nebula || jungjaehyun

⇢ rainwater ⇠

15 

rainwater

If Jaehyun were so inclined, he'd call Ahn Na a water nymph: rainwater looks so natural on her skin. Like she's born of water molecules and bits of sky. She also looks . . . delicious: skin glistening with droplets, hair slicked and clinging to her lips, sweatshirt shoulders darkened and dripping. 

Beneath the back awning of a shop-closed-on-Sunday, Jaehyun grips Ahn Na by the hips. Her hips are bones pressed against skin. Underneath his wolverine hands, she could break, crumble, fall apart into dust. But he knows he's the fragile one: a system on the verge of collapse. 

So he kisses her like she's oxygen and gravity and nicotine and everything meaningful because sometimes drowning is just drowning and he's realized that's all he's ever done. 

When he pulls away, both of them gasping for breath, he rests his forehead against hers. The rain makes her bangs stick there. She smells of petrichor and grapefruit. 

And even though he's drowning -- because he's drowning -- in that moment, and every moment after, he knows he wants her. He even dares to think he needs her. All of her. 

"Come home with me," he purrs. 

"No." 

He sinks a little beneath the tide. But he assents, "Okay." 

She pulls back to look at him straight-on. Even now she's dazzling. "Are you saying okay because you respect my decision, or are you saying okay because you think you'll get me into bed eventually?" 

His eyes widen. The only other woman who's ever seen through him like that is Eunjung -- and she'd never say no to such a proposition. It's amazing and frightening all at once. 

His silence is answer enough, because she sighs and untangles herself from his arms. She steps into the rain and says, "I'm going home. I'll see you later, Jaehyun." And she vanishes into the drizzle.