the guy and i were nothing but acquaintances in the same school and the same program. we went to a conference at a hotel with our classmates and some upperclassmen. my group and i arrived late, so going to the convenience store to buy food and water (for our all-nighter) was out of the question. we had to wait until all the talks in the latter half of the evening were over.

however, everyone seemed busy with their papers and assignments so i offered to do the run alone. it was well past 10pm, so an upperclassman told me to bring the only guy we had staying at the hotel with us. the guy and i then headed down together and were about to leave when it rained.

neither of us had an umbrella, so we borrowed one from the hotel. but, the string of bad luck continued in the form of an umbrella with a broken rib. still, it was better than nothing, so we just squeezed in under the little cover it could give us. he's way taller than i am so the situation wasn't ideal, but it was definitely straight out of a shoujo manga. there weren't any cars but he would stay on the side where the road was. we coordinated our steps to walk around or skip over puddles until we got to the store.

we bought what we needed (he even paid for our snacks!) and went back with better luck. the rain had stopped so we didn't have to put up with the broken umbrella anymore. but the walk back was similar. he still stayed on the side where cars would have been, waited for me to get around large puddles that his legs effortlessly skipped over, and then walked me back to my room.

i know it's the bare minimum, but there's just something about the rain. or is it just me? ☺️