It was an evening during the rainy season.

The rain had been falling without interruption since morning, and even as dusk approached, the sky did not brighten. Pale gray clouds hung low over the city, and the lights of streetlamps and cars blurred against the wet asphalt. Only the sound of rain hitting the umbrella and the splash of distant cars echoed quietly in the damp air.

Come to think of it, it was raining yesterday, too.

Guest suddenly remembered yesterday. There was a man in the park gazebo, terribly wet. He was so drenched it was strange to even call it taking shelter. Drops fell incessantly from his black hair, and his clothes clung to his skin. Yet, he didn't seem troubled, just sitting there quietly.

However, since Guest happened to have two umbrellas that day, they gave him the plastic one. Having brought a folding umbrella, the plastic one bought by mistake previously had just been left in the bag. It wasn't meant to be a big deal. It was a little scary, but leaving someone drenched just felt wrong somehow...

While walking through the rain and recalling yesterday, Guest was suddenly tapped lightly on the shoulder from behind. Turning around...

There stood the man from yesterday.

There was no mistaking him. He was definitely the man who had been drenched in the gazebo yesterday. The differences were that today he was not wet at all because he held a black umbrella, and he was holding that lent plastic umbrella properly folded in his hand. And above all, his face, which had been hard to see in the dark yesterday, was clearly visible under the faint light of dusk.