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It’s a quiet, slow, rainy day, peaceful and perfect for relaxing. Midterm exams at Ye Ran are tomorrow, meaning that for pretty much the only time in the year (the other being finals) the usual hangout is put on hold as Shinwu and Ikhan desperately try to cram in order to make up for an entire semester of online gaming. Yuna listens to the steady beat of the rain as she tries to get some studying done herself (she’s responsible, but by no means a top student) and looks forward to a day without interruptions.
Which is why she’s surprised when the door rings and she opens it to see none other than Rai, standing out in the rain and drenched from head to toe, holding what appears to be a scruffy and equally soaked stray cat in his arms.
“Rai?!” she exclaims. “Why are you standing out there? Come inside!”
She ushers him into the house, leaving him looking slightly lost in the doorway while she rushes to grab some towels. When she comes back, he hasn’t moved an inch. The tabby cat gives a soulful meow, as if speaking for him. Yuna promptly wraps the little thing in a dish towel, handing the larger one to Rai. He looks down at it, seemingly uncomprehending.
“You… can use it to dry your hair? Or your clothes?” prompts Yuna helpfully. Rai really is a strange one. “Ah, you know what, I can show you to the bathroom. I think some of my older brother’s clothes might fit you… I’ll get you some.”
Finally, Rai speaks. His accented, lilting voice always carries, no matter how quietly he talks. “Thank you, Yuna.”
“You’re welcome…” Of course, she’s beyond confused about why Rai showed up at her door in the middle of a rainstorm holding a cat of all things, but she figures he can explain the whole thing when he’s dry and comfortable. The stray cat meows again and paws at her, like it’s fighting for Yuna’s attention.
“Yes, yes,” she murmurs indulgently, stroking its still-damp fur with one hand as she watches Rai disappear into the bathroom. “You’re a cute one, aren’t you?”
Yuna has barely settled down on the sofa when Rai comes back. That was fast. His hair and skin are completely dry, despite having been soaked in rain not all that long ago. It’s strange to see him in casual clothes, an oversized beige shirt and white sweatpants. For some reason, Rai is rather attached to his school uniform, and they rarely see him without it. Somehow, Rai manages to make Ye Ran’s rather plain uniform look effortlessly glamorous.
The student in question is now hovering awkwardly in the living room. That’s one of the things about Rai— he has this grace to him, this elegance, but he always seems to look and feel the slightest bit out of place. He’s a bit clueless and rather harmless, and Yuna is genuinely surprised that he managed to make it to her place in the middle of a storm, given how he can get lost in a supermarket parking lot.
“Sit down,” she tells him invitingly, because if you don’t tell Rai he can do something, he’ll assume he can’t. Rai is surprisingly sensitive to others’ emotions, despite very few being visible on his own face at first; he can tell when Sui is upset over a show and trying to act cheerful, when Shinwu secretly misses his father, when Ikhan feels lonely sometimes, when Yuna compares herself too much to others. And Rai tries (a little too much sometimes) not to impose. For some reason… the foreign student always seems to see himself as an imposition.
Rai obligingly takes a seat next to Yuna. The cat worms its way out of Yuna’s grasp to land squarely in Rai’s lap, purring intensely. Rai looks down, and a rare sight crosses his features— the tiniest of gentle smiles. With exceeding care, he lightly scratches behind the stray cat’s ears, causing it to purr even more.
“So, what brings you here in the middle of the rain?” asks Yuna.
Rai keeps absently stroking the cat. A thoughtful expression comes into his eyes. People always seem to think that Rai’s hard to read, but it isn’t difficult at all if you pay good attention. “It is… a long story, as they say.”
“That’s fine. I’ve got time for you,” replies Yuna with a slight laugh.
“You see, I was taking a walk when it started to rain, and on the side of the road, I saw this cat. It was sitting in a cardboard box, all alone. Its previous owner had abandoned it. It didn’t have anyone anymore… so I took it with me, if only to protect it from the rain.”
Rai looks down. “I thought of bringing it home. But that is where the problem is. Fr— ah, Chairman Lee, he is very particular about the state of his home. He cherishes his belongings, and mess and disorder cause him distress and worry. I understand that cats and similar domestic pets can be difficult to take care of. They leave claw marks and fur, and require care and feeding. When there are already so many to take care of and so many mouths to feed at home…”
Rai breathes a quiet, almost inaudible sigh. He looks a little… weary, almost, and sad. “My… the chairman, he is stressed and overworked often, even if he does not show it. It takes a lot of work to run a school and a household, on top of the other projects he manages. But he cares deeply about my feelings. If I brought him this cat and asked if we could take care of it, he would certainly do so, regardless of how much stress or inconvenience it brought him… he would put his own needs aside.”
It’s… strange, the way Rai talks about the chairman. He gets this look in his eyes that he doesn’t get with anyone else, a sort of… tender affection, strange as it sounds. He talks as if they are friends or equals, instead of a teacher and student. There are many, many times when Rai slips and speaks to him in casual language (though he had figured out this rule with the other adults) but Chairman Lee never minds at all, though he looks rather miffed if someone else does it.
Yuna kind of understands what he was saying. The chairman is fastidious about some things, and Rai’s being considerate of that, as usual. But the thing about him “caring deeply” for Rai’s feelings, and Rai worrying about the chairman “putting aside his needs…” the whole thing might be rather sweet, but…
There’s no getting around it. They’re way too close.
Actually, the whole thing had set off the alarm bells in Sui’s head first. Unfortunately, she’d had first-hand experience dealing with the creeps in the entertainment industry, and she was the one who first raised the horrifying possibility to the group.
No one could believe it at first. Chairman Lee was a charming, hardworking man who dedicated himself to the betterment of his students. His programs and methodologies were widely known to be the best in Korea for the most affordable price, and he truly cared about his students and their well-being. The idea that someone like that could be… taking advantage of poor innocent Rai…
But there was simply no denying the shared smiles, the fond looks, the way the chairman’s hand would rest on Rai’s shoulder a second too long or the way Rai still carries a photograph of the chairman in his breast pocket. The point where they could pass it off as just “foreigner things” had long passed. Worriedly, they all agreed to let Ikhan subtly investigate the problem and report back. Yuna remembers that meeting vividly.
“Okay, I’ve got good news and bad news.”
“Let’s hear it,” said Shinwu grimly.
Ikhan glanced at his computer. “First, the bad news. According to my calculations, there’s a 72% chance that Rai and Chairman Lee are together.”
The declaration was met with gasps of shock and horror. Shinwu outright growled, looking ready to punch something, and Sui had to physically hold him back. “I won’t allow this! Even if it's the chairman… I won’t let him hurt Rai!”
“Wait! Wait! You didn’t hear the good news!” said Ikhan, flailing his arms.
Shinwu barely got a hold of himself. “What?”
“There’s also a 97.8% chance that Rai and Chairman Lee are both mythical beings who are over two thousand years old.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.”
There were just too many strange things about them, they had all thought then, and it’s the same now. First and foremost, of course, is that if you look at Rai too long, you start to realize there’s no way he’s sixteen. It’s not just the fact that he’s much taller and his shoulders are much broader. There’s a maturity to his features that most boys at Ye Ran lack, there’s age in his eyes, and the way he carries himself… he stands out a lot among the students. More concerningly, and more importantly— if you look away, you forget this fact. Or you think it doesn’t matter.
Rai’s eyes… they’re warm brown, but if you look at them in the low light, they seem to flash bright and brilliant red. The fact that Rai is clueless about not just technology, which would be somewhat understandable, but everyday basic things— there’s no way someone could not know how to turn a door handle, or what a supermarket is, or, God, how to use a towel to dry their hair, even though Rai seemed to manage it once he was left alone.
The constant disappearances, the way that Rai and the others always seemed to come back exhausted or sick or injured, the fact that no one could actually remember what country they claim to be from. The kind of… acrid, burning tang to the air that hovers around Rai sometimes, whenever one of those strange things happens. The list goes on and on.
So yeah— the idea that Rai and the chairman were ancient gods or deities or whatever wasn’t all that unreasonable, in the grand scheme of things. A lot of things would make sense. And honestly… Yuna is just relieved that Rai wasn’t being taken advantage of. That’s the most important thing.
“I was wondering,” says Rai after a long pause, bringing Yuna out of her thoughts. “If it was possible… could you take care of this little one? I remember you said you felt lonely sometimes, since only you and your mother live here now. I thought perhaps this cat could keep you company, since it’s in need of a home too.”
Too. Because is what Yuna has really home? With her mother around less time than she’s gone? Home is in other people, other places. Home is Shinwu, Ikhan, Sui, and Rai, home is the space walking between her apartment and school, and maybe, for a while, home could be with this scruffy tabby cat. Taking care of it wouldn’t be a problem.
“I’ll do it.”
Rai— he doesn’t quite smile, but he has a sort of content, grateful expression. He continues petting the tabby cat gently. “Thank you.”
“It seems rather attached to you,” remarks Yuna with a slight laugh. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep it?”
He shakes his head. “It says it’s happy to make its home with you. It finds you a worthy recipient.”
“It— what?”
“Oh.” Rai’s eyebrows scrunch together in a vaguely endearing way. “I apologize. Do not pay that any mind.”
“I… uh, okay.”
With an air of finality, Rai stands up, gently depositing the cat in Yuna’s arms. It promptly settles itself in her grasp, meowing contentedly. Rai was right after all. “I should be going. The chairman will start to worry.”
“Right. Will you be able to find your way back all right?”
A tender look comes into his eyes. “Do not worry. I may struggle with directions, but I can always find my way home.”
Home… Rai is lucky to have such a good one. Her heart aches a little.
“Thank you again. I will see you at school.” And then Rai is gone, just like that, leaving only the stray cat behind. Yuna sighs, getting back to her studying.
It’s a little while later that she realizes that Rai must have left his school uniform behind, given that he had left in the clothes he borrowed. When she goes to check the bathroom, however, she sees the very same shirt and pants she had lent, neatly folded next to the sink. The towel is also neatly folded, perfectly dry and clearly never used. The wet school uniform is nowhere to be found.
She picks up the clothes, feeling them in her hands. They’re the exact same ones, small holes and loose threads in the same places. The strange acrid tang that clings to Rai sometimes hangs in the air— like electricity and candle smoke. She smiles a little as she puts the clothes back into the drawer. Just another proof of their strange but lovable mythical friend.