Running to You | Park Han + JL + Steven | Haneulz + Stejay AU

Chapter 2: First Impressions

By Thursday, the entire campus knew his name. JL. The monster Filo transfer. The sprinting prodigy who broke the 200m time trial on his first day like it was a warm-up. He was shy. Soft-spoken. Always bowing. Always smiling awkwardly when someone called him handsome in the hallway.

And everyone was calling him handsome.

The girls from the rhythmic gymnastics department followed him between classes like disciples. The volleyball team gifted him a towel with a shrimp logo on it, because he'd mentioned it was one of his favorite foods in his public university profile. Even the nutrition staff started slipping him extra sweet potatoes and kimchi at lunch. Someone left a liniment patch, with a heart drawn on it, taped to his gym locker. 

JL, for his part, looked like he wanted to melt into the floor. Park Han watched it all from a distance, his expression unreadable. But his eyes never left JL.

* * * 

Later that evening Han walked to his dorm room at the end of the corridor. But something was different today. The empty dorm room beside his was now occupied, and its door was open, warm light spilling out from it into the hall. Curious, he peered around the door.

JL was unpacking. He was kneeling on the floor, arranging socks into perfect rolls. A small stuffed dog sat on the bed. An assortment of clutter was piled on the study desk. Han saw the glint of some trophies haphazardly shoved to one side as JL continued to heap more items on the desk.

"Oh - hi, hyung." JL said, eyes wide. "Looks like our rooms are beside each other."

Han leaned against the door. "Seems like it," he said. And then, "...You're pretty fast."

JL flushed, ducking his head. "Not as fast as you. I read all about your records in the time trials before I flew to Korea. We talk about you all the time on my team back home."

Han narrowed his eyes. "You beat my time."

"Oh. That." JL scratched his cheek, leaving a faint red spot. "I didn't expect to. Did it bother you?"

"Of course not. You beat me fair and square. For how long, that's another story."

JL grinned at that, and the tension eased a little.

Han continued walking to his own room, the last image on his mind lingering: of JL sitting cross-legged on the bed, pulling his hoodie sleeves over his hands and shyly offering a strange tangy candy he'd brought from his hometown. Han wondered at the strange duality: how could someone so unintrusive have a monster like that under the surface?

And why did Han suddenly feel like the ground under him wasn't as solid as it used to be?

* * * 

The next morning was quieter, cooler, and JL woke up earlier than he needed to. He sat by the window, watching the fog roll in.

He thought about his hometown and his old school. The familiar warm-ups, the coaches who were delighted and said things like "he's good for his age." Back home, JL had dominated easily, and everyone smiled at him all the time, at least as long as he was winning.

Here, no one faked smiles over sprint times, not unless you earned it. It was nerve-wracking, but it meant everyone was an elite athlete from the get-go and mediocrity wouldn't impress. Every person was the best of the best where they came from. JL kind of liked that. He groaned, realizing he was probably a masochist.

Never smiling. The guy next door, Park Han, celebrity athlete and the talk of the town, wasn't much for smiling. JL couldn't figure him out, but he had stood there, in the doorway, and he seemed to have come out of nowhere and barged right into JL's life.