At precisely 5:30 PM, Yoo Si Jin is in the outer circle of the rink, waiting patiently for the pair skating team to come in. His imagination runs rampant, trying to predict the expression on Mo Yeon’s face when she enters.

Except, she doesn't enter. One by one, the team enters and starts their practice with Coach Yoon. His overflowing anticipation grows with each passing entrant, but the door closes behind the last person, and Mo Yeon is nowhere to be seen.

He leans forward and tries his best to look like he has a purpose, to save some dignity. Si Jin watches the team warm up, practice their routines, and give each other feedback. He leaves just before the lesson is over to prepare for his own practice.

He spends his own lesson wondering if he got it wrong. Maybe she isn't in pair skating. Is she sick? Injured? No, she skated fine. He barely notices Dae Young pass him during the mock race.

“Yoo Si Jin!” Coach Park barks. “Focus!”

Gathering his senses, Si Jin realizes that another teammate is about to overtake him. As they round the corner, he scrambles to keep Choi Woo Geun from advancing, while simultaneously closing the distance between him and Dae Young. Right before it happens, he knows that they are about to crash and cause a pile up. He notices all the factors - too many skaters doing one turn, too close, the incline of his turn is too low, and then they are all on top of each other, careening to the side of the rink.

He feels another weight added to him as Im Gwang Nam trips over the pile up. From the measly crack of light still available to him, he watches the only one unscathed from the chaos, Gong Cheol Ho, glide past the finish line with ease, then curve around to admire the pile.

“Gong Cheol Ho, the boy who lived!” Seo Dae Young laughs and pulls himself and Gwang Nam out of the pile.

“Oh, like Harry Potter!” Si Jin says from beneath Woo Geun.

Si Jin is relieved that everyone laughs along with him, reassured that nobody blames him for the accident. Well, except for Coach Park, whose arms are crossed so tightly Si Jin is afraid he’ll break his bones.

“Yoo Si Jin... my office, now,” he spits out, seething with fury. “The rest of you, practice is over - so get off the ice immediately, I don’t want a repeat of yesterday.”

“Yes, sir!” Comes the unanimous response.

The rest of the speed skating team sends him sympathetic looks as he leaves for Coach Park’s office. At least he has shoes on.

Unlike Kang Mo Yeon, he thinks, as he fondly remembers a similar situation from yesterday. Aish, why are you still thinking about her? She’s the reason you’re about to get yelled at.

He opens the door to Coach Park’s office slowly, prepping himself for the onslaught of scolding. It unsettles him just how neat the office is. Not a single thing is out of place, nor is anything crooked. Coach Park buries his face in his hands as soon as Si Jin sits down.

“You are...” he groans out between his fingers. “...the most gifted speed skater I’ve taught in a very long time, you know that right?”

Si Jin tentatively nods. Praises instead of a lecture?

“Then you understand that your recklessness in these past two days is unacceptable. What if the pile up today was a real match? There was a clear way for you to win that match without crashing into almost all of your opponents.”

“I’m sorry sir. It won’t happen again, sir,” his voice is soaked with guilt. He dreams of one day being as decorated with medals as his coach, and instead he’s disappointing him.

“I’ve been hearing that a lot from you these days,” Coach Park sighs. “Obviously, you need discipline. Twenty laps around the rink. Running, not skating.”

“Yes, sir!” He gets to the door so fast he almost teleports there. He pauses before he leaves the room. “Sorry again, sir!”

He starts running even before he enters the rink. He is acutely aware of the root of his recent problems - he can trace it back to a certain figure skater. Si Jin resolves to give up for now; evidently she was not in pair skating, so he has no way of finding her again.

Maybe one day, we’ll meet at the Olympics, he fantasizes to himself.

To say that Mo Yeon finds the solo skating team intimidating is an understatement. These skaters knew how to survive on their own, and how to command the attention of the entire arena. She’s also skating with Coach Yoon’s daughter, who already has several gold medals under her belt.

“I watched your performance at last year’s regional competition,” one of the solo skaters, Choi Min Ji, says to her. “It was amazing! Especially your jumps. I’m sorry about your partner.”

The others join in, gushing about her last short program with Chi Hoon. She’s relieved to be welcomed as an equal, but it’s a crushing reminder of what she’s left behind. Mo Yeon tries her best to accept their compliments, and pulls on a smile.

She watches, mesmerized, as they individually perform their work-in-progress pieces for the upcoming competition. She usually only gets to see the final product at competitions. Yoon Myung Ju is especially sublime - instantly capturing everyone’s attention. Her finesse and skill shines through every movement, magnified by the carefree smile she adorns throughout the performance.

As the enthusiastic cheers for Myung Ju die down, she realizes that she is the only one who hasn’t presented. The competitive side of her wants to prove her worth, yet she knows that part of her current program requires a partner.

Coach Yoon clears his throat. “Good job, everyone,” Myung Ju smiles up at her father, who is clearly trying to be impartial. “Mo Yeon, I don’t want you to lose any valuable practice time and feedback from your peers - how about you do your free skate program? Obviously all your side-by-side skates will be done on your own, and for your throws and lifts, improvise. Everybody will understand.”

She hasn’t felt stage fright in a long time, but creeps back like a recurring nightmare. She nods, plugging her phone into the stereo and setting it to the corresponding song. Myung Ju offers to press play for her, giving her an encouraging thumbs up before she steps onto the ice.

The absence of her partner makes the expansive space feel lonely, but she can’t deny the excitement from the familiar feeling of the ice beneath her skates. She settles into her starting stance. Myung Ju starts the music.

In her choreography, she turns to look at Chi Hoon, but there is nobody to occupy that space. Her outstretched hands don’t meet a receiver, and she awkwardly replaces pair moves with some spins. The only solace she can find is not having to be acutely aware of her partner’s position at all times, so she skates without worry as she preps for her first two jumps.

Myung Ju watches the performer intensely - Mo Yeon is one of the only skaters that her father mentions to her. The only lament her father had about Mo Yeon was the lack of chemistry between her and her partner. While their performances were anything short of lackluster and earned them high technical scores, it was the missing silver lining that prevented them from becoming a crowd favourite.

Her view is obstructed by the unexpected light coming from the double doors behind her, and to her surprise, Yoo Si Jin enters the outer ring of the rink as Mo Yeon is in the middle of a camel spin. She raises an expectant eyebrow at him as he jogs by the bench, demanding an answer from him.

Si Jin announces to the coach, “Sorry for the interruption, sir. I have been assigned twenty punishment laps around the rink.”

She smirks and turns around wordlessly, for fear of her father noticing that they recognized each other. In truth, Myung Ju was well acquainted with the entire speed skating team. Her father would be furious if he knew that she was not fully focused on her career - shirking her responsibilities by dating one of Si Jin’s teammates without his permission.

After pseudo-greeting Myung Ju, Si Jin glances over at the sole skater on the ice. He slows his pace as she arches back and spins with her arms stretching out like wings. He recognizes the impeccable and impossibly tight bun, and of course, the grace with which she twirled. He stops for a moment, enraptured by her performance, before one of the cheers from the benches reminds him to continue his punishment.

Circling around the rink, Si Jin is enchanted by her spins and jumps from every angle. He completes his second lap as the music crescendos, and he is so awestruck that he can’t help but clap along with the others as she strikes a finale pose.

Mo Yeon’s heartbeat is uneven and breathing is staggered, but her veins are reinvigorated with her love to perform. She doesn’t notice she is smiling until she feels her jaw drop - Yoo Si Jin is behind the glass, a smug expression painted on his face.

She feels her heartbeat triple. What is he doing here?! Instead of an answer, the speed skater just starts to run around the rink. With furrowed brows, she skates towards the bench.

“That was great! You could hardly tell that the program was meant for two skaters,” says Myung Ju.

Mo Yeon thanks them all for their support and acknowledges her imperfections, but it doesn’t quite sink in - her mind is following the person running around the arena for no apparent reason.

Coach Yoon, however, she tries to devote her full attention to. “Yes, good job, Mo Yeon. We might be able to convert your current routine in time for the for the next competition. Finally, I’d like to see some toe loops from everyone before we end for today.”

Myung Ju stands behind Mo Yeon in line for the cool down exercise, the need to confirm a hunch unbearable. She leans over Mo Yeon’s shoulder.

“Do you know Si Jin? You looked surprised to see him,” Myung Ju asks in a low voice.

“No, I don’t, really, I was just startled by the extra person,” Mo Yeon replies at normal volume. Myung Ju rapidly shushes her. In a hushed voice, she asks, “Why are we whispering?”

“I don’t want my father to hear us.”

Mo Yeon is left even more confused than before. “Why? Are you two dating?” She’s also confused as to why she’s scared to hear the answer.

“No, of course not,” Myung Ju scoffs. “I’ll tell you some other time, when my father is not within earshot.”

She’s left without a choice to abandon the topic, as her turn approaches to do a triple toe loop. This time, she notices Si Jin - who has done at least fifteen laps by now, still with no explanation - stop to watch her. When her eyes meet his, she can sense his undivided attention. For the second time that day, she feels stage fright.

Si Jin watches intently while the figure skater launches herself into the air, spinning so fast he can’t count how many revolutions she does does in mid-air. She lands, swings her leg around, and repeats the same motion with ease. Mo Yeon shoots him a triumphant look which pulls at the edges of his mouth, smiling as he continues his final lap of the rink.

He finishes just before the figure skaters conclude their lesson, so he waits outside in the lobby, retrieving a towel in the meantime to wipe the sweat off his brow. For what feels like an eternity, he waits for the doors to open. Si Jin wouldn’t describe himself as impatient, but he justifies this instance of impatience because he has spent this entire evening waiting.

His patience - or lack thereof - is rewarded when Mo Yeon stands before him with her arms crossed, her hair already released of its bun.

“Why were you running laps around the rink today?” She demands, completely disregarding any greetings.

“I fell in practice today and caused a pile up.”

Mo Yeon’s eyes widen and her face pales. “Did anyone get hurt?” She asks, her voice thin.

She remembers, with vivid detail, all the accidents, trips, and falls she and Chi Hoon had suffered through their training. With enough rehabilitation and physiotherapy, they had always been able to keep pushing forward, yet they had no idea that they were skating on borrowed time. Chi Hoon’s retirement was not the solely due to the concussion that put him in the hospital, but an accumulation of old injuries and conditions that would deem it too painful for him to skate competitively. She is constantly haunted by the fact that many of those accidents were her fault - whether or not she is to blame for his retirement.

Si Jin is tempted to ask her what’s wrong, to find out why she is so suddenly shaken. He chooses not to press further.

“No, nobody got hurt. Except for my dignity - it’s the first time in a while since I’ve lost a race,” he reassures.

She gives a ghost of a laugh, barely there - but even a ghost puts Si Jin at ease.

Injury is an inevitability in sports, so why does she flinch at the mention of an accident? He wonders.

He musters up the courage to ask her to meet outside the walls of the ice rink when his stomach growls. Si Jin glances at the clock, realizing that on top of finishing practice and doing twenty laps around the rink, it’s currently 8:45 PM and he hasn’t had dinner yet. He smiles sheepishly at Mo Yeon, who raises an eyebrow at him.

Myung Ju, who lingered behind, takes this opportunity to startle the two. She revels for a moment in the fact that she made Si Jin jump.

“Perfect timing, Yoo Si Jin! I was just about to invite Kang Mo Yeon out for some ddeokbokki to celebrate her joining our team,” she announces, a mischievous intent in her words. “And since you seem to be hungry, why don’t you join us?”

“Yoon Myung Ju, what do you think you’re doing?” Yoo Si Jin asks under his breath. Her reply is an innocent, overly saccharine smile.

Mo Yeon, who is bewildered beyond belief, cannot refuse the insistence of the daughter of her coach, and is practically pushed out the door by Myung Ju.

As soon as they arrive to the ddeokbokki stand, Myung Ju pulls out her phone.

“Ah! I have 17 missed calls from my father - I forgot to tell him I was coming here,” she exclaims. “I have to go, he’s probably already made dinner. Kang Mo Yeon, you told me you didn’t really know Yoo Si Jin, so here’s your chance!”

Even if he did not hear the blatant lie in her voice, Si Jin, who was behind Myung Ju the entire time, can clearly see her phone screen only has one text from Seo Dae Young. But before he can expose her, she is already halfway down the street with no intentions of turning back. He knows that he’s received a text from Myung Ju as soon as his phone vibrates ten seconds later.

You’re welcome. Don’t mess up!

He looks up at poor, innocent Kang Mo Yeon, who has been caught up in Myung Ju’s twisted plans. In her perspective, she probably believes that she is doing him a favour.

And she’s not wrong, he reasons, the girl he is now alone with has been his entire goal all day, and the cause of all his problems. Si Jin recalls Coach Park’s words, and the shame he felt from disappointing him due to his recklessness.

But just by standing in her vicinity, he’s tempted to risk being reckless again.

A/N: Thanks everyone for the support so far! I tried to write this chapter as fast as possible as a thank you. However, I am a full-time university student, and it's midterm season, so the next chapter will not be up for a while. Apologies in advance!

This chapter features cameos from Nurse Choi and the Alpha Team. Still not sure if they'll be major/supporting characters, yet, though.