Refreshing Rain

"Yamamoto-san! Ohayo!" I greeted my idol as he walked to the baseball field for practice.

"Oh, ((Reader))-san! Ohayo," he greeted me back. I felt my heart leap a little to see his smile brighten my day. If there was any word to describe him, it would be refreshing.

Math class was boring as usual but the day got worse. Some bitch from another class purposely spilled food on my uniform and we had a fight which ended up having me as the culprit of the fight. I was sent for detention and when detention was over the sky was dark with heavy clouds.

I tried running home before the storm comes but no luck as I got soaked thoroughly by the time I got to the school's baseball field.

There, I met my idol. He was soaked to the bone in the rain as well but somehow the sight of him practicing baseball in such a heavy rain managed to lighten my day.

"Oh, ((Reader))-san, what are you doing in the rain? Come on!" he dragged me to the baseball equipment room.

After drying myself, Yamamoto and I sat in silence. I decided to talk to him.

"Yamamoto-san, how do you always manage to stay so cheerful all the time? I mean are there not times when you will feel down and helpless?"

He looked at me and smiled. "I'm not always cheerful like what people say. I do have times when I get angry and down. I feel most helpless at times as well when I can't do anything to help my friends."

He continued with a small smile on his face despite the solemn expression "I'm not good in baseball like what everyone thinks. Sometimes expectations really kill a person. There are also times when there will be people who will discourage me when I choose to play baseball over more important things in life. I just really enjoy baseball and I do what I like. However when these happen, I often find myself running away from everything."

I remembered the time when he tried to jump off the roof because he could not play baseball when he broke his arm.

"However, I often forget something very important."

I looked at him puzzled.

"I can still smile today and be where I am because there are people who are always around me to encourage me and support me. There are people willing to help me no matter what and these are the people whom I hold close to me. These people are my friends. It doesn't matter who they are. They could be the worst kid in school or even the meanest and scariest person around. However, when I need them I know that they will always be there.

We help each other in times of need that's why I can continue to stay strong and keep on smiling. You may see now that this storm is bad. However, you will see later that when this storm clears, the sky will be more beautiful than before. My smile is like the rain that washes away all these hurt and bad times for my friends so I continue smiling. In simple terms, I smile for my friends because I want to see a better tomorrow with them."

He smiled at me and I was stunned, behind that cheerful guy was a man so deep and it makes me happy to know that I learnt something new about Yamamoto.

"Oh! The rain has stopped! Let's go out now then," he said. I went out of the room with him and saw the most beautiful sky like he said.

"Oh look ((Reader))-san! It's a rainbow... it's beautiful isn't it?" he smiled at me.

"Yes!" I agreed. It was the most breath taking sky I ever saw and to be honest, I've never noticed such simple things before. I felt refreshed and I guess it must have been both the rain and Yamamoto's personality. He is like the refreshing rain that can help wash every trouble away.