"𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧 𝙢𝙚

𝙖 𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙢𝙮 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙜

𝙞𝙢 𝙖𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙙 𝙞𝙢 𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙬

𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜"

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0:00-0:25

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as fast he could. he's aware that he's in a car with air-condition, but the sweat is still dripping from his forehead. he silently prays to himself that the pharmacy is open. it has to be, his mother is awaiting her medicine at home.

as he sees the word PHARMACY in front of him, still brightly lit, jaehyun swears that he could have just cried right there. he gets down and runs to the pharmacy, in which the friendly woman working there recognises him, and gets his needs ready. "i was about to close, but i knew that you would come, so i waited for you first," jaehyun felt his heart warm with gratitude.

"is her condition improving?" she asks him, and jaehyun smiles sadly, shaking his head. "she hasn't smiled in so long," he blinks the tears away, and the woman looks at him equally as sadly. "she's really lucky to have you," the woman gives jaehyun an understanding smile.

jaehyun returns it as he opens his wallet to pay, when the woman stops him. "don't worry about it, from now on, it's on me," jaehyun couldn't believe what he was hearing, and he bows gratefully at her. as he exits the pharmacy, his heart is full — he has never felt so grateful in so long.

as he drives back home with a smile across his face, he witnesses raindrops begin to fall from the sky — one after another. as they descend onto the windscreen, more of them crowd together, and soon enough, it was pouring. jaehyun slows down his car, as he drives at the lane nearest to the wonhyo bridge, taking in the view from his side.

jaehyun watched the raindrops pour collectively into the river, as his ears tingle at the therapeutic sounds of the raindrops. however, his view is soon interrupted; as he sees a girl walking by herself in the rain. she folds her arms together as her footsteps move slowly, one foot at a time, with her eyes are locked to her feet.

jaehyun stops his car and gets down, walking over to his boot, in which he gets an umbrella and opens it. he notices the girl walking still, not noticing jaehyun stop. he walks from behind her and holds the umbrella over the both of them. she stops. her eyes shift to in front of her, but doesn't turn around to face jaehyun.

they are mere inches away from each other, both beneath jaehyun's only source of shelter that he can provide. "do you need a lift?" he asks her, and it takes a good half a minute before she nods her head slowly. jaehyun gently goes beside her, and turns her around to go back to his car. she looks down back at her feet, refusing to look jaehyun in the eye.

he opens the car door for her, and she gets inside. jaehyun does the same, and before he starts the car, he asks her, "where to?" a question she completely ignore. jaehyun waits a minute or two for a reply, but doesn't get one in the end. he sighs and asks her another question, "do you want some ramen from the convenience store?" she nods slowly, with the same energy from minutes ago.

jaehyun nods and drives forward. the car ride is silent, with both of them not saying a word. as jaehyun pulls over at the convenience store, she is quick to get out of the car, but jaehyun stops her. "wait," he takes out his jacket and puts it over her, "wear this, it's cold." her hair is still covering her face, so jaehyun hasn't been able to see her face clearly, yet.

as they both enter the store, she quickly goes and takes a seat at the end of the shop. jaehyun buys and makes them ramen and walks over to her, passing her the meal and fork. "thank you," she bows and says, audible enough for jaehyun to hear. jaehyun smiles at her finally saying something, and chirps back hopefully, "my pleasure."

both of them eat in silence for awhile, until jaehyun notices that she barely touched her food. "not hungry?" jaehyun asks her and she shakes her head. it was surely back to square one, jaehyun thinks to himself. "where do you want me to drop you later?" she chuckles softly, and jaehyun notices something fall into her cup of ramen.

a tear.

"hey," jaehyun puts down his fork and moves closer to her, about to put a comforting arm around her, but hesitates, before retracting his hand back. she sniffs and puts down her fork as well. "i'll get home myself," her voice is clearly shaky and hoarse, sure evidence of crying... for hours even.

jaehyun nods his head, and stands up. "i'll get going then," he smiles sadly at her, but she couldn't see it. he turns around and begins to walk, when she suddenly begins singing a song. jaehyun stops in his tracks and turns around. her voice was truly something else, so unique to the ears, so soothing and comforting. no matter how hard she had been crying, her singing voice showed no signs of that.

she continues, before breaking down. she puts her face in her hands and weeps softly, her body shaking with every sob. jaehyun walks over to her and does not think twice before pulling her by the arm and enveloping her into a tight hug.

she doesn't pull back or anything, but just sobs harder into jaehyun's chest. jaehyun hugs her even tighter everytime she cries harder, as the lyrics of the song she had sung sunk into him. and as they did, jaehyun thought of his hardships, and allowed a tear to escape from his eyes.

and at that point in time, jaehyun swore time stopped for them.

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