ran through a thunderstorm for her and something just clicked

so we grew up together basically. same families, knew each other since birth, went through all of elementary/middle/high school together. i did sports so i skipped the late-night study sessions but she did them until like 11pm. anyway one night it's pouring rain POURING and she texts me asking if i can pick her up. i don't see it until after practice ends (genius move on my part). when i finally read it I'm like... oh shit.

she doesn't really have other friends and her parents couldn't come get her. she has two older brothers but one's in the military and one's at university in seoul. so basically I'm the only person she can call. I'm immediately worried, try calling her but her phone's off. I'm standing there like what the hell do I do, so I figure maybe she's waiting around and I grab an umbrella and literally SPRINT to her school. fastest I've ever run in my life no cap.

I'm running with the umbrella but it keeps getting in my way so I ditch it, throw on a baseball cap, just sprint harder. pull up to the school building and she's just crouching there in the rain. DRENCHED.

I text her that I'm sorry I saw the message late and she looks up and her face is completely devastated. she's literally crying. and then she just... wipes her face all over my jacket sleeve without saying anything. just using my sleeve to dry her tears.

and that's the moment I realized I'd never actually seen her as a girl before until right then. like she'd always just been *her*. but something about that broke something in me. i couldn't stop thinking about her after that. couldn't breathe.

im 22 now and I still love her.