Rank One (Park Sunghoon FF)

26

As promised, that Saturday, Juna showed up at Sunghoon's figure skating competition. She told her parents that she would be studying for an upcoming exam at the library, which was a complete lie. But she studied so much that they didn't really doubt her anymore.

Getting off the bus, she looked around for the entrance. It was easy to spot since groups of people were flowing into the property all at once. Looking around, suddenly saw Niki, who was hard to miss because of how tall he was. 

Rolling her eyes at his height with jealousy, she walked over to him and tapped his shoulder from behind. He jumped a bit and looked down to where Juna was. She could only dream of being as tall as him; the younger boy was almost three heads taller than her.

"Oh, Juna!" He broke into a smile. "I'm glad you could make it."

Juna nodded, rubbing her hands together to warm them up. "Me too. Hopefully, Sunghoon will find it in him to forgive me."

Niki shook his head, a grin making its way onto his face. "I'm sure he already has. You didn't do anything wrong, anyways."

"Still. He thinks I used to hate him."

"That doesn't matter. You like him now, don't you?"

Juna only hummed since she didn't know if Niki meant like as a friend or like-like. And she didn't even know herself. She dropped the topic, deciding that it was too complicated to think about. "Do you know what order they perform in?"

"Well I think he's one of the first since he usually only participates in singles skating," Niki said while gesturing for Juna to follow him through the crowd just for them to stop right in front of the door at the end of a ticket line. "And they like to put him first, too since he's so good."

Juna nodded as she perceived the information. "He normally wins, right?"

"Yeah. There's basically no point in competing after the Park Sunghoon. Everyone knows he'd win no matter how well they do."

Juna chuckled, a bit jealous about how good he was at everything he did. Why was the ability in his blood but not hers?

"By the way, where are the others?" Juna asked, referring to the EN-Princes.

"Hmm, let me think. Sunoo's at his grandparents' house, Jungwon has a shift at the animal shelter, Jay and Jake are probably just late and Heeseung..." Niki sucked in a breath and looked over at Juna guiltily, but she only nodded for him to go on, subconsciously still caring about her former best friend. "The thing is...after you left to find Sunghoon that day, I heard he broke it off with everyone. Like there was a big fight. I think Jay even managed to get a few punches in."

Juna covered her mouth. This is all my fault?

"But it was between him and I. You guys didn't do anything wrong. Why would that affect his relationship with all of you?" 

Niki shrugged. "I guess he was just mad about what happened and took it out on the guys and Jay wasn't having it. But yeah, he left the group chat and everything. I haven't talked to him since."

Suddenly, a pair of arms slung onto both Niki and Juna's shoulders, causing the duo to yelp in surprise. It was Park Jay, who had to stifle his laugh at their reactions.

"Serious conversation?" Jay guessed, his hands still around the two. "Let me guess. It's about drama queen, Heeseung."

"Bingo." Niki clicked his tongue and Jay chuckled, pressing his head to Juna's shoulder, causing her to slightly pull away.

"You punched him?" Juna asked as she gently removed Jay's arm who didn't seem to mind since he was used to Juna being somewhat uncomfortable by his touchiness.

Jay grinned proudly. "Yeah, I did. Honestly, he deserved it. Don't worry, his handsome face wasn't completely bashed."

"What did he say after we left?" Juna said as her curiosity got the best of her.

"Just some petty words to us. He didn't mention you at all."

That silenced Juna as she furrowed her brows, trying to process what Jay said. Despite Heeseung being her childhood best friend of thirteen years, she felt like she couldn't understand him at all. He was all over the place ever since he confessed his feelings to her - she felt like she didn't know him at all.

"Where's Jake?" Juna heard Niki ask.

"Looking for parking. I left him to rot alone." Jay replied, ruffling Niki's hair unconsciously.

Niki smacked the older's hand. "Remind me to never drive you anywhere once I get my license."

"What?! No fair..." Jay whined. "Jake definitely wouldn't drive me again after this."

"Serves you right."

Jay groaned and rolled his eyes. "Come on, who's going to take me on dates?"

"Walk." Juna joined the conversation once she had decided that she was done thinking about Heeseung; she didn't want her head to hurt anymore. "By the way, who's your new girlfriend again?"

"He has a new one already?!" Niki chocked. "How come Juna knows this but I don't? Who is she even?"

Jay flashed a smirk. "Choi Hwayoung. She goes to Yonsei-"

"She's a college student?!" Niki was suffocating at this point.

Jay snorted. "She's only a freshman, don't worry. We're like one and half years apart."

"Hey, Jay, can I ask...what the fuck is wrong with you?" Niki spat in disgust. "You're making my goosebumps rise."

"What's so wrong with it? I'm 18. It's legal." Jay shrugged it off. "And this thing probably won't even last that long anyways..."

And that was the end of that conversation.

-

Soon after the three got their seats in the fourth row, Jake finally joined them while complaining about how there was no space left in the parking lot so he had to park on a random curb. Juna barely paid attention to his story since she was busy observing banners with Sunghoon's face plastered on them everywhere. She guessed it was because of how good-looking he was and was the best advocate if they wanted female fans to come. Juna couldn't even deny how good he looked on those banners - and the big screen, where he would pop up once in a while.

"Staring hard, aren't you?" Niki teased, flicking Juna's forehead which snapped her back to real life.

"Hey! I'm older than you!" Juna rubbed her forehead with a frown on her face as she turned back to where the rink was. All the guests were filling up the seats quickly and they were nearing the start time.

Niki leaned close to her ear and laughed a bit before whispering, "He's handsome, isn't he?"

Juna couldn't even say he wasn't.

Soon, Niki eventually stopped teasing when she stopped giving him the reactions he wanted. The next time Niki spoke up was when he almost choked on his water at something he saw. "What the hell?!"

Jay smacked the boy's head, not caring about why he was freaking out. "You're too young to use that word."

Jake rolled his eyes in return. "As if you didn't curse everyone out at his age."

Niki shushed them both with a flick of his finger. "Look!"

The older three moved their eyes towards where Niki was pointing. The big screen was now showing a behind-the-stage clip and it was showing Sunghoon getting his makeup done. Juna found nothing particularly weird about it so she turned back to Niki, thinking that he was just teasing her about how handsome Sunghoon was again, but Niki slapped her arm, silently telling her to look back.

Juna's eyes widened when she saw Sunghoon's laughing face - the one he would only show around her - as his makeup artist accidentally smeared his lip tint so she used her finger to wipe it off from the corner of his mouth, letting her thumb linger a bit longer than necessary. Just then, the camera tilted upwards and Juna shot straight up seeing who the makeup artist was.

Jang Boram.

-

"Just how messed up can everything get?"

Ahn Juna