Dates to Remember

Eighteen Pawprints

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Running was an everyday routine. Participating in a marathon with his golden retriever had also became normal. The only difference this time was that the canine actually stopped in her tracks and stared at a misbehaving dogㅡa black labrador. Pure breed, Yunho assumed.

"C'mon, Yujin-ah," Yunho called, lightly tugging her leash to grab her attention back to him. "Let's go."

She broke her gaze from the labrador to look up at him but instead of moving forward to leave, she guided him towards the other pair. As they approached, Yujin barked twice, making the playful labrador stop and look at them.

"Sorry, she really wanted to check on you guys," Yunho began as the lady handler was visibly surprised by the barking retriever. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah... He's, well, as you can see, just being silly," the woman replied, adjusting her visor to directly look at the tall man in front of her. "I thought we could do this since he'd been cooped up in the apartment for so long."

The labrador was already bouncing around, trying to sniff Yujin but she was not having it and was giving him warning snarls. Yunho noticed this and tugged her a few steps away from the other canine but the darker dog was just too strong for his lady guardian.

"Here, let me help you," Yunho grabbed the exposed area of the labrador's leash and handed over Yujin's to the woman. "Take this and walk three steps back."

Although confused, the woman followed the instructions while her eyes were still trained to her dog. She watched as Yunho gave a series of commands to the labrador and he was already following him in just under five minutes. He even gave out a treat to the dog afterwards.

"Wow. I've never seen him do any of those before," she said with a wide disbelieved smile on her lips. "How did you do that?"

"From Cesar Millan." Yunho was proudly returning the smile before seeing no reaction from the woman. "You don't know him, do you?"

"Sorry, no." Her smile faded and slightly shook her head.

"You should try watching his videos. I learned everything from him," he answered while exchanging leashes again with her. This time, he noticed the race tag she had on her shirt and added, "We're just under a kilometer away from the 5K finish line. Want to walk with us until then?"

"Yes, please." She jumped at the first opportunity to get her dog to listen so they can go home. "And thank you... uhm?"

"Jeong Yunho," he answered with a wide grin and a wave. "And this is my beautiful girl, Yujin."

Her smile returned and waved back at him. "I'm Chae Yeonsoo. And this naughty boy is Sirius Black."

Yunho's face morphed into a wider grin. "Really?! Like the Harry Potter Sirius Black?!"

"Yes," she chuckled, loving his expressions. "Thank you again, Jeong Yunho-ssi."

The YuYu pair slowed down to a walk while giving pointers to keep Sirius moving with them and not be distracted by other people nor dogs. Once the Yeonsoo-Sirius pair finished, they waved goodbye and the YuYu pair get back to finishing their 10K.

Yunho already forgot about the encounter and was only reminded about it when they met again in a public dog park two months later. It seemed that she just recently moved nearby and was greeting some fur parents when they saw each other again.

"I should've asked for your number then, Yunho-ssi," Yeonsoo said absent-mindedly, staring into the distance where her eight month old black labrador was playing. "I honestly don't know what I'm doing wrong. He only listens to me when he wants to."