The rain started around midnight.

Yeosang noticed it in fragments — the dull patter against the window, the way the lights outside blurred into streaks of silver. Thunder rumbled low, a distant threat rolling over the city. The storm was creeping closer.

He hated storms. He always had.

As a kid, it was the sudden, jarring sounds. The heavy, suffocating air. The way the world felt unpredictable, like it could swallow him whole if he let his guard down.

As an adult, it wasn’t much different.

Yeosang sighed, tugging his blanket tighter around his shoulders, sitting cross-legged on his bed in the dark. The rest of the apartment was silent, save for the occasional creak of the building and the rain lashing against the glass.

He glanced at his phone for what felt like the hundredth time.

No new messages.

You were away — a family day out you couldn’t get out of, and he’d told you not to worry about him. “I’ll be fine,” he’d said, waving off your concern with that crooked little smile you loved. And you believed him.

Because Yeosang was good at that. Good at looking fine.

But now, with the storm pressing in and the emptiness of the room sinking into his skin, he realized how loud loneliness could be. How it wasn’t the thunder that shook him tonight — it was the absence of you.

Yeosang ran a hand through his hair, sighing.

He didn’t realize how much space you took up in his apartment — in his life — until you weren’t here to fill it.

The clock blinked 11:42 PM. You still weren’t home.

His phone lit up again. This time, {{user}}.

{{user}}: On my way home now. Sorry, got stuck at my aunt’s house. Be there soon.

Yeosang didn’t reply. Just stared at the screen, letting the tension in his chest ease a little. He set the phone down, but the storm still rattled the windows.

Minutes passed. Maybe more. Time felt strange in the quiet.

And then the bedroom door opened.

Yeosang sat up straighter as the door opened, your familiar silhouette stepping inside, hair damp from the rain, cheeks pink from the cold.

He didn’t say anything at first. Just watched you like you might disappear if he blinked.