TWO YEARS LATER

The heavens were unreasonably upset today. The downpour which had started almost a whole day back, still did not seem like ceasing anytime soon. Sera was trying her best not to swear at that very act of nature, which was undoubtedly proving to be more of a nightmare to her. If anything, she loathed rainy days from the pit of her gut. Rain had always slashed down Sera's passive exterior to mere crumbs, aggravating her self-doubt a thousand times more.

It had always looked so disheartening to Sera—the rain. There was this sadness that the otherwise bubbly pitter-patter carried down with itself, which she never could succeed at ignoring. Whenever those drops of atmospheric fluid came into contact with Sera's bare skin, all her thoughts would automatically get reduced to holding onto her emotional leash with every ounce of her energy— for rain made her vulnerable.

Rain made her remind of herself.

It was only a matter of time when she too, would choose to neglect the rupturing of her already-damaged emotional barrage. And then, in no way, would she try to cement the cracks back. She had kept every suffering, every torment to herself for a pretty long time, and it was about time her dear ones got to know that she was not all glitters like she seemed.

In the meantime of her cracking a slight, miserable smile at her own hurricane of thoughts, Sera was suddenly dragged out of her daze with a blaring honk— suggestive of her finally trespassing the campus walls and reaching the main road. With widened eyes and a pout—which appeared like deterring her from uttering any ill-cultured word— Sera resumed to her walking down the pavement with a shoulder shrug.

The rain had halted itself for what felt like a short break, and that was when Sera had made up her mind to step out of her threshold, go out, and have some fresh air. It took her a lot of courage to breach the four walls of her safe haven, but when gushes of zephyr brushed past her sensitive-to-the-weather cheeks, she deemed all of those calculations and self-encouragements worthwhile.

She had slid her hands into the pockets that were on the either sides of her coat, ruminating that it would save her from the intangible chunks of cold which were discouraging her every once in a while. Sera was flabbergasted to see so much life on the comparatively less denser part of the city. Though the chirping of birds and humans altogether made her bewilderment get overshadowed by bliss.

It was as if her eternal foe was looking for ruining Sera's mood in the best possible way that it knocked its presence into the scenario, right when she was enjoying the moment the most.

"Goddamn it!" Sera muttered under her breath, hovering her hands over head in a way that sheltered her scalp from getting drenched in the rain.

She began to rush mindlessly, peering the view before her with one eye. After few minutes of getting attacked by the angry deluge, she heralded herself under a tree by elbowing the people who were already present there— so that she could make herself some space.

Low grunts were heard from the dismayed people, but Sera dared not mind their useless remarks. However, when people began distancing themselves from her in a frenzied manner, she could not quite grasp their actions.

"Did I step on shit or what? Why are they running away from me?" Sera mumbled to herself whilst checking the soles of her shoes alternately, only to find them unexpectedly clean.

"Miss, watch out! He's legit sprinting towards us—"

A young boy tried to warn Sera of the approaching disaster, but to no avail. Before he could complete and Sera, comprehend what he meant by what he said, someone had bumped into her— which felt no less than being hit by a truck to her.

Sera was done preparing her mind to embrace the gross mud which must have stuck onto her coat by now, and the coat's fabric that must have become sappy because of the water. Eyes closed, she traced her coat with her hand, and indeed surprisingly, her coat seemed perfectly fine to her.

But how could that happen?

Sneakily opening one of her eyes, her pupils instead got dilated when she captured the face which was apparently just a few centimeters apart from hers. Rather more unanticipated was her gripping onto the other person's arms—which were holding her so protectively— more tightly than ever. Sera was swinging mid-air between life and death, and the gentleman who proved to be so generous to come to her rescue after being the sole reason behind her ending up in such a way, was flashing his crinkled eyes relentlessly.

Was he even concerned about her condition?

"Miss Won, are you alright?" The man— who had had his face shielded with a mask and a baseball cap— volunteered to break the awkward silence.

By the look of him, Sera was already certain about one thing— that he must be a very popular personality. Though when he ushered his fine voice into the stillness, Sera knew that she had unintentionally landed herself into a big trouble.

Just when would the cosmos stop conspiring against her?

Sera opted not to reply, not even motion her acknowledgement. Instead, she closed the distance between the man and herself by hugging him out of reflex.

People had their mouths hung low, and the man himself was baffled to the extreme extent. Sera would be lying if she said she was not concerned about the strangers' perspective of her, even if it did not actually matter in the end. But she had already moved herself to do the unexpected, and deleting memories is not a viable option in real world.

"Fuck my life."