'a little drizzle doesn't scare me, dickhead.' is what junhui had said halfway out the door of his shared apartment. which he shared with an old friend, soonyoung, who had been teasing junhui about his fear of rain since they were in preschool, but he recently picked it up when junhui mentioned getting some late night snacks from the gas station.
a "little drizzle" was what the rainfall was when he had left their apartment and what he expected it to stay, well, until he got a little more than halfway there and heard a cracking boom a few miles away. he immediately crouched, hands grasping opposite side of his skull, eyes pinched together, bent knees wobbling, and stood like that for a few moments. instead, now, his worn-down sandals were smacking against the darkened pavement and puddles that were created from uneven ground.
rain droplets coming from the ends of his hair, gasping for breath, complete with a panicked expression is what was revealed after the glass door to the local mini market was shoved open. a glance to the left and you would see a petite boy sitting up from his "small" nap on the counter his hair was disheveled which it look even more colorful than it usually did, but a contradicting, half open eyes that were death glaring junhui pale, were also present. mistakenly, junhui made eye contact with the latter, making him readily jump off the counter. 'can i help you?' he called out. 'just-just buying snacks for a friend.' junhui managed to say just loud enough to hear, with an extremely nervous smile, he made his way to the tastycakes and potato chips when another crackle of thunder sounded. of course, junhui responded with a yelp and his panicked posture.
'all good over there?' the male at the counter said slowly, as if he wasn't sure he should say something or not. junhui shook his head and chuckled a bit, 'just a little afraid of storms, that's all." and continued looking after he received a responsive nod from the other. actually, junhui hadn't noticed the boy was now sitting on the counter, back facing the customer. when he reached out to give a light tap on the shoulder to get the boys attention, all changed with thunder, louder than the past times hit, even making one of the lights flicker.
rather than the intended tap, junhui wrapped his arms around the counter boys shoulders as tightly as he could, burying his face into the crook of the counter boys neck and too afraid to make any sound. in fact, he was a bit too afraid to notice anything, junhui barely noticed how warm the other boy felt, or how he smelled like freshly washed clothes and cotton candy ice cream, especially how much his heart swelled, which he tried to mistake with fear, but he barely noticed. for a moment, it seemed like the counter boy didn't want to move, in a split second he glanced down at the crazy customer who he had wanted to get rid of so bad, but in that time, he seemed so precious. he wanted to hold the boy close and make sure he's always there to hold him during storms.
however, to keep his pride in tact, the counter boy pushed junhui off with disgust. junhui took a few cautionary steps back and stepped on a few of his dropped items, causing him to remember the situation. he quickly dropped to the floor and picked up the few bags of junk food, while the latter just stared.
when junhui stood up, he finally made eye contact for a second time, making the register boy rush to the counter. a somewhat loud clearing of the employee's throat made junhui lay out all his things. 'sorry, y'know, like i said, real scared of storms.' the counter boy scoffed while scanning the last piece of junk food. 'an understatement, apparently.' he gave a side glance to the boy in front of him. ' your total comes to $13.42.' junhui nodded in confirmation and reached deep in his pants pocket to pull out a balled up, mildly soggy, twenty dollar bill. he lightly tossed it on the counter and sheepishly looked to an expression of absolute disgust as it was picked up by a folded corner, slowly and cautiously unfolded.
the register was opened and the counter boy started to grab change when junhui intruded with 'i-i've given you enough trouble today, just keep the change.' as he put his items back in his arms and rushed out of the store, trying to crouch under the rain and find a place to avoid getting wet while hoping the glass doors had too many raindrops on them for anyone to see in or out.
(a/n) i used mydol to figure out what minghao smells like rip
