My Secret Lover

Chapter 15

Pov. Park Sunghoon*

The training was a disaster, a pure failure. In the morning we had fortunately, only strength training and endurance. In the evening, we practiced the choreography a thousand times, but Namra and I didn't succeed.

"Sunghoon, Namra! Concentrate, please!" Ms. Jung yelled heatedly at us and was almost about to break her note board.
Annoyed, I stopped in mid-motion, braced my hands on my hips, and kicked the ice with the toe of my skates. Exhausted, I breathed in and out and had my attention fully focused on Mrs. Jung. My head was still buzzing from the alcohol yesterday and the memories were not back.
Likewise, the chemistry between me and my figure skating partner had completely gone down the drain, which I had already predicted anyway because of Sunoo's news. But it was even worse, the forgotten kiss with Jake and Nam changed everything. I had a total emotional chaos in me. I kept wondering what words I had thrown at Namra last night.

Maybe it wasn't so bad to not be able to remember anything...

"Let's try choreography again. You two are really funny. Tomorrow is the competition and you're acting like little kids. I have the feeling that you don't want to win!", Mrs. Jung yelled and looked at both of us seriously, but at the same time worried. "What's going on?" Neither Namra nor I felt like answering her.

If she knew that we were out partying yesterday, getting drunk, and putting our figure skating careers on the line with a few kisses, she would kill us both.

"So that's how it is. Don't feel like talking, huh? All right, then I'll turn the music back on and you can show me what you're really capable of. This time I won't tolerate any mistakes, understand?" said Mrs. Jung sternly before she ran to the equipment and turned on the music.
The sound rang out and my body reacted on its own by moving and adapting to the rhythm. Emotionally I closed my eyes, which was very exhausting with the still existing alcohol in my blood.
The ice under my skates crunched, the cold blew in my face and my own body moved so on the ice as if I would do nothing else every day.

Which was true.

Some pirouettes and jumps followed, my stomach turned, and the next moment I almost threw up.

I think it wouldn't be bad to shift down a gear...

I took another jump, landed unsteadily, and fell onto the hard ice before sliding around a bit on my back and stopping only when I slammed into the wall. Actually, I wanted to stay lying down but shook my head quickly rose and continued with the choreography.

Next came a lifting figure.

Namra took a running start and came elegantly, but definitely not straight up, towards me before I lifted her with shaky arms and spun around. I could feel that she couldn't find her balance and her body didn't tense up, which didn't make it any easier for me to hold her. My arms went on strike and almost buckled, which is why I let her back out of ice earlier than planned. Next, she had to do a Biellmann pirouette, but she couldn't keep her leg up long enough, made a little false move, and now fell on the ice too. "No, no, no! Namra! Sunghoon! Stop!", the trainer yelled and turned off the music. Exhausted, I breathed in and out and looked at Ms. Jung. However, a very specific person behind her had my attention drawn to him.
"Jake here you are! Heeseung is asking for you. He's crying like a baby; you need to see this!" I looked up at the bleachers and could see Jake. He was talking to Jay at the time. "I was going to get Hee's hockey stick. Is he feeling any better?"
He lifted the stick a little to show him.
"Sunghoon hey!" Mrs. Jung clapped her hands energetically. "This is where the music plays! No, you know what? I don't have the nerve for this kindergarten anymore. The whole thing is getting to me. You can keep training without me or go home, I don't care!", Mrs. Jung yelled heatedly at us and stomped out of our sight. Hesitantly I looked at Namra, who probably decided to go home.

Should I talk to her? Sunoo said it would be better if I did...

"Hey, Nam, can we talk for a minute?", I asked as we both stepped off the ice and put on our blade schooners. She, on the other hand, sat down silently on one of the seats of the bleachers and took off her skates, put on her street shoes, stowed the rest in her training bag, and walked past me. "Come on Nam please, can we talk?"
She didn't dare to turn around and stubbornly walked towards the exit.

ARG Damn it!

Annoyed, I walked to the locker room, only to be surprised by a horde of hockey players.

Weren't they already done training?

"Shit, Riki! We're playing ice hockey here, not soccer! Was it necessary to straddle my ankle?" wept Heeseung, who was sitting on the bench and throwing his head into his neck in pain. Jay squatted in front of Heeseung's barefoot and held a lollipop in his hand, which he put in his mouth. He then looked up at Jungwon who had a cold bandage in his hand but pressed it into Sunoo's paws. "Looks bad," Sunoo muttered, kneeling to the foot, and doctoring the older one, which immediately hissed painfully.
"It wasn't on purpose ok! It just came out of me, like a fart or something. Something like that happens naturally, not by choice!", Riki defended himself, whereupon Hee wanted to stand up to punch the younger one. However, he sat right back down as pain ran through his body. "I hope your spoon falls into the soup...", Hee growled, whereupon the whole cabin started to laugh.
I, on the other hand, tried to avoid the boys and especially Heeseung as much as possible and looked for my place. When I arrived, I noticed that Jake's training bag was right next to mine. He looked at me unexpectedly. But when he realized that it was me, he looked into his bag again and packed his things.

Do you want me to talk to him? Maybe this moment is not exactly appropriate since we were not alone. I can at least say hello to him.

I briefly peeked over at him; he was just taking off his shirt. Perplexed, I looked to the side.

Well, at least I tried...?
No, pull yourself together, why was I so nervous now?

Again, I looked briefly in his direction as I sat down and took off my skates. "Hi, Jake. How's it going?", I asked, biting my lip nervously as there was an awkward tension between us. The older one put on a hoodie and looked down at me. "Good," he said shortly, picking up his bag and walking over to Heeseung and his team, where he seemed changed. He immediately cracked a joke laughing loudly with the others.

Great, what did I get myself into last night...? The fact that I was still to blame for the whole thing scratched firmly on my conscience, damn. How do I make it out of here?