Summary: THE STORY THAT HAS PASSED « "Love······." He recited in a low voice. And he noticed, for the first time in his life, what a pretty sound the word 'love' is. » - From the day we met.
Five years ago, on a late spring day. The man was taking a walk by the Han river with his dog.
'We haven't gone for a walk in so long, why this now?'
The clear sky had changed its face abruptly and soon the raindrops began to fall. Having left home in light clothes, he was taken aback by the sudden downpour. He looked around for a place to buy an umbrella, but it had been a while since he last passed a convenience store.
"It's true that people can't live purely in our own will. The world has its own temper. I should've finished the manuscript at home."
In order to shelter from the shower, the man picked up his dog and ran to a nearby tented bench. Fortunately, they did not get very wet in the rain. He lowered the trembling dog onto his lap and petted her slowly.
"Uh? Don't you also think going out was useless, Dani? We're going back home to play with toys, alright. We come out because we are feeling bad but then we both get all drenched."
He playfully rubbed his face on the dog's snout, and the dog sniffed around and buried her face in the man's lap. It was not so much as a storm, but the warm spring rain was growing little by little.
"Aren't those legs so short?"
That was the first time he heard the woman's voice in his life.
"Uh?"
An unexpected situation. The appearance of an unpredictable subject.
The man startled at this abrupt question from a woman he had never seen before.
"I'm speaking of the dog. What breed is it?"
"Ah······ She's a Welsh Corgi."
"Woah, how old?"
"Just turned six months. She's still a baby."
A conversation with a strange woman. She looked unaffected, while he was still as disconcerted as before.
"Right······. You're going out even though it's raining, and you didn't bring an umbrella, and she's not even wearing a leash?" Ah, it's because it's the first time I'm raising a dog."
The woman's clever comment had him speechless. The man was so embarrassed that he wanted to leave his seat but the woman had started petting the dog like it was nothing, and now his dog was just playfully nibbling at this stranger's hand with her itchy growing teeth.
"Look at you. You're not a shy one, uh. You're a people person. Very different from your owner, right?"
"Right? Ha ha."
He let out the world's most awkward laugh.
"So, what should I call—?"
"Ah, it's Dani. Dan."
"No, you. What's the name of your owner, Dan-ah?"
She kept on playing with Dani. Smiling brightly all the while. Dani, tail wiggling, left his lap and followed her. Not seeming to care for the falling rain, she and Dani ran a little further away, while the man stayed seated on the bench just staring at that scene. The scene of a strange woman holding a little white umbrella under the rain, playing with his dog, laughing.
In that moment, the world faded in front of his eyes and everything seemed to lose its light. Except for her, the only one shining brightly.
She hugged a rain-wet Dani and came back to the tent, speaking to him with her voice still breathy.
"You can't leave because you don't have an umbrella, right? I have one. I'll take you home. Where do you live?"
"Ah······ Just over······ there."
The man pointed his arm towards the apartment complex behind the park.
"Really? I also live over there. What a coincidence. Let's go."
The moment their eyes met with her gentle smile, he felt once again that the world stopped.
"Right······."
She continued smiling gently, as if she did not care that the man was stiff as a rock.
"I like it when it rains. It's cooling, you know. Don't you think it's comforting to sit still and listen to the rain sound?"
The two shared the umbrella and walked slowly in the rainy street.
The woman hugged Dani and talked the whole time, but the man could not utter a word other than his awkward laughs here and there. Not a thing she said came through his ears.
The rain-soaked tip of her hair tickling his arm slightly.
The slight musky scent in the air. The breathy, thin and cute voice that spoke in a soft tone. He did not have the mind to put aside all these fascinating sensorial stimuli and pay attention to the conversation.
For only a brief moment their shoulders met. Under the tiny umbrella patted over by the spring rain, three hearts were beating, and the sound of his heart was the biggest and fastest among them.
"We're here."
"Really? It's really close, uh. I live in the building across the street. See you next time. Dani too, see ya!"
Without a second thought, she turned around to walk away, and he mumbled at her back.
"······ Thank you······."
She suddenly turned, speaking.
"No problem."
It seemed that she had sharp ears. As the man listened to the loud sound of his own heart, he had a silly thought at random. Then, he hurried into his home and clutched at his still pounding chest.
"Dan, did you see that?"
Dani tilted her head. He cuddled the rain-dripping Dani into his arms tightly.
"You little brat, you brought me Juliet as Hyangdan brought Chunhyang, just like your name."
Dani had no interest in what her owner had to say. She was busy just biting and licking the man's hands. Honestly, how could this tiny thing understand the delight of such a burning emotion? The man was not the kind of person who hid from day and hated people. And it was also not that he had never dated before or had problems with women. But there was simply no doubt the moment that he saw her.
A day when the world was gloomy and temperamental. That was the day he and she met for the first time. Notes: Please open your heart I'll give you my soul
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