Within thirty seconds of being alone with Yoo Si Jin, Mo Yeon has bright, orange ddeokbokki stains scarring her white cardigan. Just when he turned around to line up for the spicy rice cakes, he bumps into the last person to exit the queue - who consequently trips and spills their ddeokbokki. Mo Yeon is caught in the crossfire.

 

“Oh my god,” Si Jin blurts out. Mortification is an understatement.

 

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it,” she says, slipping out of her cardigan. “As an apology, you have to pay for the ddeokbokki.”

 

He nods enthusiastically, thoroughly checking his surroundings before entering the lineup this time.

 

“I’ve been wondering this for a while,” he says as the line creeps forward. “Are you in pair skating or singles? I could have sworn that you were in pair skating yesterday, but you’re in Yoon Myung Ju’s class.”

 

“I’m in singles now,” she replies after a moment’s pause. Si Jin notes that the strain and melancholy has returned to her voice. “There was an accident with my partner. He tripped during a lift... and I fell on top of him. He has a concussion for sure, and a possible skull fracture - but he isn’t skating anymore.”

 

Despite the liveliness of the night market, the atmosphere between the two of them darkens. Si Jin berates himself for not piecing the clues together himself - her reaction to the pile up, her absence in the pair skating team, why Yoon Myung Ju had taken them here under the pretense of her entrance into the solo skaters.

 

“I see. I’m sorry,” the words feel hollow - they don’t excuse him for anything, and he knows it does nothing to soften the pain she must feel. He can only imagine losing a member of the speed skating team.

 

“It’s okay,” she says, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

 

The remainder of their time in the line is spent in suffocating silence, while the world around them continued to buzz with activity. Si Jin orders two bowls of ddeokbokki, handing her one.

 

“Careful, don’t spill it,” she warns, looking up at him threateningly before receiving the bowl. “Thank you.”

 

Si Jin flashes her a smile before he skewers one of the rice cakes and places it in his mouth without hesitance. The heat sears through the inside of his mouth, forcing him to gasp for air. Mo Yeon is gasping for air as well, but due to her laughter. As the sound of her laugh travels through the night, it clears the overhanging tension away as well.

 

“You must be really hungry,” she forces out between bursts of laughter, watching him continue to spoon ddeokbokki into his mouth despite his initial trauma. “Is it good?”

 

“It's delicious. But I can't tell if that's because I haven't eaten in nine hours or if Yoon Myung Ju has really great taste,” he says before he practically swallows another rice cake whole. Its warmth carves its way down his throat, but his stomach begs for more.

 

Seeing Si Jin devour the ddeokbokki makes her want to disregard the steam billowing off her bowl and start eating as well. She takes the plunge. She is drooling before it even gets to - how long had it been since she’d allowed herself to have junk food?

 

Mo Yeon delicately bites off half of a rice cake from the toothpick, wincing as she accepts the burning sensation in . In exchange, she receives the familiar flavors of ddeokbokki. But eating just half of one makes her yearn for more, and more, and more - soon she finds herself staring at the bottom of the bowl. Si Jin, who is still eating his, is nothing short of astonished.

 

“Wow, I wasn't aware this was a race,” he remarks, disbelief colouring his every word. “Are you sure you don't want to pursue competitive eating?”

 

She gives him an exasperated sigh, before she smirks and says, “That's my backup plan!” Her eyes widening for emphasis and her hands waving her empty bowl as proof.

 

He chuckles as he follows her retreating figure across the market, in search of a trash can. By the time they find one, secluded in a narrow alley, Si Jin is able to throw his bowl away as well. The alley is so constricted that he can barely stand next to her. He looks up, only able to see a slit of the sky past the towering buildings above them.

 

His view is so limited that he doesn't notice the clouds spreading across the sky, shrouding the area in darkness. Si Jin affixes his attention to the only other person in the alley - still maintaining poise and posture despite the environment. He can’t blame himself - her graceful presence commands his attention. He only registers the weather change when Mo Yeon lifts her palm out, collecting rain drops.

 

“I didn’t bring an umbrella,” Mo Yeon laments, shifting her gaze to Si Jin to ask him if he had, only to catch him staring at her.

 

Her eyes, always bright, pierce through his. They widen when they meet his intense gaze. He gulps and feels his face turn white. Panic crawls up his spine and seizes him by the neck, his brain desperately trying to come up with an reason for why he had been staring at her all this time. The rain starts coming down harder, each drop berating him for his foolishness. The seconds tick by in silence as he is unable to conjure a believable excuse, and so Si Jin finds himself still staring, like a madman, locked in a staring contest with the object of his gaze.

 

He can feel himself sinking deeper and deeper into this hole as the staring contest continues. The conclusion he comes to is: his mother had always told him to be honest.

 

Si Jin clears his throat, breaking the exchange. “Sorry. You looked really pretty,” he says, and the embarrassment triples.

 

Mo Yeon’s face instantly blushes bright pink, as if all the colour from Si Jin’s face flooded to hers. He notices her bangs sticking to her forehead, and he's suddenly aware that he can feel the rain soak through his hair as well. He sheds his hoodie and wraps it around her.

 

She looks down at the addition to her wardrobe - a simple navy hoodie that all the speed skaters wear. She doesn't need to flip the hoodie around to know that “YOO” is emblazoned on the back in large white letters. On the sits the Haesung Skating Club logo, with “Short Track Speed Skating” carefully stitched beneath it. From the way it drapes around her, she can tell it's several sizes too big. Nevertheless, she can already feel moisture spread through parts of her clothing, so she slips it on.

 

“Thank you, but won't you be cold?” She asks as she watches his t-shirt absorb the rain.

 

He chuckles and admires the sight of her wearing his sweater. He can barely see her fingertips peek out from the sleeves. “I'll be fine,” he says with a grin. “Come on, I'll walk you home.”

 

---

 

The streets are adorned with lights from others taking shelter from the rain. They try their best to dodge puddles and muddy patches, with Si Jin leading the way and Mo Yeon giving directions. Si Jin offers his hand to help her leap over a puddle so deep he can’t see the bottom - to which she smirked and jumped over with ease, throwing in a simple spin.

 

“I’ve been wondering this for a while,” Mo Yeon muses as they approach her street, mirroring the question he asked at the night market. “How do you know Yoon Myung Ju? You seem very close to her.”
 

Si Jin glances at her face, which is carefully kept in a neutral expression.

 

“Why? Are you jealous?” He teases.

 

She loses her tightly wrapped composure in a matter of seconds as she whips around and exclaims, “What? I didn’t say that!”

 

Si Jin snickers and throws his head up to the sky, washing his face in the rain. “She’s not exactly my cup of tea... she meddles too much,” he returns his gaze to the figure skater beside him, whose cheeks tinted pink yet again. “She’s dating my teammate.”

 

Mo Yeon’s eyes expand and drops open. “The coach’s daughter is dating someone?!”

 

“Yes, but don’t tell your coach,” Si Jin says, his tone suddenly serious. “He expects his daughter to make it to the ISU Grand Prix this year, and nothing can get in her way - especially not Seo Dae Young.”

 

Her exchange with Myung Ju on the ice starts to make sense. “I didn’t think Coach Yoon would be the type to interfere with a skater’s personal life.”

 

“Like father, like daughter,” Si Jin points out - they were together because Myung Ju had an ulterior motive. “Myung Ju thinks that if she can place Gold at the Junior Grand Prix, she’ll be able to convince him that she can do both.”

 

She laughs and contemplates all the reasons why a coach would strictly forbid a talented skater from dating. For a skater of Myung Ju’s caliber, it was clearly a critical time for her to succeed. It forces her to reflect on her own actions - someone on the climb to stardom, yet floundering on which division of figure skating she belonged in.

 

---

 

Si Jin wholeheartedly believes that if he took a shower fully clothed, he would still be drier than he is now, standing with Mo Yeon at her door. Her situation is not much better than his, her hair forming small droplets of their own. He can only hope that his hoodie provided an extra layer of protection for her.

 

Despite the cold dampness pressing on her from every surface, she can feel the intense heat in her cheeks. She wants more than anything for the dark of night to make her blush less noticeable.

 

“Thank you for-” she starts, thanking him for what must be the third time that day, when she is interrupted.

 

“Ah, no, don't call it a date!”

 

A date? The words leave her in shock. Her cheeks feel even more warm, the heat radiating to her ears. That wasn't what she was going to say. But was it a date?

 

“I want our real first date to be better than this - not something Yoon Myung Ju set up, not where I spill ddeokbokki on your shirt, not where it rains and I can't share an umbrella with you,” he explains, flustered.

 

His sincerity leaves her at a loss for words, her heart hammering inside her chest. Her wide eyes and bewildered stance makes Si Jin want to fill the silence even more. He grips her shoulders.

 

“I’m asking you on a date. Would you like to or not?”

 

She finds herself nodding - her voice still missing - before she can even process the fact that she'd only formally met this boy a day ago. Being with him makes her question her contempt towards speed skaters that she’s held onto for so long. Her internal conflict is reconciled for a moment when his face splits into a thousand-watt smile so contagious that she finds herself grinning as well.

 

“I’ll see you after your next practice then,” he beams.

 

Mo Yeon watches from her front door as the speed skater dashes off the front porch, practically bouncing with each step.

 

As she hangs her drenched clothes out to dry, her phone receives a text from an unknown number. She assumes it’s the boy she spent her evening with, whose hoodie is hanging in her closet.

 

But how did he get my number? She wonders. Intrigued, she unlocks her phone.

 

Hey, it’s Myung Ju ^^

 

She almost drops her phone. How did she get her number?

 

I looked through my dad’s phone for your number! I thought since I did Yoo Si Jin a favour, I would do one for you too! (Aren’t I generous??) This is Si Jin’s number!

 

Mo Yeon laughs to herself, Yoo Si Jin’s earlier remark about Myung Ju’s meddling habits echoing in her mind. Nevertheless, she saves the number as a new contact on her phone, and takes a picture of the hoodie as his contact photo.

 

---

 

The following day, Si Jin can barely contain the excitement that is shooting out of his every limb. He cruises around the rink with a carefree speed, briefly forgetting his role as the anchor when Seo Dae Young hands him the last leg of the relay. He hopes that Coach Park missed his moment’s hesitation, though he knows without a doubt that his watchful eyes have already caught his mistake. He dares to sneak a glance at his coach, whose expression has considerably darkened. He gulps and skates the last two laps of the relay at an extraordinary pace at an attempt to ease his imminent suffering.

As the blades of his skate glide past the finish line, he immediately braces himself for -

 

“YOO SI JIN!”

 

- Coach Park’s trademark hollering.

 

While his teammates are blissfully unaware to his fault, Si Jin is painfully aware. With his gaze downcast and hands behind his back, he skates over to where he can almost feel the Coach’s fury melt the ice.

 

“What the hell was that?” Coach Park growls, his voice low and seething with anger. “I told you yesterday to stop being reckless, didn’t I? What the hell was that - why weren’t you prepared to skate the last leg?”

 

Si Jin feels his throat dry up. “I’m sorry, sir.” He wants to say, ‘It won’t happen again,’ but how many times has he gone back on that promise?

 

“If you keep this up, I’ll have to replace you in the upcoming provincial championship,” his coach threatens.

 

His heart nearly stops beating. Coach Park does not make empty threats. He feels sick to his stomach, faced with the decision he knows he has to make. He recalls Seo Dae Young and Yoon Myung Ju’s predicament, and realizes why Coach Yoon forbade the latter from getting romantically involved.

 

He has to choose between his budding feelings for Mo Yeon and his speed skating career.

 

“Do you like skating that much?”

 

“Of course I do. Don’t you? Or are speed skaters too good for the ice too?”

 

The conversation echoes endlessly in his thoughts. Si Jin could skate before he could walk. The ice was always there to welcome him, propel him forwards. He had known the ice all his life - he had only known Mo Yeon a matter of two days.

 

And yet, just knowing her made this decision so hard.

 

Of course I like skating, he thought to himself. It might be the only thing I like more than you.

 

He stares the coach straight in the eyes, burning with conviction. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

 

He just needs to find the right words to say to Mo Yeon. He already has her next practice engraved into his brain - and he thanks the skating gods that he is allowed one more day to search for the words.

 

---

 

The ice is cold against her back, begging her to stay plastered to the surface. She’s tempted to lay there - the amount of times she failed to land her triple lutz greatly outweighs her successes, and every fall weighs heavily on her chest. She considers waiting for practice to end, anticipating her upcoming meeting with Yoo Si Jin. But Mo Yeon gets back up, skating around the rink to gain the required speed to attempt it once more.

 

Yoo Si Jin.

 

The boy she couldn’t say no to.

 

She has so many things to do - adapt her short, long, and free skate program’s choreography to accommodate her current circumstances - in order to even be considered a contender at the next competition. In comparison to her peers, she’s embarrassingly rusty in single spins, having dedicated all her time towards throw jumps and lifts instead. In short, she has no time to waste.

 

And yet, she still can’t say no to that incessant speed skater. She thinks about his hoodie, which is dry and ready to be returned, waiting in her duffel bag.

 

Before her feet even leave the ground, she finds herself with her back on the ice again, having collided with a fellow skater. She apologizes profusely, after all, had she not had her mind preoccupied with thoughts other than mastering her triple lutz, she might have been more aware of her surroundings.

 

Aish, he’s becoming more and more of a nuisance, and he’s not even here! She chides herself. The thought of him ever knowing that he impeded on her practice drives her insane.

 

And again, she picks up the speed to attempt another triple lutz. She can feel it in her skates as she bends down and hooks her toe pick into the ice. She spins in the air once, twice - completing the third revolution just as she makes contact with the ice again. Mo Yeon’s eyes scan the rink, searching for someone who is clearly not there. It takes several seconds for her brain to shake off the excitement, to remember that jump wasn’t just to spite Yoo Si Jin. She locks eyes with Coach Yoon, who beckons her over.

 

“Is there something wrong, sir?” She asks cautiously as she approaches.

 

“First things first, that was excellent technique on your triple lutz. However, I fear you’re not getting the amount of practice that you need for the competition,” he confesses.

 

Her heart sinks. After all that’s transpired in the past week, she can’t begin to comprehend the despair that’s flowing through her.

 

“If you’re willing, I can try and arrange more time on the ice for you,” he offers, amused by Mo Yeon’s instantaneous mood change. He takes it as a confirmation of her commitment. “Please keep in mind that you still have to keep up with your studies and get plenty of rest.”

 

It sinks in as her back is arched over, her hands gripping one of her skates in a Biellmann Spin, just how much extra effort it will be to stand a chance at the competition. The earliest extra practice is about an hour after this lesson, and tomorrow morning she can squeeze in time at dawn, before school. As she twirls, she knows something has to be sacrificed in turn.

 

---

 

Si Jin arrives at Haesung Rink at the precise time her practice is supposed to end. His eyes lock into Mo Yeon, eagerly untying the laces on her pristine white skates. Her face lights up when she sees him, and just the sight of her smile makes his previously iron will waver. As if she can detect it, her smile falters as well, piquing Si Jin’s curiosity.

 

“Yoo Si Jin,” she greets. “You actually came.”

 

The speech he had prepared to tell her disappears without a trace.

 

“Of course I did. But I’m going to have to blow you off this time,” he winces at the lack of tact in his words. His mind grasps helplessly at the remaining wisps of what he meant to say. “The speed skating competition is coming up, and I have to focus on that.”

 

His own words are like blows to his chest. He’s positive that it sounds like he’s choosing speed skating over her. But to his surprise, Mo Yeon’s face can only be described as relieved. She takes a look at his perplexed expression, and smiles sheepishly, lowering her gaze.

 

“I’m glad you said it first,” she reveals, and suddenly, all of Si Jin’s worries evaporate. “I was going to tell you that I had scheduled all my free time to extra practices until next figure skating competition.”

 

His lips curve upwards without a command, his heart warm from finding someone who understands his love for sport.

 

“Then, let’s postpone our first date until both our competitions have concluded - to celebrate our gold medals,” Si Jin proposes. He finds it adorable that Mo Yeon’s face reddens at the very mention of the word “date.” To be fair, it also doubles his heart rate. “I’ll even come and cheer you on.”

 

“Good, my costume is amazing,” she smirks.

 

“Ah, but have you seen my uniform?” He counters in a lowered voice.

 

She bursts out laughing at the thought of Si Jin in a skin tight speed skating suit, helmet, and glasses. Si Jin cries out, feigning offence.

 

“I’ll definitely come, just to see how ridiculous you look.”

 

He his head one of the many posters on the pillars, advertising each regional skating event. “Which one is yours?”

 

“The Seoul Capital Area Figure Skating Competition, on the 27th, at the Mokdong Ice Rink,” she recites.

 

She watches Si Jin’s face fall, the ghost of a smile on his lips. Meanwhile, Si Jin is deciding whether fate is in his favour, or conspiring against him.

“The Junior Speed Skating Open is on the 27th, at the Taereung Indoor Ice Rink.”

 

---

A/N: Hello, everyone! Thanks again for all your support. My midterm exams still aren't over (and won't be until mid-November), but I couldn't help but write this story in between study sessions. Updates will still be slow, but hopefully you can bear with me :)

I can't find much information on how South Korea handles their skating competitions, so I'm going off what little knowledge I have of how Canada does it.

Edited on 11/06/2016 for formatting errors and tiny plot changes.