Rain always had a strange way of bringing back things that should have been forgotten.
That afternoon, Naira was standing behind the counter of a small shop when the rain suddenly came pouring down.
The street outside the shop turned into a sea of puddles. Vehicle lights reflected off the wet asphalt as people ran around looking for shelter.
Naira stared out the window.
That day was supposed to be an ordinary day.
Until a man walked in.
Ring...
The doorbell rang.
Naira turned around.
A man stood in the doorway.
His white shirt was soaked from the rain. His black hair was slightly disheveled, and a few drops of water still ran from the ends of his hair down to his jaw.
But it wasn't his appearance that left Naira speechless.
It was his eyes.
The man looked at Naira like someone who had just found something he'd been searching for over many years.
“Sorry,” he said.
His voice was low and calm.
“Can I take shelter here for a bit?”
Naira nodded.
“Sure.”
The man stepped inside.
He stood near the window while Naira went back to pretending to be busy straightening the merchandise.
Strange.
She didn't even know the man.
But from the moment he walked in, her heart had been beating faster.
Several minutes passed in silence.
Then the man said,
“Naira?”
Naira's hands stopped.
She slowly turned toward him.
“How do you know my name?”
The man pointed to the name tag hanging from Naira's chest.
“Oh...”
Naira gave him a small smile.
“What’s your name?”
The man didn't answer right away.
Instead, he stared at Naira for a long moment.
“Arsen.”
The name made Naira frown.
For some reason...
It felt familiar.
“Arsen?” she repeated.
“Yeah.”
Thunder boomed.
Naira flinched.
Arsen only gave her a faint smile.
“I thought...”
He stopped.
“You would remember me.”
Naira knitted her brows.
“Remember you?”
Arsen looked away.
“Forget it.”
“Wait.”
Naira stepped out from behind the counter.
“Have we met before?”
Arsen fell silent.
“Arsen?”
At last, the man looked at her.
“If I said we had...”
He smiled bitterly.
“...you probably wouldn't believe me.”
Naira grew even more confused.
“I’m sure we’ve never met.”
Arsen looked at her for several seconds.
“Fifteen years ago.”
Naira froze.
“What?”
“We met fifteen years ago.”
Naira tried to remember.
But all that came to mind were vague fragments of childhood.
A yard.
Rain.
A little boy.
And a promise.
But before she could remember anything more, Arsen said,
“Forget it. I shouldn't have come.”
He picked up his jacket.
The rain outside had begun to let up a little.
Arsen walked toward the door.
But before he left, he stopped.
“Naira.”
“Yes?”
“If someone ever tells you that I once loved you...”
Naira fell silent.
“...don't believe them.”
Naira stared at him in confusion.
“Why?”
Arsen smiled.
The smile only made Naira's chest feel tight.
“Because I never stopped.”
Then he left.
Naira stood frozen in place.
“Arsen!”
She ran to the door.
But the man had already disappeared among the cars and rain.
Naira went back inside.
As she was about to close the door, her eyes caught something on the chair where Arsen had been sitting.
A black wallet.
Naira picked it up.
“I have to return this...”
She opened the wallet to look for some identification.
But her body suddenly went rigid.
Inside the wallet was an old photograph.
A photograph of two little children.
A little girl with her hair tied in pigtails stood beside a smiling little boy.
Naira stared at the photograph.
Her breath caught.
The little girl...
was her.
And the little boy beside her...
was Arsen.
Her hands began to tremble.
She turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting that had begun to fade.
“‘For Naira.
I’ll wait for you until we’re grown up.
—Arsen.’”
Naira covered her mouth.
The memories that had been buried all this time suddenly came rushing into her mind.
An old house.
Torrential rain.
A little boy clutching her hand.
And a promise she had once made.
But there was one thing that frightened Naira more than anything else.
She had just remembered...
why Arsen had disappeared from her life fifteen years ago.
And the reason, it turned out, wasn't that they had drifted apart.
It was because...
someone had forced Arsen to leave her.
Naira stared at the photograph with tears in her eyes.
“Who did that...?”
Outside, a black car stopped not far from the shop.
Behind its darkened windows, someone was watching Naira.
Then a phone rang.
A man's voice came from inside the car.
“She found the photograph.”
Silence filled the car for several seconds.
Then another voice answered,
“Then we have to stop her before Naira remembers everything.”
The car slowly drove away.
Meanwhile, Naira was still standing alone with the old photograph in her hand.
Without realizing it...
the past that had been hidden from her all this time had just returned.