My shoes squeaked loudly as padded up the stairs, water spurting all around it. That may very well also had been from my dripping wet clothes or my drenched hair. Mainly due to the fact that I had almost drowned having to swim myself out of my car and to the office, that has a strong possibility of never starting again on the day that it seems the sky has dumped all the water of the oceans in the span on mere three hours. Yeah, and that's how long it had taken me to get to work even though my apartment is a short 15-minute drive away. And not until I had finally pulled into my parking space at the office did, I realize that I had effectively stranded myself at work until this ridiculous storm was over. As I entered the building, I saw a few of my colleagues rushing out completely ignoring me while deciding to brave the storm to find their way home. I did consider that option for a split second, but I was in no mood to even attempt the atrocious swim back home. So, if I am stranded in my office then so be it.

And then the day suddenly looked immensely brighter when I realised the one other person stuck at work with me was the only man, I have been desperately trying to get closer to for the past month.

"How are you dry? I have water reaching my bones I am so badly soaked."

"Oh, I got here before the storm began. I knew it was going to rain so I tried to beat it. I didn't realize it would get so bad though. Everyone left to go home already. I was thinking about it myself."

"Don't you live really far?"

"Ye...yeah."

"How do you plan on getting home then?"

"By bus."

"They stopped running ages ago. You would have more luck if you ran across a boat in the middle of the street."

"Oh, is it that bad?"

"Yup."

"What about you?"

"Oh, I am staying very firmly inside. No one can pay me enough to go out there again."

He simply nodded and went and took his seat in front of the computer to continue working as if it didn't seem like the world was ending around us. Thankfully, Yunho had hounded me enough number of times to keep a fresh change of clothes at work so after long warm shower and dry clothes I wasn't about to be in a murderous rage. I joined Yeosang in our office to gets as much work done as possible since it seems the rest of my team shall be missing in action for as long as this storm continues.

It had been over a week since I had discovered Yeosang donning fake glasses for some kind reason. I had even decided to confront him the next day about it when he had replaced the broken pair with a fresh new dose of ugliness, but at the last moment I thought the better of it. Confronting people with their quirkiness never leads to good results. Maybe I can get him to trust me enough to tell me why he chose the lifestyle he had. He obviously had friends who could help him pick out clothes that were decent to look at. Or that even fit. And clearly this was a choice he made. Which I am determined for him to change.

Cause c'mon let's be honest, it downright sucked. And I want him to succeed. It's all for his good after all. Hence, for the past week I have left him alone of sorts. Making sure he is comfortable sharing my workspace. Chat with him about work. Keep personal questions to a minimum. Timing the amount of words, he actually talks. Which has been slowly increasing every single day. And in the meantime, I get to observe him unrestricted to the point that I have a few too many tidbits about him stored away in my head.

Like the fact that he always eats his lunch at his desk while continuing to work. He leaves exactly at 5 o'clock, not a minute before or after. He likes to use only a particular brand of pens and has a bad habit of chewing the back of it when he is in deep thought. He must also despise coffee because I have never seen him drink any no matter how it is made or how much he might be yawning that day. And the most important of all, I am almost sure he has a long running conversation in his head, because he might not comment or participate outwardly at the things going around him, but I have become a near expert on all his micro expressions. He pretends to be disinterested at everything going on in the office, but he clearly wasn't. Now we need to at some point take the giant leap from him talking to himself to actually voicing his thoughts aloud.

Between me letting him work silently through the day and me part working and part looking at him through hooded eyes, most of the day was over and yet the storm wasn't close to letting up. And as the hours kept ticking by and he kept his head down my stomach kept growing louder and louder. I had raided the pantry one too many times and eaten all the scraps my teammates had left in the fridge and my hunger had somehow just grown. I glanced down at my watch for it to show it was well pass 7 in the evening and it was clear we were probably spending the night at the office.

With No Food. Dammit!

"Do you want to share some of my lunch, Seonghwa? I packed too much and couldn't finish it earlier."

I swear I could have kissed him at that second. I didn't even pretend to do the fake "No, it's okay", "Please, I insist" dance. I simply nodded a very appreciative 'Yes', grabbed his lunch box, perched on his desk and shoved a large spoonful in my mouth.

"Holy fuck! Yeosang, this is awful."

"Yeah, I am a terrible cook."

"Don't you bring your own lunch every day?"

"Yeah."

"And this is what you eat?"

"Most days."

"Wow, I think for the first time ever I may have been left speechless. Why would you do this to yourself?"

"Umm... I like packing my food."

"Then you absolutely need to learn to cook. Lucky for you I am awesome. And as thanks for feeding me when I am starving, even if it is with sawdust, I shall coach you personally. There is no way I am letting my employee suffer through this atrocity."

He simply shrugged, which is pretty much his reaction to absolutely anything and everything he didn't want to respond to. And as I was about to scoop the last spoonful clean the inevitable just came to pass. The electricity was finally shut off. We had been expecting this nearly all day. And this means, no light, other than from our cell phones, no computers, and no heating. Tonight, was going to suck!

Except the man who seems to not gain joy in absolutely anything at all somehow had his half smile appear on his face as he walked towards the large window and stare at the violent thunder and lightning surrounding us. I quietly walked up next to me hoping for once we could try to have a conversation not solely based on work.

"You don't seem to beat up about the fact that half our city is drowning."

And his half smile automatically rose slightly as he moved even closer to the window.

"Hmmm, I just really like the rain. It smells so fresh. And once it's done it just make everything...clean. I like that."

"It also makes things wet. Like my bloody shoes. I didn't realize one of things on my hate list would have been to walk around barefoot. But you learn new things about yourself everyday it seems."

And surprisingly his smile extended further. This was the maximum expression I have seen on his face, since ever. And for the first time in our interactions, he was being forthcoming about anything personal I was very interested in probing further.

"What else do you like other than rainstorms?"

"Plants. My apartment isn't too big, but it has a decent sized balcony, so I have lots of potted plants. I have a feeling they won't appreciate the rain today though."

"That's pretty cool. Maybe someday you will have a house with a huge garden. I bet you will love that."

And in typical Yeosang fashion he once again simply shrugged, but then he did something that took me completely by surprise. He actually continued the conversation.

"What about you? What do you like?"

"Potatoes. Just can't seem to get enough of those buggers."

He laughed. The man can actually laugh. It was low and soft, but that was definitely a laugh.

"In all seriousness though, I really like to work. I know it sounds weird but it's true. I am one of the few people who is lucky enough to discover what I love, what I am good at, and what will pay me well. And all three happen to be one and the same. I feel like I always knew this is what I wanted to do growing up. Or maybe I still need to do the growing up part, who knows."

"I hear you are a big name in our field. Everyone here was really surprised when we heard you were joining this company."

"This might not be common knowledge, but my father is one of the silent partners. My family bought a significant portion of the company about 7 years ago. They had high expectations from it, but something hasn't been going right so I was brought in to figure out how to improve profits. I think we have been doing a good job recently, what do you say?"

I turned towards him expecting a reaction, at the very least his patented shrug, but instead he continued staying still, his smile having disappeared, replaced by a tiny frown. Once again, an expression you don't see on his face often enough. Other times I would have been tempted to explore that side of his reaction more, but today since he was being uncharacteristically chatty with me, I didn't want to ruin the opportunity, so I quickly changed the topic back to him.

"What about you? What did you want to be as a kid? Or have you also fulfilled your childhood dream?"

"Hmm, I think I went through all the regular professions young boys fantasize about. But if I had to pick one that stuck the longest it would probably be to become a pilot."

"Nice one! Why didn't to pursue it?"

"Flight school is really expensive."

This is the second time his not going to college has come up. Maybe I should pursue this line of inquiry a little more seriously at some point.

"At least you can be one of the very few people in the world who can find the joys in flying now a days. I swear the airlines are getting worse by the day."

"I have never actually been on a plane before."

"What? Never? How could you have never flown anywhere?"

"I just never had the chance to go any place that would require me to fly there."

I couldn't take my eyes off him as I tried to figure out if he was pulling my leg or not. But it seems he had genuinely never stepped on a plane before. Though he didn't seem upset about it. His barely smile had also found its way back on his face. And among the other hundred small things about him that have been filed away for later consideration, I also registered that I needed to arrange a business trip somewhere that required him to finally get on a plane.

We stood next to each other for a decent amount of time, for once talking about random things. Nothing too personal yet he kept giving me tiny glimpses into his life, his likes, dislikes. And more surprisingly he asked me questions about myself.

Eventually we moved back towards our chairs behind our respective desks to settle in for the night, surrounded by darkness only briefly interspersed by the flashes of lightning. But even in the absence of any light I could tell he had shifted his chair to face the window and kept consistently staring outside while my lids got heavy with tiredness and sleep, and I finally let my head fall on the desk to catch a few winks.

It was a couple hours later when in my mostly sleep induced state I felt him silently place his jacket over me before leaving the office. I wasn't awake enough to wonder exactly where he went in the pitch-black office, but that is where he stayed for the rest of the night.