“But hyung, I can’t do it!”

“That’s the worst kind of attitude to have Minki.”

Minki pouts as Aron drags him by the wrist over to the counter. “You don’t understand. I actually can’t do it.”

“You can ice skate,” points out Aron casually, turning to the person behind the counter with a smile. “Hello, may I have two pairs please? One size nine and the other…hmm…size five?”

“My feet are not that small,” scowls Minki. Aron just chuckles and looks back at the teenage girl watching them with a raised eyebrow.

“Size nine and seven then.”

“Of course,” she responds going back to the shelves and shuffling through. Minki sighs, realizing now there’s no way out of it.

“You’re going to help me, right hyung?”

Aron nods, ruffling the younger’s hair. “Of course. What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t?”

“The good kind of friend who wouldn’t force me into it in the first place,” mumbles Minki as the girl comes back with two pairs of roller skates.

She plops them on the counter. “Here you go. Enjoy.”

Aron thanks her before handing one pair to Minki and starting towards one of the benches surrounding the rink. Sighing, Minki follows him.

“How are you even supposed to put this on?” he grumbles, holding it up confusedly. Aron looks at him with a raised eyebrow.

“How old are you?”

“I’m serious hyung! I’ve never gone roller skating before!”

“But you’ve been ice skating.”

“That’s different.”

“It’s really not. Here, I’ll do it.” Done with tying his own skates, Aron kneels down in front of the younger and starts to lace up his skates as if he’s a kid.

“Are these easier?” asks Minki, noticing a lot of the other people on the floor are wearing skates different from his. “They don’t have as many wheels.”

“They’re easier to turn with,” explains Aron, “and they’re more similar to ice skates, which I thought would be easier for you.”

“Oh. Thanks hyung.”

“Here you are.” Aron finishes up the last knot and stands up, waiting for the blond to rise as well. Minki does, a little wobbly at first.

“It’s not that bad,” he comments after taking a few steps forward.

“It’s easier on carpet though,” says Aron and Minki sticks his tongue out at the elder.

“Just when I was thinking I could actually do this.”

“You can Minki. Come on and let’s just skate already.” Aron grabs Minki’s hand and pulls him towards the rink, the younger letting out squeaks with every step.

It is easier on the carpet but Minki still feels incredibly off balance. He tries not to bump into anyone but with Aron tugging him along, it’s harder than he would have thought.

“There’s a step,” he says meekly when they arrive at the rink entrance.

Aron’s mouth quirks. “And?”

“If I can barely walk, how am I supposed to go down a step?” Minki puts his hands on his hips and raises his eyebrows.

“I’ll help you. It’s not that bad. Honestly Minki, you’re such a child.” Aron shakes his head, letting the blond grab tightly to his hands as he goes down the single step, putting one foot on the floor hesitantly. His grip becomes tighter as he puts the other on, feeling like he’s going to fall on his face.

“See? It wasn’t that bad.”

“Hyung!” Minki squeaks when Aron let’s go of his hands.

“It’s worse to hold on to people because then they’ll pull you down,” Aron explains patiently to the teenager. “Make sure to fall forward, never fall backward. Keep your knees slightly bent. Don’t take steps, try to scoot. And then I think you’ll be good.”

“Wait  hyung!”

But Aron has already started to skate away, leaving the blond near the entrance. If he wasn’t wearing skates, Minki would have stomped his foot in frustration. But that would just make it even harder for him to keep his balance. It’s okay just standing there but once he actually has to move…

“There’s not even a wall or anything,” he mutters to himself, seeing there’s no place for him to hang on to for just a little bit.

Puffing his cheeks out, he tries to remember all Aron had told him before he waltzed off. Some best friend.

He can’t even call out to Aron who is on the other side of the floor already. It’s too loud, with the music they’re blaring over the speakers and the cries of children and Aron’s too far away to do him any good now.

“Aron hyung,” he whines, even if the other obviously can’t hear him. Pouting, Minki takes a step forward, arms flailing a bit to keep his balance. He takes another step, and then another, each one as shaky as the last.

“What am I supposed to do?” he mumbles under his breath, looking around but not wanting to seep desperate. He tries to remember what Aron told him, about keeping slightly forward and having knees bent. He’s sure he looks ridiculous but he doesn’t really care, just wanting to get it over with.

He balances most of his weight on his right foot, pushing off with his left and he keeps his arms out a little to make sure he doesn’t fall. It works better than he thought it would, although he’s moving incredibly slow.

If they can do it, so can you Minki, he tells himself as three children skate past him, looking about six or seven. Of course, it does do blows to his self esteem.

Pushing his bangs out of his eyes, he continues at his own steady pace of pushing and rolling, surprised to find he isn’t feeling as wobbly as he once did.

He might even go to say that it’s fun.

“I told you, didn’t I?” Aron says, coming up behind him with a smirk on his face. “This is why you listen to your hyung.”

“I do listen to you,” protests Minki, looking up at the elder. That’s not the smartest move on his part.

With his attention now on Aron instead of looking where he was going, his mind seems to have forgotten to keep balanced and he turns his head just in time to run into someone.

His face slams into their chest and even though he knows it’s not the smartest thing to do, it’s instinctive to try and remain upright by flailing his arms. So that’s what he does.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work out too well and he can feel himself falling, falling…he closes his eyes, waiting for the harsh impact.

But it doesn’t come.

Surprised, he opens them to find the person he crashed into smiling down on him. Minki’s lying on the floor but it didn’t hurt at all. He barely felt it.

He realizes slowly that the man’s hand is cupped around the back of his head, preventing it from hitting the ground and the other arm is wound around Minki’s waist, still keeping him safe.

Minki thinks he forgot how to breathe.

“Are you okay?” the man asks, his gentle smile still in place. All Minki can do is blink up at him, the question rebounding through his brain.

All he really feels is overwhelming embarrassment but he can’t quite make the words get from his brain to his mouth.

“I’m sorry, he’s never done this before,” Aron intervenes, having seen the whole thing and almost laughed out loud right then. But he is holding it in, just barely. All he can do is grin widely. “Are you okay Minki?”

“Yeah…” Minki finally manages to say, letting the man help him back up. He doesn’t know if he’ll be able to stand though, his legs feeling even shakier than they were before.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” the man asks, still keeping a hold on Minki’s wrist. “I can check if you are.”

For the first time, Minki notices that he’s wearing an employee shirt. Even more embarrassing. He takes a closer look and sees the nametag that reads JR. Huh.

“No, that’s okay. I’m fine,” stutters out Minki. “I’m sorry for making you fall and everything, really.”

JR waves it off. “Don’t worry about it. Since it’s someone as cute as you, I don’t mind.” He winks.

Minki feels his cheeks heat. Aron has to bite his lip hard to keep from snorting.

“Th-thanks,” says Minki, unsure of what else to say. He tucks some blond hair behind his ear. It must have fallen out of his ponytail when he fell.

“I’m JR. And you?” JR sticks his hand out for Minki to shake. “I feel we should be properly introduced.”

“Minki,” answers the other, taking JR’s hand hesitantly. “Again, I’m really sorry. I’m not very good at this-obviously, I mean who does that-but I didn’t mean to and-”

“I already told you not to worry about it,” JR interrupts, an easy smile on his face. Minki immediately closes his mouth.

Seeing how the two are obviously into each other, Aron starts to back away. “Well, seeing as you’re fine Minki, I guess I’ll leave you now.”

“Hyung-”

But Aron only winks at Minki before gliding away, leaving the two in the middle of the floor surrounded by others hurriedly skating past them.

Minki turns back to JR shyly, biting his lip when he sees how JR looks casual and happy-complete opposite of what the younger is feeling right now.

“Since you ran into me, I think you should treat.”

Minki’s lost. “Huh?”

“Treat? You know, as in buy the food?”

“Are you asking me out?”

JR’s mouth quirks. “What if I was? Would you tell me to stop?”

Minki pauses. “Well…no.”

“Good.” JR grins and takes Minki’s hand, gently pulling him along. Minki’s grip tightens subconsciously, not wanting to fall and JR’s smile grows wider. “Then maybe I can first teach you how to skate. You should know if we’re going to be doing it a lot.”

Minki raises an eyebrow, still trying to focus on keeping his balance and on JR’s words and neither are working out too well for him now. “What? What do you mean?”

JR laughs. “Well you’ll be visiting me at work a lot, right? And I’ll probably let you skate for free a lot of the time.”

“Aren’t you taking things a little too fast?” Minki is bewildered. Didn’t they just meet?

“Maybe. Are you going to refuse it though?”

Minki snorts, his mind now wholly preoccupied with JR’s suggestions. He’s not even focusing on skating anymore. “You haven’t really given me any reasons to, no.”

“That’s what I thought.”

“But I don’t even know you.”

“Does that really matter? After all, you were the one who bumped into me.”

“It was an accident.”

“You don’t seem to be regretting it very much.”

“I’m not.”

“Good job skating by the way.”

“Huh?”

JR gestures around them and Minki realizes they’ve just skated around the whole floor, still holding hands and he hadn’t fallen once. He didn’t think that was even possible.

“You can I take that as a yes?” JR winks again and Minki feels butterflies take flight in his stomach as he smiles.

“Only if we go one more time.”

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A/N: I hope you all enjoyed and if it's not too much trouble, leave a comment below. Thanks! :)