It's a cool Thursday afternoon in April, and Kyungsoo has no excuse not to go running. Blame Luhan for convincing him to come along a month ago and (after a rough start where he couldn't even run the 5k distance) getting Kyungsoo into the rhythm of twice-weekly meet-ups and the feeling of achievement at just having run for almost an hour and still being alive at the end of it. But now Luhan's returned to China, and though it's not that Kyungsoo has actually come to like running, the Nike Run Club is free, and the run leaders are nice, and Kyungsoo is occasionally shameless enough to do what he thought you were supposed to do at these things and strike up a conversation with someone because, hey, you've both just run 5ks and you're both all gross and sweaty, which makes for a nice, even playing field.

But in response to his idea of camraderie-creating comments like 'That hill near the river never gets easier does it?' Kyungsoo usually gets a polite smile and a nod that says I know you're talking to me but sorry, I don't socialise with new people at a social running event and... oh look there's some people I'm already friends with so excuse me, and so he doesn't try so much anymore.

Then it's June and the weather gets cold, quickly, and Kyungsoo manages to drag an unenthusiastic Yifan out to the run because Yifan has no excuse not to go running either, except to mumble that it's cold and running isn't his style. But right now Kyungsoo is only half listening because a tall lithe blonde he's seen most weeks and who runs in the slightly faster time group is here again tonight, and his heart feels just a little bit lighter because that was definitely a smile directed at him that said 'hello, I remember you from last week because you sprinted that last part and looked like you were about to collapse', and though Kyungsoo replies with a nod that says 'yep that was me, and I remember you standing by the water table looking like you'd just jogged down the office hallway not run for forty minutes around the city', Yifan distracts him by poking him in the bicep and at the same time someone walks into their line of sight, so any actual talking will have to wait.

Kyungsoo steps up to the 7.5k distance in the middle of July, and though one of the run leaders is very nice and encouraging and keeps him running well past the point where his mind would have otherwise said he was too tired to move, he can't keep up with the group. But the extra speed at the beginning means that he arrives back faster, and while he cools down, sculling cup after cup of water and waiting for the staff to get his bag from the locked room, the tall blonde - was his name Sehun? - turns up, red-faced and clutching his stomach after having run the 10km and Kyungsoo sorely hopes that he's remembered the other's name correctly because he was walking over to where Kyungsoo was standing right now and what if his name was actually Sejin?

It's one week later and Kyungsoo and Sehun are running the same distance in the same pace-group, and neither of them have managed to drag a friend along so Kyungsoo, ignoring the fear that he might have to drop back half-way through if his pasta lunch begins to repeat on him, falls into stride next to the other. At the beginning when Kyungsoo isn't yet dying he asks Sehun single sentence questions about the other's job, travel experiences, and any other topic except running (because they'd just about covered that in their previous few half-conversations), and in reply he received single-sentence answers. Kyungsoo knows he talks too much, that he has a habit of saying twenty five words when five would suffice, and just as he was reminding himself to not smile so easily and not to talk so much, Sehun asks a question of his own, a question that continues on from something Kyungsoo had said last week about his plans to visit a winery, and Kyungsoo attempts to hide his happiness at being able to give his own single-sentence answer. For the rest of the run he tries really really hard not to steal any more sideways glances at the tall man who is either tired enough or kind enough to run at his pace for the whole 7.5ks, and then when they've finished, is either bored enough or interested enough to walk around the block with him under the pretext of a cool down.

They talk a bit about music, and a bit more about travel, and then when Kyungsoo mentions that he works in a bookshop Sehun comments that waiting fourteen years to read the conclusion of the Wheel of Time series was ridiculously frustrating.

And here Kyungsoo sorely wishes that, after three blocks and two jackets had been donned, they had found something in common.

After forcing himself not to use twenty-five words when five would suffice and not to smile stupidly at taller just for walking with him (just for existing, really), Kyungsoo slows his pace and at the corner stops to say that he should really go home. Sehun is smiling at this point (when did that happen? Kyungsoo wonders) and as they say their final goodbyes and tentatively promise to be at the next run on Thursday, Sehun holds out his arms as if he were... asking for a hug? Kyungsoo is surprised but tries not to let it show, and as he leans in to Sehun's long torso (the top of his head barely brushing Sehun's chin) he processees the fact that he is not exchanging phone numbers with this man, he is not adding a him to facebook, and he is not being invited back to his house to watch a movie (a pretext for he'd been stupid enough to fall for too many times).

He was hugging Sehun - technology and social media and euphemisms be damned.

And Kyungsoo decides that this hug is only about a hundred thousand times better and more intimate than anything he can remember.

A/N:

Yep, that's it. Fluffy isn't it?

If anything happens with this guy there might be a sequel.

Because these days who asks for a hug before asking for someone's facebook?

Tall blonde men who do the Nike Run and actually talk to me apparently. It's nice.