christmas - enhypen sunghoon

❄ 03

luckily, jay immediately noticed the poor girl struggling alone to walk in ice with her hands glued to the railings like earlier.

"hey, sunghoon! why did you leave her?" jay turned to sunghoon who was skating towards him.

"sorry, i can't teach her." sunghoon took the kid's hands from jay and skated away.

because walking in little steps was taking her too long, saera planned to crawl her way out of the ice rink. but before she could do so and embarrass herself, jay reached out and held her arm. she almost hugged him out of relief and happiness.

"you're my savior! who's handling saerim though?" she clung on his arm while the other hand held on the railings.

"sunghoon's with the kid. i'm confused and i have a lot of questions to ask but do you want to get out here immediately first?" jay asked.

"yes! yes, please. are you going to carry me all the way towards the exit?" they both stopped skating to plan their exit.

"i don't even know if i can carry you." saera raised and fist and threatened to hit him, but jay also did the same. "go and fight me. i'll leave you here. carrying you can help me lose my balance. just cling on my arm here."

she did as she's told, clinging both of her arms on his right arm. it wasn't a smooth ride but it was much more faster and less embarrassing than her plans earlier. when the duo fell once on their butts, sunghoon glanced at them in the corner of his eye on the other side of the rink. he suggested saerim to go back to the lobby like her sister but for them, it was much slower as saerim insisted that she tried to skate too.

outside the skating rink, saera already removed her skating shoes and protective gears. she was so ready to leave. in her mind, she's planning to never come back and meet that judgemental and mean sunghoon again. she glared at him from afar as she watched him and her sister skate towards them.

"mind telling me what happened? sunghoon told me he can't teach you. did you say or do something to him that made him mad?" jay plopped himself beside her while he removed his skating shoes.

"it's his fault he's so immature! he got mad after i told him i hate christmas? is he really like that?" 

"well, i do know he loves christmas but i didn't know he would hate someone who hates christmas. wait, why do you even hate christmas?"

saera's jaw dropped as the argument was turning against her. "jongseong- i- we've been friends for years and i honestly feel offended."

"oh wait, i take it back. i understand now. you should try to talk to each other again and apologize, both of you." jay naturally became the mediator between his two closest friends.

"i won't apologize to her." sunghoon appeared in front of them, briefly glancing at her for not even more than a second.

"what the- see? you don't even make any sense. how can you decide to hate me entirely just because i hate christmas." she stood up in front of him, even if she wasn't any near his tall hight, but she was ready to defend herself.

jay let saerim watch her favorite cartoon on his phone with bluetooth earphones to distract her, while the two argue endlessly and he removes her skating shoes and gears. he sighed, thinking of the possibility and how he can turn his two friends in good terms. 

"i don't know how you can, jongseong, but i can't handle his attitude. i'm done. this is going to be the first and last time i'm skating on ice because i hate it from now on. saerim, that's enough fun today. it's time to go home." saera glared at sunghoon one last time before she grabbed her younger sister from jay and they walked away to the parking lot.

"don't worry. the ice skating rink never liked you once." sunghoon snapped back at her one last time.

saera paused on her tracks just to glare at him again. "i still have a tiny ounce of respect to not hit you." with that, she quickened her walking pace that saerim had to increase the speed of her little legs four times.

"saera, wait up! you, sunghoon, i'll hear your side of the story later." jay ran to catch up with the two girls. "this girl, did she forget we went together here."

sunghoon watched their silhouettes get smaller and smaller until they were out of his sight. he decided to skate a few more laps before leaving the skating rink to cool off himself. the coldness of the air was comforting for him. it felt like a friend. it's one of the reasons why he loved autumn and winter more than spring and summer.

it was total silence inside the car of saera, saerim and jay. he found the quiet atmosphere uncomfortable but he also didn't want to say anything wrong that will make him included into her hate list next to park sunghoon. saera listened to music using bluetooth earphones to calm herself and avoid any conversation at the moment.  on the other hand, saerim was still in her own state of happiness after being able to fulfill her dream of ice skating. 

"unnie! can we go ice skating again tomorrow?" the kid nudged at her arm with a big smile on her face. "with park sunghoon oppa?"

"what? uh- you go with jay." saera pointed at jay who was sitting beside the driver. 

jay didn't even look back at them when he answered a firm 'nope'. "i have a dance practice tomorrow for our school performance. i'll just message sunghoon and send you his number too so you can talk about it."

"but i want to skate with unnie and sunghoon." saerim insisted. saera bit her inner cheek in frustration and prayed intently in her mind that sunghoon would deny.

"oh, sunghoon agreed. tomorrow, same time, same place. i didn't expect that." jay said the last part lowly but saera heard it. guess she had to swallow her pride this time.