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It's pouring for the first time this year.
Hyunju looks out the window while wrapping up her evening shift at the restaurant she works at.
"Shoot" she thinks.
She usually just walks her way home after she's all done, but she hadn't expected it to rain today. She didn't even have an umbrella.
Hyunju walks outside, all her coworkers already have left. She decides she'll just stand outside until the rain dies down.
But 5 minutes pass..and then 10...and then 20..
She taps her phone for the time. It's getting chilly outside here too.
She's planning to just walk in the rain, and deal with the embarrassent later.
She puts her scarf over her head, ready to get soaking wet on her way home…
“Excuse me?”
Hyunju gasps and whips her head around to have suddenly laid eyes on the most beautiful man she’s ever seen.
He looks about her age, tan skin, kind eyes, and slightly damp hair. He was holding out a black umbrella to her.
“I’m assuming you don’t have one? Are you walking home?” he asks sheepishly.
“Oh-h yeah, but uh, are you sure you don’t need this?” she manages to sputter.
He smiles, “I’ll be fine. My friend is picking me up soon anyway.”
She hesitantly takes the umbrella, shyly bowing as she does so. Their fingers brush ever so slightly which makes Hyunju’s heart pop out of her chest.
“Thank you so much. You saved my life.” Hyunju hushes.
He nods, “Of course. No problem, if you need anything I work nearby here.”
“Thank you, but I doubt I’ll need anything else.”
He nods and bows one more time, “Of course, nice meeting you.”
Hyunju watches for a second as he walks away, then opens the umbrella to walk home.
On the whole way there, she’s beaming with joy. How can such a small interaction with a random guy who works near her excite her so much?
When she gets home, she gently sets the umbrella next to the wall, hoping maybe she’d run into him another rainy day.
~
As the days go by, the rain comes and goes.
And every rainy day, she’s secretly hoping to run into the mysterious man who gave her the umbrella, but no sight of him…
And as the week ends, she’s given up on trying to find him again. It was just a one time thing, she has to let it go..
~
“Hyunju, can you please go buy me a soda or something? I feel sick.” said Hyunju’s best friend, also pregnant and almost due.
“Of course Junhee, strawberry, right? Do you need anything else?”
“No thanks, unless you want anything?”
“Okay then we’re good, I’ll be back soon.”
She grabs her black umbrella and walks to the usual convenience store she goes to on the daily.
“Closed for maintenance?!” she reads off the sign stuck to the door.
Hyunju groans and taps on her phone for another store location nearby here.
She finds one close to where she works. A little bit of a longer walk, but not too far for Junhee.
She shakes off her wet umbrella before walking inside.
It’s almost empty, as she assumed. Not many people are usually walking around a convenience store at 11:30 pm.
She picks up two strawberry sodas and a yogurt before walking up to the counter.
“Just these three please.” she says, pulling out her credit card. But once she takes a look at who the cashier is, her jaw nearly drops.
It’s the guy. The umbrella guy.
She notices his expression, looking quite surprised at the unexpected reunion.
“It’s you…” he says smiles, grabbing her things to scan.
Hyunju laughs awkwardly, suddenly getting super nervous, “I don’t usually come here but the store closer to my apartment was closed. Not stalking you by the way.”
He chuckles, “I You saying that makes me think you’re a stalker now.”
“Dang, you caught me. Call the feds.”
He hands her the items and her receipt with a big smile, “Gyeongseok, by the way.”
“Hyunju.”
He notices she’s still carrying around his umbrella. He points at it, “You still have it?”
Hyunju nods, “Oh right, did you want it back?”
Gyeongseok shakes his head, “Keep it. I have backups.”
“Okay thank you…then I’ll… see you around.”
“You too Hyunju. Have a good night.”
~
After finishing another evening shift at the restaurant, Hyunju walks out the door.
She looks up at the dark black sky. It’s not raining, just a light sprinkle. She takes out her black umbrella anyway, holding it up above her head.
“It’s her!”
Hyunju turns her head for the direction of a voice. It’s a kid. A girl.
The little girl gives her a huge smile, “You’re the umbrella girl!”
Hyunju tilts her head in confusion until she sees Gyeongseok running up the little girl and picking her up, adjusting her jacket good.
“Gyeongseok?!”
“Hi Hyunju…” he says embarrassingly, “I didn’t mean to bother you. My babysitter couldn’t be with her today so I had to drive her here with me. We were on our way to the store but my daughter just-”
“My dad was telling me a story about the umbrella girl a few days ago!” the girl shouts, “He told me she was so beautiful! It must be you, that’s our umbrella!”
Hyunju blinks, He thinks I’m beautiful?
“Nayeona” Gyeongseok says, “Everyone has a black umbrella.”
“But that strap is pink! Like ours!”
Hyunju looks up at Gyeongseok curiously, “You told her about me?”
“I told her it was a made up story, but I guess I got caught.” he sighs.
He gestures to his daughter, “This is Nayeon.”
“Hi Nayeon. Nice to meet you.” Hyunju says, shaking her tiny hand. She giggles.
Gyeongseok sighs, “She likes to run off and it’s hard for me to keep track of her sometimes. We won’t be bothering you again. I’m so sorry.”
“No it’s okay.” Hyunju says softly.
Nayeon smiles, “Do you wanna date my dad? I think he likes you.”
“Nayeona!”
Hyunju’s jaw drops as Gyeongseok immediately turns red and scolds his daughter about saying weird things to strangers.
“But you said you think she’s pretty!”
“She is pretty but…oh my gosh Nayeon…”
Hyunju giggles at Gyeongseok’s horrible attempt to stay calm. He bows while sighing, “We better get home now. It was nice seeing you again Hyunju.”
“Bye!” she says waving at them both as they leave.
~
It hadn’t rained in weeks.
She never even needed to bring along her umbrella anymore.
Hyunju usually thinks of the rain as a big pain. At least she did think of it as a pain before Gyeongseok.
Somehow, this man she always ran into would only magically show up when the sky was dark and the clouds were crying.
She went to the convenience store he worked at a few times during the day, but she would never be there at the time to see him there.
And as the sunny days went on, she wished one day it would pour. Just one day for a chance to run into him again.
I guess her prayers must’ve worked, since one day while packing up after her shift, it started to sprinkle outside.
She walks outside, noticing she hadn’t brought her umbrella today.
“Shoot.” she mumbles.
The rain only gets heavier and decides to wait it out. Again. She really needs to start bringing her umbrella even on the sunniest days with unpredictable weather like this.
“Hyunju?”
She turns around to a smiling Gyeongseok, holding out yet another umbrella for her.
“Seriously?” she says, laughing.
He shrugs, “It started raining unexpectedly so I came out here to see if you forgot your umbrella again.”
“Am I that predictable?”
He gestures for her to take the umbrella but she refuses.
“I don’t want to take your whole umbrella collection.”
“I don’t mind. But maybe…we could go for coffee to make up for it?”
She raises an eyebrow, “Really? Are you flirting with me?”
“Is it working?”
“Wait, you don’t have a wife? But what about your kid?”
“Oh um…the mom left her at my house when she was born and never came back for her. I don’t even know where she is now.”
“Oh I didn’t realize. I’m sorry about that…”
He laughs, “It’s totally okay, and no pressure of course. We can just continue with this rainy day thing we seem to have going for us.”
“No I want to, but I want to tell you before that um… I am a trans girl. I wouldn’t want to lie to you or anything.”
He blinks at her, “Is that your way of rejecting me?”
“No! I want to warn you just in case. People don’t take that the nicest.” Hyunju responds.
He sighs, giving her a smile, “I don’t care. I really don’t. All people are different, and I think you’re pretty and sweet so….”
Hyunju can’t believe her ears. A man has never expressed interest in her like this before. Especially after hearing she’s trans.
He puffs out his cheeks, “Is that a yes for coffee?”
She nods, “Yes, of course.”
“Perfect.” he says, handing her the umbrella, “Nayeon’s gonna freak out if she finds out about this. Better not let it slip out.”
“Nayeon’s absolutely adorable. Such a sweet kid.”
Gyeongseok’s about to say something else, but his phone rings. He takes a look at the name and immediately starts panicking,
“Oh gosh it’s my boss, I’m late for my shift at the store, okay I gotta go but I’ll see you next time Hyunju, and we’ll go get coffee soon too, as soon as we can.”
He starts to run but Hyunju calls out, “When will I see you again?”
He starts running backwards, smiling and pointing up to the sky,
“Wait for the rain!”