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To ensure that I wasn't late for rehearsals again, I left my hotel early and ended up at the arena 2 hours before the scheduled time.
"언니 (unni), I'm hungry! Let's eat," Sori whines. My stomach grumbles at the mention of food.
"We don't have time to go all the way back," I point out. "Let's just eat at the village, I'm sure they won't mind," she suggests.
While I don't think the athletes who have trained their entire lives to be here would enjoy Sori and I walking in there and eating the food, I can't bring myself to suggest an alternative plan. "Let's go," I say, causing Sori to clap as we begin to walk towards the village.
"I hope we see Evgenia Medvedeva! I want to meet her so badly," Sori says. "Who do you want to see?"
My immediate answer is Nathan, but I don't say that aloud for 2 reasons: Sori will tease me for days and I honestly don't know why I want to see him so badly.
"Umm...I'd like to meet Chloe Kim," I say. Not a complete lie, as I would love to meet the Korean-American snowboarder.
Sori throws me a look that tells me she knows I'm hiding something, but she says nothing as the village comes into sight. As soon as we smell the food coming from the building, Sori grabs my hand and begins running.
"Slow down, I'm tired," I complain as I try to keep up with my sister. "We can slow down once we're inside," she says.
I push the doors open, and the scent of food greets me. They have everything: Korean, American, Italian, vegetarian - you name it, they have it. It's honestly what I imagine heaven looking like.
After making sure that it's okay that we eat here, Sori and I begin searching for what we want to stuff our faces with.
"Is that Lee Hani?"
At the mention of my name, I turn around to find a blonde girl and brunette boy looking over at me. I don't recognize the two teenagers, but I believe they're from New Zealand. Once they realize I'm looking at them, they quickly avert their gazes.
"I was hoping nobody would recognize me," I say quietly as Sori puts some fries on a plate. "Oh my God, of course they're going to recognize you, Hani. Everybody knows you're performing at the closing ceremony," Sori laughs.
We sit down at an empty table near the middle of the cafeteria, and I do my best to ignore the whispers of my name coming from surrounding tables.
"Hani?"
I look up to see Nathan, Adam, and Mirai Nagasu. "Hey Nathan," I smile. "Hi Adam, Mirai."
"What are you two doing here?" he asks. "Oh, I got here early for rehearsal, and we were really hungry," I explain.
Nathan nods, smiling. We both hold eye contact for a second before quickly looking down, a blush covering my cheeks.
"Well, I see 3 empty seats here that have our names on them," Adam says. "May we join you after we get our food?"
"Of course," I say. Mirai removes her bag from her shoulder before turning to Sori. "May I sit next to you?" she asks.
Sori nods enthusiastically, pulling the chair out. "Yeah, for sure!" she says, mouth full of food. She swallows before pointing to the chair next to me. "And Nathan, you can sit there."
I can feel my cheeks turning redder than before as Nathan pulls out the chair, setting his jacket on it before walking away.
"You're welcome," Sori says.
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The rest of lunch is uneventful as we talk about the ice dance competition that's happening tomorrow and as I give as much information as I'm allowed regarding the ceremony.
"Hani, we better go. It's 4:30," Sori says. "Oh, yeah, we should," I say, grabbing my bag.
"It was so nice seeing all of you, I hope we can do this again!" I say to the three skaters. They nod in agreement, bidding us goodbye.
We've barely made it out of the doors when I hear someone calling my name. I turn around to see Nathan jogging towards me.
"Hey, uh...I was just wondering if I could get your number, maybe?" he says shyly. "I would love to talk to you more."
"Yeah, I would love that," I say, pulling my phone out and unlocking it. Nathan does the same as we exchange numbers.
"I'll talk to you later, yeah?" Nathan asks. I nod, waving as I run to catch up with Sori.
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I stare at my phone, the words No Notifications mocking me.
"He'll text, calm down," my mom says from the desk on the other side of our hotel room.
"How did you know-"
"Sori told me. She's planning your wedding as we speak."
Another hour passes before I eventually give up. "I'm going to go shower," I inform my mother and sister as I make my way to the bathroom.
Just as I'm washing the shampoo out of my hair, a ding interrupts me halfway through Bboom Bboom by Momoland.
