Race Day

Hyung Sik was still not used to the unpredictable Chicago weather. So when Ann asked him to help get her though her run that day, he was excited but apprehensive. "It looks like it might rain, the forecast says there's a 30% chance, but none of that means anything. The weather just does what it wants around here" he thought to himself. Still, he knew it had been warm so he donned a white t-shirt and long running shorts. But after one step outside he pulled on his black hoodie and even put a leather jacket over it. He didn't expect it to be that cold. Of course, he wasn't usually running outside this time of morning, either. He had planned to meet up with Ann part way through her run, him driving to the proper location and running part-way to see her, then they would lap around an area a few times together to get most of the run done before they parted ways again. It wasn't much time together, he thought, but he would take whatever he could get.

After running about a quarter of a mile he saw her, she was coming down the path towards him so he took the opportunity to stop and collect himself, make sure his appearance was in order and he was dressed to impress. "Fancy meeting you here," he joked playfully.

"Yes, fancy enough for a leather jacket, at least." She poked back at him.

"Oh this, yeah, it was just a lot colder than I expected."

"Well I imagine you'll want to lose that soon enough once we get running more."

"Yeah, I might want to. You'd like that, wouldn't you." He gave a crooked smile that made her flush immediately. Fortunately for her, her face was a bit flushed from running anyway so he couldn't quite tell. "Lead the way, madam," he said with a deep bow.

"You're such a goof." She laughed and ran past him continuing on her course. He laughed to himself, took a deep breath, and followed suit.

"So when you called I was kind of expecting something a bit more than maybe an hour or so of running." He protested as he joined her, running right by her side.

"Is that so? A bit more? And here I thought you were a gentleman." His prior comment not forgotten, Ann got a jab back at him and smiled sweetly.

"You should be careful when you do that. I may not be able to control myself if you keep smiling like that at me." Perhaps consciously, perhaps unconsciously, he ran just a little further away and just a little ahead for the time being, but had a big smile that reached his eyes. "This girl," he laughed to himself. "I think I've met my match."

After the first mile of their banter back and forth, Ann started to notice a distinct slowing in Hyung Sik's pace. "Is everything ok?"

"I hate to admit this, but it is way too hot for this leather jacket." He panted waving the sides of his jacket to air out and cool down his body. She could see he was nearly drenched in sweat inside.

"Why didn't you say something sooner!? We can stop by your car to drop your stuff off if we need to." She narrowed the distance between them out of concern and looked around for the quickest path to his usual parking spot.

"Listen, when you're a man you can't just be told one thing and then concede to it not even 10 minutes later." His pride was a bit bruised but he decided to laugh his way through this situation too. "Is there a quick way to where I parked?"

"Yeah we just have to make a left here, take a detour to your car, and then come back the way we came to keep on course. It will add some miles to my run, but that's ok."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to mess things up. I know you're training hard." Concern spread across his face and knit his eyebrows together. His sincerity was touching and Ann couldn't help but blush again.

"No, no, it's ok. Really. I can just walk the rest of the way home after I hit my distance. Really. Don't worry about it." She immediately felt guilty for making him feel bad, but was also secretly pleased with his concern. It showed he cared a lot more than he might let on, that there was a kind heart under that goofy joking.

They arrived to the car fairly quickly. Trying to jog in place to keep her heart rate up, the scene before Ann seemed to move in slow motion. The jacket and hoodie seemed to glide off of him in one smooth motion. His sweat seemed to glisten as he tilted his head back and ran his fingers through his hair and down his neck, trying to cool down. Even the moments where he grabbed a bottle of water and drank, his throat straining as it took all the water in.

Without thinking Ann licked her lips and at that moment he shifted his eyes, half-closed, over in her direction and an almost devilish grin broke out on his face. "That jerk! He knew exactly what he was doing!!" Ann thought to herself. And it worked too, very well. She found it difficult to take her eyes off him until they were once again back on the trail.