The three pairs of eyes are glued to the television screen and their bodies are huddled together, watching as the numbers flip from one to the other, producing a string of numbers. The numbers can be significant and insignificant to some, depending on the day. As the numbers stop spinning and produces a final product of '74812922', the three of them collectively groan before slamming the cards in their hands to the ground, tired of their continuous losses. Today, which seems like the thousandth time, the numbers on the television screen are insignificant to them and bear no match to the ones scratched on their cards.

"This sucks," Hongjoong enunciates.

"No, no, no. You don't understand what sucks. This sucks!" Mingi screeches as he picks up his scratched card again before showing it to his two housemates. "Look at the freaking numbers, mine is only a step down from the actual main prize!"

"Give me that." Hongjoong snatches the card from his younger, redheaded housemate and as they peer over his shoulders to look at it, sure enough, the numbers that Mingi had put in was '63701811'. "Mingi..." He is rendered speechless. "Just what did you do in your past life to always have this near-miss opportunities? We could have been 5 million chromas richer."

A low chuckle comes from their housemate, the youngest and the only girl. "That's why you need to show me a little respect, I got the consolation prize. Look at that," she points to the screen before moving her finger to the card that she had picked up, "my numbers hit the 50 chromas."

Mingi sticks out his tongue before mimicking her, "Then I'll go and buy lots of fried chicken with that money, stuff myself and realize that I've become broke again. All for my love of- ahh stop hitting me with the book, you're going to murder me! Kim Hongjoong, your sister is about to murder me!" He does an exaggerated cry only to have Hongjoong laughing in his face and joining in the fight.

"It's still money!" Danbi interjects as she provides one last knock to Mingi's head, causing the latter to lie flat on the floor in defeat.

Lying flat on the floor, Mingi puts a hand on his stomach before mumbling, "But am I wrong though? You're going to finish up that 50 chromas buying fried chicken. Then complain to us that you don't have enough money to buy more chicken."

"Be grateful that I still have the conscience to take care of my 'older brothers'," she puts up quotation marks before standing up and intending to switch off the television. When the advertisement for Bae Wonshik's campaign comes on, she stops, staring at the face a little bit too close to the screen.

Hongjoong pulls her away from the box television as Mingi lifts up his head from the floor, craning his neck to see as much as he could. "Stop ruining your eyes and looking at the television too close."

She doesn't hear as she sits absent-mindedly on the floor, staring at the foreign yet familiar face. When she stays quiet, Hongjoong glances at Mingi, who shrugs. Hongjoong bites his lip as he tries to shake her to her senses.

"Just because you think that you look somewhat similar to Bae Wonshik doesn't mean he's your biological father. Look, Mingi and I think that you don't even look like him except for maybe, I don't know, your nose. You look totally different from him. I think you're starting to feed yourself this idea because you're seeing his face too much. Look at something different, I don't know, those performance idols? Pretend you're the girlfriend to a handsome idol or something, but let go of the idea that Bae Wonshik might be your father. It's too much of a long shot."

"Oooh, I agree," Mingi tries to intervene, signalling to Hongjoong that he currently has no idea on what he's supposed to do. "There's this one new idol group called ATEEZ, the rappers are very hot. Talented too. The whole group is like dipped and spun in talent. Carved delicately."

She stays quiet.

"Even if he is your father," Hongjoong speaks up, shutting up Mingi by clamping his hand over his mouth, "that's not someone worthy to be called a father. Look, three of us are not related by blood but we treat each other better than any real family could."

"I heard that he has a daughter." She doesn't give up. "I wonder if she's older or younger."

"Kim Danbi," Hongjoong's voice turns hard but softens when he sees that Danbi is merely staring at the screen, now switched to an advertisement about washing machine cleaners. "We don't know how she looks like until he reveals it himself or one of the news outlet does it. He'll probably reveal it if he wins the election. That's not too far from now, we can wait."

"I can't wait," she says before standing up, almost looking like she's about to wrestle the television as she switches it off.

Over her favourite blue short sleeved t-shirt, she puts on the plaid shirt she unhooked from the hanger beside their main and only door. As Hongjoong asks her where she's going, she only replies with the wave of her lottery receipt and she shoves her feet inside her worn-out sneakers. Hongjoong sighs and closes his eyes before nudging Mingi with his foot, asking him to follow.

"Make sure she returns home and won't do anything stupid. Buy her all the fried chicken she wants but don't make her talk about Bae Wonshik again."

"Yes, sir. Do you want anything while we're out?"

"No, just make sure you're watching over her and not the other way round."

Mingi puts on his shoes just in time as Danbi is at the head of the stairs, ready to descend. The three of them live with a cheap rent at a rooftop house, the owner a girl who's barely turning 20. The girl, Oh Jinju, is the daughter of several building owners, and she happens to have her name in the contract of this particular building. Even at a young age, she already has several buildings under her name, which could make her last while living purely on the rent she collects. She's kind enough to rent them the house with little stipulations, considering the neighbourhood they're in are not the envy of investors anyway.

Located in Freesia District, one of the poorest neighbourhoods but made lively with the people inhabiting it. Their neighbourhood is known as 'The Patchwork', or simply 'Patch' for short just because developers have given up on this particular area, resulting in it having too much architectural diversity. High-rise buildings, landed houses, shophouses of different sizes are all there in Patch, the people living here having a household income of not more than 2000 chromas.

Hongjoong, Mingi and Danbi are one of them, friends made family due to similar circumstances, barely having enough money to get by every month, but they're surviving anyway. Thanks to them helping to lift each other up, coupled with the amazing atmosphere of Patch.

When Danbi is about to stuff the earphones inside her ears, Mingi stops her and grabs it from her. He stretches out his arm, making her unable to reach them before she grumbles and speeds forward. He takes a few steps to catch up with her, quickly trying to corner her into another conversation, anything to make her forget about Bae Wonshik.

"Hongjoong asked me to buy all the fried chicken you want, so you can keep those 50 chromas you're about to claim for something else. Buy a new shirt maybe-"

"What does it feel like to have a family?" She turns to Mingi, who gets caught offguard by her question that he drops the earphones to the asphalt road. They're emerging out of the alley their house is at, a few metres away from the main road. She bends to pick it up, winds the wire around her fingers before stuffing them into her pocket. "You know, blood-related family. Something Hongjoong and I never experienced."

"Danbi, I'm as good as having no family now, so I don't know how it feels," he resigns but takes a peek at her, studying her expression. "My family kicked me out when I was like, what, 20? Even I can't remember now because it's too painful. Saying that I'm a useless son who doesn't contribute anything to society. That's why I'm here with both of you."

"But still," she wrings her hands, "you- never mind."

They are finally out of Patch, Danbi's one destination is the lottery shop as she needs to claim the prize before the shop closes for today. It's almost 9 at night, the surroundings dark without proper streetlights, but that doesn't scare her. Whom it does scare though, is Mingi. In slight annoyance she realizes that the 6-foot tall man is clinging onto her arm a little bit too tightly, getting closer to her as the roads get darker.

"What exactly are you scared of?" she grumbles, but doesn't do anything to shake him off.

"Oh," Mingi stops to think, dragging Danbi back. "A lot, actually. You know those horror movies you and Hongjoong like to watch when I'm asleep? Even from the sounds themselves I can imagine a ghost with long hair, long nails, crawling over to me." She tries to move forward but he is locking her in place, getting pretty serious about the question she asked. "Or maybe some extraterrestrial being, something that doesn't look human, something from outer space. Big heads, weird language and-"

"I didn't expect a 20-mark essay from you but thank you, Song Mingi. Now can we move before the shop closes and I have to wait until tomorrow for my 50 chromas?"

"Fine," he replies before Danbi forcefully marches forward. The giant man clings on to her arm, him looking like the child who needs care while Danbi is the tired mother.

Only when they arrive at the lottery shop, he lets go as she steps inside, just in time before they accept the last customers of the day. Feeling fatigued for having to drag the man with her, she slides the lottery receipt under the glass separator. The worker takes a look at the receipt and the winning numbers for today as he confirms it, glances at the faces in front of him. He disappears to the back and takes one piece of 50 chromas, sliding it towards Danbi.

"Thank you," she breathes, looking happy as she gets the money in her hands. "Do I need to-"

"No, you don't have to do anything," the worker drawls, waving his hand to make her go away. "That money is all yours."

"Thank you, thank you," she repeats all the way, bowing to every worker in there until Mingi has to bump his shoulder to her head to ask her to stop doing that.

"Stop doing that, you're embarrassing yourself acting as if you just won the main prize." When Danbi gives him the look, he says, "I know, 50 chromas is still money." His tone of voice gets lower, looking at her with what is likened to pity. "They're just, I don't know, looking at us weird. It's like they know we're poor so they're looking at us with this look. So I don't want them to look at you that way."

"But isn't it true anyway? We're not like those... company owners, investors, building owners, politicians-" she catches herself before she manages to say more, "-what I'm trying to say is there's no use of denying when it's true. Living in Patch itself is like a big sin and an eyesore to society, so embrace that title."

Mingi can't help but chuckle seeing her slight naivety and positive outlook that he ruffles her hair and rests his chin on top of her head from behind. "You know what, let's get fried chicken. It's my treat."

"Hongjoong?" she automatically asks. "And where did you get that extra money?"

"He told us to go ahead and not get him anything. We'll bring some home anyway. Also," he pats the pocket of his hoodie, "I got a bonus from my boss at my part-time delivery job. The fried chickens are waving at us with their wings."

"How can fried chickens wave when they're all chopped up, their body parts separated-"

"Oh my gosh can you stop having that violent mindset once in a while? You're always scaring me." He nudges her forward with his shoulder, his hands shoved inside the pockets of his hoodie. She laughs when he keeps nudging her, but notices that whenever they enter a darker road with no adequate lights, Mingi will cling onto her like there's no tomorrow.

As they arrive at her favourite fried chicken restaurant, they don't have to take a seat and order for the usual server to know what they're looking to eat. Two plates of different kinds - soy marinated fried chicken and simply crispy fried chicken are served to them. Putting on the plastic gloves, they dive in, stripping the wings, drummets, thighs of the chicken clean. When there are only 1 piece of each type is left, they look longingly at them before at each other and they nod in understanding.

"Since Hongjoong said there's no need for us to bring back any for him, we won't. We follow whatever he says," Mingi concludes.

"Of course we always follow whatever he says," Danbi agrees, knowing that both are lying to themselves anyway.

After some silence, Mingi breaks it. "So Danbi, which one do you want? The normal or the soy marinated one?"

"I took too much of the soy marinated one, so if I may have the normal one?"

"It's my pleasure, help yourself." He closes his eyes and nods.

At the speed of light she takes the crispy fried chicken before he follows suit, them gobbling up the meat until there are only bones left on their plate. He leans against the wooden chair, patting his stomach before letting out a shaky breath. After feeling the food has settled down in his stomach, he stands up to go to the counter to pay. They leave with a 'come again' from the server, and as they are walking back home, it starts to drizzle.

They run to a nearby convenience store and with a slight shrug of Danbi's shoulders, they are now at the outdoor table of the store, sitting under the umbrella with a few cans of beer in front. She snaps one open first, immediately gulping it down, the liquid feeling bitter as it makes its way through her throat. She never liked getting drunk because she feels vulnerable while she is, but always finds herself using it as her de-stressing outlet anyway. Apparently according to her housemates, whenever she gets drunk she'll turn into a less menacing version of herself, and she always tries to act cute. She would rebut saying that they're only lying, and only when they show her a recording of herself does she admit it. She deleted the footage because it was embarrassing that she almost pukes from the feeling itself.

When Mingi is still taking his time to finish his first can, she's already throwing back the second one. She blows out her breath, patting a hand on her bangs then she pouts, leaning to the right and resting her cheek against her fist. She's still in her right mind but she's already feeling like she's about to drift off into her other personality when she gets drunk.

"It's... ironic... isn't it..." she slurs, and he looks at her as his hand stops twisting the beer can.

"What is?"

"That my name... literally... means... sweet rain..." She slaps a hand lightly to her cheek. "But I... hate it... when it rains..."

Mingi doesn't answer but only watches her silently. He lets her pour out her feelings.

"Who thought... it was... a good... idea..." She stops as she downs her third can, then she wipes her mouth with her sleeve. "To name... an abandoned... baby... that reminded them... of the... day... when they were abandoned... I can never appreci-" she puts a hand over her mouth, but continues under her hand, "-ate the rain... even though... it's... beautiful..." By the time she has finished talking, she has already finished her fourth can, while Mingi couldn't even finish his first.

She folds her arms on the table but before she can put her head down, Mingi reaches out his hand to stop her from landing her head there. He pushes it up and says, "You're drunk. Hongjoong told me to look over you and not the other way round."

She gives off a low laugh and his eyelids flutter hearing it. He collects all the empty cans and throws them into the bin, and keeps one unopened in the pockets of his hoodie. Then he walks over to Danbi, helping to lift her up and heave her on his back. He feels her resting her chin at the crook of his neck, and he smiles to himself. He walks slowly, holding on to her firmly as the rain has stopped.

"The rain has stopped," he says, eyes forward and unsure whether she's still awake.

"Can it... stop forever..." she mumbles, barely coherent.

He chuckles, tilting his head until it bumps into hers. When she gives a slow 'ow' as a response, he says while smiling, "If there's no rain, there will be a drought. Water will dry up and only then we'll be praying for the rain to come back."

"Maybe that's what I need," she tightens her arms around his neck subconsciously, "a long drought for me to finally be able to appreciate the rain. For something to change so that I'll come to love my name."