The Boy From The Bridge - Jakehoon

Chapter 21: The Ice Prince 2/6

Jake felt as if something was off. He was sat with Jay, Heeseung and Sunghoon at lunch. conversation was regular from the former pair but Sunghoon displayed an unease that seemed directed at him.

'This is odd' Jake thought, everything had been normal during their morning walk, right up until Sunghoon was left with Yun. Jake couldn't fathom that Yun had said something to cause a schism between him and Sunghoon, so what was it? Sunghoon still laughed at his jokes, involved himself in the conversations but he refused to look at him.

The altered dynamic continued throughout the rest of the school day and whilst Sunghoon walked with Jake and Jay home the unease remained. For the majority of the walk Jay acted as a conduit for the pair, jokes were made at his expense and he was responsible for the topics of conversation. It wasn't until Jay departed that an uncomfortable feeling truly set it. 

Jake wanted for all the world to just ask what was going on - but he couldn't stomach it, to make a deal out of it might exacerbate whatever was going on. Jake resigned himself to not knowing why things had become weird.

Despite not having it in him to ask Jake did desire to stop the unease. The silence felt as if it was eroding the bond that they had built up over the last few weeks. Jake knew he had to act soon before they got home and a whole night passed without rectifying this - then he suddenly felt his balance go.

Sunghoon caught him before he fell. He had tripped up on a piece of uneven paving that he had tripped up on during their walk home from Aicha's party. Then he had been in a stupor, fixated on videos of Sunghoon's figure skating. Feeling a hand steady him, he was relieved to feel Sunghoon helping him. "I tripped on that before didn't I? Back when you were showing me your videos" It was at the moment that Jake did remember something, "Hang on. Those videos? You were going to teach me the triple axel right?"

____________

Sunghoon gulped, feeling his eyes widen from the shock of the confirmation of what he had spent all day fearing. He didn't have time to digest the ramifications of this news and felt the need to speak to calm himself and to ease the situation, "Uh, uh... first of all it's a double axel" he said with a tentative confidence  "and... I can't just teach you how to do that easily." 

"Well, couldn't you teach me how to skate?" 

"Uh..."

"C'mon dude, we had a deal?" 'Jaeyun' asked whilst looking straight at him. For the first time since arriving at school that morning, Sunghoon had nowhere else to look - he felt himself stare nervously into the eyes that were searching into his.

____________

The silence forced Jake to yield and enquire as to what had gotten into Sunghoon, "Okay dude, what's up?"

Sunghoon blinked, "what do you mean what's up?"

"Don't play dumb"

"You remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Saturday night, you..." Sunghoon's voice turned to a whisper, "you kissed me"

Jake's expression became exaggeratedly quizzical, "Is that why you're acting weird?". The tone made Sunghoon reach to scratch the back of his neck in embarrassment. Jake pressed him, "if something was weird why didn't you say anything? You were cool this morning"

"I... I was"

"And?"

"I thought you didn't remember, that's why you were cool"