It was raining.
Not the soft, romantic kind.
The kind that felt like war — heavy, cold, relentless.
Sera stood alone under the cracked roof outside the gym. She didn't mind the wet.
It drowned noise.
It matched her.
But then she felt it — that shift in the air.
The way silence tightens when someone dangerous enters.
Kairo.
He didn't speak. Just stood beside her, holding a single black umbrella.
"You'll catch something," he said eventually.
She didn't move. "Like your ego?"
He didn't laugh. He didn't smile.
Instead, he held the umbrella over her head — and let the rain soak his shoulders.
Sera froze.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying not to hate you today."
That shook her.
Just a little.
"You're failing," she said, eyes still forward.
He glanced at her. "Tell me something true."
"No."
"Something small."
Silence.
Then...
"I hate the rain," she said.
Kairo blinked. "You're standing in it."
"I like pain more than lies."
That shut him up.
They stood there, two broken shields in the storm.
Then he said, voice low and wrong and honest:
> "You make me forget I'm supposed to ruin you."
She looked at him then.
Really looked.
And for the first time — in weeks of this game they were playing — **she didn't feel in control.**
He was still holding the umbrella over her.
Still getting drenched.
Still not walking away.
And she hated it.
She hated the way her chest twisted.
She hated that she wanted to step closer.
She hated that her eyes dropped to his mouth.
And she hated that she almost whispered *Don't ruin me. Please don't.*
Instead, she stepped back. Out from under the umbrella. Into the full storm.
And said coldly:
> "You forget too easily, De León. I don't break. I burn."
She walked away before he could see her tremble