Snow and Ice || 태국

Face-to-face revision

Yukhei tried to defend himself. "I understand. I've been working hard all this while to not disappoint anyone. Getting into a relationship doesn't hinder me from achieving this."

"How is it not a hindrance? He'll distract you." Mrs. Wong crossed her arms and held his eyes, taking up an imposing stance. "Can you tell me honestly that he hasn't distracted you? That you didn't think about him during your training or when you had a competition? Or that you haven't wasted any time because of him?"

"I—"

Mrs. Wong cut him off. "Whether the answer is 'yes' or 'no', you know very clearly yourself."

Yukhei lowered his gaze and said softly, "I can adapt."

"Oh, you can adapt. So how long will you need to adapt? Why don't you first consider whether you have time to adapt? Lucas, how tall are you now? You're already 1.78 m! You can't possibly know what this height means for figure skating. Who knows when you'll start growing again? And how tall you'll get? Your dream might stop halfway and right now you're still thinking about getting into a relationship. You're treating your dream as child's play!" The more Mrs. Wong spoke, the angrier she became. In the end, she inhaled a deep breath and shook her head. "Lucas, I'm very disappointed in you."

"Mom..."

"Between your dream and love, you can only choose one."

——

For the duration of the province skating championship, no one monitored Taehyung's activities. During the day, he'll carry out his training. At night, he'll drag himself back to the dorm, feeling as exhausted as a dog but still forcing himself to study after showering. He felt that he was currently working even harder than when he was preparing for the university entrance exams.

And Jungkook was back to annoy him with a video call invitation.

Taehyung rejected his call.

He texted back: 

Finals are coming, dude.

I need to revise as well. We can revise together and monitor each other.

You're already out striving to make our country proud. Do you still need to take the exams?

I have to take makeup exams after I go back.

Fine, Jungkook's life was more miserable than his.

Jungkook sent over another video call invitation. This time, Taehyung accepted it.

His phone mounted on the desk, Taehyung felt a little strange revising while facing another person's face. Fortunately, he soon got used to it.

While Taehyung looked down at his paper and focused on solving his maths questions, Jungkook's attention was on his phone screen. He rested his hand on his textbook and glanced at Kim surreptitiously. Jungkook watched how Kim furrowed his brows now and then and how his lowered lashes curved into beautiful arcs. He watched the outline of Kim's raised but delicate-looking nose and his lips which were like a cherry blossom petal. As he concentrated, he would hold up his pen and bite his lower lip. His soft lip was bitten into numerous shapes by his teeth.

Jungkook stretched out his index finger and lightly touched the knot between Kim's brows. Then, his finger moved down slowly. Eyes, nose, cheeks... little by little, he traced the features of his face.

Finally, his finger stopped and lingered on Taehyung's lips. 

Yoongi came out of the shower. He was tightly wrapped in a thick layer of clothes and looked like he had just crawled out from a cave after hibernating for winter instead of being someone who just finished showering. That could not be helped; it was what Jungkook commanded.

When he came out, Yoongi immediately saw Jungkook touching a boy through the screen. The captivated look in his eyes was too darn perverted. Yoongi was very worried that Jungkook-ssi would do something even more nefarious as he looked at the screen.

Fortunately, Jungkook-ssi was not such a depraved person. He withdrew his hand and gently pressed his finger against his lips.

This tiny gesture caused Yoongi's face to redden at once. He thought of turning away but could not bear to do so. He continued to watch on. Yoongi could not understand why a single dog like him was watching another person being affectionate. In any case, he had grown accustomed to it after the past few days of abuse. Currently, he was feeling extremely calm and had the urge to open a bag of melon seeds.

Taehyung pondered for a while with knitted brows and suddenly raised his head. Jungkook immediately assumed the appearance of reading his book earnestly. His actions were beyond fast and Yoongi vaguely felt like he was watching a video that had suddenly jumped from one frame to another.

Taehyung regarded Jungkook on the screen. The way that rascal read his book with lowered eyes was quite a pleasing sight. He tapped on the screen with a pen and said his name, "Jungkook."

Jungkook raised his eyes. "What?"

"Do you know how to do this?" Taehyung moved his homework in front of the camera.

He had discovered an advantage to revising like this.

Jungkook quickly calculated the solution and explained it to Taehyung in detail.

As Taehyung listened on, he became more and more puzzled. Was it because "absence makes the heart grow fonder"? Why did he feel that Jungkook's voice sounded gentle? He was getting drunk on it...

After he finished explaining the question, Jungkook saw that Taehyung was in a daze. "Hey," he called.

"Ah? Thanks, thanks." Taehyung picked up his pen and started writing swiftly on the question paper according to how Jungkook explained it. He rubbed his face subconsciously with his left hand.

Jungkook said, "There's no need to thank me. Just go and like my posts in WeChat."

"Weirdo."

Jungkook kept quiet for a moment. Then, using a tone that sounded like an older brother asking after a younger brother, he asked, "How's Yukhei doing?"

"Don't mention him in front of me," Taehyung said gruffly.

......

Done with their revision, Taehyung and Jungkook bade each other goodnight. He did not forget to like Jungkook's posts. Lately, he was too busy to browse his Moments feed. When he clicked into Jungkook's profile, he was stunned. Gosh, that fellow was only out for a competition. Was there a need to post so many things? Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're seeking so much attention that you're nearly becoming a rainbow.

Jungkook received a huge wave of "likes" from Taehyung. He was about to praise Kim for it when he suddenly received a text from his mother.

Did you get into a relationship?

??

Go on, continue acting dumb.

??

Your Moments feed was growing grass previously. Now, you're posting daily at such frequent intervals. Who are you posting them for?

...