CHAPTER 2 - Malibu

Totally ed up.

The first thing Minjoo noticed was that this morning, not like usual, she got out of bed a little faster. Instead of scraping all the precious minutes between the first and last alarm, she jumped into her flip-flops and headed for the bathroom. True to her quaint, proud and assumed 'one of the boys' appearance, she would never do much to her hair since they were hidden under a hood, cap or beanie. Today, however, the hockey player took out all the hair care products in the bathroom shared with the room next door. Given the time, everyone else was still sleeping as she would have the morning before, so she allowed herself to take her time.

Curling her hair, something she'd done very few times since getting a curtain bangs cut, she managed to provide it a polished look. She added a lot of perfume, made her curls prettier at the tips and spent a few more minutes taking care of her skin. There was mascara lying around, and she figured her roommates wouldn't mind if she borrowed some. Just as she was putting her toothbrush away, one of the girls in the adjacent room knocked on the door. The poor gymnast was about to get intoxicated by the overpowering smell of Jo Malone.

Yena, was already up and, like a good roommate, had taken out two bananas from the unused desk they were using as a table. She also noticed right away the meticulous attention Minjoo paid to her hair that day, and she made sure to point it out, receiving nothing but a groan in response.

As for clothes, Minjoo put on one of her oversized shirts with the school badges on her chest. The men's shirt made her look decontracted rather than serious, and to balance that, she tied the uniform tie. Minjoo was tall, well, not too short, so she put on a pair of baggy black jeans that looked good with the Nike wind tracker that replaced her uniform jacket. Yena, having made no more effort than usual, did not fail to once again. But she didn't know why, or at least she didn't suspect it. Besides, even Minjoo didn't really understand either. In fact, she wasn't trying to figure out what her subconscious was telling her as she prepared herself as if she wanted to bump into Kim Chaewon in a hallway.

It was comical, in a way, how overnight she wondered which dorm the skater was in. Yena had a crush everywhere. About one in their building’s cafeteria, one in every other dorm, two in her class (three, depending on her mood), one in her science class and several thousand more. Everywhere but in her own room, though. So she never really wondered where her rink crush was during the day. For a fact, conceivably Kim Chaewon was from dorm one or two, at the other side of the school.

"You smell good today," Yena rightly remarked as they entered the elevator.

"I stink on the daily?" Leaning with her head against the elevator's mirror, Minjoo glanced at her roommate and teammate, grinning.

"Oh please," the older girl backed away exaggeratedly, a hand over her heart. "Don't ever look at me like that again."

"Or what?" The player smirked a little wider. Sure, she'd been friend-zoned several times by Yena already, but that didn't mean she couldn’t still try from time to time. And still, it was a funny game between them at this point.

"Shut up, swiper," Yena walked back to her as several other people entered the elevator with grumpy morning faces.

Therefore, without really realising it, the first thing Minjoo did as she entered the cafeteria was to scan the room, looking haphazardly for pink hair, to no avail. Perhaps she was upstairs? There was only one way to find out.

"Jiung told me they were upstairs," Minjoo gave as an excuse, already heading for the dark grey stairs. At this point, she wasn't really thinking anymore. Only her subconscious was acting, and she didn't try to explain the small jump her heart made when she spotted Yu Jimin and her friends at an already full table, with no sign of the pink-haired skater. , just the anticipation of seeing her had made Minjoo feel a little something. "Actually, you were right."

"Are you serious," Yena sighed, this time taking the first step down the stairs. And throughout breakfast, Minjoo couldn't help but maintain her eyes glued to the entry where students were arriving with their metal trays and school bags, some in casual clothes, most in uniforms and sport suits. But she wasn’t there.

-

The morning's lessons went by disconcertingly slowly. To begin with, Minjoo's maths teacher had spent minutes berating them about their lack of efficiency in class, as he habitually did. Then the man had complained that he had lost time, as he did every lesson. Next, in an impatient mood, the Korean teacher gave them an essay they started in class to finish for the next day.

When it was finally time to eat, Minjoo was happy to meet the guys in the cafeteria. Yena was already there while Seohan and Ryujin joined them a little later, coming out of a long English class. The fascinating thing about this sort of school was the incredible diversity of people. Intak and Daehyeon, for example, came from the South, Seohan from Daegu and Jaehyuk from ten years in Canada. Some liked to go out, others played video games, they didn't listen to the same music or watched the tv shows. They all lived different lives, but they were a team. More than friends, like a real winning family.

As for Kim Chaewon, Minjoo hadn't thought about it for a while since the beginning of classes. That is until they went downstairs and out directly onto a schoolyard. There she was, at a table of four, with Hwang Hyunjin. They were both laughing, and Minjoo almost resented the fact that her heart went '!' at the sight of her. At least now she knew Kim Chaewon was eating at Self A.

-

"Three minutes to go!" Shouted Cocho, hands on his hips, walking back and forth in front of the asphalt bleachers. Complaints echoed from all sides as his team looped down and up the stands with long steps. The first one to stop would get an extra minute, and apart from Daehyeon, no one wanted to suffer the consequences of a short break.

With her calves burning and grimacing with fatigue, Minjoo began to climb the steps she had just finished descending. If it wasn't for Kim Chaewon's charming eyes and Kwon Eunbi's kindness, she would have gone straight to their dorm with Yena after that cruel physical practice.

She still had an hour before the skater's practice, and as soon as she got back to the main rink after a shower, she took her revenge on the bleachers by slouching on them. Without missing a beat, she took out her essay, a pencil, a textbook and started working again. The more she did there, the less she would have when going back to her dorm. The work required was demanding, although they were in a particular high school. The educational level was significant, and academically speaking, Haneulae Training Centre  was among the best high schools in Seoul. Anyway, that didn't make this essay on the conditions of Koreans in Uzbekistan any more interesting for her.

In any case, inspiration came pretty readily to her. Minjoo radically preferred literary subjects to scientific ones, and she was doing quite well in this class. Naturally, she preferred discovering and studying things to her liking and speed rather than being forced to follow a strict curriculum. But it allowed her to maintain a decent average, correcting the deficiency maths and physics were causing her.

Headphones in her ears, she jumped as she received, for the umpteenth time, a hit on the head. It was a small blank slate this time; Viderski was innovating.

"Is that an hour to work, young lady?" she scolded, her wrinkled blue eyes glaring at the girl who didn't even conceal her annoyed eyes-roll.

"It's due tomorrow," she sighed, once again having to find excuses.

"Shouldn't you be warming up instead?" Viderski stamped her foot against the floor, and if Minjoo wasn't so bothered by her presence during these few minutes of respite, perhaps she would have found it funny. She looked a bit like the wicked witches or annoying mother in law in cartoons.

"I just finished practice," she defended herself, abandoning the strategy of pretending she couldn't divert her attention from her paper. Viderski didn't seem intent on leaving, and once again, the old lady would rather throw her sourness at her than go about her business, which was probably less interesting than pissing off everyone who came by the rink.

"Fine," said the senior woman dismissively. "What is your shoe size?"

The old Russian coach nodded and disappeared as quietly as she appeared. True, Minjoo had forgotten that detail and the idea of clutching her feet into the tight figure skates clearly didn't appeal to her. She herself could scarcely bear having her hockey skates on properly, preferring, at worst, to break her ankle rather than have her feet too compressed. The clock was ticking, and she had finished the last paragraph of her essay when Viderski appeared again with a worn pair of white skates.

"Would you mind removing your earpieces when you're being addressed?" Viderski grumbled like a harpy.

Stifling yet another sigh, the hockey player removed her wireless earphones and stuffed them into her jersey pocket before grabbing the white skates. Since the old wicked witch wasn't leaving, she concluded she had to try them on right now. As in her most excruciating memories, the stiffness of the leather boots, despite their lightness, was really uncomfortable at first. They were nothing like her thick Bauer hockey skates, and their flexibility surprised her a little, as she was used to the nylon and plastic of her own.

Like a miracle, Viderski's attention was drawn to something else. Someone else, to be precise, and Minjoo's heart made another little bip as she glanced over at Kim Chaewon, who was coming. Her pink hair was held back in a high ponytail, and her tight black legging elongated her slim figure. She was already wearing her white skates with the guards on and had a hoodie around her arm.

Still no smile, no verbal greeting, but a slight nod that Minjoo returned, unconsciously running a hand through her hair a few times, unable to stop herself from nervously raising her eyebrows as the skater came closer and closer. She straightened up a little and prayed that her scented mist would smell enough (she put some more after her shower, though).

"Your hair isn't even pink now," Viderski remarked aloud. "It just…looks like… ham."

Kim Chaewon walked past them at the same time, staring straight ahead, one hand in the pocket of her slim-fit fleece jacket, "Okay, Miss Girl."

Minjoo couldn't help but smile at the skater's comeback. In addition to being incredibly talented, freakishly good looking, ing beautiful and spectacularly charming, Kim Chaewon had a response and a sense of humour. As well as being so pretentious as to sit only ten seats away, eyes glued to her phone like the rest didn’t exist.

-

"Are the skates comfortable?" asked Eunbi, as she had invited Minjoo to call her, dressed in her tracksuit in the middle of the main rink.

"They're fine," Minjoo smiled, feeling thoroughly comfortable, for the moment, with the figure skating equipment. She had devoted minutes grooming her hair that morning in the hopes of running into Kim Chaewon, and when she had her in front of her, she had no choice but to gather it with a claw hair clip. Thankfully, she didn't do all of that for nun since Eunbi complimented her curls. As well as being pleased to see her there. 

"So, do you think you can hold your own in terms of basic figures or do we need to do some exercises?" Indeed, Minjoo knew the names of the jumps, a few spins or even combinations, but that was where it ended. Part of her wanted to say everything was fine out of laziness, but on the other hand, she could barely see herself, with her poor level, being a big help to Kim Chaewon.

"I can crossover, do some spins, I think and..." She raised her eyebrows, digging into her oldest skating memories to try to pull out as much as she could. "Waltz, no jump."

"Great," Eunbi smiled. "Let's see it! Chaewon, can you do a simple sequence?"

Chaewon let go of the small gold chain she had been fiddling with for a while. She glided across the ice with a light touch, pulling away a bit before doing a Waltz Jump as if it were the simplest thing in the world, followed by an easy crossover step, stopping with a simple spin that made her ham pink hair twirl, emitting a feminine scent.

"Wow, okay," Minjoo inhaled sharply, lifting her eyebrows again, an unfortunate habit she had whenever the slightest hint of nervousness came up. However, she didn't know if it was having to perform three relatively easy but unfamiliar tricks or being watched by the impassive Kim Chaewon, who was nothing like the smiling girl she'd seen at lunch.

And damn it, if Minjoo had known that to make the skater laugh, she'd have to lie flat on the ice; she would have done it from the start. ing toe pick, she swore as she was sliding on the ice after crashing at the Waltz landing. Most of all, she'd forgotten about those little teeth on the front of the blades that allowed figure skaters to rise into the air and prevented hockey players from making quick turns. And damn it, if she wasn't so ashamed of falling so hard and sliding on her stomach, she might have focused more attention to the feel of Kim Chaewon's hand in hers.

It wasn't until she was standing, facing Chaewon's smile and laughing eyes, that she realised. , the '!' became '!!!!!!!!!'. And if Minjoo wasn't already ed, she was now. So much so that a sensation of warmth spread over her body, despite the burning ice on her red hands and the stinging pain in her wrist and chin,

Fortunately, after several less catastrophic attempts, the hockey player managed to land correctly on her skates and link everything all together. Right, there was not a trace of grace and elegance in her movements, perhaps it was the least beautiful Waltz jump the skaters had ever seen, and she had only done two rotations on her spins, but apparently, it was enough for them.

At the first break, Chaewon approached, a thin smile on her face, "You okay?"

Oddly enough, despite her overwhelming aura, the skater's voice was particularly soothing. Even though her heart was racing like crazy, Minjoo managed to remain more or less calm to talk back, "I don't know what took the most between my body and my ego."

Holy crap...Chaewon's eyes scanned her up and down, returning to hers, a mocking smile dancing on her lips. Minjoo felt like someone had thrown a tub full of frozen water right onto her face. "The ice, probably."

Nice, thought the hockey player as she watched the skater glide away, pink hair twirling. She cocked an eyebrow, bit her lip, then darted back to Eunbi, who was waiting for them. Just to remind everyone that she wasn't a drag on ice, she executed a hockey stop, sending a bit of snow onto Chaewon's skates, making her grimace.

"The choreographer will stay with Wonyoung and Sunghoon tonight," Eunbi explained. "We'll work on the choreography tomorrow. That means we can take a little more time on technical stuff."

"We should work on crossovers, right?" suggested Chaewon, playing with her little gold chain. Once more, Minjoo realised she'd been looking at her for a while. At least long enough to notice the skater was often cutely fidgeting with her pendant. Their eyes met, and the hockey player hurriedly turned her head. "Backwards clockwise."

"In hockey, we just do forwards and backwards to gain speed, you know, so I have a little trouble with specific names and stuff..." admitted Minjoo, finding some warmth in her grey sweatpants’ pocket. It was definitely a lot colder now than it was during her practice.

"Look," Chaewon instructed as she began to glide. Delightfully, Minjoo thought, raising her eyebrows as she took absolute pleasure in following the skater's every move. Like she didn't do it without being asked. Still, her seriousness forced her to take her eyes off Chaewon's back as the latter performed the first crossover. After all, they were there to work. "Clockwise. Backward and, woop- forward." 

"Oh…so…" Minjoo took some speed, executing the forward with more ease than the previous. "That was clockwise?"

"No," Chaewon corrected, anew demonstrating. "Push off the left foot."

"Can you like," Minjoo put her hands on her hips, confused. "Do it slower?"

"Look at my feet, maybe?"

Touché.

With a lifted eyebrow, blood rushing to her ears, Minjoo was already turning her back, this time doing the clockwise forward crossover correctly. Moreover, she preferred finding Coach Kwon's validation rather than Chaewon's, whose indecipherable look was becoming too much to handle.

"You can, of course, skate backwards comfortably?" prompted Eunbi, pleased to see how easily the hockey player was adapting to the situation.

"Sure." That Minjoo could do well. She wasn't the best skater on her team for nothing. With consummate ease, she skated ten metres forward, then backwards at breakneck speed, hockey stopping once more in front of the skater, sending another cloud of snow down her leggings.

"Impressive," laughed Eunbi, in contrast to the skater who grumbled as she shook the white powder off her skates. "For hockey. Could you do it a little more elegantly? Standing straight, for example?"

"Oh." Right away, it was getting more complicated. Minjoo tried again, two or three times, then finally, after narrowly avoiding a fall on her , did something that suited the coach, even though she felt like a broom on skates.

After that, they spent a good hour doing lots of tricks. Chaewon would demonstrate, correcting a few things while Eunbi gave instructions and explanations, becoming more and more demanding. Minjoo must have fallen at least ten times, mainly because of the toe picks, but also for each jump that required more than a simple step. She was used to the hard knocks and falls of hockey, but she rediscovered the ice’s hardness, far from the comfort of all her protective gear. Her hands were swollen and burning from the falls and cold, vulnerable because she didn't have her hockey gloves, as she got up for the umpteenth failed attempt at single Toe Loop.

At the end of practice, Kim Chaewon or not Kim Chaewon, Minjoo had too many birds and stars spinning around her head to think of anything else than the warm sheets waiting for her.

Yena threw one of her stuffed rabbits at her head when she told her how Kim Chaewon had helped her get up a few times. But Minjoo kept to herself all the sensations she had around the national figure skater. She also refrained from describing how her heart would miss a beat when their eyes met. And how, since the night before, all her thoughts had been turning incessantly to that damn ham pink hair. At the last moment, before giving up on tiredness, she admitted to Yena that despite that, Chaewon still hadn't followed her back on Instagram, earning a new mocking chuckle before they both dozed off.