Chapter 1
Call Me BabyThe jacket was new. Purchased on Chanyeol’s last trip to Japan in the Shibuya store with his best friend Kyungsoo. It was white with a black stripe across the chest with the standard Supreme logo in the left corner. Kyungsoo had said he was crazy for buying it, but Chanyeol didn’t care. From the moment, he saw it in the store he envisioned Byun Baekhyun wearing it proudly and it fitting him perfectly.
Chanyeol smiled at the jacket clutched in his gloved hands. This was the moment he had been waiting for. Byun Baekhyun, Korea’s figure skating champion and recent Grand Prix Gold Medalist, had finally taken the ice for his free skate in the Korean Nationals, and Chanyeol was there to watch. He had watched Baekhyun skate a nearly perfect short program the day before and he was excited to see what changes the skater had made to his free skate routine since the Grand Prix Finals.
The crowd chanted Baekhyun’s name, Chanyeol’s voice mixing in with the others, filling the stadium and then the music began, soft at first, the same notes repeating over and over, building to a beautiful crescendo. Baekhyun moved backward, slowly, making sure that every movement was tied to the music, his arms gracefully moving alongside him. He gradually picked up speed and just as the lyrics began, Baekhyun landed the first triple Salchow of his program perfectly.
Chanyeol yelped in excitement, the smile on his face stretching further as he watched Baekhyun pick up speed, hit his triple Flip-triple Salchow combination, and then glide beautifully into an Ina Bauer to start his step sequence.
The entirety of Baekhyun’s program was only four minutes and ten seconds; and in those four minutes and ten seconds, from the very first moment Baekhyun had taken the ice to the moment he landed his last triple axel, Chanyeol was mesmerized. As Baekhyun finally came to rest on the ice in his final pose, arms wrapped around himself with his head toward the ceiling, Chanyeol was on his feet clapping and cheering as loudly as he could, tears welling in the corners of his eyes. He had seen Baekhyun’s routine in person before, at the NHK Trophy earlier this year, but he still loved every breathtaking moment of it.
“Well, now’s your chance,” Sehun, the only friend he could convince to go with him to the competition, said. Kyungsoo had managed to schedule work shifts for himself every weekend of the entire Grand Prix series, forcing Chanyeol to watch the series by himself. “Seems like everyone is throwing presents.”
“That’s what you do,” Chanyeol replied.
They weren’t particularly far away from the ice, seeing as Chanyeol had sprung for the more expensive seats, only a few rows, so he was confident that the jacket would land. He threw the jacket and watched it settle on the ice among the other various stuffed plushes and flowers other fans brought along for their favorite skater. The scene so familiar to him from years of watching his sister, Yoora, skate at competitions.
He watched as the sweepers skated around and collected the accouterments while Baekhyun made his way to the kiss and cry for his score, ignoring almost everything thrown including the jacket, which had landed almost directly in Baekhyun’s exit path.
“You’re ridiculous,” Sehun said, but Chanyeol ignored him in favor of watching Baekhyun in the kiss and cry, hugging a giant flying squirrel plushie, the only thing he had managed to grab himself on his way off of the ice.
Baekhyun smiled while his coach, Kim Joonmyun, sat on one side of him scanning the crowd, arms crossed over his chest, a rather neutral expression on his face. On Baekhyun’s other side was Kim Jongdae and his enthusiastic smile, who always accompanied Baekhyun to competitions. Chanyeol watched as Baekhyun’s knee bounced, a nervous tick Baekhyun always had in the kiss and cry, and Jongdae placed a hand on Baekhyun’s knee to calm him. Chanyeol felt his own heart picking up pace as he watched the scene and awaited the score. And then, within minutes, a booming voice announced over the intercom, “Free Skate score for Baekhyun Byun representing the Republic of Korea. The free skate score, please. He has earned 218.45. That brings his total score to 304.25.”
Chanyeol took to his feet, cheering as loudly as he could, watching as Jongdae pulled Baekhyun in for a huge hug and Joonmyun patted him on the shoulder, a toothy smile overtaking the neutral expression. Baekhyun covered his face in happiness, a smile radiating across his whole face even though he tried to hide it.
“I take it he did well?” Sehun said.
“Yes,” Chanyeol responded. “He won. He takes the gold.”
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