look at the stars | sunsun

seven.

Sunghoon is woken early by Coach Bang when the morning comes. The free skate event will start at ten. He is scheduled to be the second skater to compete, and he arrives at the arena soon after a small breakfast to report for registration and warmups. He catches sight of Sunoo in the distance out of the corner of his eye, talking animatedly to K at the other end of the waiting area.

He doesn't go up to the younger boy to join them. Initiating social interaction is not exactly his forte, especially not with someone he would regularly perceive as an enemy.

Today'll be his second time skating to Fantaisie Impromptu under a competition setting, and he's confident of getting the moves down.

My short program score already has me in the lead. If I can maintain it I'll have a clean first place sweep all the way to the finals.

"Next to skate, representing South Korea, Sunghoon Park!"

He thinks of a boy in cat-print pajamas on a rooftop under the starlight, and his choreography comes easy to him.

─

Sunghoon places second overall in the NHK Trophy, missing first place by 1.25 points with his score of 294.63. Sunoo takes first place with a combined score of 295.88, putting him top on the qualification list for the Grand Prix Finals in December.

They don't get a chance to speak to each other again after that night, but Sunghoon doesn't make an effort to seek the other boy out. Coach Bang has him stay at Sapporo and train at the arena to save time shuttling back and forth from Korea again. He has eight days left before he flies in to Turin for the finals, and any spare moment he has is spent on the ice.

Sunghoon doesn't let the worry show on his face.

My free skate in the NHK was as good as I could see it being.

If the best I can do isn't enough to be first place, then what?

He would really, in this state, benefit from having someone to talk to, but as it is, he doesn't have anyone. Strangely enough, the only person he wants to talk to about losing to Kim Sunoo is Kim Sunoo.

Sunghoon swallows his mindless thoughts and continues practicing. Seven days more.

─

The Grand Prix Finals are held in Turin, Italy, at the Torino Palavela. Sunghoon checks in to his room at Piazza Castello Suite two days before the competition officially begins. Coach Bang has gone back to Korea to fetch Jungwon over for the Junior Grand Prix Finals, which means for the time being, Sunghoon is alone.

He leaves the hotel for a short walk around the vicinity as the sun starts to set in the sky. The infrastructure in Italy is vastly different from the cityscape in Seoul. The buildings around the hotel area are of the same style as the hotel; stone and marble in complementing shades of white and cream and very light beige.

"Sunghoon!"

Sunghoon really wonders how Kim Sunoo has the energy to be friendly to everyone every day, but he doesn't bother asking.

"You are always following me around. How strange," Sunghoon remarks innocuously.

"Rude. You're the one staying in the same hotel as me."

Sunoo picks up a light jog, and Sunghoon slows down his pace to let the younger boy catch up. "Should sixteen year olds really be running around Italy alone?" Sunghoon says lightly, without any real hostility behind it. "I heard the cities are full of very scary pickpockets who will run you dry of all your cash."

"How could anyone steal from me? I'm too cute for that."

"Ah. Suddenly I feel like walking very fast to get away from you."

Sunoo fixes him with a disparaging stare. "You are quite a terrible person. No wonder you don't like talking to people."

Sunghoon laughs softly, and the last of the tension between them dissipates easily. "You realized, huh?"

"Yup. Nothing escapes me," Sunoo replies cheerily. "Have you eaten? Let's get dinner."

In hindsight, a sixteen year old and a seventeen year old wandering around the city in a foreign country at night is not exactly the recipe for no disaster, but Sunghoon and Sunoo safely find a quaint restaurant at two-thirds occupancy a block away from their hotel, and they go in.

"Do you think they'll give me chopsticks if I ask for them?" Sunghoon asks jokingly, and Sunoo immediately looks appalled.

"Pasta cannot be eaten with chopsticks!" the younger boy declares. "Twist it with a fork, like this, look, and like this! You are bringing shame on the name of Ratatouille-"

"You don't even know his name is Remy," Sunghoon retorts. "You think you've got it all just because you know how to eat noodles with a fork?"

They don't talk about tomorrow. They don't talk about the competition the next day that'll change their lives ─ the two boys in the city, alone together in the night, are content with nothing more than each other's company.