Icy Break; Norenmin

JAEMIN

To Jaemin, Renjun was bigger than any celebrity he could potentially meet and shined brighter than any star to have ever existed. In the figure skating world, Renjun was a star. A star that was beloved and admired by many. He was so young yet he had already accomplished what most figure skaters wished they could. He was someone others could look up to and get inspired by. He had single-handedly made China a force to be reckoned with in the male division of the sport. He was incredible. He was perfect.

When Jaemin was six, he came across a video of Renjun ice skating. Youtube was still a pretty new concept and Jaemin was also quite young so he somehow managed to go from watching random comedy skits to watching the most beautiful thing his eyes had ever seen.

The figure skater was clearly very young but he already had so much talent. Jaemin himself could barely do simple addition. He wanted to be just like that kid. He wanted to be like Huang Renjun.

Jaemin started ice skating whenever he could and when ice skating wasn't a possibility, he'd roller skate. It had become his favorite thing to do. Whenever he had free time he'd be doing some sort of skating with hopes of improving his basic skills. Even when his parents would take him to Lotte World for some family time, he'd spend the whole day on the ice rink. He would one day be a star too.

When Jaemin turned seven he gained the courage to tell his parents that he wanted to start figure skating. His grades were good enough despite his lack of studying and he didn't have any friends that would miss him so proper training wouldn't affect him much. Money also really wasn't a problem in their household.

Jaemin was excited to share his passion and get his parents full support. Soon he would start working on his personal path towards perfection. His parents had already acknowledged him being good at ice skating so nothing would go wrong.

Unfortunately things didn't go as planned.

After telling his parents, they proceeded to look at him weirdly. They asked a multitude of why's which he expected and was prepared to answer. His parents worried a lot about him since he never made an effort to socialize and make friends. They also didn't want their baby to get hurt but Jaemin was no longer a baby. He was seven and determined to be the best figure skater the world has ever seen. Not only would he be like Huang Renjun, he would be better than him. He'd break so many records and everyone would love him.

His parents immediately crushed his dreams. His mother tried sugarcoating it by saying there were other things Jaemin would do like play an instrument since music wasn't dangerous. She has always worried too much about him. His dad wasn't so nice and bluntly said that figure skating was supposedly gay and would cause other kids to bully him even more.

Jaemin knew they were wrong. Once he started winning others would appreciate how cool he actually was and they would want to be his friend. He'd have so many friends that he would have to schedule seeing them during and outside of school. No one at school would pick on him anymore since they'd all want to be friends with him.

His parents were firm on their decision. Jaemin wasn't a baby anymore but he was still a kid so he cried until tears were no longer capable of falling because his eyes had gotten dry. He had spent a year fantasizing about what his future would look like and it had been ripped away from him with not an ounce of compassion. His smile disappeared entirely which seemed to have alarmed his mom.

After a few weeks, his parents presented the option of having him play hockey. Jaemin had no clue what that was but apparently it involved ice skating and it was hockey or nothing at all so he agreed.

Practice was hard, he was incredibly younger than everyone else and his lack of height made him stand out too much. He hated the sport at first but the other kids were surprisingly kind to him. No one called him names or pulled pranks on him despite the notable age gap.