❝ figure me out ❞ park sunghoon

-14-

when julie reached the ice rink the next day, she saw sunghoon already standing outside. they went in together. it was pretty chilly inside. they wore the skates. it was julie's first time so sunghoon helped her wear it. julie felt a little disappointed at herself and a little embarrassed.

then they went on the ice. sunghoon was holding julie's two hands as he supported her over the ice. julie felt like she would fall down. she did fall, two times. but it didn't hurt that much, she got up and tried again.

sunghoon smiled a lot, that made julie smile. she was feeling very embarrassed when they started but now she felt relieved. then whenever julie lost her balance, they both laughed. "you're so bad at this." sunghoon said in between laughs, his words didn't hurt, it didn't make julie think less of herself. she felt that sunghoon was happy that she was here, and that felt so good.

they glided over the empty ice together. when julie's hands were in sunghoon's it felt warm in a way, although both their hands were very cold. they were laughing here and there, looking around, holding each other, kind of dancing over the layer of ice. the sound of their blades glading over the ice was sharp, chilly. as they moved, the surface was marked with their blades and the marks shined in the light of the rink. those marks faded as the ice froze again. (a/n: GUYS IDK SHIT ABOUT ICE SKATING IVE NEVER BEEN IN A RINK OKAY?)

and only their laughs were heard and julie thought it could be this way forever. just him and her. as if he knew what she was thinking, he smiled at her. they stared at each other for a little too long. then their one hour was over. and they had to go back.

when they were taking the skates off sunghoon was sitting beside her. "we should come here more often." he said, then smiled. "I really enjoy your company." he didn't say anything else. when they were done, he asked her to come to his house.

"you go in, I have to go to the washroom. I'll be back soon." he said when they were in front of his room door. julie went in. she has seen his room before, she liked this smell so much. on his desk she saw a picture of him and marco, both very young. the marco she saw in the skating competition, she remembered.

Mrs. Park entered with a bowl of cookies at that moment. "they were best friends since childhood. they still are." she said. then stood behind julie. "we have more photos of him in his childhood. wait I... it should be here..." then she started to look through sunghoon's drawers frantically, but couldn't find anything. "I will show you later." She said, then paused. "it was a good decision to invite your family over to our house for a dinner. I see you two are getting along well. " she smiled. she told her to sit and eat the cookies and left the room.

but when sunghoon's mom opened the third drawer, julie thought she saw something. she nervously opened the drawer again. and there it was, her rubber band, a note filled with gibberish in her handwriting, the wilted flowers julie remembered giving him last year, tulips, pink ones. and the key chain she gave him for his 8th birthday. and so much more. the whole drawer was filled with things related to julie, and all of them were here, tucked in the best way possible, in his desk, in the third drawer. it felt like someone really took care of these things. julie put his hands on over her mouth. she didn't know what to think. she quickly closed the drawer. footsteps of sunghoon could be heard. tears were forming in her eyes but she quickly wiped them away.