"you don't understand. i need this. i need to win. without the gold, i am worthless."
when luna bakken, scandinavian's sweetheart, crosses paths with nathan chen, america's quad king, everything seems to change
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THREE || who are you, really?
Luna had only been in Pyeongchang for almost two days and she was already finding herself feeling homesick. Maybe she missed the weather of Norway or maybe she just missed not having huge amounts of pressure on her shoulders. She wasn't exactly sure. All she knew was that she missed home.
Aksel assured her that what she was feeling was completely normal and it was as a result of the fact that she never had been this far away from her home country before.
She had trouble adjusting to the time change as well. When it was night fall in South Korea, it was mid-afternoon in Norway. Needless to say, she hadn't gotten much sleep since arriving and it was easy to tell.
A yawn escaped her lips as all the athletes were ushered toward the dining area after the introduction ceremony. Over 2,500 athletes from various countries all had to stand up on stage and be introduced to everyone in attendance. Luna would be lying if she said that she didn't fall asleep on Aksel's shoulder until her name was called.
It was now almost ten at night and all the athletes were just now about to eat dinner. Much to the blonde's surprise, Luna didn't feel that hungry. All she wanted to do was go to sleep.
"Hey, Hedwig?" she said, grabbing ahold of her roommate's arm as weaved through the crowd of people. "I think I'm going to go to our room."
The red-headed girl furrowed her eyebrows with concern. "Are you feeling okay?"
Luna gave a weak smile. "You know Aksel's rules. In bed by eleven."
She loved Hedwig dearly, but she didn't want to admit how overwhelmed and scared she was to compete and how that was draining her mentally. During the entire Olympic introduction ceremony, multiple athletes; some Luna knew, some she didn't, approached her and wished her luck. Everyone seemed to know her name and were hoping that she made Norway proud.
That just made Luna feel extremely pressured and nervous. What would happen if she failed? What would happen if she didn't medal? Not only would her entire country be disappointed, so would Aksel, her mother, and at the current rate, the whole world.
Luna could imagine the headlines now as she started down the hallway toward the elevator.
Luna Bakken, the Scandinavian sweetheart, falls short in first Olympic debut.
She wouldn't be able to recover from that. A failure that extreme would cause her to put away her skis forever.
A familiar voice pulled Luna out of her thoughts while also causing her blood to run cold.
