Minho got back from grocery shopping to find his neighbor's latest drawing. It depicted Minho's cat sitting next to the St. Bernard. The St. Bernard looked as innocent as ever but was howling with his head tilted back. The cat had ear plugs stuck in its pointed ears. Minho laughed at the caption, which just said "Best Friends Fur-ever."
The next morning, Minho woke feeling strangely upbeat considering the events of the past few months. He felt so good, in fact, that he decided to go for a run. He hadn't been on a morning run in so long he worried his body would rebel as he rode the elevator down.
He reached the lobby at the same time as someone coming out of the stairwell and stopped to stare. The guy was about his height, he thought, brown hair sticking out from underneath a beanie. Minho followed the line of one sculpted cheekbone as he examined the man's profile.
He must be going for a run as well, he decided. He was wearing running shorts and a t-shirt and had headphones stuck in his ears. Minho brought himself into the other man's line of vision and nodded. The man nodded back and pushed his way out the door, taking off running as soon as he cleared it.
Not entirely sure why, Minho followed after him. He wasn't stalking, he told himself. He simply happened to be running the same route. The fact that he was enjoying the way the guy looked in his running shorts was neither here nor there.
Eventually he caught up to the guy who nodded at him again. They kept pace with each other for some time before Minho had to drop back again. He really was out of shape compared to what he had been, but he was doing better than he thought he would.
While he had been lost in thought, his mystery man had dropped back to run beside him. They continued for nearly a block and Minho began to finally relax into it. He lost himself in the music blaring in his ears and the rhythm of his body. He remembered how to regulate his breathing and was doing a lot better before he realized that they had made a loop and were now headed back to the apartment building. When they reached the lobby, Minho received another nod as they parted ways, he to the elevator, and his mystery man to the stairwell.
Thomas headed straight to the shower when he got to his apartment and stood underneath the hot water, softly humming to himself. He had enjoyed his run more than usual that morning and he had a sneaking suspicion that it had everything to do with the guy he had run into in the lobby.
For some reason the fact that the guy had followed him on his run hadn't creeped him out in the slightest and it had been nice to run with someone for a change. Neither of them had spoken the entire time but there had been something calming about matching strides with the stranger.
It didn't hurt that the guy had been really cute, Thomas admitted to himself. He decided to think no more about it for the rest of the day. But he still caught himself looking forward to running tomorrow morning, a thing he had never looked forward to before and sometimes even avoided, and hoping his running partner would make a repeat performance.
Minho's phone rang just as he stepped out of the shower. He answered with one hand on his phone and the other holding a towel.
"Hello?" he said.
"Minho, mate!" Newt exclaimed.
"Oh, hey, Mr. Glade." Minho said a little coolly.
"Hey, now, none of that, now." Newt said. "I said I was sorry. Besides, I have good news for you."
"What kind of good news?" he asked.
"I caught wind of a writer in desperate need of a good illustrator and I managed to get you a meeting with her."
"Desperate?" he asked.
"The bloke that was doing her art backed out and now she publishes in two months and has no usable illustrations."
"Two months?" Minho said incredulously. "I don't know Newt, that's a pretty tight deadline."
"A cinch for you, mate." Newt said dismissively. "Besides, there's a lot of hype around this book. Could put you back on the map again." Newt knew those words would be like dangling a slab of bacon in front of a dog.
"When and where?" he asked. It seemed this author wasn't the only desperate one.
Thomas had worked like a fiend the whole day, despite his distraction. By the time he came up for air, he had finished inking the whole book and left them laid out on his table for the ink to dry for a few moments before he had it messengered to Wickd.
Now that he was no longer occupied by work, he couldn't help himself and went to go check his door for another note., But there wasn't one. He was oddly disappointed.
He went back to his desk to get his pages ready for the messenger and was interrupted by a knock.
Alby, one of the guys he worked with on the comic book, stood on the other side of the door.
"What's up, man?" Thomas asked and pounded him on the back.
"I'm blocked dude." Alby said, waving a flash drive around in front of Thomas's face. "Help?"
Thomas smiled and shook his head. "Fine, but you are buying the pizza this time." He said.
He and Alby worked until around 1:00 that morning. They had made great progress, plotting the story out for the next several issues. Thomas had even done some rough sketches. He crawled into bed that night rather pleased with himself.
The next morning he woke to find another note on his door and grinned. This one featured the cat and dog facing off against one another. The neat writing at the bottom read "If you keep making bad puns, the truce is off." Thomas laughed out loud and placed the note with the others in his drawer and got ready for his morning run.
His mystery man was in the lobby again., They ran together again, never speaking a word. He rather liked this odd friendship that had formed between them even though he didn't know the guy's name.
He showered and went quickly to work, humming a happy, made up tune.
Minho met Ava Paige in a tiny café around noon the next day. She greeted him with a warm smile.
"You must be Mr. Kim." She said, extending her hand for Minho to shake.
"Please, call me Minho." He said giving the woman's hand a firm, single shake before sitting down, his portfolio in his lap.
"Well, Minho, when they told me you were available I was just ecstatic." Ava said, sipping her coffee. "I love your work. Especially some of the recent stuff they have shown me."
"Really?" Minho was taken aback. He had been rejected many times over since he had started trying to find a new style.
"Oh, yes!" Ava said brightly. "I see you've been busy." She gestured to the portfolio case in his hands.
"Yes." Minho said, handing it over quickly.
Ava was silent as she looked over each page with a critical eye. Minho started to sweat.
Finally, Ava looked up at him and smiled. "I love it!" she exclaimed. "I do have some suggestions though, if you're willing to hear them."
"Absolutely." Minho said with a grin. He and Ava spent the better part of the afternoon making plans and he walked back to his apartment whistling happily.
When he walked through his door, he heard muffled music coming from the apartment above him. His neighbor must be home, he thought absently. He hadn't heard from him in a few days and he found he kind of missed it. Realizing that he had been staring and the ceiling, Minho dropped down into his desk chair. He pulled out the notes he had taken during his meeting with Ava and, for the first time in a long time, he felt excited about his work.
