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Seungmin pulled the door of his sister’s Kia open. In the heavy rain, the dark blue paint looked closer to black. As if each drop had taken a little bit of color with it.
“Why does it always rain when I visit?” He fell down on the passenger seat and closed the door before the rain could flood the car any further. Water sprinkled onto the dashboard when he wiped his face and pressed his backpack down into the footwell. The enamel pins strewn across the backpack scraped along the glove compartment door. Only his rainbow pin, which Jeongin had gifted him when they were nineteen, was visible on the top, boldly stating, “Let’s get this straight, I’m not.”
A cat-shaped key chain dangling from the rearview mirror caught his attention. Seungmin frowned. He and his sister had never agreed on anything. The only time they had teamed up was to ask their parents for a puppy. The topic was buried again when they kept fighting about the breed.
He turned around to ask his sister about the unexpected change of heart and to greet her properly, but it got stuck in his throat, and he winced. That wasn’t his sister in the driving seat.
It was a young man, around the same age as Seungmin, who looked highly amused at Seungmin’s reaction.
Seungmin stared back in confusion. One time, his sister had sent her boyfriend to pick him up—the most uncomfortable drive Seungmin ever had to go through. Back then, she had at least warned him that someone else would wait for him. Why not mention it this time?
“Sorry, I didn’t expect … ” He trailed off when his eyes landed on the hood paint. It still looked black. Because it was black.
Oh, shit! How could he mix up his sister’s car? Of course there would be more than one Kia in the train station parking lot. Why hadn’t he checked the license plate more thoroughly?
Heat exploded in his face like a supernova, and he bowed down in apology, which turned out harder than expected because he could only turn his upper body. “I’m so sorry! I’ll be out in a second!”
Seungmin scrambled for the door handle, but he couldn’t get a hold of it and switched to pulling up his backpack from the narrow footwell first. When he yanked at it, he almost hit himself in the face with his knee. One strap had wrapped around his ankle, and now his leg hung in the air at an awkward angle. His other foot had accidentally pulled the strap tighter, but he didn’t have enough room to loosen it. He cursed, struggling to come unstuck while fishing for the car door handle again.
There was a giggle, and a hand grabbed the strap of his backpack and pulled it to the side so Seungmin could wrangle his leg out of the mess.
Seungmin assumed that was a good sign. He had invaded this stranger’s car, but at least he was entertaining while doing so. Perfect time to get out of here before the guy’s mood changed or Seungmin died of embarrassment. Which was about to happen at any moment.
Once freed from the backpack strap, Seungmin reached for the door handle again, but a hand on his arm stopped him. For a second, he thought his time for withdrawal was exhausted. But the stranger pulled his hand back immediately.
“Don’t worry. You can stay,” he said and nodded at the windshield, which was still veiled by long streaks of rain. “I won’t force you outside in this weather.”
Seungmin really didn’t want to stay. He had made a complete fool of himself and would need weeks to come down from the embarrassment. But somehow it felt very impolite to beat it after this invitation. Maybe he could just sit here until the rain died down. Or until he could pretend that it died down.
He removed his hand from the car door and leaned back until he hovered next to the seat back, not relaxing into it at all. He felt unnaturally upright.
“Thanks,” he pressed out.
“Sorry about that.” The stranger gestured toward Seungmin’s backpack. “I usually don’t drive people with long legs.”
“No problem.” Since it had been entirely Seungmin’s fault that his legs got entangled.
They sat in silence for a few seconds until Seungmin decided to at least try and cut short the time he had to spend in this car. “Um, I’ll call my sister to see if she’s already here.”
“Sure.” The guy turned his head to look outside the window, although there was nothing except for the silhouette of the car parked next to him to catch his attention. Probably in an attempt to give Seungmin some privacy.
Seungmin pulled his phone out of his jacket and dialed his sister’s number. He fiddled with the backpack strap while he waited for her to pick up. If it took this long, she was probably still driving.
“Seungmin!” his sister’s voice cut through the call signal. The rain drumming on her car roof was louder than his own background noise. Her voice struggled to overpower it. “I’m so sorry! The streets are terrible because of the sudden downpour. I need about ten more minutes.”
“No problem. I can wait,” Seungmin said. He fought the instinctive urge to talk louder because it was so hard to understand her.
“Did you find cover somewhere? Are you still in the train station?”
Seungmin shot a quick look over to the stranger, who was still observing raindrops sliding down the windowpane. He could probably hear every word Seungmin’s sister screamed into her phone. “Don’t worry. I’m inside.”
“Okay, then I’ll see you in ten minutes.”
“Yeah, um, maybe just call me once you’re here. In case I don’t see you.” He did not want to repeat this mess.
“Will do, bye!”
“Be safe!” He hung up and put the phone back into his damp jacket. “I’ll be out of your way in a second,” he said and pulled at his backpack again. Maybe the guy didn’t hear how long it would actually take her. “My sister will be here in a few minutes, so I’ll just wait in … ”
“I told you, you can stay.” The stranger leaned one arm on the steering wheel and propped his chin up. “I have to wait too. It’ll be less boring with company.”
Seungmin sat unmoving for a few seconds. His eyes flitted from the unfamiliar face to the elbow on the steering wheel to the rain-veiled windshield, pondering what was stronger: the embarrassment lingering on his cheeks like a light sunburn, the need to compensate for breaking into this man’s car, or the reluctance to go back into the rain. Or his curiosity. Because who asked for a complete stranger’s company in front of a train station in the middle of a rainstorm? He nodded.
The guy in the driver’s seat smiled. Now that Seungmin wasn’t blinded by panic, he saw that it was a very nice smile. It rounded his cheekbones and pushed his eyes into crescents. A smile that left you wondering if that person just became pretty or you were too stupid to see it sooner.
“I’m Minho.”
And how did he not see the little mole on his nose? That was a very straight nose, by the way. Oh, he should introduce himself. “Uh, Seungmin.”
Minho sank back into his seat and freed Seungmin from his smile. “So, Seungmin, you are visiting your sister?” It was a statement, but he just about managed to make it sound like a question. It was quite obvious that Seungmin was here to visit his sister, but maybe Minho tried to be polite. On the very last syllable.
“Yeah.”
“What do you plan to do?”
Should he be concerned that Minho knew his name, the reason for his visit, and his sister’s car model and now asked for his plans? Probably. The thing about sitting in a stranger’s car and chatting about family, though, was that Seungmin didn’t need to sugarcoat. He didn’t need to pretend. Chances were small that they would meet again and even smaller that they’d recognize each other. Or, well, that Minho would recognize him. So Seungmin chose to be honest.
“Nothing. I’ll visit a friend.”
Minho let out an amused snort. “You visit your sister to visit a friend?”
“No. I visit a friend and pretend to stay with my sister so our parents think we’re close.”
“You don’t get along?” Minho didn’t sound judgmental. It was an honest question. As if it was completely normal to play pretend in front of your family.
“She’s six years older than me, so we were never really close. Catching up is limited to one breakfast. Otherwise we’d just annoy the hell out of each other. Technically, I stay with her, but I ended up more times on Jeongin’s couch than on hers.”
Minho hummed like he could understand that. And maybe he could. Everybody had something they didn’t tell their parents.
He sighed. “And here I thought I might get some sightseeing tips from you.”
“Are you new here?” Seungmin asked.
A nod. “Moved six weeks ago.”
“Jeongin and I don’t go sightseeing. I think there’s an observation deck at the top of a hotel. And a walk along the river is nice.” He paused, seeing the rain still drum on the windshield. “Maybe not in this weather.”
“How about restaurants? Or bars?”
“We mostly order in. But Jeongin’s friends go to that one bar every Saturday, and we often join them. Let me check where it was.” Seungmin opened the navigation app on his phone.
“You don’t do sightseeing, you don’t go out to eat. What do you do on your visits?”
“We play video games. The ones we played together as kids.” Seungmin wasn’t sure if that made their weekends sound any better. If Minho thought he was boring before, he could just as well provide some more evidence.
But Minho said, “Sounds nice to revive that time.”
“Um, yeah, I guess,” Seungmin said. He was still occupied with his phone and paid little attention to his words. “It feels more like grasping for something that will never come back.” He held his phone up for Minho to see. “Here, this is the bar.”
“Ah, I know the area.” Minho nodded, and they fell into polite silence.
Seungmin felt dumb. Stranger or not, Minho asked for company, not to be confronted with Seungmin’s insecurities about the impermanence of life.
“So … who are you waiting for?” he tried to ease the awkwardness.
“Some friends.”
Seungmin waited for more, but that was all Minho wanted to share. So much for easing the tension. What else could he ask if the obvious topic was already exhausted? Was it too strange to ask Minho if he liked cats?
“I know what you mean,” Minho interrupted his rattling brain.
Seungmin had a hard time aligning that statement with their previous conversation. First he thought Minho was talking about cats, but Seungmin was pretty sure he didn’t ask that question out loud. Before that, he had shown Minho the bar. And before that… Oh.
Minho didn’t even notice Seungmin’s confusion. His eyes traced a heavy raindrop sliding down the windshield.
“We’ll do karaoke. And I will have to cook because my friends are shitty at it, and we’ll watch a movie. Like always. But it will be the wrong streets, the wrong kitchen. I can’t even use my usual ingredients because there’re different supermarkets here. And I know it won’t always be like that.” He took a deep breath. “I wonder when it will be normal that I no longer live close by. When visiting will feel less like carrying on and more like catching up.”
Seungmin stared. Was that what he and Jeongin were now? Whenever he visited, Jeongin had a new insane story from work, a new favorite exercise to gush about, a new inside joke with his friends, and nobody remembered the one Seungmin painstakingly decoded the last time. The only thing that had changed for Seungmin was the book he currently read. Jeongin’s life ran so much faster than his own.
“I really need to find more friends.”
That coaxed a snort out of Minho. “Maybe don’t start by invading their cars.”
While Seungmin wondered if he had called them friends, Minho leaned over. Expecting anything between a hug and finally being kicked out, Seungmin straightened up. But Minho reached for the glove compartment. Seungmin did his best to get his knees out of the way, but both the compartment door and Minho’s hand brushed them, causing a slight tingle on his skin. This was getting ridiculous. Was he a teenager or what?
With a triumphant grunt, Minho pulled out some candy from the compartment. He threw the door shut and offered one of his winnings to Seungmin.
It was a cough drop, wrapped in a disgustingly healthy-colored paper. Seungmin took it, unsure what to do with it.
“I’d offer you a drink,” Minho said and held up another cough drop. “But this is all I have, so it has to suffice for a toast.” He held up the drop and indicated Seungmin to do the same.
“To losing friends but gaining car visitors.” Minho bumped his drop against Seungmin’s, then unwrapped it and threw it into his mouth.
Seungmin stared at the drop until it vanished, then at his own unwrapped one. Here for one second, gone the next. Like Jeongin, whenever the conversation changed to a topic that was less than two years old. Like his sister when she waved goodbye at the train, her mind already back on her own life. Like Minho, the moment Seungmin would step out of this car.
It wasn’t their fault. Was it Seungmin’s?
“I could introduce you to Jeongin. Or Felix. He makes a much better first impression than Jeongin. You’d have to be a psychopath to not like Felix.”
Minho gave him a lopsided smile. “How fortunate all my psycho tests came out negative.”
“I mean it,” Seungmin said with emphasis. “I’m sure they would like you. And I don’t mean to replace your friends. I just thought it might be less lonely until the next visit from them or … me.” His eyes flitted away from Minho’s face on the last word.
Minho sat there for ten seconds and did nothing but frown at the blurry windshield. The cough drop moved in his mouth from one side to the other, creating bumps in his cheeks.
“First of all,” he started, and his eyes returned to Seungmin. “I’m not lonely.”
Minho clearly was lonely, but it was just a suggestion, so Seungmin nodded. He didn’t want to force new friends on Minho.
“Second, we should exchange numbers. Then you can let me know where I have to meet up with Jeongin, or Felix, or whoever.”
Huh? Where did that somersault come from? “Yeah, okay. I can—”
“I’m not done. Third.” Minho grinned. “I owe you a drink for a proper toast. Would you like to wait for your next visit, or should I visit you for a change?”
Seungmin’s eyes widened. “You’d have to drive three hours to visit me.”
Minho shrugged. “I have a lot of free weekends without any plans ahead.”
“I just offered to introduce you to a few friends. You don’t need to pay it back or something.”
“I’m not. I’m asking you out for a drink. Only if you want that, of course.”
There had never been a question that Seungmin answered this fast. “I do.” The pretty smile was back, and Seungmin couldn’t help but smile too.
Until Seungmin’s phone interrupted them.
“I’m here now,” his sister said once he had answered the call. “On the right side of the train station.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in a bit.” Seungmin hung up and turned to Minho. “That was my sister.“
Minho nodded. “You shouldn’t leave her waiting. So you better hurry up.” He offered his own phone.
Seungmin checked three times if he had put his number in correctly. After a short hesitation, he pulled his backpack out of the footwell and opened the door.
The rain had subsided, but Seungmin's feet got drenched in a big puddle the moment he left the car. He leaned down to glance one last time into Minho’s car.
“Thanks for letting me stay here. I hope you don’t have to wait much longer for your friends.”
“No problem. I’ll text you.” Minho hesitated for a moment. “And I’ll see you around?” Just the slightest hint of a question. But Seungmin didn’t think it was politeness this time.
“Yeah, see you,” he said as certain as possible. Minho’s happy face almost made him go back into the car.
Seungmin urged to skip through the puddles like a fifties movie star but forced himself to walk like a normal human being. Close to his sister’s car, he also wiped the maniac grin from his face. He checked the license plate a second time and made sure the woman inside didn’t just look like his sister before he opened the car door. When he was greeted by a familiar voice, he relaxed.
His sister lost no time to start the car and get out of the parking lot, complaining about the rain. Seungmin didn’t listen. He looked out of the window and tried to get a last look at Minho’s car.
“What do you have there?”
Seungmin turned to see what his sister was talking about, and she nodded at his hand. He opened it and found the cough drop. He had forgotten about that.
“Do you have a cold?”
“No.” He smiled. “It’s for a toast.”
She chuckled. “A toast to what?”
Seungmin unwrapped the drop and held it up with a smile. “To car visits and new friends.” And he let the drop vanish in his mouth. Here for one second, gone the next.
In his pocket, his phone buzzed with a message from Minho.