthdays. I remember the exact plot twists of shows I watched three years ago. My memory is fantastic.

An umbrella, however, is where my brain draws a hard line. Why should I carry a awkward stick of fabric around on the off-chance that the sky decides to throw a tantrum? It's a matter of principle."

Ideally, Pond's relationship with rain would be strictly non-contact. He preferred to observe the rain from behind a thick pane of glass, wrapped in a blanket, with the air conditioning in full blast, binge watching his favourite shows, and a bowl of something hot and carb-heavy in his lap. That was how civilized people experienced rain: from a safe, comfortable distance where it couldn't touch them.

Today, unfortunately, was not an ideal day.

He was stuck under the concrete overhang of the main academic building. The sky had opened up with zero warning the second his last lecture ended, dumping a relentless torrent of water onto the campus. Everyone was packed under whatever shelter they could find, huddled together like damp, miserable penguins waiting for the storm to weaken.

Pond was utterly irritated.

To make matters worse, his entire social circle had abandoned him. Every single one of his friends-the very people who were supposed to suffer through bad weather with him had somehow vanished. Two of them had slipped away early for date, another had scampered off the moment the first drop fell, and two didn't even bother showing up to university today. Meanwhile, Pond, being a responsible student, had dragged himself to campus solely to hand in an assignment that could have easily been an email.

"Loyalty is dead", Pond thought, scowling at his group chat. "Next time, I'm staying in bed too."

He checked his phone. 4:15 PM. He looked up at the grey curtain of rain.
He checked his phone again, as if the weather might feel guilty under his stern gaze and stop.

It didn't.

He glanced toward the parking lot and briefly considered making a run for it. It was only a few hundred meters. How wet could he really get?

He immediately shut the idea down. He had enough dignity left not to arrive at his apartment looking like a drowned cat that had barely survived a natural disaster.

Sighing, Pond leaned his shoulder against a concrete pillar, preparing himself for a long, dull wait.

That was when a flash of color caught his eye, just outside the perimeter of the shelter.

At first, Pond didn't pay much attention to who it was. He simply noticed a bright blue umbrella standing out against the monotonous backdrop of grey concrete and dark asphalt.

The downpour was so heavy that even the umbrella seemed to be struggling. Water poured off its curved edges in steady, shimmering curtains, and the pavement around the figure's shoes was covered in a chaotic grid of jumping ripples. Everything in the distance looked blurred, washed out, and entirely miserable.