Ch.1111. Singin’ In The Rain

When I was young, I hated exercising.

Rather than lumping it all together as “exercise,” it would be more accurate to say I hated going outside in general.

“There are more fun things to do at home, so why do I have to go outside to play?”

I genuinely thought that way, and my father dismissed my attitude as “not manly enough.”

And because of my father’s insistence, I ended up attending jiu-jitsu classes almost forcibly.

I hated it back then, but thinking about it now, I’m glad I went.

As a matter of fact, the backward breakfall I learned at the jiu-jitsu dojang when I was young saved me just now.

The reason I didn’t hit the back of my head when I fell while holding Hwa Nabi was because my childhood memories suddenly came back to me.

Father, thank you. You had a plan all along.

…That brief reminiscence aside.

I felt dizzy from the pain shooting up my back. It was the expected outcome.

A breakfall is a martial arts technique that disperses impact to protect vital points, not some invincible defense technique. Even if you fall using a breakfall, it doesn’t completely eliminate the impact.

Now I understand why the instructor always said not to let your guard down just because you know how to breakfall.

“Ah… hoo.”

It took only one second for an indescribable pain to spread throughout my body.

I clenched my teeth to hold back, afraid that a groan might escape my lips if I let my guard down.

“…Are you okay?”

“What?”

“I asked if your body is okay.”

“I-I think I’m fine.”

Hwa Nabi mumbled, looking up at me with her big eyes blinking, seemingly still trying to grasp the situation.

She seems fine since she can talk. Actually, she couldn’t have gotten hurt even if she wanted to. How could she get hurt when I threw myself like this to protect her?

I’m not trying to show off after saving her on my own, but anyway, I was relieved that she wasn’t injured anywhere.

I could finally feel at ease, and I dropped my head back to the ground after struggling to hold it up.

Ah, my back hurts.

“W-wait a moment. Siwoo, are you okay? There was a really loud noise just now. Are you hurt anywhere?”

She asked quickly. I’m not sure why she’s stuttering, but since she asked a question, I needed to answer.

But… it was very difficult to make a sound.

The reason, needless to say, was because Hwa Nabi was pressing her hand against my solar plexus.

It’s nice that she’s worried about me, and it’s good that she’s asking how I am. But I can’t speak when she’s pressing there like that.

“Mo…”

“What? W-what did you say? Please speak a little louder, Siwoo.”

“Mo…ve.”

“Move…? What does that mean?”

“I said, move.”

Off of me.

I barely managed to finish my sentence with all my strength. The last words were almost squeezed out from my lungs.

“Move…? Ah, aah! I’m sorry!”

Finally, Hwa Nabi seemed to realize what she was doing. She quickly got off me, even pressing her hands against the rain-soaked ground to do so, as she had been practically straddling me.

*Cough* A cough follows as the pressure that was crushing my solar plexus disappears. Hwa Nabi looked at me as if I were a patient with a terminal illness.

“Siwoo, are you okay? Are you really not hurt? No, if it’s hard to talk, just stay still. I’ll call an ambulance, an ambulance.”

“Don’t overreact… Just hold the umbrella.”

“The umbrella? Why suddenly the umbrella?”

I don’t have the strength to say more. I barely managed to raise my right forearm and pointed at the sky.

-Swoosh.

While Hwa Nabi blankly looked up, raindrops began to soak through my entire body, from my face to the rest of me. It was because we had dropped the umbrella when we fell.

I guess we momentarily forgot about it due to the urgent situation, but it was still pouring rain in this area. The rainfall was so heavy that our shoes were half-submerged.

And here I am, lying on the street with my bare body in that weather. Thanks to that, my body and clothes were all completely soaked. There’s nothing I can do about already being wet, but I still need to keep my eyes open to do anything.

Without the umbrella as a shield, I can’t see ahead because of the rain and wind. That’s why I told her to hold the umbrella.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I’ll cover you now.”

“Forget it, I don’t need it…”

Better dead than suffering. I forced myself to raise my upper body. It would be better for me to hold it than to ask Hwa Nabi, who still seemed disoriented.

“Give it here.”

Taking the umbrella Hwa Nabi handed me, I raised the rest of my body as well. Now that I’m holding the umbrella, I’m no longer getting rained on.

However, I wondered what meaning that had now. An umbrella is a tool to avoid rain. But we’re already soaked. We already look like drowned rats.

It’s not like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted—there’s no reason to use an umbrella anymore. Holding it will just make my arm tired.

With that thought, I was about to close the umbrella.

But.

“…Even if the horse is gone, you should still fix the barn door.”

“What? What did you say?”

“Uh… never mind. Just cover yourself.”

“What do you mean? Cover what? Where?”

…I can’t bring myself to say it.

I tried to turn my head away to avoid looking directly at Hwa Nabi. But being a man, I couldn’t help but instinctively glance at her from time to time.

Sensing something strange, Hwa Nabi’s eyes followed where my gaze was directed.

And the place they arrived at was… her chest area.

“…!”

Silently shocked, Hwa Nabi quickly raised her head and glared at me.

Her face, looking at me, turned bright red.

“…Siwoo. Be honest. You saw everything, didn’t you?”

Figuring there was no use in making excuses, I took off my school uniform jacket instead of answering her question.

Right now, Hwa Nabi’s school uniform shirt was completely soaked with rainwater. Before assigning blame, she needed to cover herself.

But Hwa Nabi didn’t take it right away and just stared at me blankly. Her eyes seemed to be asking why I was giving this to her.

“You need to cover up. Are you planning to stay like that?”

Whether she was too shocked by having exposed herself to me, Hwa Nabi barely seemed to hear what I was saying. Meanwhile, her gaze remained fixed on my face.

Figuring it was pointless to say more, I approached her and personally draped the jacket over Hwa Nabi.

“Button it up.”

“W-what?”

“I said button up the jacket.”

Otherwise, there’s no point in wearing it. Only when I repeated the same thing for the third time did Hwa Nabi button up the uniform jacket.

She looked quite cute then. Like a child forcibly wearing clothes that didn’t fit. It was a moment that clearly revealed the size difference between Hwa Nabi and me.

“W-why are you laughing?”

I laughed because she looked cute struggling with sleeves that were longer than her arms. But if I said that honestly, she’d probably get really angry.

I tilted the umbrella to cover the back of Hwa Nabi’s head.

“You’ll get soaked.”

“…I’m already completely soaked, you know? What’s the use now?”

“If someone heard that, they’d think I was the reason you got wet.”

“Isn’t that right?”

“What are you saying? It’s because of you. If you hadn’t clung to me, would we have fallen?”

“That’s…! But still.”

Perhaps because I presented the logical argument, Hwa Nabi fumbled with her words, unable to refute. She seemed to have a lot she wanted to say to me, but it appeared she couldn’t organize her thoughts.

After glaring at me for a moment, she sighed deeply,

And finally looked at me with slightly teary eyes.

“…”

…I admit it. That last one had quite an impact. I was quite shaken, wondering if the old saying that a woman’s tears are the ultimate weapon might be true.

The emotion in those eyes was probably half indignation. And the other half was probably embarrassment.

As if confirming my guess, Hwa Nabi muttered something that would cause a big problem if others heard it.

“That, that was my first time.”

“W-what was your first time?”

“Having a man see my underwear.”

“Hey… people will misunderstand if they hear that.”

The nuance makes it sound like I forcibly undressed her to look. I was alarmed by Hwa Nabi’s words. But she continued regardless of my reaction.

“What are you going to do now?”

“What do you mean, what am I going to do…?”

“How are you going to take responsibility for me? I can’t get married now.”

Isn’t she overreacting just because I saw her underwear? Such words rose to the tip of my tongue, but I forcibly swallowed them. Expressing my honest feelings would only be adding fuel to the fire.

How should I respond when a woman shows tears because of me?

I thought about it briefly, but I had no idea.

Past life… it feels a bit strange to call it that, but there’s no other way to express it, so let’s call it my past life.

Anyway, throughout my past life and current life, I had never made a woman cry. So how could I know how to comfort a crying woman?

Hwa Nabi glared at me with eyes mixed with indignation and embarrassment, and each passing second felt almost like a day to me.

After agonizing for about 5 seconds, the answer I came up with was, even by my own assessment, close to nonsense.

“…Do you need to worry about not being able to get married?”

“What… did you say? Siwoo, what are you…”

“No, that’s not what I meant. Um, you know.”

I scratched my cheek while looking at distant mountains. And then I spoke quickly in a barely audible voice.

“You and I are engaged, right? So anyway, when we grow up, you’ll marry me… That’s what I meant.”

…After saying it, I suddenly realized that it wasn’t something a sane person would say. I must have gone crazy for a moment. While I was berating myself, Hwa Nabi stared at me with blank eyes.

But only for a moment.

Quietly, without giving any answer, Hwa Nabi brought the sleeve of the jacket to the bridge of her nose.

And after slightly checking my reaction, she made a sniffing sound and smelled my clothes.

“…It smells really strong. Dirt smell, dust smell, rain smell, and I think there’s a bit of sweat smell too.”

Of course it smells—we rolled around a lot. I was startled by her unexpected behavior; I thought she was going to say something, but she suddenly started smelling it.

“Why are you smelling it?”

I criticized Hwa Nabi’s behavior. But her stubborn personality hadn’t changed; when I tried to stop her, she seemed even more excited to smell it.

Earlier she at least checked my reaction, but now she’s openly sniffing without even pretending not to.

“Hwa Nabi. Take that off quickly.”

“Why? I don’t want to. You gave it to me. I won’t take it off.”

“Hey, are you really going to be like this? You’re not a dog, why are you suddenly acting like this?”

“Ah, I don’t know. Anyway, it’s all Siwoo’s fault. Who told you to say such things?”

“No, how is this my fault again? Wait. Wait a minute, Hwa Nabi. Where are you going? Hey, it’s still raining!”

“If you want it back, try to catch me!”

…She was truly a woman I couldn’t understand.

*

Perhaps because she ran through the rain like a dog excited by snow, her already wet clothes absorbed even more rain and became much heavier.

Both my body and mind were truly exhausted now.

With all my energy drained from the unexpected game of tag, I muttered weakly.

“…Let’s go now.”

“Where to?”

“Where else? We need to dry our clothes.”

Clothes, body, underwear. Everything was completely soaked and quite uncomfortable. I wanted to quickly take Hwa Nabi home and then go wash up.

That was my intention, but suddenly Hwa Nabi grabbed the sleeve of my shirt.

“What?”

“Um, Siwoo. Your family home is far from here, right?”

Hwa Nabi’s residence was in the direction of Yewol High School, as she said, in the opposite direction from Han Siwoo’s home. By car it would take less than 15 minutes, but walking would probably take close to an hour.

“Hmm. It is a bit far.”

“Then, if it’s far from here, it will take quite some time for you to get back, right…?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“But then you’ll have to walk a long time in the rain, and you might catch a cold.”

“I-is that so? I guess that’s true.”

Now that I think about it, she wasn’t wrong. If I stay with a lowered body temperature for a long time, it probably wouldn’t be good for my health. But why is she asking about such an obvious fact?

Not understanding her intention in asking, I answered without much thought. Then Hwa Nabi, still firmly holding my sleeve, mumbled in an almost inaudible voice.

“So, if it’s okay with you… would you like to rest at my house before going home?”

“…Huh?”