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

Chapter 58: The Supermeet Begins

The bus ride had been loud. Long. Laced with sleep, sugar highs, and the kind of nervous jokes that only half-covered the churning in everyone's gut. They had spent weeks preparing, years training, and now here they were, halfway across the country, arriving not just at a venue, but at a stage.

The moment they stepped off the bus and caught sight of ASIAD Stadium, the noise dropped out of them like a coin hitting the bottom of a well. Not out of reverence. Out of awe.

Busan wasn't Seoul.

Seoul was structure and routine and tunnel vision -- cold gym floors and stopwatches and a quiet that felt clinical. Busan smelled like salt and wind and grilled street food on some corner none of them had time to visit. It carried a looseness in the air, a kind of vibrancy that wrapped around the bones and whispered: You're not the only star here. The skyline bent and breathed instead of towering. Everything buzzed with a kind of manic warmth. It felt bigger. Not just geographically. Existentially.

And the stadium, well. The stadium was something else entirely.

Busan ASIAD Stadium, Opening Ceremony

Busan ASIAD Stadium wasn't just an arena. It was a monument. A breathing, echoing colossus made of steel and myth, the kind of place that held echoes of greatness like ghosts. It had hosted world games. Olympic trials. Champions had cried here, collapsed here, made history or missed it by a tenth of a second. Records had been set, shattered, rewritten. Heroes had risen and disappeared beneath those lights.

Now, the Supermeet had brought a new wave. Students in matching windbreakers crowded every entrance, some with national pride stitched into their sleeves, others in full team regalia like they were ready to go to war. Journalists lined the barricades with laminated press badges and long-lens cameras. The air crackled with overlapping languages, the click of shutters, the static of interviews happening two feet away. Somewhere above them, a drone buzzed -- a hovering eye already streaming them live to thousands.

JL tilted his chin up toward the silver arches gleaming overhead, sunlight flashing off the rim like a warning. It was the kind of place you didn't walk into quietly. This wasn't a warm-up. This wasn't simulation. This was the show.

JL's stomach dropped, then coiled in on itself. 

Jeongwoo let out a low laugh. "Okay. Now this feels like a sports anime."

Kyungho cracked his neck and muttered, "I feel underdressed."

Juwon grinned, rolling his shoulders like he could shake off the magnitude. "We're about to light this place up."

The Opening Ceremony had begun. Teams prepared to enter the stadium and begin their opening ceremony laps. Flashbulbs blinked like fireworks. The air practically shimmered with heat. The stadium broadcast caught up with the moment, voices crackling with breathless awe.

Then came the shift in energy -- as Seoul South Elite entered the arena. Gold-trimmed uniforms. Practiced, arrogant ease. The crowd turned.

Daegu Tech -- heavyset, storming in with quiet bulk.

Busan Aero -- aerodynamic and intimidating.

Jeonnam Speed Academy --- neon-twitch fast, already looking to outrun the crowd.