Sunghoon glided out of the ice after hours and hours of practice. His parents are smiling at him, waiting for him with clothes to change on, and hot coffee.
"You did great, honey." Sungyeon wrapped his hand around him.
"I just wish you practiced longer today. If only you didn't walk with Jay and met me at the school's parking lot." His father remarks. Sunghoon looked guilty for doing so, but he felt incomplete lately without Jay. If he gets to choose, he'd drop this one tournament and hang out with Jay more.
He wanted to have a life as well. Have friends and fool around a store without buying anything. Just walk around to kill time.
Why is it such a crime to chill? Why do we always have to be productive? He already had a hard time in school. Why can't he just chill after.
"Well get changed. We're driving you to the academy." His father told him.
He is of course enrolled to advance lessons, so school would be a lot easier for him. He'd know his future lessons right away and be sure to excel in them.
He has to.
Instead of arguing, he chose to just do as they say and keep his usual schedule.
While he was in the car, he felt unfair that Jay isn't attending any of these classes. Though it was pretty obvious why. He's a math genius of some sort. Sunghoon didn't even imagine him to be that phenomenal.
The reason he doesn't get the top rank is because he'd be accused of cheating, and Sunghoon can tell. He probably got that tip from Hansol.
Yves on the other hand pays Yuri so she won't be accused of cheating. She is allowed to have correct answers while Jay is not. Sunghoon did want to discuss that to his parents but they seem to act weird around Jay.
It was as if he's a stranger.
He does understand that it wasn't them who raised him, but they should at least try. They always treat Jay as if he's an interference. All they tell him is to not embarrass Sunghoon. Don't involve Sunghoon. Don't put the family name in shame as if they knew that Jay's going to get in trouble.
"Here we are." Sungyeon kissed Sunghoon's cheek before letting him out of the car. Now here it is again. The most boring building that Sunghoon has ever been in.
It's like he has to attend school again. His muscles are already having tremors, but he's still forced to be here.
He sat down, sighing in frustration. Girls gathered outside the room taking pictures of him. "Ice Prince, please take a picture with me." One girl had the courage to ask him.
Sunghoon didn't want to be rude, so he forced a smile in front of the camera.
"Stand up!" The girl happily requested, but to Sunghoon it sounded more like a demand. He's already tired from skating. He had a 15-minute-rest at the car on his way here. He had to climb three sets of stairs, before he got him. He just sat down for literally 2 seconds.
But of course, he didn't want to be rude. He stood up with shaking knees and forced a smile.
"Me too!" Another one came to take as many pictures as she can with different poses. Sunghoon felt like he's about to collapse, but kept it up. There's at least fourteen more girls to go.
"Those who aren't enrolled to this subject may leave." Miss Krystal – the teacher remarked, making the girls stop taking pictures and leave the room.
"Bitch!" They muttered before leaving.
Sunghoon frowned, because he has a thing for Krystal, though she was older and has a boyfriend.
Krystal mostly discuss physics and use ice skating as an example for Sunghoon to understand bit better. She used to skate as well, but had a permanent injury and couldn't do it for a long time now or her achilles would hurt badly the next day.
She's nice to Sunghoon but he often misunderstood her. He thinks Miss Krystal feels the same way for him, and the only person in between them is her boyfriend, Gong Myung.
"Sorry about that! I'm sure you're tired by now. Shall we start so you all can go home without extending?" She smiled at Sunghoon who has been smiling at her as soon as she entered the room.
After the lesson, Sunghoon decided to stay for a little while, now that he's already here with Miss Krystal.
He can just tell his parents that he had some clarifications and they'd believe him. Who wouldn't believe him, they all think he's an angel.
"Miss Krystal, how are you?" He asked, watching her gather her things. She smiled at the kid and faced him.
"I'm good. Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked, moving closer to Sunghoon. The closer she got, the more noticeable his pale lips are. He must be sick. She rushed and place a hand on his forehead.
Sunghoon blushed at Krystal's sudden action. "Is your head aching?" She asked in concern. Now that she asked, Sunghoon finally noticed that his head was throbbing in pain, though it always does after he leaves the ice.
It was never a big deal. Of course he would massage it here and there but it never gave him much trouble before. Krystal looked concerned though.
"Don't think about it Miss Krystal. It's all good. I'm perfectly fine." He reassured her so she won't worry about it.
"You sure? Don't you want me to tell your parents?" She asked.
Sunghoon raised a brow at her question. It's like she reads minds or something. He was contemplating whether to tell his parents that he needed rest this week or not.
"Tell them what exactly?" He asks her.
"To give you time to relax, of course." Krystal grabbed a strawberry candy from her bag and gave it to Sunghoon. "Here's all I have right now. But promise me you'd eat at home before sleeping." She told the kid but he seem to be distracted by the candy. He was looking at it as if it was the most precious thing in this world.
"Sunghoon, you have to tell someone at least." Krystal spoke again, but he was still focused on the candy and missed what she was trying to say.
"Tell what?" He asked and averted his gaze from the candy to look at Krystal once again.
"Remind people that you're still human." She gave a sympathetic look and then left him.
Sunghoon's smile faded. He's all alone now, he can finally breathe. He massaged his knees and took deep breaths before standing up. At least he can now go home and sleep.
On his way down the stairs, swarm of girls asked for more pictures.
He felt his head throb more and his swelling joints ache a lot more. He was looking for his parents' car but the girls were too many to actually see the parking lot.
He wanted to beg and plead for them to move aside, that he was about to collapse. But they were too busy taking pictures of him.
"Cut it out." Someone ordered with such powerful voice, making the girls move aside. It was Seon, a senior that also attends this academy. He was tall and intimidating, though his eyes were soft and kind. "Give him some privacy, will you? This is an academy, not a fan meet." He told them and escorted Sunghoon towards the parking lot.
"Snob! Sunghoon didn't even complain, why are you speaking fir him!" Girls started complaining.
"He can get his privacy at home! Sunghoon is the nation's boyfriend. Let him do his job! Stand still and look pretty." One giggles so loudly. Others agreed.
Seon hissed, taking Sunghoon away as fast as possible.
"Thanks hyung." He mutters, grateful that Seon came to rescue him.
"You look like shit." The older guy said quite frankly. "Get a tutor instead. What's the use of studying here if you get harassed all the time?" Seon recommended.
It was a brilliant idea. Krystal in his house would be perfect. He can introduce her to his parents and to Jay.
"Hey!" Seon snapped his fingers close to Sunghoon to get his attention.
"What was that?" He asked in surprise. He didn't know Seon was still talking. He was already imagining late afternoons with Krystal.
Seon chuckled in frustration, when he realized Sunghoon wasn't listening to him anymore. He has ranted so much but Sunghoon heard nothing.
"I said don't be afraid to let them know when they're crossing the line." Seon simplified his rants. "Here's my ride, I'll see you around." He told Sunghoon and went to this black luxurious car.
He's so rich. He's also on top of his class. He's also talented, tall and handsome. He probably has nothing to worry about.
The reason why he has time to worry about others. Sunghoon always looked up to him.
Sunghoon found his father's car and got in. He planned on sleeping the whole car ride when his mother started ranting. "Lia's still home. She's still waiting for your brother. Do you know where Jay went?" She asked.
Sunghoon shook his head and was about to lean back and sleep, when his mother asked him to call Jay. He wasn't answering. Where is he? What is he doing?
He kept calling Jay until he's home. As much as he wanted to sleep, he has decided to hang with Lia. It might be therapeutic to talk to a friend. Sunghoon never had one before. All the girls didn't want to talk, they only want to take pictures.
His classmates are included.
Lia might not be like them. Sunghoon always though she and Jay are secretly dating, or they're about to. None of them gets tired of each other.
At least that's what he though. He has no idea of their recent fight.
He knocked at the door of Jay's game room before entering. Lia was playing on the pinball machine that Jay never touch. It was only there for aesthetic purposes, to make his game room like a real arcade.
Sunghoon always envied Jay and his machines. All Sunghoon has was a small dance studio to polish his moves. After skating, he still has to work on his routines at home. It was suffocating.
Though Jay goes there sometimes to dance.
"Jay, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean anything I said." Lia said on an almost crying voice. She seem to be guilty of something.
So it's why Jay's missing. The two of them fought.
Lia gasped in surorise when she realized it was not Jay who entered the room. She sighed walking towards the couch and collapsing on it lazily.
"What happened?" Sunghoon asked, sitting beside her. Finally, he can sit down.
"I was being stupid and demanding. I was so used to him spoiling me all the time and only thought about myself." Lia responded. Jay's face flashed on her memory. The way he looked at her with pain in his eyes.
"He'll turn up. You know he couldn't stand being mad at you for a long time." Sunghoon tried to at least comfort her. Jay's not a bad guy. He just needs some time to think.
"I think this time he really meant it. We're done. He's going to forget about me, I mean why would he need me? He has his real brother and his real parents." She said bitterly.
It was weird, but Lia somehow felt like Sunghoon and his family took away Jay from her.
Now that she's back to being the only child, all her moves are noticable. Every mistake has it's rightful punishment. No achievement is enough.
No Jay to buy her ice cream to cheer her up. No more movie nights. No more protective Jay who makes sure nobody would ever dare to make fun of her.
"This won't go on for a long time. I know Jay. He would never hurt you on purpose." Sunghoon rubbed her back.
That's when Lia started crying. She was supposed to hold it in until she's home alone, but being comforted by someone else besides Jay made her feel shattered. Like she truly lost Jay.
Sunghoon didn't know what to do once she started crying.
He's never comforted someone before. He though these only happens in movies. He didn't know there was an actual emotion where a person would cry because of an argument.
Compared to him, the last time he cried was when he won a tournament. It was tears of joy. Because his hard work paid off.
Nobody's ever been that close to him that arguments was not a big deal to him. He can simply disregard both the disagreement and the person he fought with.
...
Jay ran up towards him and saw Niki standing on the ledge, hands spread with eyes closed.
"Stop!" Jay yelled, startling Niki, and causing him to almost fall. He laughed and placed a hand in his chest in shock, glancing at Jay.
"That was close." He mutters in between chuckles.
Niki then went down from the ledge and sat on the floor and grabbed a Mars bar, taking a bite from it.
Jay was till flustered, staring at the kid eat snacks calmly after he almost feel from a 13 story building. He sat on the floor across Niki with his hands on his head, his heart still racing. His cheeks red from the cold and stress.
Niki noticed Jay still in distress. Somehow he felt guilty for worrying him. But he didn't know what to say. They're not even that close. Besides, Taki and Jay are not in a good term. Why would he talk to this asshole?
He can still remember how drained they were after chasing him just because of a Yoshi plushie. It was so stupid. The guy's a ninja. He disappeared after climbing lots and lots of fences of private properties. It was a mystery how he was not accused of breaking and entering.
Jay on the other hand couldn't unsee Niki from the ledge. He looked like he has given up. He glanced at Niki once again and saw him curiously observing him until he caught him staring and looked away.
He averted his gaze towards a taller building.
Why is he acting normal?
Why was he standing on the ledge? Jay wanted to know if it was just his mentality that's playing tricks on him, or was Niki really going to do it.
"I was only appreciating the night lights." Niki finally spoke. "Japan has lots." He added, then threw a little box of chocolate towards Jay. It has Japanese writings on it that Jay can only guess what it says. He sighed and opened the package, discovering a half strawberry and half chocolate sweets inside. He took one and tasted it. It was not bad at all.
But wait! He still wanted answers.
"Why are you here?" Jay asked as he started to shiver from the cold breeze of the night.
"My parents left us with Kei's godmother while they discover fossils in Egypt. They're anthropologists." Niki tried to avoid the topic. His answer wasn't good enough for Jay.
"No! I mean up here? Why are you up here? Why were you at the ledge?" He asks specifically this time.
Niki seem to have lost his appetite and stopped eating. He sighed, standing up.
"Before I give you an honest answer to that, I need to ask you something first." Niki made a deal. He looked so serious. Jay's never been in a serious conversation with someone so far. He's not even close to Niki. He was just following him around.
Jay brushed his hair back and looked Niki in the eyes. "Shoot." He cooed.
Niki took a deep breath and looked away. "Tell me, why do people have to give up what they knew they want, and chase for something they never even dreamed of having?"
Jay was lost. He didn't expect him to ask something so complicated. He couldn't even remember his question anymore. That was a question he doesn't know the answer to. Of only there was an equation, he can figure it out, but it's a matter of opinion.
Jay doesn't want to answer something that isn't a precise answer to a question. He needed an equation, a formula perhaps or a measurement, but this has none.
And it's starting to drive him crazy. He wanted to solve it so Niki would somehow hold on to an answer. A correct answer to his question.
Jay wrote the question on the floor, using his finger, writing on the dust build up.
Perhaps this can be solved by cancellation.
He tried to cancel out similar words but it only made the question more complicated.
"Humans are complicated creatures man." Jay just muttered, but still tried to analyze the question. There has to be a correct answer to this.
He was distracted when he heard Niki laugh at him. Jay looked at him in confusion. Why? Did he say something wrong?
"Why? Was I taking too long to answer?" Jay asked.
"No." Niki stopped laughing. "It's just that, you said it as if you're not human. Like you're different from everybody else." He's laughing once again. He's laughing so hard.
Jay recalled that when Sunghoon's stressed, he laughs even without a reason. He usually become compulsive to go out or take a run. Jay always though that's how Sunghoon relieves his stress and frustrations. Was Niki the same?
Niki's laughs got louder and louder until he stopped, noticing Jay staring at him without blinking. Jay must think he's mental now.
"Are you not?" Jay asked waiting for Niki's answer. "Different, I mean." He specified when Niki doesn't know how to answer.
"I don't think I am." Niki simply answered.
"But you don't think like them." Jay silently muttered.
Niki sat and thought about it. "I care too much." He admitted, which was weird, because he's never had a conversation this deep with anybody, and yet he just met Jay a little while back. They're not even that close. "Sometimes I drown myself in my thoughts. I think about what people told me. Mostly the criticisms." He took a deep breath. He was starting to hate himself again. "I try so hard to be what people expected of me. Nothing less, nothing more, but the more I try to improve myself, the more I get stuck. Why am I stuck? Why? Why can't I move forward? It's like I'm trapped in a box that it slowly shrinking, crushing me, draining me until I disappear. Until nothings left of me."
Niki didn't expect Jay to understand. He doesn't expect anybody to. All they ever think about is him, having good grades, having good reputation and aiming for a good university. That's how they want his future to be.
"I think Kei hyung has a reason for doing so." Jay told him. Niki wanted to clap in sarcasm. He just poured his heart out but still, Jay's taking Kei's side.
"But at the same time I feel like the problem is within us. All of us. We always think that there's only one shot at life, and it's the secure way. With the way they protect you, I bet you have a flawless record. I bet with a good University, you'd have a good place in society someday. Kei Hyung wanted to secure that. But it's not what you want, is it?" He asked.
Niki shook his head.
"I think a person has to take his own path and finish it until the end. If the finish line is not satisfying, you can always restart. It's not a race on who graduates first and first one to get a job. It' about finding a job you like so much that it doesn't even feel like working." Jay shared. It's what Lia's father always told him.
"But what do I know. I'm just as lost as you. You can never take an advice from someone who has not experinced it, and you can't always follow the advice you heard from people who went through it. What they did to solve the problem might not work for everybody. You just have to try until you get the right answer." Jay didn't know if he's still talking about Niki or himself.
"What if it didn't end the way you wanted, but it was still what you want to do. It was the only thing you do that you don't get tired of?" Niki asked, facinated in every time Jay opens his mouth.
"You try again." It was a simple answer, but Niki liked it.
"My brother, my twin, he doesn't always win the gold medals. Sometimes he doesn't win anything at all, but he keeps on going. It was like a routine. He now has at least two shelves of trophies and medallions. Not because he won everytime, it's because he never stopped trying. I idolize him to be honest. Doing the same routine everyday? I'd go crazy if I'm not already." Jay chuckled.
Niki laughed with him, reminding him of his brothers as well.
"Is it hard? Having different interests?" Niki asked.
Jay shook his head. "Nope! Not at all. It only gets irritating when people compare us. It's good to have different interests. We never fought for anything, ever. During snack time, I take the sweets he takes the healthy ones. When relatives buy us clothes, he takes the light ones, I take the dark ones. It's convenient." Jay told Niki.
"You're lucky. Me, I have two brothers and we all love dancing. People expect us to understand each other well, but it's hard. The three of us would easily tear our shoes apart. Our parents can only buy one at a time. It'll be me, as the youngest or Kei hyung. Taki would use mine most of the time and our fights would end for a weeks straight." Niki laughed it out, thinking about it.
They both gained a friend tonight. For some reason, they don't feel so alone anymore.
The fun stopped when they heard footsteps followed by the door shutting close. Niki quickly stood up and ran towards it. He muttered something in Japanese, must be a curse word. It sounded so bitter.
"This is a one sided door knob." He told Jay in panic, but Jay doesn't seem bothered.
"You didn't have a hard time getting in. Is it hard to get us out?" He asks, giving his full trust on Niki.
Jay stared at the keyhole where the door knob was supposed to be. They needed a key to get out. Now he's starting to panic. He brushed his hair more than a few times while Niki grabbed a wire from his pocket and started reshaping bit into some kind of hooks. "I can only disable the alarm from the inside. Now that the door is closed, the alarm is once again active. Once I open the door, I might need you to run as fast as you could." Niki instructed nervously, before placing one hook inside the keyhole.
Jay stopped him.
"Wait, we need a plan." He told the younger one. "They'll be going straight here once the alarm is triggered. I suggest we enter the 14th floor and use the escalator. Outside there's an intersection, I go towards the hospital drive, you go to the direction of the park and go straight towards bridge to hide. Then we burn our clothes just in case the security cameras caught us." He discussed like a true criminal.
Niki felt like one as well.
"If we fail, let's meet at the police station." Niki told Jay, who's plan was so well put up as if he's seen too many action movies. Niki doesn't have full confidence that they'd pull it off. They're just kids after all.
But then again, thinking about how Jay escaped them from the arcade, he might escape the guards easily.
Niki started picking the locks and as soon as it opened, the alarm went off.
The two of them entered the 14th floor and ran towards the escalator. As soon as they escaped the building, the two of them split up and ran as fast as they could.
Niki made it to the park and hid on the bridge like Jay told him to. He stayed there for an hour and eventually went home to his aunt's Jessica's house. She had her arms cross on her chest, furious. "Where's Taki and Kei?" She asked right away.
Niki shook his head. "No idea."
"I know where you've been! You went dancing with them, look at you! You're all sweaty." Jessica accused him.
"Nope, I went for a run." He denied. It was the truth though. He didn't dance tonight. The running part was the truth as well. He just left the part where he trespassed.
"Off to bed then." Jessica told him and sat back down on the couch.
Niki went to his room that he shared with Taki and sat in front of his study table, chuckling to himself.
He became friends with a crazy guy tonight.
...
A/N: The Pandemic took away a lot. I kinda miss working. Though not now. I can't take home any pathogens from patient's I have a nephew.
I-land's been entertaining. Jays's such a cutie. I wonder how he'd react on a ghost prank. Well that's kinda cruel. He so adorable. I just want to protect him from everything that could hurt him.
Anyways, thank you guys for dropping by. I'll end it here before I say something stupid. Have a good day.