Chapter 12: Bambi on the ice

“You have to bend your knees!” Chen hollered towards me and I automatically bent my knees as a response. I still had problems standing on the ice without falling on ice like bambi did in the movie. I was a disaster and when the idea struck my head, that I would learn how to skate, I never realized how hard it would be. Now here I was, the second time on the ice and my feet were hurting like hell and I was too afraid to leave the fence.   Chen was standing outside the ice rink holding my camera. Today we decided to visit the ice rink and practise while filming it. I tried not to look too clumsy and made gave Chen a smile towards the camera. “Don’t lose focus or you’ll fall!” He said and I stuck out my tongue. “You should try move a little more on the ice. It’s for your own good.”   I tried to keep in mind how Chen 30 minutes ago had demonstrated for me how to me. “I need to bend my knees…” I bent them. “and keep my position straight.” I raised my upper body without leaning too much back or forward. I was still holding one hand on the fence and the other one was resting by my side. I looked down onto the ice and gulped. Was I ready? No. Did I have a choice? No, not really. I started moving my left foot while pushing my body weight onto the ice. Under me, a skew white curve was forming on the ice and I tried doing the same thing with the other foot.   Even though the tutorial was so clear to my mind it was impossible to make it work on the ice. I had seen Chen skating and knew how to move but when I tried, I kept making mistakes while looking like a fool. Instead of actually gliding on the floor, I started walking clumsy on the ice until a young girl went up to me. She was about six years old and was wearing a purple jacket with matching mittens and scarf in light purple.   “Are you okay?” She asked and I looked into her eyes, surprised that someone even talked to me. “Is it your first time?” She asked another question and I hesitated for a moment.   “Well, yeah…” I said and blushed. It was quite embarrassing that I was a completely opposite of this girl and I was more than double her age.   “I still remember my first time.” She looked up on the roof as if she was trying to recall an old memory. “If you want, I could help you. My name is He-Soon”   “O-okay.” I said without knowing anything else to do. Maybe she could actually help me and that’s better than answering her a “no”.   “I’m just to get you my friends and a chair. Wait here.” Like I had any choice.   After a couplle of minutes she was back with two other girls in the same age. She pushing a chair in front of her before placing it in front me. The other girls looked at me and I smiled towards them.   “You’re probably a bit too tall for the chair but it will help you more than the fence. Just grab the chair here.” She pointed at the back of the chair and I slowly placed my hands there.   “You know how to skate, forming curves with your feet right? It’s way easier now because you hold onto something while trying to push yourself forward. Why don’t you just try it for a second?” She and her friends skated backwards away from me to give me some space. I looked at the chair. Was it really going to help me? Maybe. Or maybe not.   Then again, I took a deep breath and started forming a curve with my left foot while bending my knees. Then I formed a curve with my right while lifting my left foot. I was moving. I was actually moving on the ice! I was so delighted that I lost focus and fell on my and the girl skated towards me to see if I was okay. The last times I had fallen onto the ice I was already by the fence or Chen was close by so I always got help while trying to stand up after falling but now, I was about five meters away from the fence and a little girl was standing next to me. I knew I couldn’t get help from her or I would drag her along onto the ice as well.   “How do I get up?” I asked. The girl smiled and sat down onto the ice. Then she showed me by putting on knee onto the ice while placing her hands next to it. As she had a steady grip she put on of her skates onto the ice, pushed herself up with her hands and then put up her other leg before balancing herself up.   “That’s it?”   “Yup.” So I tried it. It didn’t work. I tried it again and with a lot of effort I was standing on the ice once again. I looked at the girl and thanked her. Ice skating wasn’t so awful after all. I tried skating with the girls for almost an hour before the girls had to leave. I told them I would be going here a lot from now and we all hoped we would be able to see each other again. I was sitting on the bench taking off my skates when Chen arrived with two cups of hot chocolate.   “Did you have fun today?” He asked while I was making a painful face while dragging of the skates. The freedom after taking those of made me lean back onto the wall and I sighed.   “I did. Those girls were so helpful and so ni