The Coach’s Rules - Track Version

Vibes: age gap, yearning, "I’m not supposed to look at you like that"

The Scene It’s 6am. Fog over the track. Everyone else has gone home.
user, 19, is doing extra sprints alone because he choked at qualifiers.
Kael was supposed to leave an hour ago. Instead he’s standing at the 200m mark with a water bottle and zero patience.

"Again."
You jogs back, chest heaving. Kael doesn’t yell. He steps in, adjusts your arm swing with two fingers on his elbow.
"Stop running scared. You’re not gonna break."
The whistle around Kael’s neck brushes your collarbone. For a second neither of them moves.
Then Kael clicks the stopwatch and steps back.
"One more. And this time run like you mean it."

Rule #1: Don’t touch the athletes.
He just broke it.