010: A FAMILIAR FEELING.
sunghoon and jungwon hadn't talked ever since they fought in the school hallway a few weeks ago. jungwon found his life to be no different from how it was before, but sunghoons life had done a 180 flip.
before, jungwon would take up most of his time: talking to him, doing things for him, thinking of him, whatever. but now, that's no more. he can't even get near jungwon without feeling inferior to him.
he knew he shouldn't feel that way. both of them were definitely in the wrong. they had a horrible sense of communication and anybody could recognize that even if they didn't know the two.
sunghoon sighed, staring up at the ceiling of his room. he had a pillow in his hold, rolling over to one side so he could stare out of his window instead. the sun was shining brightly despite the strong breeze.
his pupils shook at the constant reminder of his tear-filled cries and jungwons yelling. it was most definitely wrong, but sunghoon missed jungwon. he missed him a lot.
suddenly, he got up and reached over to his nightstand to grab his phone. he searched up the name of a place that he found solidarity in whenever he felt unsafe, stressed, or just wanted somewhere where he could be by himself and without the constant bickering of people around him.
he smiled when he saw that the place was open until 9:00 P.M. perfect, he had a whole 3 hours to do what he loved most.
ever since sunghoon was a young boy, his grandparents had allowed him to go for whatever he wanted. that was mostly caused by the fact that his parents completely neglected him, but thats a story for another time.
at first, he had tried out ordinary sports like soccer and basketball, but he didn't find comfort in those sports like he did with figure skating. his grandma enrolled him in skating classes, and slowly, he improved. he was able to enter many championships and win tens of hundreds of medals and trophies. in fact, he had some hung up on his walls and on his shelves.
he clicked on the directions to the place, as it had been so long since he had went that he forgot how to get there. his smile grew wider as he quickly stood up to change in clothing fit for cold atmospheres.
he walked over to his closet and picked out a comfortable yet suitable outfit for the occassion. it was nothing special, but nothing lazy either. after he had changed, he walked out of his room. the last thing he needed was his skates.
he walked up to a random closet in his apartment which he shared with a roomate. his roomate was a few years older than him, and was attending a school overseas to see how he liked it before permanently moving. he reminisced the memories he made with his roomate before opening the door to the closet. he instantly found his white-as-snow skates, picking them up and putting on his shoes before heading out the front door.
it only took him a few minutes to reach his destination, seeing that he was walking as fast as he could to reach his ice-cold paradise. he pushed the pull door on accident, and laughed after realizing his mistake. he opened the doors correctly and grinned at the desk receptionist who he hadn't seen for around half a year.
"sunghoon-ssi! i never thought i'd see you, i was sure you had quit. you always come back." he smiled, instantly putting sunghoons name in for a reservation. "which rink and for how long?"
"rink C for 2 hours, please. i'd never quit skating, sir." he flashed an eye smile at the man who chuckled, setting up the reservation at a skillful speed.
"here you go. you got your skates?" he asked, looking over the counters and giving a thumbs up when he saw the skates in sunghoons hands. he signalled for him to go off and skate, now focusing on the next person in line.
sunghoon made his way to rink C, feeling excitement zap through his body. it was like reuniting with an old friend, that was the only way to describe the situation.
he found the door leading to the rink he'd asked for, and pushed it open. the only thing he didn't know was that there was another person on the other side, exiting the rink as soon as he had opened it.
"eek!" he squeaked out as the two crashed into each other, both parties falling over. luckily, it wasn't like another situation where sunghoon fell into someones lap..
"sorry!!" he quickly apologized, gathering himself before he looked up to see who it was. he froze, as did the other person. they both stared at each other with wide eyes and shock-riden expressions. "j-jungwon.." he whispered, not even daring to move.
"sunghoon-ah, I-" jungwon began, still looking at the younger with a bewildered look. sunghoon was interested in what he had to say and nodded his head, encouraging the other to continue. "I'm really sorry for yelling at you like that. it wasn't right, you were just trying to tell me how you felt. I'm sorry." he apologized sincerely, shocking the other who had his mouth parted slightly.
"o-oh.." he murmured. both boys realized that they were on the ground in front of other people in the skating arena and got up. jungwon got up first, offering a hand to sunghoon to help him up.
"listen, I really am sorry. I didn't want to yell at you. I just got so angered and riled up, you know how everyone always says I have a short temper, aha.." jungwon nervously chuckled, avoiding eye contact until he decided that would only make the situation worse. he looked into the others sparkling eyes and took in a deep breath. "just please, forgive me and give me one final chance. if I mess up again, you have every right to never talk to me again." he finished off, eyes still on sunghoon.
sunghoon was speechless, he wasn't expecting any of the many things that had just happened. he didn't expect to run into jungwon at a skating arena, especially in the same way they met. neither did he expect him to apologize out of the blue. "jungwon I-" he began, but jungwon seemed to try speaking too, which made both boys stop. sunghoon stifled a laugh, which jungwon noticed. he tried to not crack a smile, maintaining a serious demeanor.
"you don't have to forgive me." he assured, putting his hands up slightly. sunghoon shook his head in disagreement, and jungwons eyes lit up.
"n-no, I forgive you jungwon." he looked up at the latter, who, very uncharacteristically, had embraced the other into a hug.
"j-jungwon?!" sunghoon exclaimed. he then relaxed and hugged back, closing his eyes and resting his head on the others shoulder.
"oh, uhm.. s-sorry.. don't know what took over me.. aha..." jungwon spoke before pulling away, scratching his nape awkwardly. "well... let's put that to the side.. what are you doing here?" he asked the smaller, whos face now sported a shining smile.
"I was going to ask you the same thing!" he giggled momentarily, continuing shortly after; "I actually used to be a professional figure skater, but I quit when I came back to the states. I just come here to skate randomly now." he nodded, and jungwons eyes widened. he knew some things about sunghoon, like how he constantly stuttered and how shy he was, but he never knew this.
"I never knew that. I'm just here to cheer on my brother, he's a hockey player and wanted to practice before his game next friday." he explained, and now it was sunghoons turn to be impressed. "I was just on my way out, but then you came."
"oh! is your brother still here?" sunghoon inquired, looking over jungwons shoulder without making it obvious.
"yeah, actually. I think he's just taking off his skates and packing up. I'll ask him to stay if you want though." jungwon turned his body to let sunghoon see his brother packing up his things and unlace his skates, but sunghoon shook his head to decline his suggestion.
"nono, it's fine. we can meet another day." sunghoon grinned, but suddenly remembered why he was even here in the first place. "oh right! I should probably get to skating, then. are you off?" sunghoon asked, his voice a little sad.
"yeah, I can tell my brother to go and wait for me at home if you want company." jungwon fully turned and began walking to where his brother was seated. sunghoon tried catching up to him to say no, but jungwon was already talking with his brother.
his brother took a glance at sunghoon when he heard the name, and winked at jungwon. sunghoon had no idea what that meant, but he ignored it.
"you know, jungwon-" jungwons brother began, but jungwon quickly slapped his hand over his mouth to shut him up.
"what he wanted to say was that he's taking his leave now. right minho-hyung?" he talked with his teeth gritted together. sunghoon shuddered at his tone, looking in between the siblings.
"whatever, jung. have fun." he did a 'goodbye' motion with his fingers and whistled, turning around to walk out. sunghoon waved bye to him and turned to jungwon who rolled his eyes, motioning for sunghoon to go to the front of the rink which exposed the ice.
"go ahead." he smiled, encouraging the younger who nodded, stepping onto the ice carefully. he only was still for a few seconds before he glided across the ice like a puck in a game of hockey. he moved smoothly and did beautiful turns, tricks, leaps, and more. it stunned jungwon to see how talented the boy was. he stared at him, mesmerized with how fast he could move without slipping, falling, or messing up.
sunghoon continued gliding around the ice, his heart beating to its full extent as he found great comfort in the ice. he skated for another few minutes before deciding to take a break, he did a bow out of habit from his many competitions and made his way to the edge of the rink where jungwon stood, clapping for the younger.
"that was so good!" the usually intimidating boy was showing his soft side for sunghoon, and it made him feel special. "you're awesome at this, darling." jungwon winked, and sunghoon froze in his spot. since it was cold and his skin was slightly paler from it, his blush was way more noticeable. jungwon chuckled and teased him for it.
sunghoon asked the other what time it was, and jungwon cringed as he checked his handwatch.
"it's 7:45, rinks gonna close in an hour or so. how long did you ask for?" he asked, pressing a few buttons on his watch as he accidentally opened the calendar app.
"2 hours, so I should probably pack up now." sunghoons teeth chattered from the cold, and he felt a pang in his heart from that. had it really been so long that he was losing some of the abilities he had? he used to be completely unbothered by the temperature of the rink, but now it felt weirdly cold.
he shoo'd the feeling away, exiting the rink and meeting with jungwon who was already standing next to a vacant bench. sunghoon sat down on it and unlaced his skates. he took off his helmet and put on his converse. jungwon just watched from behind.
when sunghoon finished, he stood up and thanked jungwon for staying with him. he felt oddly satisfied with how the day went. he came to the arena to get rid of the stress that jungwon caused, but now, he wanted to stay with him longer.
when they both said goodbye and jungwon turned his back to leave, sunghoon realized how he felt. hes talking to a girl right now, you can't be thinking like that.. sunghoons thoughts fought with each other, the next being stronger than the last. wait, what?! why am I even thinking like that? I don't like him.
sunghoon was sick of the mental argument and hit his head lightly, shaking his head so as to evict his weird notions. he sighed, he could see his breath (just barely) because of how cold it was in the arena. he pulled the push doors, and then rolled his eyes. he had made this mistake twice today. he, again, opened the doors as intended, and left the rink. he made his way to the receptionist, and checked out. before he left, the receptionist spoke to him.
"hey, this boy exited just before you did, and he asked me to give this to you." the receptionist handed sunghoon a note, and sunghoon softly smiled, thanking him and taking his leave before opening the note.
let's sit together for lunch tomorrow. I want to get to know you more, and hey, let's be friends. I don't care about my reputation anymore, only you. nobody likes me anyway, I already built a bad name for myself. you can bring your other friends too, but I'm not sure if they like me.
can't wait to see you, ice prince.
- jungwon
sunghoons cheeks felt warm, and he held the note up to his heart. his heart never felt as full as it did now. he couldn't push away the sweet thoughts filling his mind. then, he realized;
he finally cares about me.