Gold | Park Sunghoon

15

He still had no idea if he was dreaming or if the younger girl was really there in front of him—but everything did feel fuzzy. It was weird that the longer he stared at her, the prettier she looked. Maybe it had something to do with how apparent her usual glow was as it felt to be tripled in size. Her smile was wider too; and although others might find it very different and overwhelming, he liked it. 

For Sunghoon, it was what exactly he needed.

"I thought you had training?" He questioned, still in disbelief. He specifically told her not to skip training for him because he could not live with that kind of guilt. But Jangmi just smiled and shook her head. "There was a miscommunication between the coaches and the schedule, so they cancelled training."

Sunghoon's coach came up from behind the younger girl and gave him his blade guards. He left the ice to put it on when he saw his coach shooing Jangmi away from him. "Coach! Can she stay for a bit?"

"No, Sunghoon. We really have to go back to the dugout already."

"It's okay, oppa! I'll go to my brother and Sunoo,"

She said and smiled. Before she could leave, Sunghoon called out her name. "Thank you for coming," he said quickly. The girl made her way back to him and hugged him tightly—which caught him by surprise. All the times they were together, they never hugged. He knew that she was naturally a touchy-feely person, but never forced her to hug him even if he really wanted to.

She pulled away quickly, leaving the older boy frowning a little since he wanted the hug to last longer. "You got this! I know you can do it!" She smiled at him before waving her pompoms for him again. She smiled at his coach and bowed, then continued to go and sit beside Sunoo.

As the older boy followed his coach, he felt confidence surge within him. He nodded to himself and told himself that if she knew that he could do it, he too should believe the same. Even if the girl didn't say much before leaving, Sunghoon was sure that she was the reason for what he was currently feeling. 

She always had the ability to bring out the best in people because she gave many giving pep talks. Whenever he was upset about not landing a skill properly, she would cheer him on and tell him to not give up.  

He thought that Jangmi was his personal cheerleader— and he liked the sound of that.

The cheerleader made her way to Sunoo and sat down beside him, instantly wrapping an arm around his side, and giving him a side hug. "I thought you weren't going to be here because you had training?" Jay turned around to ask her. The girl pulled away from Sunoo and sat up straight. "Miscommunication with the schedule so they cancelled training instead."

Sunoo grabbed the red pompom from her hand and inspected it. "Where do you hold it?" He asked as he tried to look for something to grasp from the ball of foil. Jangmi laughed and held the middle part of her blue pompoms to show it to him. "Here, where the hard part is," she said as she pointed it to her best friend. The boy gasped as he gripped it and shook it very excitedly. They talked about the pompoms for a bit: if it was made by her, what material did she use, how long does it take to make—and many more questions.

After a few minutes, he gave the pompom back to Jangmi and sighed. He moved closer to her and whispered in her ear. "So, what's going on between you and Sunghoon hyung?"

"What do you mean?"

Sunoo scoffed and rolled his eyes at her. "What do you mean? You clearly hugged him before you came here," he smirked and nudged her playfully. Jangmi's mouth dropped at what she heard. She already heard this from Aera a while ago, and she didn't need to hear it from Sunoo as well. "Nothing is going on between the both of us. Can't two friends just hug normally?" She snapped a little.