Ice Cold- Park Sunghoon

six

Just like that three weeks passed. Soojin was nowhere near the level Sunghoon wanted her on, but she was starting to get the hang of it.  After knowing most of the basic skills, Sunghoon wanted to take their practice to the next level. But the girl seemed distant today. 

"Focus please", he reminded her in a strict tone. Soojin just kept on staring at the clock, not moving an inch after his plea. He didn't like being ignored but something was off so he tried not to be too harsh. 

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, trying his best to smile at the girl in front of him. It was weird for him, normally Sunghoon never cared for someone other than himself. 

I'm only doing this so we can practice 

It was strange that he needed to remind himself of that, usually, that was pretty obvious to him and didn't need to be mentioned, not even in his deepest thoughts. The idea didn't even cross his mind once. So why now?

"I'm meeting Jiyoo in about an hour", the girl finally confessed, too scared to look at her trainer throughout the conversation. "Why now? You could've met up later or something", he sighed. He wanted to start with the jumps today. 

"I mean. She didn't talk to me for the last weeks, so I was really surprised to receive a message today. It just said a time and a place, so I have to go. I just want my best friend back, you know?"

"Oh, I didn't know that", he somewhat apologized for his behaviour, looking down as well. He felt bad for Soojin. She not only had a lot of stress with the homework she needed to do outside of school since she didn't go for the past few weeks, but she also struggled in her social life and Sunghoon was basically the cause of that. 

"How could you? You don't care for me or anyone else except for you anyway", she laughed bitterly before skating away. Maybe that was a little harsh on the boy, but he needed to understand that she also had a life outside of their practice sessions. That she had shit to do and people to care about. 

So Sunghoon was just left there, on the ice, repeating the sentence in his head over and over again. At first, he wanted to get angry at her, who was she to tell him that? She didn't know him. But then he realized that she was right. The more he thought about it, the more it fucked him up- hurt him. On a level, where not one injury he had while figure skating, could come close to.

And seconds later, he felt something weird on his cheeks. He was crying. 

Why did those words hurt him to the point he was crying? He never cried. Not when he hurt his knee two years ago, not when he lost in a competition, not when his family abandoned him. Why now? 

He didn't know. Sunghoon felt lost. So he did the only thing he knew would make him feel like home. Skate. 

*

Soojin was way too early. To be exact, over thirty minutes too early. But she still felt like it wasn't enough time to prepare for the conversation she was going to have. Maybe she should write herself notes so she wouldn't forget anything? No, her apology needed to come straight from her heart. At least she thought it needed to be like that. Soojin never really had something to sincerely apologize for, at least nothing this severe. 

She once broke a vase and blamed it on the cat they once had. She later apologized for lying to her parents, because she couldn't take the guilt anymore. But that was about it. 

The girl tried to contact her best friend many times over the last three weeks, but she was always left on read or straight-up ignored when she showed up at her house. It hurt but she knew she deserved it. 

"Hey", a slight whisper appeared, the owner of it silently sitting down in front of her. The cafe was comfortable and luckily quite empty, so they had enough privacy to talk everything out without random people listening. 

"Hey", Soojin whispered back, mustering her best friend. She changed a little. Her eyes were a little sunk in, her hair was messy and her eyebrows weren't done for a while. And still, Jiyoo was beautiful. There was no other word to describe her. Soojin had always admired her. Not only for her looks of course, but they were a huge bonus. 

Maybe it was a little more than admiration. 

"I don't really know how to start this", Jiyoo admitted, smiling softly after analysing her best friend's features. "Then don't. I need to do that anyway. I'm so sorry Jiji. You know how much I love you. I regret that day more than anything, I wanted to go search for you but Sunghoon and I had this meeting with the director. I wanted to find you afterwards but Sunghoon didn't want that and-"

"Just stop talking to Sunghoon then, why does every conversation we're having always end up with him? Why is everything always about him?", Jiyoo asked bitterly

Soojin didn't know an answer to that. Did she talk about him that much? Was she obsessed or did she just... like him? Was it that? Did Soojin like Park Sunghoon, the biggest asshole to ever exist on this planet? The boy that constantly criticized her?  That put her down so he could feel better about himself? Was she really that pathetic?

"I-I can't stop, the whole skating thing-" 

"STOP! It's not about skating anymore, isn't it?" Jiyoo had enough, enough of her best friend choosing that random guy over her. They were best friends for ages. Maybe that's the only thing they would ever be. Friends. But she wanted to hear it from Soojin.

"I think I like him", she whispered, not wanting to actually admit it. 

"Okay. Then I think we're done here. See you at the competition Yang Soojin."

And while Jiyoo stood up and left the cafe, the first tears where flowing out of Soojin's brown eyes, hitting the wooden table shortly after.  

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