The Rain That Reconnected Us
Friends (2) I bit my tongue while greeting her. It had been so long since we’d last met, and the fact that I’d already ruined the first impression left a bitter ache in my chest. “Hic… I’m thowwy……”
I quickly reassured her that I was fine and rolled my sore tongue inside my mouth. Wiping away the tears that had welled up with a tissue, I looked back at the monitor. There she was—Yeon-a. Tachibana Kits. The name was completely different, but my precious friend was right here.
‘Even her avatar has orange eyes.’ Yeon-a, who loved the color orange to a suspicious degree. Staring at her profile, I tried to speak up, but—
“Uh, ugh… uh……”
No words came out. From the other side, not a single sound reached me either. I felt bad for Haram, but the wall between us seemed thicker than I’d thought. A suffocating tension and silence filled the space. The one who finally broke it wasn’t me or Yeon-a—it was Haram.
“Huh…?”
‘Don’t run away!!! At least save me before you go!!!’ I screamed inside my head, but now there was no choice. I had to face the massive weight of our shared past sitting right in front of me.
I tried to open my mouth carefully, but no sound escaped. I even tried to convince myself that Haram’s presence had simply kept us from reminiscing properly, but—
“Ah… uh……”
It was just wishful thinking. Still no voice came out. My heart, which had been pounding earlier, gradually cooled down. Thump, thump, thump. The heart that had been kicking against my chest so violently slowly returned to its normal rhythm. It was sad. I had missed her so much. She was someone I was so grateful to. Someone I owed the biggest apology to. Yet my voice refused to come out. Thank you. I’m sorry. I want to be close again. The words wouldn’t leave my mouth, and the frustration built up. My body, however, stayed frozen and refused to listen.
‘I have to speak.’ Starting with a greeting, I decided to try saying hello first, slowly and calmly. ‘Why don’t you keep singing?’ Yeon-a’s face floated up in my mind—leaning against the wall in the gym storage room, smiling softly as she said those words.
“…I, I kept singing.”
“……”
I mustered the courage to speak. The only response was a brief hesitation followed by silence. I couldn’t say anything either. So this was the result of being brave. Maybe Yeon-a really did hate me after all. Now that I thought about it, she hadn’t said a single word since I joined. Realizing that, a sting began to form beneath my eyes. Was there anything crueler in this world than being hated by someone you were grateful to? The urge to hang up surged through me, and my hands started trembling. Just as I was about to apologize and leave—
“…!!”
Yeon-a’s voice came through. Maybe it was because we’d grown older, but the youthful tone was gone, replaced by something more mature, almost sisterly. Yet it was still unmistakably Yeon-a’s voice.
“……”
Tears tried to fall but were stopped. More precisely, I had pressed a tissue against my cheek to keep them from flowing. Since they hadn’t run down my face, I wasn’t crying right now.
“Hic…!!”
“Yeon-a… I thought you hated me……”
I poured out my honest feelings and cried. Yeon-a listened quietly, then told me it was okay. Everything was okay.
“Hic… sniff… Thank you for doing the collab with me.”
Yeon-a’s voice brightened a little. Hearing it, I wiped my tears and nodded.
“I’m sorry I didn’t sing for you when we were kids……”
“I-If that’s true, then I’m glad… haha.”
“Huh? Ah… I think I’ve gotten a little brighter recently… or maybe not?”
Yeon-a laughed as she spoke. Once the conversation started flowing, we were busy catching up on everything that had happened. How we’d been living, what we’d gone through since that day.
“So, right now, my legs barely move… and the sensation’s dull too.”
“Huh? Why would you be sorry, Yeon-a?”
I smiled as I said it. Then she told me that if she had gathered the courage to save me back then, things might have been different.
“……”
Yeon-a apologized even though it wasn’t her fault. Seeing her like that, I told her it was okay.
“It’s fine, Yeon-a. I was the one who refused. It was my choice.”
“No, I don’t blame you. Just… can we be close again…?”
The answer came back immediately. That was enough. That was all I needed.
“Ehehe……”
“I-I live in a really tiny one-room apartment……”
“Eek?!”
The words burst out of my mouth in shock. Hearing my reaction, Yeon-a giggled.
“Th-That’s not what I meant.”
Yeon-a said it proudly, then bragged about how much money she earned now.
“Eeh… I-I see.”
“B-Borrowing money from a friend to buy a house feels… I’m satisfied with what I have.”
“S-So, how have you been, Yeon-a?”
Yeon-a paused for a moment before saying that compared to me, it was nothing, but she had still gone through a lot.
Honestly, I was scared. The last expression I’d seen on Yeon-a’s face was one of complete loss. If she had carried that through her childhood, wasn’t it all because of me? It was an undeniable fault on my part.
“……”
Yeon-a tried to hide her story. I looked straight ahead and asked her to tell me anyway. If we were going to rely on each other, if we were going to hold each other, we needed to know the wounds. Embracing someone without knowing where it hurt would only cause more pain.
“Tell me. We’re friends.”
And so Yeon-a began her story. After losing contact with me, she had been depressed for a long time. To cheer her up, her father suggested a father-daughter trip. During that trip, they got into a car accident. Her father, who had saved her when she couldn’t move because of her injured arm, was engulfed in flames and died. After that day, the extreme stress worsened the condition of her right eye. From then on, she started smoking and drinking in high school and became someone who couldn’t live without either.
“……”
Yeon-a blamed herself. It wasn’t her fault. It was just bad luck. The heavens hadn’t punished her actions—it was simply misfortune.
“Yeon-a.”
“It’s not your fault. Losing your dad, losing contact with me—none of it was your fault.”
I wished she would blame me instead. I really did.
“……”
Yeon-a’s voice trembled as she spoke. To comfort her, I sang a song. It’s okay to be sad. A hit song filled with memories of our childhood together. As I sang it in a bright voice, Yeon-a’s tears gradually stopped.
“It’s okay, Yeon-a.”
“Your dad wouldn’t want you to cry either.”
After all, unlike my own father, Yeon-a’s dad had truly cherished his daughter. I smiled and told her it was okay. It felt strange coming from someone with so many wounds of my own, but if I was getting better, I wanted her to get better too. So that someday we could look at each other properly and smile.
“W-We’re friends again now… right?”
Yeon-a answered with a smile at my cautious question.
As Yeon-a said that, rain began pouring outside the open window. —Shaaaaaaa A loud sound filled the air. The rainy season. The connection we had formed in that stuffy gym storage room during middle school’s rainy season still hadn’t been severed. The sound of rain and the sound of singing had brought us back together again. I took off one side of my headset and listened to the rain.
“……”
It was a good sound.
A sentence similar to the old days, but a little more positive. Those words struck my ears and quickly warmed my heart, which had been growing cold.
“R-Right……”
Yeon-a spoke with admiration. Hearing her voice, I moved my body toward the window and looked out at the rain. Pouring rain. People panicking. Maybe others disliked it, but rainy days were something truly special to me.