Chapter Text
Wooyoung hated the rain. For the young lilac haired man, it seemed as though precipitation doubled as some kind of bad omen, signifying that something so dark it rivaled the stormy sky, would be coming his way.
It rained when he was five and his pet goldfish died. At the time, Wooyoung had wanted to bury him outside like he saw in the movies but the mud was too thick to dig a shallow fish grave so he had to settle on flushing his aquatic friend instead. He never got another pet after that.
It rained again when Wooyoung was eleven and he was pushed out of a treehouse. He broke his leg that day and his mother refused to let him play with the neighbour again after the accident.
When Wooyoung was fourteen and that same neighbour boy who pushed him out of the treehouse decided to kiss him, it was raining. The sky cried along with Wooyoung when the neighbour boy spit in his face as if he weren’t the one to pull Wooyoung in by his shirt collar and plant one on him. When the neighbour boy told Wooyoung’s mom that Wooyoung had forced himself on him, the pitiful fourteen year old could no longer distinguish the loud cracks of thunder from the whip of his father's belt.
When Wooyoung was eighteen and dropped out of university after less than a semester, it poured like never before. His parents eventually learned to accept the whole gay thing (as long as Wooyoung pinky promised not to act on it), but chosing dance over med school was apparently the last straw. Thus the freshly turned adult was tossed to the streets. All the other times it had rained, Wooyoung never got very wet. Even when he was pushed out of the treehouse his mother had rushed over in seconds with a towel. This time however, Wooyoung was soaked. Maybe if he’d had an umbrella things wouldn’t have been so grey, but alas Wooyoung had wandered the streets in the freezing winter rain for hours. Thankfully, before he could die from the cold, Kang Yeosang, a mere acquaintance at the time, stumbled upon Wooyoung’s pathetic dripping wet state and offered him a place to wait out the rain. The rain stopped but Wooyoung stayed.
Now, three years later, eager to return back to Yeosang’s apartment, which had somehow become their apartment, Wooyoung noticed the familiar pitter patter of a bad omen.
Locking up the dance studio was always tedious. From sweeping the floors to washing the floor-to-ceiling mirror wall, Wooyoung would try to make it slightly more bearable by blasting music. With a loud enough rhythm pounding in your head, Wooyoung firmly believed you could turn an inch of any mundane thing into a mile of freedom through dance. Perhaps this was why dancing was his dream. After he discovered this, locking up the studio was never tedious again.
On this particular day, the twenty one year old took his sweet time dance-cleaning in a not so subtle attempt at avoiding the cursed weather.
Buzzt buzzt.
Wooyoung ignored his phone and continued to tango with his broom.
Buzzt buzzt.
“I swear to god, Yeosang,” Wooyoung sighed, finally whipping out his phone and pressing pause on the stereo.
[Skater Bitch]
dude r u coming home soon??
[Skater Bitch]
the gays bought us chicken and beer
[Wooyoungie]
i'm on my way now
[Wooyoungie]
just gotta lock the doors
[Wooyoungie]
also
[Wooyoungie]
i’m telling mingi and yunho u called them “the gays”
[Wooyoungie]
when they’re literally our only hetero friends
[Skater Bitch]
noooooo don’t
Wooyoung chuckled as he shoved his phone back into his practice duffel. Doing a final visual sweep of the studio, the lilac haired dance instructor turned off the stereo and hit the lights. Locking the door under the safety of the awning was no problem at all, but what came after that was going to be. In typical Wooyoung fashion, the young man was unprepared for the weather, both physically and emotionally.
“Where’s your umbrella, teacher?” a tiny little voice barely louder than the torrential downpour piqued up somewhere to Wooyoung’s left. Sitting on the bench just beyond the double doors with her knees to her chest, hugging her backpack, was a little girl.
“Hyejin?” Wooyoung gasped at the sight of the eight year old. “What are you still doing here, your lesson ended over an hour ago.”
Hyejin shot up from her perch and attached herself to Wooyoung’s leg. “I was too afraid of the dark and I don’t have an umbrella,” she sobbed, rubbing her snot all over the young man’s sweatpants. Wooyoung didn’t mind.
“Was someone supposed to come pick you up?” he inquired, patting the little girl’s pitch black hair in a poor attempt at comfort. It seemed to work though, as Hyejin raised her head and wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her pink sweater.
“My big brother was supposed to come, but I think he forgot,” she explained, still sniffling and wiping at her eyes. Wooyoung continued to pat her hair.
“Do you know his phone number?” Wooyoung asked gently.
She nodded and told Wooyoung the numbers for him to type into his phone. By the sixth ring, Wooyoung gave up.
“Do you have anyone else we could call?”
Hyejin just shook her head and gripped Wooyoung’s leg tighter.
Before Wooyoung put his phone away he sent a simple text in the group chat.
[Wooyoungie]
change of plans eat without me
[Orange Juice]
boo you whore
[Yunhoe]
I second that
[Skater Bitch]
more chicken for me i guess
[Joong]
more berry 4 me
[Joong]
berry*
[Yunhoe]
no
[Joong]
BEER
[Orange Juice]
NO
[Skater Bitch]
absolutely not
[Skater Bitch]
you’ve had enough
Wooyoung smiled as he tucked his phone away and turned to Hyejin. She was already staring at him.
“Was that your family?” she asked, eyes still glistening with unshed tears and something else the young man couldn’t quite place.
“Yeah,” Wooyoung laughed. “It was. Now let’s get you home.”
He took the young girls hand, and because neither of them had umbrellas they ran.
They ran and they ran, until Hyejin’s little legs couldn’t run anymore. Wooyoung turned around to see the little girl's left hand still clinging to his but her right hand was braced on her knees.
“Teacher, I can’t run anymore. I'm too tired,” she panted. Wooyoung bent down to eye level and wiped Hyejin’s wet bangs out of her eyes.
“We’re almost there,” he responded.
Hyejin’s sharp features broke out into a smile that revealed a couple missing teeth and finally made her look her age again. Without warning she jumped onto Wooyoung’s back.
“Piggyback ride!” she demanded gleefully, pointing ahead.
And so, for the first time since before Wooyoung was five, he smiled under the rain.
*
When Wooyoung finally arrived at the address Hyejin had given him, he was beyond exhausted. She lived pretty close to the studio, which normally would’ve been a blessing but since there were no buses that ran a route so short, the distance ended up being a curse on rainy days.
Hyejin was still giggling as she climbed down from Wooyoung's back.
“Thank you for walking me home teacher!” she bowed. A smile slipped onto Wooyoung’s features until he remembered why he had to walk her home in the first place.
“Hyejin?” Wooyoung frowned. The little girl dropped her hand from the door knob, and turned back towards her dance teacher. “Tell your brother to be on time from here on out.”
Hyejin simply nodded and pushed open the door to her house. It wasn’t locked.
With a final glance at the front door Wooyoung worryingly ran a hand through his hair. It came away dry. Hyejin’s backpack lay forgotten on the welcome mat, so wet from using it as a shield, that it was probably ruined.
They may not have had umbrellas but they made do.
*
By the time Wooyoung finally made it home the rain had stopped and there were two idiots passed out in his living room, a third idiot doodling penises on their foreheads, and a fourth idiot presumably somewhere still in the apartment. As if he read Wooyoung’s mind, Yeosang looked up from his masterpieces.
“Hongjoong hyung passed out hugging the toilet bowl,” he said as casually as one would state the time. Wooyoung rolled his eyes.
“Let me guess these two bromeos,” Wooyoung said, pointing at Mingi and Yunho’s unconscious forms. “And their colourful sidekick showed up pre-intoxicated.”
“That would be one third correct,” Yeosang started, capping his marker and walking away from the lumps on the sofa. “Joong was blasted when he got here, but Mingi and Yunho found a new friend.”
Wooyoung raised an eyebrow in question.
“One of the guys at Mingi’s fitness centre sold them weed gummies,” Yeosang sighed.
“Obviously they didn’t handle it very well,” Wooyoung said, stepping over Yunho’s sprawled out leg, and lifting his arm up just to drop it again for fun. The tall brunet didn’t stir.
“I had like 5 and I’m fine,” Yeosang shrugged.
“That’s because you’re a drug addict,” Wooyoung teased. “Please tell me you didn’t give any to Hongjoong Hyung-”
“Oh my god no,” Yeosang replied. “I may be dumb but I’m not stupid.”
They both laughed and Wooyoung headed straight to bed, forgoing the shower he wanted to take because one of his best friends was napping in the bathroom. Before he got too far Yeosang called after him.
“Wooyoung, are you alright?”
The concern in Yeosang’s voice was a little unusual which is why Wooyoung put more effort into making his response sound genuine.
“I’m fine, just tired.”
But Wooyoung wasn’t fine because it seemed like Hyejin and her family might not be fine either.