"Hisao, do you like rain?"
The raindrops are falling down the window pane. They small drops bunch up with the bigger drops and then they get heavy and run down the pane. Most of them go down the same line as others after a bit but sometimes they make it to the bottom on their own.
"Yeah, I guess. I never really think about it. It's troublesome sometimes when you're out, but it makes a nice sound if you're inside."
I can see the rain hit the ledge outside of the window and bounce back up. Hisao showed me a video someone sent him on his phone once of a water drop in slow motion. I never noticed before how it makes a tiny ball of water pop back up then go down and then a smaller one and then it splashes out. I wonder what else is like that, I can't really think of anything.
"Rin, is there anything else you want packed? I'd like to be done before we go to bed, tomorrow's going to be long enough as is."
I nod my head a little.
Hisao is caught up in packing, but I think the rain is more important right now. You can't control when it rains so you can't listen to what it is saying all the time. I think it's important to listen to the rain.
"Hisao, can you open the window?"
"Rin... it's raining outside."
"That's why I want you to open the window."
I hear a sigh, but he comes over and pulls the window open.
The rains louder. I can hear the sound of the puddles outside now and a tin can hanging out of the window of one of our neighbors. Why do they have a tin can outside? Maybe they like the way it sounds too. Maybe we should put a tin can outside the window too.
"Hisao, do you hear anything?"
"The rai-..."
I can hear the sound of dripping closer than before. It's right underneath me.
Oh, I let my hair get wet. But I like this sound too.
"I'll... go get a towel real quick."
I look down and listen closer to the sound of the water dripping.
Water can make a lot of different sounds when it falls. It's like music but it only sometimes has rhythm.
I look at the roofs of the buildings near us to try and hear the rain.
All the other rain sounds are in the way. It's hard to hear just the one sound.

I can feel something on my head and cant see anymore.
"Try closing your eyes. You can hear better that way."
Hisao? Okay.

...

It's like a different world. I can hear all the sounds and it's like they paint what I was seeing before. But it's all blurry. I think I know which sounds are from the other roofs though.

"Sorry to break the mood, but we have to get up really early tomorrow. It'll be my first time meeting your parents too, so I wanna be well rested. Are you ready for bed?"
He had started to dry my hair with the towel and pulled gently on me to come back inside.
"Okay. But next time we have to listen to the rain together, okay?"
He lets out some sort of weird soft short laugh.
"Alright."