5 years later

- 1 -

17th September 2015

"Chiara! Why did we come here today! We are already skipping classes and we just started middle school" I said as I was dragged into the seats of Palasesto, the most important ice skating rink in northern Italy, by my best friend, Chiara Lin.
"Oh c'mon, Jin! We have to watch this competition together and our parents were all ok with this" she said taking a seat not that far from the rink.

"Yeah but I have to go at 12 for my cousin's birthday. What's the category for today though? Why today out of all the days? Like, tomorrow is Saturday!"
"Uhm lemme check... Advanced Novice Girls and Men, Junior Ladies and Men"
"Hey Chiara, what about me getting something to eat, while you can enjoy here?"
"Oh, yes. Thank you, Jin!" she said handing me the money her mom gave her after dropping us here.

"What do you want?"
"A chocolate croissant, please"
"Aight, imma go" I got up from the benches and went to the palace's snack bar.
Once there, I looked around for the bar guy who's Chiara's uncle, but I only saw an Asian boy, maybe a bit older than me, looking lost.
"Hey! Can I help you? You look a bit lost" I said in Italian.

He turned to me with a confused expression and we made eye contact for like a second.
"Oh- Uhm... Me uhm... No understand... Me Korean" He said with a really bad English, but luckily, I still understood.
"Oh? I'm Korean as well!" I said in Korean.
"Oh uhm... Hello..." he said shyly.
"You look lost, do you need help?"
"Uhm yeah... I'm here alone and... I have to order breakfast..."

"Oh sure! What did you want?"
He pointed at the chocolate macaroons.
"Oh ok! Pass me the money and I'll order for you as well"
"Oh Jinhee! Where's Chiara?"
"She's already sitting there and I'm here to get us some food" I said to my best friend's uncle.
"And who's the boy over there? Your boyfriend?"

"What? No, he can't speak Italian so I'm just helping him out"
After paying for what I've ordered, I went to the boy to give him his macaroons.
"Oh uhm, thank you..."
"No problem. By the way, what's your name? I'm Jin"
"Oh uhm... I'm-"
"Sunghoon-ah let's go"
"Well, see you around Sunghoon" I said smiling before leaving him with the old male who rushed to him.

❄︎

"Finally! My stomach was growling this whole time"
"Here, bestie" I said handing her beloved croissant.
My best friend and I enjoyed the performances together and kept admiring the girls, also envying them a bit. Yes, it's a dream of ours to start figure skating together, but we thought it was too late to start. Many figure skaters start at the age of 5 or 7 while we were already 11...

❄︎

It was already time for me to go since it was almost 12pm.
"Chiara, I have to go"
"Aw Right before the boys' category. Tell little Seora happy birthday from me"
"Why don't you just come with me?"
"Ok, after all, I didn't see any cute guy. Let's ask Luca to drop us off"
Luca was her cousin, 5 years older than us, and he is like a big brother to both of us since he used to babysit us. We grabbed our sweaters and went near the subway where her cousin was waiting for us.