They always realize.
Your runner is already showing signs of awareness. When they tell you they can’t date anyone else because “it feels wrong” - that’s their soul speaking, even if their conscious mind hasn’t caught up yet. Runners exist in this paradox where their higher self knows exactly what’s happening while their 3D awareness stays confused or in denial.
Not for nothing, but this paradox is hard for the runners, too.
Sometimes they can wonder why the chaser won’t realize that they need space.
The awakening process is usually gradual, measured in months to years rather than a sudden moment. Sometimes it can go a lot faster, but that’s usually when the two have already done work, either before meeting or in past lives. Lucky pairs meet right when they’re about ready and a few rare ones don’t even need separation at all.
Most separations are from a couple of months to a couple of years. It unfolds in layers: initial relief after distance, then obsessive thoughts they can’t control, growing discomfort as distractions fail, deepening into what some call the “dark night of the soul” and finally conscious recognition. They will come back. The soul bond makes permanent separation impossible. Sometimes, initial returns are temporary - some pairs go through multiple separation cycles before union.
But in that case, each cycle gets shorter as healing progresses.