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"Shit…" Mingrui cursed under his breath.
Outside was the heaviest downpour he had seen in years. The sound of raindrops violently hitting the windows and glass door of the front lobby of his office, was the only sound in the otherwise rather empty building. If he had just went home earlier… But no, his boss just had to ask him for some extra hours. And of course, Mingrui being Mingrui, didn't reject the offer for some extra cash.
'Though, he could raise my bonus…' he complained to himself, simply watching the rain outside and the traffic jam caused by the rush hour and weather.
Like this, he wouldn't be able to get a bus, nor call a cab; and all the umbrellas the lobby usually had by the door, had already been taken by those luckier than him. But he had to go home somehow—he could either wait in the lobby for who knew how long, or run and arrive at his doorstep soaked.
Taking a deep sigh, Mingrui chose the latter.
He shook his hands and legs, as if preparing to run a marathon, took a few deep breaths, and placed his hands on the door.
"Alright… One… two…"
Suddenly he was regretting his decision, before even having run out. He would get so sick the day after, he knew.
Who cared… who cared!? He wanted to go home!
"…three!"
Hyping himself up, Mingrui pushed open the door and ran out. The rain immediately hit his head, shoulders, arms, legs, and soon almost everything of him was wet. He clung to his bag, making sure it wouldn't slip from his shoulder, and tried his best to see something in between the raindrops on his glasses.
This was terrible—no, impossible. He had seriously underestimated the heaviness of the downpour. And for some reason, it just felt like the rain was getting worse.
But fate seemed to show him mercy for the first time today, after being so cruel earlier. Not far from him, there was a small shop, neon sign already blinking 'closed'—that wasn't a problem, he just needed a break under a roof.
Mingrui's steps went from splashing water up, to finally having semi-dry ground under him. Leaning his back against the shop's walls, he felt his lungs already burning.
"Ugh," Mingrui mumbled, taking a look at his rain-soaked bag. He carefully opened it to reveal some water damaged papers.
"Oh… no, no, no–" he frantically flipped through the papers to hopefully at least find his more precious documents still intact, and thankfully they were, but if he kept running in the rain like this, they would definitely all get soaked. Just like himself.
This was undoubtedly, one of the worst days of Mingrui's life.
He was cold, wet and his papers were damaged.
"Are you alright?" A voice pulled Mingrui out of his doom-filled thoughts. Looking up from his bag, he saw a strangely familiar face walking up to him. Green eyes, black messy hair, and undeniably quite handsome facial features. Holding an umbrella, the man stopped in front of Mingrui.
'He looks like one of those European models on magazines…' Mingrui thought to himself, when it finally clicked in his head. He had seen this guy before! He just didn't realize because of the casual clothes the man was wearing right now. The last time he had seen this handsome foreigner… he had been wearing a police uniform. He had to work around this area, since Mingrui had seen him quite a few times around.
Actually—it was quite strange. There were always things happening around him, or involving him, where in the end the police had to be called. He witnessed the aftermath of a bunch of car accidents while taking the bus to work, his apartment complex got broken into twice in the last month, and he kept seeing his neighbours calling the police for noise complaints because of a couple that lived on his floor.
To put it simply, he had seen this man quite a few times, but never spoke to him.
"You're completely drenched, do you not have an umbrella with you?" The policeman asked again, not having heard any response coming from Mingrui.
"I don't… I was trying to go home," Mingrui mumbled. He somehow felt a little embarrassed being seen like this. There was this insanely model-like looking guy in front of him, and Mingrui looked like a wet stray cat in the corner of some alleyway.
The man looked Mingrui up and down with obvious pity in his eyes. "Do you want me to accompany you?" he asked, and if noticing that perhaps it was a strange question to come from a supposed stranger, he dug out his wallet from his pockets. Slightly flustered, he pulled out a police badge.
'I don't think I have any other option…'
"Thank you, officer. I appreciate it." Mingrui looked at the badge and then back at the man. "My apartment is that way," he said, pointing into the rough direction they had to go, though one could hardly see anything through the dense rain. "It won't take long, I'm sorry for the inconvenience."
The man shook his head with a smile, before making some room under the umbrella for Mingrui.
How humble. For some reason Mingrui felt like this man would be of the egotistical nature. Did that thought come from his good looks? Pushing that thought aside, Mingrui hugged his bag close again, and stepped under the umbrella, leading the way.
Soon, silence started to spread between them, only the sounds of traffic and rain filled the ambience. What would be awkward silence, strangely felt comfortable. Perhaps having seen this man a few times before, didn't make Mingrui feel like he was walking next to a stranger. He couldn't think of any other reason as to why that feeling would be the case.
"I'm Leonard," the officer suddenly spoke up, and that comfortable silence quickly turned into a not-so-comfortable forced interaction. Mingrui much preferred walking in silence until his apartment and thank the man before disappearing and hopefully never having to see him again. Having been close to being involved in so many incidents lately, it seemed like a bad omen that this officer found him. Though Mingrui swore he wasn't the superstitious type.
"Zhou Mingrui," he replied.
" 'Mingrui'…have we met before? You seem familiar." Leonard gave him a kind of side glance, and for a moment it looked as if he was judging him, but Mingrui just told himself this man didn't seem to have any manners. After all, they were basically glued together under the umbrella. Leonard still had so much space left for himself, and no matter how much Mingrui tried to escape to the boarder, Leonard just seemed to inch closer. And if Mingrui threatened to leave the protection of the umbrella even for just a centimetre, Leonard would wrap his arm around his shoulder and pull him back. What the hell? Acting like they were friends?
"Ah… that must be because of the two burglaries that happened last month in my apartment complex," Mingrui confessed with a slightly annoyed smile at Leonard's hand still resting on his shoulder. At the same time, he didn't have the courage to tell him off. That was an officer…what if he offended him and got himself in jail!?
'That's ridiculous Mingrui…' he calmed himself.
"Makes sense! I think my colleague even spoke to you briefly, no? I remember now, you opened your door wearing pyjamas with little cats on them," Leonard laughed.
Indeed. That had happened. And Mingrui was hoping that anyone involved had forgotten. He had to open the door to answer some questions a police officer asked him, but Leonard was only standing by the side. He didn't know Leonard had paid attention, least of all even seen him.
'Why are you telling this to my face!?'
Mingrui scoffed. This police man was way too rude.
"There are certain things we keep to ourselves." Mingrui could feel his mouth twitching. What in the world compelled Leonard to be so friendly with him? And even bigger question, what compelled Mingrui to talk back like this?
Leonard simply smiled back. Not smug. Not confident. Not teasingly. It was a soft smile, sad, and maybe even a bit nostalgic. And seeing that made Mingrui's heart hurt.
This entire time, he felt like he was forgetting something. Something of extreme importance, and yet he couldn't remember. It kept nagging at the back of his head with every new expression Leonard showed, with every word that came out of his mouth, that Mingrui wished he would just keep shut.
Even Leonard seemed to know what was going on. But not him. Not Mingrui. He would have to feel these inexplicable strange melancholic feelings and accept the fact, that no one would be able to explain these to him. Where they came from, how they knew just the right ways to twist his heart and gnaw at the bones of his ribcage, and how they made him dread the moment he would have to part from this loudmouth of a police officer.
"Well, Mingrui, it was nice chatting with you," Leonard said.
They arrived at the doorstep of the apartment complex, and Mingrui wondered just how short the way had felt. He knew they had passed by all the streets he always did, all the shops and even that small café he sometimes went to after work, and yet it still felt like Leonard had lead him through a shortcut that Mingrui had never known of before.
He couldn't leave just like this. Wave goodbye to Leonard and work through these feelings alone. Because despite Mingrui fearing finding out where they came from, fearing what kind of consequences knowledge would bring him, he wanted to know. He wanted to understand and he wanted to cling on to just a few more minutes of Leonard's company. As if that would answer all his questions, because Leonard, a complete stranger, seemed to understand Mingrui better, than Mingrui understood himself.
Leonard was already gearing to turn around and walk back, or to wherever he needed to go.
"Would you mind coming up with me?" Mingrui asked, successfully stopping Leonard from leaving. But noticing Leonard's funny look and raised eyebrow, he quickly added, "I need to repay you with a coffee at least."
Leonard looked at him surprised. He certainly wasn't expecting this.
His eyes darted away from Mingrui, as if looking at someone else for permission, before looking back at nodding. He wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to stay in this dream, how much more he could talk without letting words, that Mingrui should not hear, slip.
It was so difficult. Difficult and heartbreaking, to see his dearest friend not remember him even one bit. To see him with a different face and name that Leonard had never gotten to know before. And yet, Mingrui still acted the same as the Klein he had met back in Tingen. The same smile, the same eye-roll, and the same need to talk back at Leonard, but only at Leonard because he knew that he would never mind that. Because they were teammates, friends, and partners.
Leonard stepped under the roof of the building and closed the umbrella, shaking off the rainwater, before he followed Mingrui upstairs.
"Feel free to sit down, I'll just change out the wet clothes and come back," Mingrui said once they entered his apartment, and quickly disappeared into a different room.
With Mingrui gone, Leonard took his time to look around the small living room and kitchen. It was quite organised, not that that was any surprise, only the dinner table had a paper mindlessly forgotten on it; a list with some groceries. There was not one picture of Melissa or Benson in these rooms, and although Leonard should have expected it, it felt wrong.
"Coffee or tea?" Mingrui asked the moment he came out of his room again, fully changed though his hair was still damp.
"I'll take the same as you."
Mingrui shot him a glance, but didn't say anything else. Pouring some water into a kettle, he let it boil and picked out just the first tea he could grab, before pouring it into two teacups and bringing it to the table, where Leonard was already waiting.
They sat across from each other, a bit awkwardly at first as that comfortable silence settled in between them once more. Only the rain hitting the window glass behind Mingrui sounded as their background noise. Mingrui didn't regret inviting him over. He wanted to know if Leonard would help him understand those feelings, although it sounded ridiculous whenever the thought came up, and besides, Mingrui really wanted to pay Leonard back somehow. The less time he'd take to repay Leonard, the better. He didn't want to stay owing him one for too long.
"Don't you sometimes feel like there is something missing?" Leonard suddenly asked as if it was a completely normal question.
There certainly was something Mingrui felt like he was missing. Something he was forgetting, something he wasn't quite understanding. The answer was written everywhere all around him in a language he didn't know and couldn't read.
"I didn't think you'd be someone who liked deep talk," Mingrui commented and took another sip of his tea. It was still hot.
Leonard smiled. "I suppose it comes with being a poet."
That felt like a slap in Mingrui's face. A yell telling him to concentrate and finally piece the answer together.
"I bet you're a terrible one." Mingrui didn't know where the thought came from. Or why he felt like crying the moment those words left his mouth.
Leonard set his teacup down. "I've heard that one a lot," he mumbled, looking into his cup at the bits of herbs swimming around in the last sip of tea. As if suddenly deciding this was enough conversation, enough information Mingrui would get out of him, he stood up. "Thank you for the invitation, although it really wasn't necessary." He felt like he would break apart if he stayed any longer.
"It was the least I could do," Mingrui commented as he watched Leonard slowly take his leave. He didn't want him to leave. There were still so many questions, he couldn't bring himself to ask, left unanswered. He felt he needed to ask Leonard more about his poems, about that other officer he had seen before, the one with kind grey eyes that had asked for Mingrui's name at least three times because he kept forgetting it, and about himself.
But Mingrui said none of it. Instead, his feet stayed rooted to the comfort of his home as he watched Leonard wave him goodbye, open the door to leave, and turn around one last time.
"I wish you sweet dreams, Mingrui." He smiled and closed the door behind him.
What an odd thing to say, Mingrui thought. It wasn't even that late yet.
He stared back at the closed door, as if hoping that he would hear a knock again, hear Leonard's voice again. It made no sense for him to want something like this, and yet here he was wishing for the most ridiculous thing to happen. The more he waited, the stupider he felt about his entire situation.
At least until he realized the umbrella Leonard had forgotten next to the door.
An opportunity!
Mingrui picked up the umbrella, still wet as it had left a small puddle on his floor, and ran out his apartment. Leonard couldn't have gone far, he might have just been reaching the door or noticing what he had forgotten and coming back up.
Mingrui's hurried footsteps and jumps over the last few stairs echoed through the empty staircase. He didn't even know why he was running,but he knew that, in the back of his head, something was telling him to rush or he would miss Leonard and miss an answer to his questions.
Finally arriving downstairs, Mingrui pushed the door open, and instead of being greeted by the rain outside, bright sun rays blinded him before he could see again. The downpour had stopped, only leaving humidity in the air and a few puddles on the ground behind. And Leonard was nowhere to be seen