| genre: fluff • slice of life • soft romance • comedy
the first time you met maki, he accidentally stole your umbrella.
to be fair, there were six identical black umbrellas lined up outside the convenience store, and it had started raining so suddenly that half the neighborhood looked personally offended by the weather.
you only realized it was gone when you stepped outside.
“oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
across the street, a boy was already walking away with it.
you jogged after him, nearly slipping on the wet pavement.
he turned around immediately.
big eyes. messy hair. the expression of someone who looked permanently caught doing something he shouldn’t.
you pointed dramatically.
looked back at the umbrella.
“…yeah, that checks out.”
you expected him to be embarrassed.
for some reason, you found that annoying.
for some reason, you also found it kind of funny.
you didn’t know it then, but you’d end up seeing him everywhere.
the universe apparently had a sense of humor.
two days later, he was standing in front of you at a bakery.
a week after that, he sat across from you on the train.
another time, you both reached for the last strawberry milk at the convenience store.
he complained for five minutes.
“this is discrimination.”
“that’s not how discrimination works.”
eventually, the accidental run-ins stopped feeling accidental.
like seeing the moon at night.
or finding at least one missing sock every time you did laundry.
somehow, maki always ended up there.
sometimes you’d spot him before he noticed you.
he’d be staring at a claw machine for twenty minutes straight as if psychological warfare could convince the plushie to climb into his arms voluntarily.
you watched him lose six dollars once.
he walked away with nothing but wounded pride.
“you absolutely were not.”
“you don’t understand the vision.”
the strange thing wasn’t how often you saw him.
the strange thing was how comfortable it became.
there was never a big moment.
sharing snacks while waiting for the train.
sending each other pictures of oddly shaped clouds.
arguing over whether cereal counted as soup.
you refused to elaborate.
one evening, you found yourselves sitting on a playground swing long after the sun had disappeared.
the neighborhood was quiet.
streetlights glowed softly.
maki pushed himself back and forth with his sneakers scraping the pavement.
“do you think people are connected before they meet?”
“like invisible string theory.”
“that’s not what invisible string theory is.”
“how many times we probably crossed paths before actually talking.”
it was entirely possible.
maybe you had stood beside each other hundreds of times without knowing.
maybe you’d both reached for the same shelf in a store.
waited at the same crosswalks.
all those tiny moments adding up until eventually one of you stole the other’s umbrella.
“if that’s true, then our invisible string deserves a refund.”
maki snorted so hard he nearly fell off the swing.
“you’re saying the umbrella incident wasn’t romantic?”
“i’m saying you committed umbrella theft.”
and for a second, everything felt strangely still.
the kind of happiness that sneaks up on you when you’re busy laughing.
maki looked at you for a moment.
then he smiled again, softer this time.
“i’m kinda glad it was your umbrella.”
your heart betrayed you immediately.
“that’s a weird thing to say.”
which unfortunately only made him laugh.
and somewhere, maybe, an invisible string tugged gently between your hands.
not because fate was dramatic.
not because destiny had some grand plan.
but because sometimes the universe puts the same person in your path over and over again until one day they stop feeling like coincidence.
and start feeling like home.
heyyy uhhh sooo i kinda disappeared for a bit… sorry abt that lolz ive been busy with work & completely drained ahhh but just wanted to write smth small!
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