Never Ending: EXO Oneshot Series

Byun Baekhyun: Remnants of the Rain [Part 1]

Why did you come to me again?

When it’s me who let you go like a coward?

- No More by BEAST

 

Remnants of the Rain

What comes after the rain? A question asked countless times by romanticists, literary scholars, poets and the like. The sun, rainbows, and brighter futures – the most common of answers people would say. But for Park Sunmi, the question was: What’s left after the rain?

Was it the damp leaves that separated from the branches due to the harsh wind? The slippery roads and the little ponds on the streets? Or perhaps the scent of rain on dry earth after the downpour? Sunmi wouldn’t answer any of those. Because all that’s left after were the memories of a boy, bittersweet recollections, untold feelings and unending regrets.

-

Sunmi berated herself for not bringing an umbrella even though the sky was clearly grey when she went to school that morning. She just waved it off and was so sure that it was just going to be a light drizzle; being stupidly carefree was so irritating at times. So when the rain heavily poured that afternoon, she groaned out loud.

“Great. Just great.” She mumbled sarcastically. “I’m going to get drenched again later.”

“Hey, no need to worry. I brought one today. We’re going home together, anyway.” Chanyeol, her caring and adorable six foot boyfriend, said and wrapped his long arm around her shoulders.

“Yeah, but you know we’re not going to fit under the umbrella with your size.” She stated, matter-of-factly.

“We can always run in the rain together.” He offered with a cheesy smile and Sunmi couldn’t help but laugh.

“That’s so cliché and stupid, Yeol.” She pinched him lightly on his side.

Chanyeol just chuckled, not even flinching when she pinched him and continued to watch the rain pouring outside through the window of their classroom. “Oh, but I want to try it with you.”

She smiled in response, but it didn’t reach her eyes. Little did Chanyeol know that there was another thing running inside her mind as the raindrops streak the glass windows in indistinct patterns. She couldn’t help but think about another boy who used to run under the rain with her, hand-in-hand, and their laughter ringing loudly despite the howling of the wind. She mentally shook her head to dismiss those thoughts; it was no use remembering it, especially now that she had Chanyeol at her side.

-

The weather continued to be gloomy for the next days. Sunmi wanted to take a break from school because commuting in that kind of weather was hard but then as a senior high school student, she couldn’t afford to have lots of absences. Her fellow students were all hurrying to get inside the campus like she was, trying not to get so drenched first thing in the morning.

She went straight to her locker as soon as she got in and took the books that she needed for her morning classes. Her thoughts wandered to her boyfriend, worried because he texted her earlier saying that he caught a cold and couldn’t come to school for a few days. She planned to visit him later after classes.