Stories of LITA 1

IX - Why Rain?

A/N : Ple always wondered, rather bitterly, why it was the nondescript Rain who was Phayu's choice. Surely, the God deserved better! Then she found out the truth!

Rain and P'Phayu started dating just before their final exams in the 1st year of Architecture. And Ple would never forget the day they announced it, the day they had all gone for lunch at a nearby restaurant after completing all their preparations for the Freshmen Orientation. It had been so hard for Ple to accept that the man she had a crush on was taken. That too by a boy who supposedly had a crush on her. How did that even happen? P'Som had been scandalised. She could see that on his face. All of their friends could, as Rain and P'Phayu had walked out of the gathering hand in hand.

She knew Rain was a good person. He was kind and loyal and sweet. But what did P'Phayu see in him? Phayu was the 'God' of the Architecture faculty. He was beyond good looking. He was smart, talented, intelligent. In short, he was perfect. And Rain? Rain was so.. boring. He was clumsy, klutzy, if not lazy, definitely a procrastinator. He was bubbly and cheerful, yes, but he was an airhead and had zero brain to mouth filter. He was nothing like a person she had imagined P'Phayu would date. She had secretly hoped he would date her, but now she was just disappointed. Maybe the 'God' was not that worthy after all.

Thanks to P'Som's long suffering whining about Phayu and Rain, Ple started distancing herself a bit from their group of 5. At first, the others didn't say anything, but eventually one of them must have figured out something. So they would deliberately drag her into discussions. She noticed that Rain would keep his distance, and surprisingly, so would Sky. She didn't know why she felt bad about that. One day, when Sky and she were alone in their practice lab, she asked him about it. He told her that Rain was the first real friend he had, someone who had gone through hellfire for him, and someone who was his soulmate in the truest sense of the word. He said that both Rain and he had heard the conversation between P'Som and her, dissing Rain and that did not sit well with him. He added that he was a little disappointed in both her and her brother. But Rain didn't want to make a big deal out of it. He hadn't even told Phayu about it because he knew P'Som had applied for internship at P'Mhok's firm.

Ple was shocked, yet not very surprised. She had started backing off from 'Phayu' discussions with P'Som because she had begun to feel guilty about what he would say about Rain. Rain was not all that bad, and he did not deserve P'Som's continuous attack on his character and abilities. By the time the third year rolled around, they were too busy to even breathe, so all former animosities were forgotten. Except for that first year of their relationship coming out into the open, Phayu had stopped coming to the faculty, not even to pick Rain. Rain would be teased mercilessly that it seemed like Phayu had finally come to his senses and dumped his sorry ass, but Rain would laugh it off. Rain was still the same, goofy and silly, a prankster personified. But the only difference was that his projects were submitted on time and his theory also became better.

There were still those who kept saying that Phayu helped him in his designs, even though it was crystal clear that Phayu and Rain's styles were diametrically opposing. While Phayu went sleek, modern and all sharp edges, and his designs were usually for commercial buildings, Rain went softer, more green, focusing on sustainability in individual homes. Their approach was vastly different, but people still hated the fact that Rain was Phayu's boyfriend. Surprisingly, while Sig and Por continued to be offended on Rain's behalf, Rain simply laughed it off. Ple's heart broke the day she heard her four friends talking. "How do you put up with this shit Rain? Why do you put up with it?" Sig asked angrily. "Ai'Sig, when I could put up with one of my best friends talking shit about me with her brother, why would I care about what strangers think of me?" Rain said, laughing. She had decided to be nicer to Rain after that, but Rain just took it in his stride.