You're there.
But for some reason
I can't reach you

Rain beat heavily down on the roof of Chaerin's house. It was a gloomy Monday. Despite the fact that it was summer and it was warm outside and the rain never lasted long, the day was still gloomy.

Chaerin sat on the kitchen counter, her legs swinging back and forth, watching the rain hit the glass door that led to the back yard. Her grandmother wasn't home; she went out of town for a while. She would be gone a couple days.

Chaerin knew where she went. She knew exactly where her grandmother had gone and she had absolutely no desire to come along, not that her grandmother offered. But since it was imprudent to leave a fifteen year old alone by herself for several days, Yoongi and Grandma Min checked up on her every few hours.

That's why, as Chaerin sat on the kitchen counter, Yoongi was standing at the stove next to her, making dinner for the both of them. This was a comfortable routine for them. Chaerin was a horrible cook—to the point of burning a pot of boiling water—so Yoongi had put her under a strict ban. At first Chaerin had completely ignored his so called 'no cooking ban'. But after an ill-fated accident with a toaster, a sesame seed bagel, and a very loud smoke alarm, she had agreed to the cooking ban and thus maintained a three-foot distance from the stove at all times, per Yoongi's orders.

"What are you making?" Chaerin tore her wide eyes away from the rain and turned to her friend, who was stirring something with a wooden spoon.

"Don't you love the rain? I love the rain," she sighed, a small smile on her lips. Yoongi didn't respond, he just kept stirring. He didn't talk much these days, not that he was all that chatty before. It's just that these last three years, he had been getting worse and worse.

Chaerin tried so hard to make him happy, she did everything she could, but Yoongi only got worse. He barely spoke, hardly ate, and pretty much never left his bedroom. Granted, he was a sixteen year old guy and had some right to be moody, but this was something beyond simple teenage hormones. The truth of the matter was that Yoongi wasn't happy and he tried hard to hide it, to protect Chaerin from the truth—he promised himself that he would protect her no matter what, because she was doing the same for him. But even though Yoongi tried to shield her, Chaerin was the only one to see past his walls.

"Can we go outside?" She swung her legs a bit harder at the excitement of going outside, she liked looking at the stars.

"It's raining, Chae," Yoongi sighed at her request.

"Hm but what about afterwards? After it stops raining. Can we go outside then?"

"It'll be dark afterwards," Yoongi didn't look up from the fried rice he was stirring.

"That's the point," Chaerin chuckled, "I want to see the stars. Can we please watch the stars?" She pleaded.

Yoongi's wooden spoon halted in the middle of stirring. He hated it when Chae asked him for things. He hated it because no matter how hard he tried to say no, all she had to do was pout and look at him with those doe eyes and he was a goner, and she knew it. Yoongi would give Chaerin anything she wanted and all she had to do was ask.

He sighed, shutting his eyes in frustration, "Alright, we can go outside if the rain stops."

"Yes!" Chaerin threw her arms up in victory before yanking Yoongi by the neck into a suffocating hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She placed a quick kiss of gratitude on his cheek.

"Hey!" Yoongi stumbled on his feet when Chae practically attacked him with her ambush-affection. "I've got hot food and an open flame over here and unless you want to end up with rice all over the floor then you won't startle the guy holding the food over the flames!" Yoongi scolded the laughing girl while attempting to cover the slight blush creeping up his neck.

"Oh hush, you!" Chaerin smirked, leaning closer to him as she teased. "We both know you love me, even if I make you spill rice on the floor," she prodded his cheek with the tip of her finger.

Yoongi's jaw clenched, "You know, I'm a year older than you, you should respect your elders and yet you poke me and shush me," he shook his head.

"I poke you and shush you because I can," Chaerin chuckled. "You let me poke you and bug you because you love me," her laughing ceased and she just smiled at the side of his face, since he was obviously avoiding eye contact.

They sat silently again, Yoongi stirring the rice and Chaerin swinging her legs. The quiet was a constant in their lives and they both embraced it. Once the rice was finished, Chaerin set the table and they ate dinner silently, watching the rain outside slowly drizzle down.

The rain, it created a quiet rhythm on the glass. It reminded Yoongi of the rhythmic tapping of his fingers on the piano keys; the keys that he hadn't touched for months now.

When he'd first discovered that piano in his grandmothers sitting room he played it every single day. Every day he sat down on that bench and pressed down on the keys until his frustrations faded away and nothing but the music mattered, nothing else existed. It had been four years since he'd discovered that brown piano. He loved playing it. He loved the music. But over the last few months something had shifted.

Slowly, he stopped playing. At first he just had dinner a little earlier than usual, leaving the piano earlier. Then one day he skipped playing altogether. And it was no big deal, because he played again the next day. But then it happened again. He skipped a day, and another, and another. Yoongi wasn't really sure when exactly it was that he stopped playing altogether. All he knew was that one day he woke up and couldn't remember the feeling of the piano keys beneath his fingertips.

The music was gone, replaced by something else, something dark.

It didn't come all at once, it came in waves. Some days it was like a dark cloud was hanging over his head, following him with every step he took. He didn't know where it came from or what it fed on, he just knew that there was this monster eating away at him, and there was nothing he could do about it. So he gave up. Yoongi allowed the darkness to seep in and fill him with its toxins. His mind had turned into something unrecognizable even to him.

It was darkness. It was poison. It was depression.

"Hey," Chaerin gently nudged his shoulder. "Can we go outside now?"

Yoongi snapped out of his thoughts. Looking around, he noticed that the table was clear of their dinner plates, the rain outside had stopped, and Chaerin was standing at his side, looking at him with those adorable animae eyes, her hand resting gently on his shoulder.

"Yeah, let's go."

Yoongi stood up from his seat and grabbed Chaerin's hand, letting her lead him outside.

Chaerin. She was the only bright spot in all the darkness.