liar | p. sunghoon

24

With a powerful start, Lada captivated the whole audience. Every turn, every movement, and every jump was flawless. The accuracy was impeccable.

"What happened to her?" Chaerim thought with fear.

Lada tried to hold in her smirk as she transitioned into her quad lutz.

"Just you watch Chaerim, I am going to beat you. I won't let some puny 15-year-old ruin my reputation."

She leaped through the air, swiftly turning her body. With grace, she landed the lutz and she pridefully thrust her hands in the air out of victory, transitioning into a triple toe loop. The audience roared as she grandly skated on the ice with the "I'm going to beat you" aura.

Chaerim stared at her in terror as the music continued and Lada dominated the ice. Surely, Chaerim wasn't going to beat her.

Huffing and puffing after her vigorous performance, Lada beamed with happiness as she stared at the hundreds of people cheering for her. Skating back to her coach with great confidence, they walked over to the designated section to receive the score.

With great anxiety, Chaerim clasped her hands together as she looked down at the ground. Sunghoon glanced at her only to see her mentally breaking apart. He sighed softly as he wrapped his arms around her and held her hand, hearing her heavy breaths and pulse beating rapidly.

"Lada Nikolaeva of Russia," the lady's voice announced, "66.78 points, ranking 1st in the short program."

The crowd roared with cheers and Lada jumped up with excitement as she hugged her coach tightly. On the other hand, Chaerim was squeezing her head, stressing about her performance. Not only did Lada have an exceptional performance, but she beat the former first place holder by 13 points.

"Chaerim, calm down. Calm down," coach Ji said as she walked over in front of Chaerim, "You're going to be okay. Focus on your performance and not the score, got it?"

She breathed heavily, "Yeah, I got it."

"Okay, let's go and get you ready."

After Chaerim did her usual ritual of putting her skates right to left and her usual arm stretch she headed towards the entrance of the ice rink.

"Chaerim," Sunghoon called while sticking out his hand, "Fighting!"

She gave him a weak smile even though her nerves were getting to her and tightly grabbed his hand.

"Chaerim Park of the Republic of South Korea."

The audience applauded her as she skated towards the center of the ice rink. It was as if the cool ice had automatically calmed her down as she stared into the audience. She noticed two young girls excitedly pointing at her and exclaiming things to each other. Chaerim smiled softly as she got into her ready position and the music began.

This will be my skate, my last skate of sorrow. And, I'm going to try and move on. I'm going to try and move on, Sunghoon.

She stretched her arms wide and began to gracefully glide along the ice, flowing with the music just as she practiced.

"Sunghoon, how long has it been? All I can remember is all the good days we had when we were younger. I wish time would just stop so we can stay happy together. Remember we used to go on the swings all the time as kids. Remember the time, I fell off, but you helped me up. Remember the time you comforted me when dad died. Remember how you were always by my side, but... I denied it. I denied it because I thought it was too good to be true that I had someone like you who existed. Do you know how people say there are guardian angels watching over them? Well, you're my angel. You've been with me since the start."

"Even though you chose a different path, I'm happy for you. I'm happy you found something you loved. You were always right. I'm sorry I never considered your feelings. I was so selfish because I was the one who thought I was alone and in pain when really I should've noticed you were at my side."

The cool air turned hot and fiery as Chaerim began to skate faster going into the formation of her combination jump. Distracted by her emotions, she jumped into her lutz, rapidly spinning her body, landing it perfectly, jumping into her triple flip. The crowd cheered wildly, but Chaerim barely cared more like barely noticed.

"Sunghoon, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I know you forgave me, but I can't forgive myself. I can't believe I treated you so badly. You were the first one to apologize to me when it was my fault for not understanding." She felt warm tears lining in her eyes, but it wasn't the right time to cry, "I want to move on so you can enjoy what you want to do and not feel burdened. But I'm scared to let you go. I'm scared you'll move on from me. No matter how many times I deny that I'm trying to move on, it's so hard. It's so hard because I love you."

She stopped in the middle of the rink with her hands in the air, lips quivering, trying her best not to let her tears fall out. The audience let out loud cheers and claps as she gave up and felt the tears she was holding, fall out.

I love you, Park Sunghoon.

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Score Board

Rank Name Nation Short Program Score

1 Lada Nikolaeva Russia 66.78

2 Ashley Smith USA 53.63

3 Esmée Dupont France 51.89

4 Jia Zhang China 50.12

5 Chaerim Park S. Korea ???