.

‘Do I like teaching other people?’ wondered Ban Yeo Dan. However, he didn’t feel that happy. It was something different from coming outside in the apartment hallway.

‘Then why am I doing something I don’t like?’ he asked himself again. It was strange. Something might have triggered him, but he couldn’t recall what it was.

Lifting his head, Ban Yeo Dan suddenly dropped a remark to his friends who were still lost in confusion.

“How did I start taking care of you guys studying?” asked Ban Yeo Dan. The answer returned ridiculously simple.

“You said you need to kill time.”

Ban Yeo Dan asked again, “Did I?”

“Yeah,” replied one of his friends.

Killing time was necessary only when he was waiting for something. However, that kind of thing seldom happened to Ban Yeo Dan.

Ban Yeo Ryung went outside quite often these days. She said she had to hang out with her friend’s sister who was a long-stay patient in a hospital. However, that couldn’t explain everything.

Ban Yeo Ryung had other things to go outside in the first place. Thus, that wouldn’t be a reason for Ban Yeo Dan to start teaching others in a way to kill time. Thinking for quite a while, Ban Yeo Dan realized that he was taking the situation too complicatedly in the end.

There wouldn’t be a specific reason for a high school student in his senior year to study with his friends. Now he had come to think of it, other senior high school students in his neighborhood usually stayed in the library until late at night to continue studying.

‘Usually’ was a magical term to explain quite a lot of things. However, Ban Yeo Dan became aware that the term didn’t apply to him when it was around ten at night. Once he found himself packing his bag as if he was possessed while he had nothing to do, Ban Yeo Dan looked around. His friends were just flipping through the pages nonchalantly, but when their eyes met, that was when they made a remark one after another.

“Thanks, today as well. I’ll buy you dinner next time.”

“Be safe. I found it’s raining outside.”

“Yeah, it’s pouring. Did you bring an umbrella?”

Hesitating for a second, Ban Yeo Dan showed them an umbrella. The other one was folded properly and was inside his bag.

His friends nodded as if they felt relieved, then they waved their hands apathetically. ‘Go away ASAP. My hand feels painful now,’ they uttered. For some reason, they pestered him to leave; thus, Ban Yeo Dan stepped out of the library.

The rain was pouring down severely just like what his friends said. The raindrops were so big that he wasn’t able to see the front. ‘How is Yeo Ryung in this weather?’ worried Ban Yeo Dan.

As he sent a text message to her, he got a response saying that she was at home. ‘Cool,’ he thought. Heaving a sigh of relief, Ban Yeo Dan took a step forward.

The more he walked in the rain, the clearer his thoughts turned out. Ban Yeo Dan realized that he didn’t like rainy days. His pants were getting wet from the bottom; the drench of rain even pierced through the sneakers and damped both his sox and shoes. All those were definitely close to displeasure.

‘Let’s get back home ASAP!’ Even though he thought that way, Ban Yeo Dan’s footsteps paused at a weird place. It was the bus stop right under the apartment.

He tried to bend his steps toward his apartment, but for some reason, he folded his umbrella and sat slumped on the bus station bench. There was soon a pool of water under his wet sneakers.

Ban Yeo Dan just waited that way. There were quite a lot of people inside the bus stop. Some were waiting for the bus, whereas others looked like they were taking shelter from the rain. A few people who got off the bus looked around then stood stiff. Looking up at the sky, they dropped some remarks.

“I guess there’s a hole in the sky.”

“Oh my God, what should I do? My mom won’t be at home…”

A middle school student who was about to cry while looking at her phone suddenly directed her eyes on Ban Yeo Dan. He found that she threw a glance toward his umbrella; however, Ban Yeo Dan ignored her stare.

Taking a step forward, she asked, “Excuse me?” Her fingers were pointing at the outside of the bus stop. Over the heavy rain, the light of the convenience store glimmered.

“Do you mind if I can borrow your umbrella for a second? I’ll get one from the convenience store and return this to you right away,” she uttered.

“…”

“Ah, I won’t steal it, or else, would you go there with me? Then I won’t be able to steal yours you know,” she spoke confidently. However, since Ban Yeo Dan didn’t respond, her face was about to cry again.

Staring at her gloomy face, Ban Yeo Dan opened his mouth, at last.

“I’m afraid…”

“Huh?” she asked. The girl tilted her body toward him.

“… By any chance, she will come here while I leave for a moment…” Slurring the end of the sentence, Ban Yeo Dan soon closed his mouth. The words slipped from his mouth, but it was unable for him to understand why he said that.

‘No, it isn’t the time for this. I should lend this to her.’ he thought. Well, it was fine even if she didn’t return it to him. His apartment was right around the corner; even his clothes were all wet, so getting more rained on didn’t matter.

Still, Ban Yeo Dan couldn’t give his umbrella to her. He wasn’t able to let his firm and sweaty grip off the handle.

Looking at Ban Yeo Dan’s stiffened face intently, the middle school girl pouted her lips and turned around.

“Uh, I get it,” she replied.

“…”

“I don’t know who she is, but you really do like her.”

Blurting out that way, the girl quickly turned around. Thankfully, a boy who got off the bus within a few minutes shared his umbrella with her. Watching the two closely attaching their faces under the small umbrella, Ban Yeo Dan felt somehow melancholic that he narrowed his eyes.

He just sat there for a long time. A number of buses stopped and left the station several times. Every time the door opened, people disappeared, poured out. Some people among them watched for a chance to borrow his umbrella. However, Ban Yeo Dan just shook his head even though he had no reason to avoid them.

At the time when the people at the bus stop began to glance at Ban Yeo Dan in suspicion, who wasn’t getting on the bus or leaving the station, he stood up from his seat.

He didn’t get what the heck he was doing at all. Only the vague feelings of anxiety and joy while waiting for the bus remained in his head.

‘Maybe I also liked waiting for the bus?’ he asked himself. ‘But why the hell am I having this hollow feeling inside me?’ Ban Yeo Dan tilted his head.

He stopped by at the convenience store shortly. As he tried to open the door and step inside, a familiar voice came over. He raised his head.

“Yeo Dan, you’re back home right now?” she asked. It was the part-timer girl he encountered early in the morning. As if she was now off work, the girl was standing outside the cashier.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Maybe you went to the library, huh?”

Ban Yeo Dan didn’t have any words to respond this time too. He just said, ‘Yes,’ again. Questions continued afterward, but Ban Yeo Dan just nodded once in a while or replied, ‘Yeah,’ to her.

He grabbed some ice creams that Ban Yeo Ryung liked and went to the cashier. The girl, whom he thought that she might have left already, was standing there as if she was waiting for him. She suddenly handed out something which made Ban Yeo Dan flinch.

“My gift for you,” she uttered.

“Ah…”

“You said, you like sweets, so I got yours while getting mine,” she replied.

Looking at her swiveling smile, Ban Yeo Dan’s mind, however, stiffened. He stared at her shortly then quickly turned around while leaving the ice creams on the counter.

The girl asked, “Hold on, Yeo Dan. Where are you going?”

Ban Yeo Dan opened his umbrella, but she held his wrist. Looking back, Ban Yeo Dan found that she was looking very bewildered.

The girl flung a question as if she couldn’t understand the situation, “You said, you like sweets, didn’t you?”

“… I don’t…” he replied.

Actually, the chocolate milk he bought earlier was still inside his backpack while being unopened just like the unused umbrella in his bag.

Suddenly, his fogged mind seemed to get cleared out. Getting her hand off his wrist, Ban Yeo Dan quickly bent his steps. Walking toward his apartment, he murmured, “I think I’ve suddenly found a lot of things today that I like… but maybe I’m wrong.”

What he thought just now was the answer. Among the things that he liked, which he got to discover today, nothing actually belonged to his preference. Regardless of that, there was only one reason that he thought he liked them.

The person he liked preferred them. And that person was someone else, not his little sister, Ban Yeo Ryung.

But… why?

Although he had an umbrella up on his way, the rainstorm was so torrential that even his face got wet. Taking off his hair from his face, Ban Yeo Dan lifted his head all of a sudden and looked in front of him.