look at the stars | sunsun

seventeen.

"Sunghoon Park, representing South Korea, skating to Yellow!"

The crowds have never cheered louder for him in his life. They proclaim the return of the prodigy, the star skater, the phoenix rising from the ashes, the spring after the coldest winter.

It has been four years since Sunghoon's last competition.

And as the first notes of the music play, after four long, endless years, Sunghoon finds himself again.

─

"Park Sunghoon, representing South Korea, with a score of 332.98!"

"Kim Sunoo, representing the United States, beating the Olympic record he set four years ago in London, with a score of 336.55!"

─

Gold is a secondary derivative of the primary color yellow, coded serial #D4AF37 in the international database. Sunghoon had never cared for the scientifics, but he was no less familiar with the color than he was with the back of his hand.

"Sunghoon, do you have a favorite color?"

"Hm? Maybe gold."

"Gold...I can see why."

Sunghoon remembers the conversation with Sunoo on the rooftop that night, and he wonders when gold became the most beautiful not in his own hands, but in the other boy's eyes.

"Look at the stars, Sunghoon." The stars are dazzling that night. "Look how they shine for you."

Sunghoon brings their interlocked hands up to point at the sky. "Look how they shine for us."

The world silences itself around him. The younger boy's eyes sparkle in the light, medal bright around his neck, arms wide open, waiting for his embrace.

Sunghoon looks to Sunoo and he sees a sky full of stars, shining gold in the darkness just for him.

And it was all yellow.