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The summer rainy season had begun.
Felix sighed, looking out his window into the gloomy outdoors, where buckets of rain fell from the skies in waves. It seemed like this bad week would never end with the wet outdoors, cloudy skies, creaky windows, and most importantly - nothing to do.
He couldn’t remember the last time he went outside. After just finishing finals, he was excited for summer break, only to get barely two weeks outside before being stuck inside due to the weather. Some people would say “just go out,” but traveling in the rain was stressful, dreary, and left him feeling and looking like a wet rat.
The sound of his phone ringing shook him out of his gloomy thoughts. With a sigh, he reached over the chair, sliding his phone off the table and into his hands to check the name of the caller.
Jisung.
“What’s up?” he answered, leaning back into his chair and turning his gaze back to the pouring outdoors.
“Are you busy?” Jisung asked, and Felix could hear some sort of rustling going on from the other end of the line. Jisung always tended to juggle so many tasks - talking on the phone, going shopping, and running over things all at once.
“No… you know how it is during this time,” Felix said with a long sigh, using his empty hand to rub his eyes. “There’s nothing to do and it’s always so dark outside.”
“Well, you’re busy now. I’ll be over in a bit with some snacks and board games. Be prepared!”
The call ended before Felix could respond.
He stared at his phone for a few seconds, then sighed again, heavier this time, dragging his feet as he got up from the chair. If Jisung was coming over, the least he could do was try to make his apartment look less like a sad post-finals cave.
Felix shuffled around the apartment in his house slippers, doing the laziest version of tidying possible - kicking laundry out of sight, stacking dishes in the sink to make it look like there were fewer, and spraying room spray in the general direction of the couch cushions. The couch got a spritz of lemon zest and his socks got accidentally sprayed too, so now it smelled like citrus depression.
Just as he finished tossing a few wrappers into the trash, the doorbell rang.
He opened the door to find Jisung on the welcome mat, rain still dripping off the edge of his umbrella and the hem of his jeans soaked. He was holding a huge tote bag and wearing a grin that said, ‘yes, I absolutely did just walk through a storm for this.’
“You’re insane,” Felix said in disbelief.
“Hello to you too,” Jisung replied, stepping inside like he hadn’t just ignored a weather warning. “Your place smells like a lemon decided to start over and live its truth as an air freshener.”
“I cleaned for you,” Felix said, deadpan.
Jisung kicked off his shoes and dropped the tote bag onto the couch. “I come bearing joy,” he said. “Behold.”
Inside the bag was a chaotic assortment of snacks - three kinds of chips, two large packs of gummies, some soda bottles, instant ramen, and for some reason, a bag of pretzels shaped like tiny ducks. He also pulled out two board games, one of which had a cartoon frog on the cover riding a unicycle.
“What... is this?”
“Swamp Scramble,” Jisung said proudly. “I found it in the clearance section. It’s probably a terrible game, but the frog has charisma.”
Felix gave him a look, but sat down on the rug anyway. “You realize you could’ve just sent a meme like a normal person instead of going through a thunderstorm to hang out.”
“Yeah, but memes can’t make you ramen or annoy you in person. I offer both.”
They played Swamp Scramble first, which turned out to be just as chaotic as expected. The rules didn’t make much sense, and half the cards said things like, ‘Lose one turn due to existential frog drama’ or ‘A raccoon steals your umbrella - go back three spaces.’ Jisung insisted on making sound effects for every turn, and Felix kept threatening to kick him out, but never actually did.
Somewhere between fighting over lily pads and cheating with marshmallows and gummy worms as bribes, Felix realized he hadn’t thought about the weather or anything stressful for a while.
That didn’t last long.
A loud crack of thunder boomed outside, strong enough to rattle the windows.
The lights flickered once. Then again.
Then they shut off completely.
Felix and Jisung froze in place.
“...That can’t be good,” Felix said.
“Maybe it’s temporary?” Jisung questioned.
A few seconds later, another crash echoed from outside - louder, heavier. Felix stood up and went to the window.
“Oh,” he said, frowning. “Well. That explains it.”
“What?”
“A tree fell at the end of the street. It hit the power lines.”
Jisung came up beside him to peek. “Oh, wow… It took out the whole road.”
“Yeah. You’re stuck here now.”
Jisung blinked. “Trapped with snacks and my best friend. What a tragedy.”
Felix gave him a look. “You’re enjoying this.”
“A little,” Jisung admitted. “Okay, a lot.”
Felix sighed, heading for the closet. “You wanna make this less depressing?”
“Always.”
“Blanket fort?”
“Felix,” Jisung said seriously, “you speak my language.”
---
They dragged chairs and cushions into the living room, used some old bed sheets and battery-powered fairy lights from a drawer, and built what was either a brilliant fort or a collapsing fabric monster.
It leaned a bit on one side, but they didn’t care. Inside, it was warm and quiet, with the storm muted to a soft pattering on the windows. They sat side by side with mugs of hot chocolate, legs tangled in the mess of blankets.
“No marshmallows?” Jisung asked.
“You ate them all earlier.”
“Oh… well, they were yummy.”
The fairy lights gave off a gentle glow, and their phones were charging on a backup battery. It wasn’t fancy, but it was cozy.
“This actually feels kind of perfect,” Felix said after a while, sipping on his hot chocolate slowly.
“Told you. Being stuck doesn’t have to be a bad thing.”
“Remind me of that when we run out of chips.”
“I’ll fashion snacks from thin air,” Jisung said confidently.
Felix chuckled, leaning his head against the pillow behind him. The sound of the rain outside had softened into something steady and rhythmic, almost like a lullaby. Their little cocoon of blankets and sheets made everything feel farther away than it really was.
“You know,” Jisung said after a long pause, his voice quieter now, “I kinda needed this too.”
Felix turned to glance at him. Jisung wasn’t smiling like he usually did - his expression was relaxed, thoughtful.
“What, the frog board game?”
Jisung huffed a laugh. “No, I mean... just not being by myself for a while.”
Felix didn’t say anything at first. He just adjusted the blanket so it covered more of Jisung’s shoulder and leaned a little closer.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “Me too.”
They sat in silence for a few more moments, the kind that didn’t feel awkward or empty. Just full of the kind of calm that only came with being around someone you didn’t have to pretend for.
Eventually, their stomachs growled almost in sync.
Rummaging through the tote bag of snacks, they found the packs of instant ramen and cooked them by flashlight in the kitchen. The power was still out, but the gas stove worked, and they made do with two chipped bowls and a lot of giggling over who got more seasoning.
Back in the fort, they slurped noodles while sitting cross-legged.
“I feel like we’re five years old again,” Jisung said around a mouthful.
“Five-year-olds don’t have to worry about finals or cleaning lemon-scented disaster zones.”
“True. But they also don’t get to build forts with mood lighting and gourmet instant ramen.”
Felix raised an eyebrow. “This is gourmet now?”
Jisung nodded solemnly. “I added an egg. Instant upgrade.”
They finished eating, set the bowls aside, and settled back under the blankets. The battery on the fairy lights was still holding strong, casting a soft, golden glow across the space.
Jisung had gone quiet again, his eyes half-closed as he picked at a thread on the edge of the blanket. Felix glanced at him and found himself watching - noticing the way the tension in his shoulders had slowly eased since earlier, how his usual bright energy had softened into something more peaceful.
“You’re gonna fall asleep sitting up,” Felix said softly, nudging him.
“I’m conserving energy,” Jisung mumbled, not opening his eyes.
Felix rolled his eyes but reached out anyway, gently pulling the blanket around them both more snugly.
“You’re gonna catch a cold,” he said.
Jisung opened one eye, just barely. “Wow. So nurturing.”
Felix gave him a small smile. “Don’t make it weird.”
“Too late.”
Still, Jisung didn’t move away. He shifted just enough that their sides were pressed together, his head dipping slightly to rest against Felix’s shoulder.
Outside, the storm continued to hum, steady and unhurried.
Inside, under a slightly crooked blanket fort, with ramen bowls nearby and the scent of hot chocolate still in the air, everything felt still.
And for once, Felix didn’t mind being stuck inside. Not if it meant this.