Gold | Park Sunghoon

15

All she knew was that she just wanted to see Sunghoon compete.

"I don't mind, Jangmi!" her friend patted her shoulder as she picked up her duffel bag. She was also doing the same; the only difference was that she was rushing a little. "But why do you seem nervous? Are you okay?"

Jangmi herself didn't know how to answer the question.

Aera eyed her expression and laughed at a realization. "Oh! Will you be seeing that ice-skater boy of yours?" she smirked and nudged her playfully. Jangmi scoffed at her friend and rolled her eyes. "He's not my ice-skater boy."

"Why are you being defensive? I'm just teasing, calm down!" Aera laughed at her reaction, making the other girl join in.

Aera was laughing too much to notice the awkwardness and slight nervousness in her friend's laugh. Jangmi thought about the idea of Sunghoon being 'hers', and it just made her feel weird. With her having Jay as a very protective brother, it was not going to happen. Plus, the older boy doesn't like her that way; and she doesn't like him that way.

Jangmi was so sure it would never happen.

---

Sunghoon, clad in his full costume and a jacket on top, started warming up on the ice: running through his routine and remembering the techniques he had to do. Although he had been ice-skating and competing for years, he always felt nervous before competitions. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he continued to mark the routine, breathing in and out deeply as he tried to calm himself down.

When he turned around and looked at the judges' table, he looked up a few rows behind it and saw his friends—all six of them all smiling and waving at him. Jake gave him a thumbs up while the rest of them cheered him on with several "fighting!" and other cheers. There was just one person who wasn't there; and he, obviously, knew who it was.

Sunghoon was still bummed that Jangmi wasn't there to watch him but he understood her current situation: she couldn't miss training because it was important—and he knew it. But, he wanted to be selfish for once and almost begged her to miss training, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. He was an athlete and she was an athlete. They knew what each other was going through.

But he just wanted to see her there in the crowd.

"Sunghoon oppa! Fighting!"

The ice skater froze in the middle of running his routine again for the nth time. He lifted his head up as soon as he heard his name. It was a familiar voice, and he was very sure of it; but he couldn't get himself to turn around. He didn't want to get his hopes up and see someone else besides her. "Jangmi has training," he told himself in a whisper. "That's not her."

"Sunghoon oppa!"

This time, the ice-skater finally turned around and faced the direction of the voice to see the one person he wanted to see. Jangmi stood by the barrier of the ice as she waved her red and blue pompoms in the air excitedly. Once she spotted him looking at her, she made her movements bigger.

He didn't waste a second and skated to her quickly. As their distance became less, he felt his heart pounding in his chest for a different reason. He shook the feeling away and smiled at her. 

She was here in person, cheering him on so loudly. Park Jangmi was actually there for him.

"Hi, Jangmi," he greeted her a little breathlessly, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. He scanned the girl's outfit; and although he has already seen her in her training clothes, it still seemed different today: hair styled in a half up-half down fashion secured with a white cheerleading bow, a blue dri-fit with the words 'Bigtide Cheerleading' printed in white, black leggings, a thick black, slightly oversized jacket, and white rubber shoes.