ice cold

12

"are you okay?" your heart dropped when sunghoon fell from his triple axel jump. you ran up to him, and kneeled down his level.

"i should be asking you that." sunghoon chuckled, hiding the pain. he kept on watching you while you sat on one of the benches, a lot of thoughts in mind. he stood up quickly and held your wrist, "come on. try those ice skates."

just then, when you were about to try on the ice skates, your phone rang. it was your mom. she might be worried about you now. you answered the phone and she asked where you were. you didn't tell, instead, you reassured her that you were on your way home.

"i need to go, sunghoon." you said as you put your phone on your pocket.

he sighed, "alright. want me to take you home?"

you shook your head, "i'll be fine by myself. thank you."

"okay." he nodded, while watching you leave. he sighed and turned around. the whole ice rink was empty. sighing once again, he continued to practice alone.

••••••

"where were you??" mom asked, worried. she was at the living room, clearly waiting for you.

"minha and i went to the mall." you lied. you avoided your mom's gaze and headed to your room right away. you closed the door shut and tossed your bag on the floor.

MESSAGES

Heeseung sent you a message.

• study important sci notes
____________________

"heeseung... why do you have to be this kind?" you whined. you hated the fact that he's messaging you at night just to remind you an assignment. he's too.. persistent.

"YEJIN! COME DOWN NOW!" mom yelled from downstairs which made your body shiver in fright. you quickly changed your clothes and ran downstairs to not make her wait any further.

"wash your hands and sit here." mom commanded and pointed at the chair.

you and your mom were eating peacefully, then she started the conversation to rub off the awkwardness between the both of you. she definitely knows that you know what's going on.

"i heard about your scores by the way." she said as she looked at you seriously.

"oh.. that, uhuh?" you gulped and laughed forcefully. you were hesitating to look at her, "haha. i tried so hard but the teachers are so grumpy and selfish on giving good scores."

"is that so?" mom nodded slowly, "well, try harder then. jungwon got good scores and--"

your head snapped up and you eyed her suspiciously, "how come you know his? we're literally not in the same class." what a way to ruin your mood. you always hated being compared. the difference between jungwon and you is that he's happy with studying and you're not.

"jungwon's mom told me of course. and don't you dare put a grumpy face on me, yejin. im just telling you to do harder because i know you can do it." mom said and stood up. "i'll be working at the office today. make sure to lock the doors and windows. i won't be home until tomorrow 9 am."

you pushed your chair back and let go of your spoon, "right. she's busy with work."

and now you're alone.

••••••••

"good morning," heeseung smiled graciously as he greeted you. that smile was on his lips again and his eyes held a glint of excitement. you felt completely drawn to his genuine smile that you could never tired of seeing it.

"hi," you greeted back. "and before you ask, yes, i studied science."

"wow," he said, taken aback. "what motivated you?"

you probably.

"yo-someone," you paused and blinked slowly, "i meant someone."

he nudged you and chuckled, "you have a crush now? that's good. he'll be motivating you more often, which means you'll get better grades."

you felt your cheeks burning, but you eyed him coolly, "hey just because i said someone, it doesn't mean it's a crush. it might probably be my mom or my cousin."

which of course, is also one of the reasons why you're motivated.

"hmm,," he hummed while nodding slowly, "alright."

you sat down and stared at minha's empty chair. she's usually early, but she's been arriving pretty late these days.

"okay class, please turn your  book to page 198." mr. kim said as he wrote something on the board.

the bell rang and it was already lunch time. not even a second passed, heeseung turned around to face you and asked, "hey, want us to study for science class later? we can study in the-"

"yejin!" minha called while waving at you excitedly. you looked at her and waved your hand back at her. "a cafe just opened! my treat!" your smile went up to your eyes and nodded.

"hey, nevermind." you heard heeseung sigh and turned away.

"want to join us? we can study there." you offered as you smiled at him.

"don't worry, i don't want to burden the both of you. just enjoy." he smiled. he put his attention back on his book and started flipping one of the pages. you looked at him while smiling. he's literally the best.

you admired him so much you don't regret liking him.

"you like heeseung, right?" minha blurted which almost made you choke your strawberry milktea. what the actual heck is that question? YES YOU LOVE HIM OKAY-

you shook your head and snapped out of your thoughts, "no, of course not."

"really? you were literally admiring him earlier." she laughed and took a sip of her drink. were you too obvious?

you breathed deeply and answered calmly, "no, i was just looking at his book."

"oh,, cool. was the book handsome?" she was clearly teasing you now. you glared at her and smirked,

"yes, it was." you answered, "it definitely was."

there she laughed and you both continued chatting until the end of lunch break.