Status quos were a big deal in high school, whether they like it or not people have some kind of labels on them. The athletic ones were the jocks, pretty cheerleaders by their sides of course, people who would rather read were dubbed as nerds and so on and so forth. Most of the time, popular people date each other, like how royalty should marry royalty, it was like that for as long as people know and no one actually tried to stop it.

Well, that was what Kyungsoo thought, and in the social hierarchy he would put himself as a baker. Don’t ask him why he thinks of himself as a baker he just wants to. He would put his best friend as either a jester or as the guy who announces news because of how much he loves social media. As for his crush, of course he would be the school’s prince. A prince who wouldn’t stop following him, even though there was a more than wiling princess pining over the said prince.

Wait, what?

Let us start from the beginning.

Kyungsoo was a simple student like everybody else -except for being asocial because of his ever growing anxiety, oh and don’t forget about him being an awkward introvert. He might think of himself as a baker in his imaginary analogy, but he doesn’t have a label to himself. He has enough friends to not be classified as a loner, he gets an occasional fail when it comes to grades so he’s no nerd. Maybe one of the anime weebs or gamer geeks? Yeah, maybe he’s one of them.

“Kyungsoo!” He heard from outside of his bedroom. Based on how the vowels were drawn out and the familiar pitch of the voice, he had to say it’s his best friend. However, he doesn’t want to move his current position. He already found the most comfortable spot in his bed, his whole body already wrapped in warm thick blankets because he could still feel the remnants of winter, the curtains drawn close, and the only light in the room was from his laptop in front of him playing his favorite anime. He’d rather have his friend barging in than move.

When his friend didn’t get an acknowledgment, he slammed the door open with his phone in his hand. “Hello, Baekhyun.” Kyungsoo greeted, not looking up from his laptop.

“Kyungsoo! You promised we’ll go out today!” Baekhyun whined then went to Kyungsoo’s drapes and harshly dragged them open. Kyungsoo groaned and buried himself further in his blanket shield. “D’ya have to do that?” he slowly poked his head out of his blanket, enough for his owlish eyes glare at Baekhyun.

“Of course, wait you’re seriously re-watching Yuri!!! On Ice?” His over excited best friend jumped on the bed beside him, successfully ruining the tranquil that Kyungsoo built.

“So? I don’t point you out on your Hamilton obsession?” Kyungsoo shrugged the blankets so it drapes on his shoulders. “And admit it, you like this masterpiece too, I’ve seen you re-watched it.” He paused on the part where Chris, a Swiss skater in the anime, d his own . Both of the boys cringed and skipped it to a more suitable part.

“And you my friend had become obsessed with Lin Manuel’s masterpiece too.”

“Touché.”

Baekhyun hopped off the bed, stretching his arms over his head with a yawn. “Come on Soo, we shouldn’t cope ourselves in the dorms for the weekends! We should go out, you know ‘take a break~’” he sang the last part in a familiar tune.

Kyungsoo didn’t want to leave the dorms thank you very much. He’d rather stay inside where there was no possibility to interact with other humans. Somewhere his nerves wouldn’t fry at the thought of talking spontaneously to other people. Like his comfy bed, in which he promised that he wouldn’t leave.

In all honesty, there were only a few places where he can relax. The practice room and the old music room in their school, which was close for the weekends, and-

“If you agree, we’ll go to the ice rink.” Yep that was one of it.

As a child, his parents wanted him to get out and have some exercise in whatever sport rather than just sing (They’re supportive of him singing but they want him to be in some way athletic). They quickly learned that Kyungsoo hated sweating much, heat and that he couldn’t swim how much he tries. They were about to give up, when they bought him to their friend’s ice rink just for fun. At first Kyungsoo just held on to his parents, scared of falling over and possibly hurt himself.

He could feel the bite of the cold on his nose and how runny it is, but he liked the sound of skates gliding on the ice. When he got the gist of it, he started skating ahead of his parents, liking how smooth he is while moving. Sometime later, he convinced his parents to enroll him for skating classes. From beginners learning how to do figures, he learned his first jump, then kept on advancing because he felt the fun of it. But he never had the urge to compete; he just did it for the feel of it. He met Baekhyun because of ice skating, in one of the skating clubs he entered, both of them were just skating for fun and have no desire to compete.

Okay, so maybe they had competed in local and national junior competitions but trust them when they say they wouldn’t compete internationally.

Now that he is in college, a year away from graduating at that, his time with the ice is getting lesser and lesser. So when he saw the news about a new figure skating anime, he could feel his old inner skating otaku and inner weeb scream in happiness. And when he saw how there was a healthy gay relationship in it too, he had to dub it as the best anime he will ever see.

Hearing his friend say ice rink made him perk up, he could see Baekhyun’s cheeky grin when he saw the subtle change within his friend’s demeanor.

“Only if we’re going to Joonmyun’s rink then I’m sold.”

Maybe he should go out and skate, rather than coop up in his room and binge watch the show again.

 It might do him some good, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

Kyungsoo hummed to ‘Stammi Vicino’ while securely tying his skates. He blushed when he remembered that his crush had skated to it, something that is just for fun. It was either his crush had watched the anime, or saw it as something cool to cover to. It was an impressive cover because he nailed all of Viktor’s jumps, the first time he let the world know he had mastered the almost fictional quad flip, and his step sequences were beautiful.

Either way it made Kyungsoo have a temporary heart attack.

The pale boy shook his head and stood up. He should get these thoughts out of his head. His stupid little crush on a younger yet more advanced figure skater would do him no good.

Jongin’s the Ice Prince, while he was only a baker.

With a sigh, he went towards the entrance to the ice. Baekhyun was already gliding across the ice, a content smile on his lips as he did some easy step sequences and figures. They were lucky that a hockey team had reserved it, yet cancelled due to their coach and captain getting ill. Talk about luck. Now they have the whole Ice rink to themselves.

Joonmyun, the owner and close friend of theirs, had given them a speaker so they could skate to whatever music they want to. As of now classical music is playing, a piano tune that Kyungsoo knew he had it on his playlist, but didn’t know the title to.

“Hey! Are you using my phone?” He screamed at the gliding brunette. Baekhyun laughed as he skated backwards and shrugged with a smile.

“Just for that we’re skating to Yuri on Ice OSTs!”

“Oh, you’re on my katsudon best friend!” Baekhyun skated towards to the barrier where Kyungsoo’s phone was placed, Kyungsoo following him. He tapped on the Yoi playlist and picked ‘Shall We Skate’.

“Really? Are you secretly a Thai skater?” Kyungsoo teased his friend, only to earn a soft poke on his side. Baekhyun went to the center and waited for the music.

“It’s either that or Intoxicated~” Kyungsoo scrunched up his nose at the thought of his friend doing that routine. He played the music before the teasing male changes his mind.

What do you see from there? 
People sing royal anthem, Your majesty... 

As the music played, Baekhyun skated like how Phichit skated on the show. A smile and energy with every move he made. Kyungsoo had to smile at that. He knew Baekhyun likes theatre and wishes to make it big through his singing. But if that doesn’t go well, he would go put on an ice show like the Thai character would in the anime.

The puppy-like boy’s jumps were clean, from the triple Axel, to the Combination, to the Quad toe loop and his spins were full of energy. Kyungsoo expected him to compete in the long term in figure skating, but the male didn’t want stress, he just want to have fun.

By the end of the routine, he struck the pose. He was panting, but there was a smile on his face.

“I perfected it! Wheeee!!!” He twirled in the ice and eventually slipped. Baekhyun winced as he rubbed his stinging .

Kyungsoo laughed at his friend, skating towards him to help him up.

“Now your turn Soo!” Baekhyun glided towards his phone and played ‘Stammi Vicino’. Kyungsoo stood dumbfounded at the center. Baekhyun rolled his eyes and stopped the music. “Come on Soo, I know you memorized the whole routine!” He wiggled his eyebrows at the sight of his friend slowly turning red. “Even the Duetto~”

Kyungsoo thinks he’s as red as a tomato because of the embarrassing fact. He should’ve not let his best friend see him practice the romantic duet, all alone and imagining a partner with him as he glides on the ice. He cursed at his past self for not paying attention to his surroundings at that time, to busy imagining a certain ice skater as he did so.

He groaned in annoyance, yet posed for the start of the routine. Baekhyun grinned and started the song. As the first note hits, Kyungsoo’s bowed head raised up and he took the expression of a longing lover. He kicked of the ice with grace he wished he had on non-slippery grounds. He almost broke character when he thought of the irony, a walking disaster on land but (in Baekhyun’s words) a graceful swan on the ice.

As he took off on a downgraded jump, he thought of how much Katsuki Yuuri and him are alike. They both are particularly much better on step sequence than jumps, stubbornly determined, and are reaching for something near impossible, a longing. However, Yuuri wanted to be on the same ice as his idol and Kyungsoo would rather just watch from afar, catering his unrequited feelings rather than get close to get more fond and break his heart.

The step sequence in which the skater has to reach out to someone comes up, and Kyungsoo decided to do that to Baekhyun. He did want to thank the puppy like boy for being such a supportive friend who always had his back in times of need. Even if he is kind of annoying.

Baekhyun laughed and low fived Kyungsoo’s outstretched hand before the raven haired boy skated backwards. He did the quad toe followed by a triple, the finally a combination spin. As he strike the final pose, breath heaving, and cheeks tinted pick, he heard a whistle and applause from none other than his friend.

“Wow, Soo! That was like the best cover I have seen anyone had made!” Baekhyun fan-boyed a bit, eyes looking as if he was about to cry from being too proud. “Your expression- just wow! It’s making me want to make you pursue skating competitively again.”

Kyungsoo was about to rebut the compliments -come on he downgraded the jumps and more professional skaters had also skated to this more beautifully- when they heard clapping among the bleachers.

Both heads turned towards the opposite end of the rink where the audience is supposed to be, to see a lone but unmistakably familiar figure. Sitting on the bleachers with his dufflebag on his side, is Jongin smiling so brightly Kyungsoo can see his eyes shaped into crescents as he waved at them.

“Hyung I never knew you skated? You also know Yuri!!! on Ice? That’s so cool!” Kyungsoo blinked owlishly at the new comer to process all of this before his mind short circuited. He moved on auto-pilot, skating the equivalent to running to get of the ice and waddled as fast as he could to his stuff.

Baekhyun had his mouth gaping like a fish as he looked at Kyungsoo, who already had his skates off in record time -’They should make a sport out of that’ Baekhyun’s mind supplied-, then to Jongin, who by now realized that the other is trying to escape and is now hastily gathering his stuff to reach them.

But the younger was too slow for Kyungsoo, by the time he laced up his shoes, he threw his bag over his shoulders, and bolted to the door without changing his clothes, and getting his skates.

“Hyung-- wait!”

“Kyungsoo your skates!”

But Kyungsoo pushed through the doors leading to the lobby and sprinted to the exit without telling Joonmyeon a goodbye, Baekhyun would just bring back his skates anyway.

As he ran towards the direction of his dorm he can’t help but yell. “WHAT THE HELL WORLD!? THAT WAS SO EMBARRASSING! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO DO THAT KYUNGSOO?!”

He ran until he got to his room and slid under the cover, just trying to forget the most embarrassing he had ever done.

‘I unintentionally skated a love song in front of my crush, well it wasn’t directed to him so that’s good… But it was embarrassing to show my horrible skating… Better stick to singing and acting Soo cause that’s where you belong.’

Kyungsoo sighed and felt his heart now beating steadily… Maybe he was just overreacting, by this time tomorrow maybe Jongin wouldn’t remember his routine, and he’ll just go on his merry life and skate after a week of this. Yeah, when Baekhyun gives his skates back he’ll lay low for a bit then come back.

With a sigh, he slid deeper into his covers.

Yeah, maybe he should have stayed at home and watched YOI.