"Need an umbre?" he asked.


    Looking down at his hand, I saw that he was offering me an umbre. It was raining hard, and I was in a hurry but…


    "What about you?" I asked.


    With this rain and wind, there’s no way that the two of us can share an umbre and stay decently dry. If that was the case, I’d rather decline his offer and wait it out here.


    "I’m not in a hurry…but I guess that you are…" the man said with a pleasant smile.


    "I…" I whispered, not quite knowing how to respond.


    "You’re a freshman, aren’t you? Isn’t the ceremony starting soon?" He asked, although he probably already knew the answer.


    "Yes…it is…" I replied in a small voice.


    "Then what are you waiting for?" He said with a smallugh.


    Before I could reply, I was softly pushed into the rain. With one step, I was out in the rain; however, I didn’t feel any raindrops falling on me. I looked up and I could see his umbre blocking the rain from falling onto me.


    "I don’t think that I should…" I began protesting, feeling quite guilty about imposing on him.


    "When someone offers you help, what should you say?" He asked, suddenly he sounded much older and so mature.


    "…Thank you…" I murmured softly.


    He grabbed my hand and while I was too stunned by his sudden movement to move, he ced my hand on the umbre and made me hold it.


    "You should go now," He whispered close to my face.


    "Wait…" I quickly said before it would be toote.


    "What is it?" He asked, sounding slightly curious.


    "My name is Malissa. What’s yours?" I asked.


    "Ethan," He replied.


    "Ethan…umm…I’ll make sure to return this umbre to you…" I said as I avoided his beautiful green eyes and looked away.


    "You don’t have to," Ethan said without a care.


    He waved his hand at me, signaling to me that I better go. He was right, if I hurry now, I can probably still make it in time.


    "Thank you, Ethan," I thanked him wholeheartedly.


    Ethan just smiled and waved his hand a little at me. If I had any worries back then that I wouldn’t see him again, I didn’t need to worry at all. By some twist of fate, I ran into Ethan when I joined the art club the week after. He didn’t seem into art at all, but his artwork was more than decent, and he was there daily.


    Things moved very fast between us. Within a few days of meeting again, he asked me out. A weekter we had sexte at night in the clubroom and then again at his ce. The week after that, I moved out of my dorm to live with him at his apartment. Things stayed pretty much that way until he broke up with me a few yearster when he graduated.


    While living with him, I realized that Ethan was sometime very busy working on something that didn’t seem rted to university. When I asked about it, he told me that he was actually doing real work and that he had a job already, working to support his parents with their family business.


    That was when I found out that he was actually quite older than I thought and that the university degree that he’s studying for was his second one.


    Back then I thought that it must be very tough on him to study while working to support his parents and their family business as well. I truly admired him and how hard he worked. It really inspired me to work hard as well.


    …


    It waste at night, and I was the only one in the art studio at university. We’re supposed to submit our artwork for a contest in three days. While all my friends and everyone in the art club already had something that they wanted to submit, I had nothing that I was confident enough to submit for the contest yet.


    It wasn’t that I didn’t have any noteworthy artwork, but I just didn’t have much confidence in them.


    That is the reason why I’m the only one workingte into the night in the studio with the hope that I would be able to produce something good enough for thepetition. I sighed loudly to myself as I looked at the abstract painting in front of me with its red, purple, and light pink color. Something was definitely missing, and the problem was that I had no idea what it was.


    "There you are!"


    The door mmed open, and Ethan walked in royally. I wasn’t surprised that it was Ethan who came in but I was surprised that he was here.


    "Didn’t you say that you’ll be staying at your parent’s ce for a few days?" I asked curiously.


    "I changed my mind. I heard that someone here hasn’t submitted anything for the uingpetition, you see. It’s in three days, isn’t it?" Ethan said before smiling at me.


    "So, you decided to stay and keep mepany?" I asked. Ethan can be so sweet.


    "Of course. Plus, I hate my parents…" Ethan replied with augh.


    That’s right, Ethan doesn’t get along with his parents. I had no idea what they did but I knew that they lived in the capital and ran a family business. For some reason or another, Ethan had decided to spend his time in a small town rather than the big city. ording to him, it was because he just couldn’t stand being close to his parents.


    "Let’s not talk about them anymore…it’s just going to ruin the mood," Ethan said, and I could feel his presence close behind me.


    His arms circled around my waist as he hugged me tightly from behind. We stood in front of the painting that I was working on, and I could feel his eyes on my work. I held a paint brush in one hand and a paint palette in the other.


    "What do you think?" I asked, referring to my painting.


    Although Ethan wasn’t as passionate about art as the other students and his major wasn’t even art, he had a keen eye for it.


    "Beautiful…and very boring…" Ethan whispered close to my ear.


    --To be continued…