Love & Evil - nomin

Chapter two

"So," Jeno's coach starts. He holds up a paper in front of Jeno's face. "I've been meaning to ask you about this. Jeno puts his water bottle down and focuses on the paper held out in front of him.

Jeno reads the paper. It's about a new competition. He doesn't say anything, instead he waits for his coach to continue.

"I thought it could be fun?" He says, tone questioning. "We can do some networking, it could be a great opportunity for you."

"Networking huh?"

"Yeah," His coach says. "That's important, you know? If you make a good impression on the judges it could mean a lot for your future."

Jeno makes a sound. "You know I'm not a team player."

"Yes, that I do know," His coach chuckles. "But give it a thought, okay? If you do agree, you'll get paired up with someone else here and you'll practice together."

"I'll let you know," Jeno sighs. He gets up from the little bench. "But I need to go now, my train will be here in five minutes."

"Right, okay," His coach says. "I'll see you tomorrow then."

Jeno doesn't think about it until that evening, not until sleep just doesn't come and he's stuck staring at the ceiling.

He's been skating for so long, and yet it feels like nothing significant happened in his career. He's not sure if he can even call it that at this point. He hasn't done a competition in ages, he's stuck practicing. This could mean the difference, and maybe it could also mean Jeno isn't awake at times like these — thinking about how he sacrificed his youth for nothing.

This could be it. The final breakthrough.

Jeno reaches for his phone blindly, laying on his bedside table, and he types in a text to his coach.

"I'll do it."

—

"I'm happy you agreed to do it, Jeno." Jeno's coach says from the side. Jeno leans on the bar and sighs.

"Yeah, me too," He mumbles.

"Doesn't sound like it," His coach says. "Are you sure, Jeno?"

"Who will I get paired up with?" He asks instead. Jeno sees a hint of a smile flash across his coach's aged face, but it disappears as quickly as it had come. Jeno thinks he'd imagined it all.

"You'll know soon enough, I already made some arrangements."

"Oh," Jeno says. "Why can't you just tell me?"

"That would ruin the surprise," Jeno's coach says, grinning. "Now go, practise yesterday's routine."

Jeno smiles. He pulls himself away from the bar he was leaning on and spins around on the ice. He does as he's told and practices yesterday's routine until it's time for a break. He makes his way back to the locker room to get a drink of water and sits down on the bench there, pulling his gloves off with his teeth.

"I heard you want to team up with me." A voice says. Jeno looks up from the floor and initially, he sees no one, then a figure steps out into the light and Jeno has a little difficulty hiding his gasp.

Jaemin.

"What?" Jeno squeaks.

"Your coach talked to mine this morning," Jaemin says. He steps a little closer and sits down next to Jeno on the bench. "He talked about this competition, and that you'd love to do it with me."

Jeno does gasp this time. There's no way... "What?" Jeno asks again. "I said no such thing."

"Your coach said otherwise," Jaemin shrugs. "I figured it'd be a good time to officially meet, seeing the circumstances." Jaemin smiles and holds out his hand. So we'll just be ignoring all those times before?

Jeno looks down at Jaemin's hand for a while, and right before Jaemin is able to awkwardly pull it back, Jeno reaches out and shakes Jaemin's hand.

"I'm Jeno." Jeno says.

"I know, I've heard a lot about you," Jaemin says. "Jaemin."

"Good things, I hope," Jeno says. "It's nice to meet you, Jaemin." Jeno doesn't tell Jaemin how he knows his name by heart. He doesn't tell him how he's able to pull Jaemin out of any crowd. It's not his fault, Jaemin just stands out.

The thought of skating with Jaemin has him feeling a little lightheaded. It almost doesn't feel real, and yet Jaemin is right here; right in front of Jeno. It might be important to note that they aren't supposed to be friends, one of them is supposed to win and the other one is supposed to lose. That's how this works, at least in Jeno's world. Apparently Jeno's coach has other ideas.

"Very good things," Jaemin grins. He pauses for a bit, and then Jaemin leans in a little closer. "You have pretty eyes." He says after a beat. Jaemin gets up from the bench and his hands disappear in his pockets. Jeno is left flabbergasted. Fucking menace. "I'll leave you to it then, Jeno. It was nice meeting you," Jaemin continues. As if nothing even happened in the first place. "I'll see you on the ice."

Jaemin leaves the locker room and makes his way to the ice. Jeno jumps up from the bench a few minutes later.

"What did you do?!" He asks. Jeno's coach shrugs with a smile.

"What? I thought you'd make a great team together."

"Why him?" Jeno asks. "There are so many people to choose from and you chose him?"

"You can be friends, it'll be good for you."

"We're not supposed to be friends!"

"Who said that?" Jeno's coach asks. He pats Jeno's shoulder. "If you're really not okay with this, let me know, but I think this would be a great opportunity. Jaemin is such a popular skater."

"I know," Jeno says quietly. He sees Jaemin talk to his own coach on the other side of the venue. He sees Jaemin turn to look his way. "I... I'm okay with it, it's just..." He never finishes his sentence.

"You'll let me know when you're ready," Jeno's coach nods sympathetically. "Are you ready to continue?"

"Yes," Jeno nods. He opens the gate to get back on the ice. "I'm ready." Skating will take his mind off things.

—

The thing is, Jeno is very much willing to do this competition with Jaemin. He has had a crush on Jaemin for a while now, possibly ever since he first laid eyes on the other. Jeno remembers it well: He was skating, practicing a spin he'd been having difficulty with perfecting. He made a wrong move somewhere that ended up in him falling flat on his ass. Jeno decides to just lay there for a while, but then someone stands over him.

"You okay there?" Jaemin asks. He's wearing a logo on his sweater Jeno has never seen before. Jaemin reaches out a hand for Jeno to take. Jaemin pulls Jeno up.

"Yeah, I'm good," Jeno says awkwardly. He thought he'd been here on his own. "Just decided to... rest for a bit, you know."

"I get it," Jaemin chuckles. "I'll see you around." And then Jaemin spins around and skates back to the other side of the venue. Jeno's left a little short of breath, because to be quite fair, Jaemin looks outherwordly — even in the silly knitted hat he'd been wearing.

But Jeno doesn't allow himself to admit that. He's not supposed to.

Jeno grabs the paper his coach gave him. He's supposed to be competing with Jaemin against two other teams. Jeno sighs and grabs his phone.

Jeno:

I'll do it

With Jaemin Na

Coach:

Perfect! Jeno, I'll let him know. We'll start soon