Racing, the young Directors mind was. A desk piled high with research documents from ten colleagues more or less. It was after five when he glanced at the pile of folders and loose papers when he noticed he was barely a quarter way done. He sighed, frustrated. While trying to focus on the endless writing on the researchers reports that made him repeat sentences over in his head at least three times if not more, his ears picked up an unusual sound that broke the silence. The director, as hard as he could possibly try, could not tune out the noise. It was never ending and came to the point when he stopped skimming through documents and sat back in his chair, letting out a long sigh.

"I needed a break anyway..." He said to himself, almost angered at the thought of being disrupted. The man's ears heard the noise again, it was like a tapping in his eardrums.

'PAT PAT PAT'

Finally, the director turned his head to the noise that teased his nerves and patience. He looked out to the glass door of the balcony, it was raining. The young man hadn't realized how dark it became from the clouds overhead his office, he also didn't receive word of the horrid weather conditions that evening either.

The director grinned lightly, crossing his arms. "It's going to be impossible to walk home in that." He whispered humorously to himself while tightening the cross his arms made, almost as if he could feel the chill of the rain against his skin.

He looked at his desk, still piled with papers of hard observed research then back at the glass doors that the clouds created small rainy waves upon. The director leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling of his office that seemed maybe a mile away in his eyes.

Like the thunder rumbling outside the walls of his big empty office, a foreign feeling crept over the silver haired man, so foreign to him he forgot what the feeling even represented. He closed his eyes to try and forget as he always has, but like the rain droplets hitting against his glass door, the feeling returned to him in waves, each heavier than the last. This peculiar feeling began to enclose the man, to make him undergo a vulnerable memory of forlornness of which he found difficult to ever recall in his past. The director, trying so hard to forget the anger, the devastation... The hopelessness... But it was still attached to him by tiny threads, all of which he would never be able to cut loose from him.

He stood up from his desk in a panic, heaving heavily as his nose began to tingle with a slight burning sensation. "I need some fresh air." He stuttered while trying to rub away the burn from his nose.

Emerald eyes scrolled to the harsh condition outside and it was no debate to the young director if going outside was a good decision or not, to him it wasn't a thing to debate about. He didn't grab his spare coat that he kept hanging in the corner of the room on the lonely hook or the pocket umbrella he only used during his excavations of research sites, he walked to the glass door and opened it without another thought to hold him back.

The rain was cold against his warm cheeks, it ruined his hair and soaked his uniform as he walked to the edge of the balcony faced up at the overcast with a disheartened stare. His hands, heavy from soaked gloves, grasped the handrail before pressing his torso against the cold steel that prevented him from falling over. Mixed with the rain were fallen tears that were not often produced by the director, his chest began to ache and weigh heavy from his heart that seemed desperate to escape him; his nose and cheeks and eyes had begun to turn the light shade of red, the shade of red when his cheery assistant would suddenly cling to his arm in front of others and make his face blush with embarrassment.

Oh, how he despised times such as this. It distracted him from his work, his leadership to his colleagues but worst of all, he couldn't remember why he felt this way. The director looked out into the view and saw the lost world, structured by only a narrowing pillar of shining crystal, he sometimes sees it falling and hearing the screams of the people who couldn't bother to leave their homes but then he blinks and sees it standing once more. He remembers the reason why it stands on a crystal pillar... Friends of his, took the mission to save the dying world a long time ago, one of which never left his thoughts.

"Do something for me, will you?" A young voice asked. The director held his head, trying to smudge away the words from memory. "Keep smiling. It makes me happy when you smile..." That was when he let it out, his anger and his sorrow all echoing over the commotion of the rain and thunder. He hung over the railing, wailing hysterically in the wind... Her name.

Inside the director's office, the director's young assistant entered and stood by the door. "Director?" She noticed the empty chair by the desk and walked towards it. "Director Hope?" She called, but only an echo returned. The young woman scanned the room without the slightest trace of the silver haired man. He couldn't have left, she would've seen him pass by her desk that was just outside his doorway. His coat was still there though, but no sign of him was found. She began to get worried, what if something happened to the director? The whole Academy could be in danger of collapse!

Fortunately, she didn't have to worry long. She noticed the glass door was partially opened and the floor began to flood from the rain. The young assistant rushed to the sliding door and noticed the tall, silver haired man standing against the railing.

"Director Hope, there you are!" She said, relieved he was still here. Although, the director failed to acknowledge his assistant. "Director?" She called to him, but he still refused to turn to her.

The young assistant stood hesitant at the opening of the glass door, but eventually walked out in the freezing rain with barely any protection against it other than her uniform. She stopped at the railing where she saw her director looking out into the foggy horizon with eyes dispirited. The young woman placed her hand upon his forearm, startling her superior. The man turned his head to the assistant, his eyes were distant and melancholy.

"Director, are you alright?" She asks him, although she noticed he's been crying. The silver haired man just stared back speechless, as if he was dumbfounded to see another person. The assistant moved her hand from his forearm to his cheek, which was raw from the rain and tears. "Why are you out here in the rain all by yourself?"

The director failed to respond, he just continued staring back at the young lady. "Not going to answer me, huh?" She asked the director in a way that reminded him of his mother, how she would joke with him when he would tease her for little things... Like making wishes on fireworks.

"Well?" The director's assistant asked, urging him to answer back but her superior just continued staring back with not a reason to give. The young assistant simply smiled and went in to hug her superior. It was a ballsy move from her, since all she would usually do to show affection to her director was cling to his free arm.

The director on the other hand, tried to squirm and wriggle from her embrace, his cheeks blushed past the raw tear trails that cascaded down his face. He couldn't shake loose this smaller woman that clung to him like his heavy, wet clothes.

"A-Alyssa, please let go..." The director demanded in a calm manner, but his assistant wasn't planning on releasing her grip, not anytime soon. "P-please, I don't want to have to use force against you Ms. Zaidelle!" His assistant didn't respond back, she just smiled and hugged him tighter.

After a while, the director forgot his sadness and anger while replacing it with an uneasy feeling toward his clingy assistant. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping the young woman would release herself from his torso... Yet, when he felt these arms around him with hands intertwining at the end, he felt a sudden closeness to the young assistant but as if she was another person from long ago. It was a free urge when suddenly he returned to the woman a similar gesture of affection, his eyes swelled up once more with stinging tears as the embrace between the two progressed, his tears leading to soft sobs.

"It's alright director... I'll be here for you, it is what I signed up for after all." The assistant patted the directors back lightly, calming him.

The director sniffles and responded, " T-thank you, Alyssa."