Prologue

The classroom bell rings and students get excited and rush to leave the school building. Kou stays in his seat putting all his things away. He finishes packing and gets up to leave.

His teacher says, "Ah, did you bring an umbrella? I heard there's going to be a rain storm at noon". Slowly, Kou nods his head a "yes". "Okay, be careful", the teacher replies. Kou goes to the door remembering that he actually didn't bring an umbrella. Thinking it wouldn't be too serious, he leaves.

He passes the school gates and looks up. "It got cloudier faster than I thought", Kou thinks to himself. He starts walking at a decently quick pace.

As he got farther from the school, a few raindrops had begun to fall. Soon, it was raining heavily. Kou decides to take refuge at a playground. Crawling into one of the tunnels, he tries to dry off a bit to not catch a cold. "I should've checked the forecast...", Kou sighs.

He looks out to the opening of the tunnel and sees another person running towards the playground.

"Agh, I didn't think it'd rain this quick", the person says. The person sees Kou and shows a surprised expression. "...I didn't see you there", the person says. Kou doesn't say anything. Seeing as the situation was awkward, the person introduces himself, "I'm Ren, did 'ya forget your umbrella?". Hesitant at first, Kou replies, "Yeah".

There was a moment of silence until lightning had struck. Hearing the lightning randomly strike, Kou jumps a little. Seeing Kou frightened by the lightning, Ren tries to comfort Kou, "Are you scared? If you are, you can hold onto me... or not".

There was another moment of silence until lightning struck again and made Kou jump. Kou wasn't sure it'd do anything but he held onto Ren's sleeve anyway.

Surprised, Ren glances at Kou, "...He's kinda cute", Ren says in his head. Ren looks out at the clouds to see if the weather was going to clear. "We're going to be here for a bit longer", Kou says. "How do you know?", Ren replies. "I can tell because the storm had just started a while ago and we've already been here for about 20 minutes", Kou answers.

"How can you tell the time? Do you have magic?", Ren asks.

"...I have a watch with me", Kou replies unamused.

"Oh... makes sense", Ren says awkwardly.

Lightning strikes again, "Eek!", Kou pulls Ren's sleeve and Ren gets pulled towards Kou. Their heads butt and they both let out an "Ack" and "Ouch".

Kou let's go of Ren's sleeve and lightning strikes again. This time Kou covers his ears and leans on Ren. "... pfft-", Ren giggles.

"What's so funny?", Kou asks embarrassedly.

Ren's giggles fade away but his smile still remains, "It's nothing, really".

A ringing sound comes from Ren's pocket. "Ah, it's probably my mom", Ren says.

"Where are you? Are you safe? Wherever you are, stay safe!", Ren's mom tells him.

"I'm taking shelter at a playground, and yes, I'm safe and sound", Ren replies warmly.

Kou watches Ren and his mother converse in a warm and homely manner. He looks away in a slightly sorrowful way.

"Kay, bye mom", Ren says. It seems like the lightning has stopped".

"Mm", Kou replies. "The rain has become lighter too".

It had a long time since Kou had a decent talk with anyone so he was quite happy. "We should go since the rain has lifted", Kou says to Ren. "Yeah, we should", Ren replies with.

Kou gets up and leaves the tunnel. "Oh right, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Kou, it's been a pleasure talking with you", Kou says while turning around to face Ren and turned around once again to leave.