look at the stars | sunsun

six.

"Sunghoon!"

Kim Sunoo has a habit, Sunghoon notes, of appearing suddenly out of nowhere in places.

"I didn't know you were staying here too!"

It isn't so improbable, given the Maison de Ieyasu is geographically the closest accommodation to the Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Area, that more than a few of the competing skaters are staying there for the duration of the cup, and as Sunghoon looks around the cafeteria he realises there are more than he expected.

Sunoo abandons his friend, a younger boy with slender limbs and hair falling into his eyes, to walk over to Sunghoon. "It's been a while since we last met!"

"Yes, it's been quite a while," Sunghoon agrees. "I hope you've been well."

"You're so formal," Sunoo gives him a curious look, but smiles. "Are you alone? Where's the rest of your team?"

Coach Bang has yet to arrive in Sapporo after accompanying Heeseung to the Cup of China, and Sunghoon says as much to Sunoo.

"Do you want to come eat with me then?" the younger boy offers brightly, waving to his friend who is now seated at a table in the hotel cafe. "You can meet my friends, some of them are skating in the NHK too!"

Sunghoon is puzzled by the other boy's inexplicable enthusiasm, but he doesn't reject the offer, allowing Sunoo to pull him over to the table where three other boys are already seated. He recognises one of them from previous competitions, a skater from Japan who went by the nickname K, but the others seem to be relatively new.

"This is Riki!" Sunoo nudges the boy beside him, the boy Sunghoon saw with him earlier, and the boy looks up to offer a small wave. "That's K, and that's Taki. I'm sure all of you know Sunghoon though, right?"

K is older than Sunghoon by a good number of years, but the other skaters seem young, even younger than Sunoo. "Are you guys skating in the senior category?" he asks, hesitant to talk amongst a table full of strangers. "You look...younger than me."

The boy Sunoo pointed out as Taki smiles at Sunghoon's awkward attempt at conversation, fiddling with the strap of his baseball cap. "Riki and I are still juniors, so we competed in the Juniors division this season. But we'll both be seeing you in December if you make it to the finals!"

Sunghoon is momentarily offended that Taki seems to have doubts about him qualifying for the finals, but he doesn't think further into it. "Jungwon will be there," he muses. "Yang Jungwon, do you guys know him? He's in the Junior Grand Prix representing South Korea."

"Oh, Jungwon!" Riki and Taki break off into their own tangent about Jungwon and their time together during the Junior circuit, sparing Sunghoon the obligation to carry the conversation. It is then it suddenly occurs to him that, for as long as he's been in the industry himself, Sunoo has only been active for less than two years.

"You seem to know...a lot of people," Sunghoon says mildly. "Everyone waves to you at competitions."

A confused expression appears for just a second on the other boy's face. "I like making friends," he offers. "Talking to other skaters is what makes competitions really fun, don't you think? We're all alike in a sense, anyway!"

Sunghoon doesn't quite know how to tell Sunoo he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about, but he doesn't bother figuring it out. He's not, after all, here to make friends exactly. And Sunoo is, at the end of the day, the biggest obstacle standing between him and his gold medal.

He uses that to justify his silence as he finishes his lunch before returning to training.

─

The short program goes well. Sunghoon outdoes his own performance at the Internationaux de France, but Sunoo holds his own equally well, putting them at a 1.5 point difference in the standings as of the end of the day. The second half of the event tomorrow, the free skate, will determine final placings to enter the last competition.

It isn't often Sunghoon finds it difficult to fall asleep, but tonight is one of the nights where sleep evades him. He finds his way along the dimmed corridor lights to the rooftop of the building, overlooking the city and the competition arena just in the distance.

"You're here."

Kim Sunoo really has a habit of suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

Sunghoon turns around to backface the glass-and-metal barrier. "Why aren't you asleep?" Sunoo is dressed in a set of white and brown cat-printed pajamas, the night breeze blowing dark hair into his face.

"I couldn't. Why aren't you?"

"Neither could I." The animosity Sunghoon has grown to have towards Sunoo seems to have momentarily dissipated itself; he can't bring himself to bear the same enmity he did earlier in the day, and he lets the other boy come up to stand beside him at the railing, looking up at the sky above.

"Sunghoon, do you have a favorite color?"

"Hm?" The older boy seems puzzled by the sudden question out of nowhere. "Maybe gold."

"Gold...I can see why."

"I suppose it's expected. Why did you ask?"

"It was a conversation starter. Silences are awkward."

Sunghoon smiles at Sunoo's unadulterated honesty. "Silence is okay sometimes."

"Does that mean you don't want to talk to me?" Sunoo sounds so affected that Sunghoon can't hide his laughter.

"No, it doesn't. I'm talking now, aren't I?"

The night has given way to the early hours of morning by the time the two boys leave the rooftop and go their separate ways. Sunghoon knows everything will be different when they wake up; he will return to practice, put his skates back on, and Sunoo will be his rival again.

But the night, he acknowledges as he gets back into bed, is less dark when he's not alone.