It rained.
Quite a lot.
In the first floor entrance
I squat down
I looked at the front of my sneakers.
I didn't bring an umbrella.
And I didn't even think about going up.
Just today,
I thought you wouldn't see this.
“Why are you here?”
A familiar voice.
When I raise my head,
Lee Han was standing.
Without an umbrella.
“Don’t you have an umbrella?”
“There is.”
He took an umbrella out of his bag.
“…Then why aren’t you using it?”
“Because you’re here.”
He said that so casually.
I was speechless.
It was harder to breathe than the rain.
We shared an umbrella.
Narrow streets.
Our shoulders touched.
I was speechless,
That kid didn't say anything either.
But this is not an awkward silence
It felt like a silence hiding something.
Then
The kid suddenly said.
“At school
“I had a friend.”
“That kid,
“It was because of me.”
I stopped walking.
The child had his head down.
“I told you not to get involved with the crowd,
“That kid wrapped his arms around me.”
“In the end, it was me who transferred schools.
“That kid still can’t go to school.”
The boy gripped the umbrella handle tightly.
Enough to make the back of your hand turn white.
“What people were saying,
“Half right, half wrong.”
“…But why are you telling me?”
I asked cautiously.
That kid
He looked at me for a moment and then said.
"you,
Even after knowing who I am
“I feel like you’ll always be by my side.”
The sound of the rain was loud.
It was small and quiet under the umbrella.
I said nothing
I saw his hand.
I wasn't nervous, though
It was clear that he was holding on.
"me,
“I won’t end up like that kid.”
That means
It came out like a promise.
And that kid,
He nodded very slowly.
"okay.
That's... fortunate."