❝ Saving Grace
@serdtsa
Taesu should have known better, should have felt and acknowledged the tug of the coming storm, should have seen the darkening sky that loomed and threatened overhead. He had always been in tune with the weather, with the refreshing rain and the clash of thunder and lightning, and he should have known. But right before Taesu would have gotten ready for work, Jiho scrambled in through the front door, frantic and panicking over a spirit that had tailed him across half the city while attempting to follow him home. By the time Jiho had calmed enough to release Taesu and latch onto Haneul in his stead, Taesu was ten minutes late, and he still had to get ready. By the time Taesu walked out the door, he was twenty minutes late, and he left at a ran, completely neglecting the umbrella left beside the door.
Now, as the sky opens up and drenches Taesu in wave after cascading wave, soaking straight through his jacket and outfit to the bone, leaving the boy shivering with each gust of wind, Taesu also realizes with terrible dismay that he’s lost. He’d tried to take a short-cut a coworker had once brought up to him in hopes of saving time on the commute, but instead he finds himself standing in the middle of an empty sidewalk, staring blankly at dark stores and empty windows, unsure where to go and how to get there. But there! A saving grace appears in the form of a dim light down and across the street, and Taesu scrambles toward it without looking back.
The bell that jingles when Taesu pushed open the door is one of the sweetest sounds Taesu has ever heard, a welcome relief from the static whitenoise of the rain on the street. The building is just as nice, warm and welcoming, and Taesu’s shoulders slump with relief as he sags back against the door with a soft, hiccupped sigh. “It’s so warm,” he says, voice a whimper of relief as his eyes flutter shut, body trembling ever so lightly from the chill of his clothing. “It’s so nice, oh my god...”