𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 ⟡ 박성훈

002

ON THAT SAME DAY :

"And 2nd place for male solo goes to..
Park Sunghoon!"

Sunghoon felt his smile falter slightly, but kept it up for the camera. He felt his mother's eyes burn into his neck as he applauded himself and skated onto the podium in the centre of the rink.

"And first place goes to Kang Yujin! Congratulations!"

The crowd went wild as Yujin came up to the first podium.

Personally, Sunghoon had never met the guy before until today. It was his first time doing an individual competition.

For almost all of his life he was competing in partner competitions, with his trusty Hayun by his side. Until she wasn't able to financially produce enough to continue the sport in high school.

And this, was the first time in a long time Sunghoon had experienced disappointment.

This guilt began to seep into him, imagining all of the nasty words he was then going to receive from his mom when they got home.

"I'm very proud of you Sunghoon, 2nd for your gift every solo performance is brilliant. Next time we'll aim for gold!" His coach praised him, ruffling his hair.

"Thank you, coach." Sunghoon bowed.

"Don't think that you're good just because you got on the podium. How incapable are you from being able to get gold in what you've been doing all of your life?" Sunghoon's mom hissed as she began packing her belongings away.

"I'm sorry, mom."

"Sorry won't cut it, you— Sunghoon, what do you think you're going?!" His mom exasperated as he began walking away after putting his skates away into his bag.

"For some fresh air." He mumbled, pushing his way through the happy families, walking out of the ice skating centre into the car park, where he saw a girl crying.

౨ৎ

THE FOLLOWING MONDAY :

"Here early as usual?" Eunji grinned as she sat in front of Dae, who was busy revising for their quiz they'd be taking later today.

Eunji and Dae always arrived at school at a crazy early hour, Eunji's bus only arrives either really early— or really late. With Dae, there was no particular reason as to why she was early.

"You guessed it" Dae hummed in reply

"How do you manage to stay on top of everything, school, dance, football— do you ever get a rest day or nah?" Eunji joked, but was also genuinely curious, was Dae a robot that functioned 24/7?

"Nope" Dae chuckled, deep down, it was actually true.

She tucked her long dark brown hair behind one of her ears, as she focused on her studying, while Eunji was listening to music with her wired earphones.

It was the end of November, and their 1st year of high school was coming to a close already.

The academic year in Korea lasts from March until February. The first term lasts five months, March to July, and is followed by a month of summer holidays. The second term starts in September and ends in February, with a one-and-a-half-month winter break starting at mid-December and ending late January.