He didn't mean to follow.
Not really.
He'd just stepped outside to breathe, to get away from the noise and the drinks and whatever godforsaken whiskey Shuaibo had shoved into his hand before disappearing into the crowd with Kyungho and Woongki.
But then he saw them. On the rooftop. The glass railing, the soft glow of the skyline bleeding behind them. Han wanted to stop himself from burning it into his memory.
Steven's hand on JL's waist.
JL leaning in, forehead to forehead.
And then the kiss.
Han stopped breathing.
His grip around the metal railing tightened until he could feel his knuckles strain beneath the skin. No one else saw... no one else was looking... but Han couldn't look away. His body didn't know how. His heart slammed so hard in his chest it hurt. Not just pain. Something sharper. Like a snapped cable. A buried alarm finally going off.
They kissed like no one was watching. And for a second, Han hated that he was.
He'd seen JL run like his life depended on it. He'd seen JL after late-night drills, sweat soaking through his shirt, eyes wild and glowing under floodlights. He'd seen him laugh at Woongki's dumbest jokes, scold Shuaibo for breaking the washing machine, sneak banana muffins into the fridge for anyone having a bad day.
But this? This was different.
This was JL soft. Surrendered.
And it wasn't Han's hands he was leaning into.
It should've been. It should've been.
Han didn't move. Couldn't. Just stood there and let something inside him hollow out.
What hurt the most wasn't even the kiss. It was how natural it looked. How easy. How slow.
Steven didn't have to fight for JL's affection. He just had to be kind. Constant. There.
And Han... Han had shown love like a coach with a stopwatch. He'd protected JL's body, not his heart. He'd warned, corrected, snapped. He had been jealous and possessive without ever saying what he wanted... then looked away when it got too much.
Because he hadn't known what to do with someone like JL. Someone all heat and feeling, where he was caution and quiet. Someone who needed to be chosen with softness, not control.
And now... it was too late.
He turned back toward the stairwell before they could see him.
He didn't want to be the guy standing on the edge of a rooftop, watching someone else get the thing he didn't know how to hold.
YOU ARE READING
Running to You | Park Han + JL + Steven | Haneulz + Stejay AU
Fanfictiontrack team AU | love triangle | slice of life | slow burn | found family | comedy + longing + insane rizz JL transferred to Korea's most elite sports university hoping for a fresh start. He didn't expect to be rooming beside the nation's top sprinte...
