With everything that happened the day before, Aosh really couldn’t bring himself to go to the exam. He felt foolish, spending all that time and money preparing for it, but in the end, it was too soon to see Tiza again. He didn’t know if he’d be able to look the other in the eye, let alone dance in front of him.

He resigned himself to sulking in his apartment, more content in his self-loathing and sorrow than he would be doing something productive. It wasn’t until a few days later he managed to leave the solemn comfort of his home for something other than work.

Daniella had basically threatened him to get out of his apartment or else. There wasn’t much she could do to him, she lived a good ten hours away, but her concern reached him nonetheless. At some point Aosh had grown tired of sitting in the dark anyway, there used to be a time in his life where he would sulk for hours on end, but the current him no longer held such luxuries; if they could be called that.

The warm midsummer, morning air breezed past him as he jogged at a leisurely pace down the block. Getting his blood pumping in the morning helped the Alpha immensely, and since he decided not to go to the gym for a bit, a morning jog had been his exercise of choice. Well worn sneakers hit the pavement as he continued; sugar-sweet pop lyrics filtered out the outside noise via his earbuds. Aosh refused to let his mind wander on the things that had upset him and instead focused on the music and the scenery of his neighborhood.

Aosh lived close to the college he attended, not in student housing, but in an apartment complex that wasn’t too far of a walk to campus. Being so close to the college the neighborhood contained many things a young twenty-something like himself would enjoy. A couple of bars, plenty of interesting restaurants, coffee joints, a park, stores that sold clothing to niche hobbies, and many more other things hidden in between.

  Aosh had been living in this part of town for a couple of years and there were still things he was discovering about his neighborhood. Like what he was about to find as he turned the street corner. Aosh’s bulldozer of a body ran somebody over as he turned the corner.

“You need to watch where you’re going, asshole!”

“Oh god, I’m sorry! Here let me help you u-”

When the person on the ground turned, Aosh's sentence faltered.

Tiza glared up at him through his platinum bangs, a hint of disbelief in his facial features. The Omega was about to enter his apartment when he ran into this guy again! Here he thought that the Alpha not coming back to class was going to be the last he saw of him. The outstretched hand offered to Tiza was ignored completely as the man got up and dusted the dirt and grime that the sidewalk transferred onto his legs.

Aosh felt a lump form in his throat, him thinking that it was too soon to see Tiza again was correct. The echoes of the rejection he got the other day reverberated in his memory and the face Tiza made at him reminded Aosh of how he was driven away.

He mumbled an apology once more and continued on his way down the street. He knew when he wasn’t wanted, so he’d leave. Before getting too far away, he chanced a glance back towards the Omega to see him entering the apartment complex that sat at the corner of their collision.

Tiza lived only a couple blocks away from him! Aosh desperately tried to push this new information into the deepest part of his brain. Later that day his text conversation with Daniella went like so:

[TsuTsuTsunami]: Thanks for telling me to leave my house, now I feel worse…

[o0DSweety0o]: I was just trying to help :(

[TsuTsuTsunami]: I ran into him on my jog, like I literally ran into him, I knocked him to the sidewalk. Why does he live so close?! He’s too handsome to have a glare that could kill someone, ugh. Sorry, I’m not blaming you, I just don’t know what to do with this new information.

[o0DSweety0o]: I mean I would take it slow and give him some space like I said last time, but if he does live that close that might be hard. You also have the attention span of a walnut when it comes to him so try to have some self-restraint!

[TsuTsuTsunami] : Is it too late to stay inside forever ;_; ?

The Alpha soon found himself jogging down that street every morning around the same time. The scenery was just too nice to not jog by there every day; that’s the excuse he told himself. He was keeping his distance just like Daniella said, at the most, all he did was try to get a glimpse of the Omega.

It was from this daily jog that Aosh noticed that most days of the week Tiza would return home with a coffee cup in his hand. After doing a jog around to see where the nearest coffee shop was he found one, tucked away by the park in a small shopping center.

Highland Brews was the name scrawled on the door as he pushed it open one early morning. The decor was rustic and the aromatic atmosphere was filled with light music. Not many people were inside, aside from a few customers, the barista and a few people he could hear making what Aosh assumed were baked goods in the back. After ordering a macchiato and a muffin he sat down at the table and eyed the hot drink in his hands.

‘What am I doing…?’ he thought solemnly.

Jogging down his street every day, practically spying on him out of sight, and even going to what he suspected was the Omega’s favorite coffee shop; was Aosh crazy? He was basically stalking the other at this point. Taking a sip of the dark roast in the mug, he could feel something warm him from the inside out, whether it was the shame he felt at his actions or the coffee, Aosh couldn’t tell.

Hearing the barista call his muffin order he went up to the counter to retrieve it. Two different hands reached out to touch the bagged treat. Aosh only had mere seconds to feel the light touch of Tiza’s fingertips on the back of his hand before it was pulled away. This time neither man said anything, Tiza instead turned to the barista.

“Excuse me, is my order ready yet?”

He was impatient and ready to leave.

“I’m sorry, sir. It’ll still be a few more minutes until there are more blueberry muffins ready.”

“Here have this one,” Aosh said, scooting the bag towards Tiza. Looking between the bag and the Alpha, Tiza’s hand tentatively reached for it.

“…Thank you,” was the only answer Aosh received before the Omega curtly left.

“Sir,” another bag was set beside him on the countertop, “Sir, here’s your muffin.”

Coming out of his reverie, the Alpha didn’t realize he had been staring into the distance for an inappropriate amount of time.

“Ah, uh, thanks.”

Embarrassed, he grabbed the bag and returned to his table and his cooling coffee. Grabbing his phone he furiously sent out a message.

[TsuTsuTsunami]: I was just touched by an angel ;_;

[o0DSweety0o]: Oh lord. Do I even want to know?

[TsuTsuTsunami]: I found a new coffee shop to go to.

[o0DSweety0o]: BUT YOU HATE COFFEE!