Title: Expectations (drabble)
Pairings: Hanchul
Genre: romance, angst
Rating: G
Warnings: none
Summary: Hankyung meets a beautiful man on the train home, unknowingly spinning a thin thread of the future between the them.

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Hankyung struggles through the tightly packed train to an empty seat, sitting down and letting out a sigh, loosening his tie. His feet ache from a hard day at work, his eyes are sore from staring blankly at his computer screen for hours. There’s a clatter beside him and he sees the man next to him scrabbling about frantically, and he realises he’d dropped his cell phone. He reaches down to help, but as he grasps it and sits back up their heads collide and they break apart, holding their injured heads and they glance at eachother awkwardly, laughing. He’s gorgeous, Hankyung thinks, and when he extends his hand towards him he finds his heart beat a little faster, his necktie become too tight again. My cell phone, he says after a moment, and Hankyung realises he’s still clutching it in his clammy hands. He apologises quickly, hands it back, and their hands touch. Hankyung could’ve said something stupid, then. He could’ve rushed a string of nonsensical sentences and the man would’ve laughed at his accent, his awkward use of Korean. They’d talk, then, about things that didn’t matter, and Hankyung would step off the train with a smile and a spring in his step. He’d rummage In his coat pockets for his keys and pull out a scrunched up ball of paper, a receipt, a sprawling scribble reading ‘Heechul’ followed by a series of digits, and Hankyung’s heart would tighten and pound in his chest like a teenager in love. He’d send him a nervous text, and Heechul would send a million back. They’d date, they’d fall in love, and Heechul’s lips would taste of coffee and spice and secrets. Hankyung would quit his ty office job and they’d throw away their attachments, travel with just the clothes on their backs and the change in their pockets until they grew tired of it all and settled down in the city. In the end they’d die old and content, wondering how different their lives would have been if Hankyung hadn’t taken the leap, if he’d missed that train.
But instead Hankyung just laughed, apologised, and he handed the cellphone back meekly. He turned away, closed his eyes, felt his feet throb and ache, but the man beside him stared at him for half a heartbeat longer as if he wanted to say something. In the end he said nothing. Hankyung stepped off the train without a second thought, not even looking back; never knowing the happiness he could’ve found if he’d just taken a chance.