Mo Yeon absentmindedly undoes the laces on her skates, her mind still fixated on the hospital visit. Today’s practice session had one absentee - and for a pair skating team, the emptiness was deafening. What sent shivers down her spine, however, was the permanence of it all.

The sterile scent of the hospital peels off the walls. Lee Chi Hoon looks fine. His eyes are glassy and his voice is slow, but he looks fine. Nobody on the street would be able to tell that hours ago, this man was unconscious against the ice. He had fallen while lifting Mo Yeon during a rehearsal. Nobody would be able to tell that he has a concussion.

Mo Yeon feels so sickeningly selfish. She wants her partner to get better. Their careers are interdependent, and if his ends, so does hers.

But the doctor’s diagnosis and his parents’ decision shatters not just Chi Hoon’s dreams of going to the Olympics, but hers as well. He will never skate again.

She whips her head around to follow the sudden shuffling noise. Her eyes settle into a malicious stare as she watches the next group enter the rink.

Speed skaters.

Never had she met a group of athletes so pompous and elitist. They wholeheartedly believed that their sport was more dignified, more intense than others’ - solely because of how well their nation performs in the Olympics.

Their gaze pass by the figure skater, and she doesn’t need to distinguish voices to know that they are criticizing her sport. Her eyes instinctively narrow. Her blood churns at their ignorance, how they think that her sport is beneath theirs. The stakes were equally as high - the possibility of injury arguably higher. She stuffs her skates into her bag, slings it over her shoulder, and shoves her hands into her gloves. Mo Yeon knows that engaging them in an argument is more trouble than it’s worth.

She’s on her way to the bus stop when she passes by the bulletin board, which has today’s schedule pinned to it. The gap after speed skating catches her eye. She could have a half hour of the ice to herself. No coaches, no practicing spins alone, just skating. She needed to clear her mind.

Mo Yeon sits with her skates already laced on the outer edge of the rink. She looks onward as the speed skaters loop around the track, over and over, with a complete and utter disregard for style. She focuses on the leader, clearly the strongest of the pack, who leaves the rest of them trailing several centimetres behind as he glides through the ice. His lips are stuck in a confident smirk, easily increasing his speed for the final lap. A headache picks at her brain just trying to fathom how they can find such monotony entertaining.

Si Jin can feel it - the last stride he needs to secure his victory. He breezes past the finish line, his teammates following soon after.

“Better luck next time,” he pants, slowly gliding backwards as he admires his team. His eyes catch a newcomer to the scene, sitting in the benches.

He can tell just by her posture and tightly wrapped bun that the stranger is a figure skater. She looks at him with disdain, piquing his curiosity. What has he done to warrant such a stare? After a quick glance at her phone, her face lights up.

Ah, she’s much prettier when she smiles. He muses.

She seems to have confirmed that his team’s practice is over, as she bolts to the gate. As his teammates line up to leave the rink, he - for once - lingers behind. Just as he reaches the gate, she is about to step onto the ice. He skates in front of her.

“What are you doing? Figure skating practices were about an hour ago. Ah!” Si Jin exclaims, snapping his fingers. “But you’re part of that group, aren’t you? I saw you outside, packing up.”

“I’m here to skate,” she answers curtly. “Please move aside.”

“Didn’t you hear me? You just skated. An hour ago. Do you like skating that much?”

“Of course,” she looks up and meets his glare, embers burning in her eyes. “Don’t you? Or are speed skaters too good for the ice too?”

Si Jin raises his hands frantically. Why does he feel like he’s being attacked? “I never said anything about being too good for the ice. Are you implying that I think speed skating is better than figure skating?”

“Do you?”

Si Jin chuckles and rests his hands on his hips. He's been caught.

“Of course. Otherwise, I’d be wearing figure skates.” He gestures to his skates, with their signature long blades - their length only magnified next to hers, which ended just past the toe of her boot, accented by her jagged toe picks. “Speed skating is much more thrilling.”

As if she had just proved some kind of point, the figure skater huffs and tries to evade him.

“Did I offend you?” He asks incredulously. “I was just stating my opinion.”

Something inside Mo Yeon snaps. She can only take so much arrogance.

“Of course you offended me! You, and the rest of the speed skaters, assume that your sport is the best, the most dangerous, the one that brings the most glory. You think your sport is dangerous? Thrilling? Every time I do a spin, a lutz, an axel, I could make a mistake that will end my career. Your sport is based off of numbers and timing. You don’t need style, you don’t need to appeal to the judges and the audience - the only thing that matters to you is your time. It’s incredibly selfish. I guess the sport says a lot about the person.”

They've only just met, yet he already feels as if her malicious words have torn him to pieces.

“That makes you a performer, not an athlete,” Si Jin seethes - her words have validation, but not at the cost of his own dignity.

Seeing her reaction makes Si Jin feel immediate, intense regret. For a moment, her face looks as if he has shot an arrow through her heartstrings, but she quickly collects herself. He knows with absolute certainty that he has overstepped. He scrambles to apologize, anything to clear the guilt that is already spreading through him -

“I can skate just as fast as you,” Mo Yeon challenges.

What are you doing?! The remaining logical part of her screams. She is currently inviting a speed skater to a race. Stop right now before you embarrass yourself. Stop talking. Take it back, laugh it off, fall on your face, anything -

“Okay.”

Mo Yeon’s heart plummets to her stomach. The rest of the speed skating team, who had evidently decided to be onlookers to their exchange, does a collective “ooh.” She winces.

“Let’s make this fair, shall we? I will give you a ten second head start,” Si Jin offers.

“Do whatever you want,” she mutters back. No! Take the offer!

“Seo Dae Young, come here and officiate the match,” he calls out to his vice captain.

Seo Dae Young, who is taller, more muscular, with a much more intimidating gaze, skates over. Mo Yeon is suddenly glad that she is racing someone else. He skates over, his eyes glinting with amusement.

“Ladies and gentlemen! We are gathered here today-” he booms before he is interrupted by the captain.

“This is a match, not a wedding,” Si Jin teases, settling into starting position. One foot behind him, one propped up, the rest of him almost parallel to the ice.

Dae Young clears his throat. “Today we witness a race to the end of the rink between speed skater, Yoo Si Jin,” he gestures to Si Jin, who is sighing and shaking his head. “And figure skater...”

Si Jin glances over at the girl, who makes direct eye contact with him. Her stare is unwavering and her voice unfaltering as she answers.

“Kang Mo Yeon.”

“...figure skater, Kang Mo Yeon! The rules are: skate to the other end of the rink. First one to touch the board wins. No physical violence. Yoo Si Jin may give his opponent an optional 10 second head start. Any questions or objections?”

“Yeah, I asked for a referee, not a priest,” he feels an immense sense of pride when he hears Mo Yeon snicker. However, he is completely ignored by Dae Young.

“On your marks! Get set...”

Mo Yeon takes a deep breath. All she has to do is beat him in a short distance sprint. She zeroes in on the board across the rink, tuning out everything else out.

“Go!”

Si Jin remains still and watches Mo Yeon bolt forwards. Not bad, for a figure skater. He allows five seconds to pass before following in her suit, almost immediately directly behind her. He slows his pace to match hers, admiring the grace that still surrounds her even as she skates at full speed, blissfully unaware that her opponent could overtake her at any second.

Don’t look back. As long as he’s not in front of you, you’re fine, she chants to herself.

The boards are just ten metres away.

Five metres.

Her hands slam against the boards as she spins around to admire her victory. But to her surprise, Yoo Si Jin is more than fifteen metres away, frozen to the spot, staring straight through her. She follows his gaze and realizes that behind the glass she so unceremoniously slammed, is the manager of the skating rink, the speed skating coach, and her figure skating coach. Mo Yeon backs away from the ice in terror, bracing herself when the manager takes a deep breath.

“You should both know ice skating rinks in South Korea are hard to come by... so our schedule is very packed. We allot just half an hour for maintenance to resurface the ice before we open for public skating. So imagine my surprise when the Zamboni driver says he can’t do his job because two kids are racing on my rink?!” Manager Han bellows.

Yoo Si Jin clutches her wrist. “We’re sorry, sir. We’ll get off the ice immediately. This won’t happen again,” he sputters out, bowing.

Mo Yeon’s coach, Yoon Gil Joon, steps forward. “Kang Mo Yeon, seeing as you are still in the building after practice, it seems you don’t have a busy day today. I would like to meet with you in my office after you’ve changed.”

She almost noticeably sighs with relief, realizing that her coach is not too angry with her, and nods enthusiastically. She is still stunned to the spot, but Si Jin tugs on her wrist and they scutter to the gate, where Dae Young is already ripping off his skates. The shame and embarrassment caused by her race is almost unbearable. For a moment, she had actually believed she won against him.

“Let’s do a rematch sometime,” he proposes as he steps off the ice, offering his hand to help her do the same.

Mo Yeon’s eyes dart to his outstretched hand, and disembarks the ice without it. “How? We were just reprimanded for unauthorized use of the rink. I doubt they’ll be as lenient next time.”

He follows after her - Si Jin has a peculiar feeling he’ll be doing that often - and calls after her. “Will I see you again, Kang Mo Yeon?”

She stops and turns her head to meet his eyes - the same defiant and challenging expression creeping back onto her face.

“I go to this rink five times a week,” she says, taking off her skates and holding them in one hand. “You’ve never noticed me before today, Yoo Si Jin. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a reprimanding to attend.”

Mo Yeon strides away to her coach’s office, leaving Si Jin bemused at the way she brimmed with confidence - despite the fact that she only had socks on her feet. How entertaining. He dismisses the taunts about his lovestruck expression from his teammates, casually strolling over to the bulletin board.

He deduces from today’s schedule that she’s in pair skating - and takes note of her next practice. It’s right before his, again. He grins wildly at the bulletin board, earning concerned looks from the others, before he returns to the benches to take off his skates. He wipes the remaining ice off his skates as he formulates a plan.

Just you wait. I’ll notice you until you notice me.

Coach Yoon's office is small, but decorated. A couple of the awards lined up on his shelf are his own, while the rest are from various students, and of course, his beloved daughter's. Mo Yeon always looks around and affirms that there is no way to doubt his love for his daughter. Aside from trophies and medals, the only other decorations in his office are pictures of Yoon Myung Ju.

Mo Yeon decides she'd better apologize while she’s ahead. “Sir, I’m so sorry for delaying ice maintenance. I’ll be sure to-”

“Let’s not discuss those matters any further. I wanted to meet with you to talk about Chi Hoon,” her coach interrupts.

The feeling of dread that had sat at the back of her mind catapulted back to her heart. Lee Chi Hoon, who was still in the hospital. Lee Chi Hoon, who would probably never competitively skate again.

“I received the medical report this afternoon. It seems you no longer have a skating partner. Have you evaluated your options?”

What options? Mo Yeon laments silently. She could skate solo - but she chose pair skating for a reason. She could do all the things a solo skater could do, and more - axels while being thrown into the air, rapid spins alongside without colliding into another person, the aptly named death spiral... those all required a partner. And by this point in her career, most people had developed a keen sense for their own partner - she would be hopelessly out of sync even if she took someone else’s.

But skating without a partner was better than not skating at all.

“I’ll try skating on my own,” she announces. To hear the decision out loud left a melancholy of fear and loneliness in her.

“Good,” Coach Yoon nods. Though he is often stern and unrelenting, at this moment, his eyes are full of sympathy. “You have a lot of talent. It would be a shame if you give up now. I’ll alter your schedule so that you’re with the other soloists. Of course, your 2-on-1 lessons with Chi Hoon will now be private lessons.”

She stands up and thanks her coach profusely for having so much faith in her. Gathering her things and heading out the door, she clutches her new schedule all the while. She goes over it on the bus.

Not much has changed from her usual routine, but instead of being before the speed skaters, she is after them.

A/N: Oh dear! How is Yoo Si Jin going to find/stalk Kang Mo Yeon now? Not much of a cliffhanger, but it felt like an appropriate place to end the chapter. And who likes cliffhangers, anyway?

Edited 10/19 for minor formatting/grammar mistakes