[Combat Question] When are you considered to be engaged in melee?

[occam's spork]

Something I missed and can't figure out an answer to is when a character is considered to be engaged in combat, specifically if someone is running away and a faster character catches up and tries to hit them, but misses?

Is the target character engaged, even if the attack failed? Or do they get to access their full movement and actions as if they were still not engaged in melee?

I could go either way, personally. Since TFT has a single roll and does not have a reaction roll to each attack (ie a defend roll) I can assume there is various back and forth between the two combatants, even if the attacker does not land a hit. By that logic, the attack now occupies the attention of the person running away.

But, I could also see that if a person is not getting hit, they should be able to keep running away.

On the gripping hand, the reason routes in history were such bloodbaths is because it is a very bad position to be in when you are fleeing from a chasing attacker.