Yongguk’s P.O.V

I just showered and put my new washed clothes and cap on. I walked past the kitchen to see my mother sitting there, drinking her morning coffee and reading some newspapers.

“Morning”

“Good morning darling” her eyes didn’t leave the newspaper. “Or noon fits better.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I walked over to the fridge, took a Coke and went on to the living room.
 

Sunday morning, or noon like my mother said. Perfect time to watch some TV, relax and drink a cold drink. I flipped through the channels but there was nothing interesting. Boring. It was only 1pm and the skate competition would not begin until 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
 

Skating is a thing that I and my clique are up to. We have done it since we were in the first grade. Every weekend we meet and skate around at the park, just to kill some time. But now, when it’s summer, everyone has more time and we meet more often with other people too. We have competitions twice a month, and the opponents are pretty good, although no one has ever been able to beat me. I’m the skater of this city, also known as Yongguk the skater.
 

The reason I started to skate isn’t because I thought it was cool, but because I needed it. I live alone with my mother since my father left us when I was a little kid. He disappeared with his lover from work. It was pretty tough for me and my mother so we moved from USA back to Korea. That time I felt bad so I needed time for myself and that’s when I bought my first skateboard. I got it just to ride around the area and spend some time alone thinking about life.
 

Since my father left us, I promised myself to never let either my mother or myself get hurt again. This is one of the reasons why I find it hard to fall in love and therefore I'm never taking girls seriously. Especially the clingy ones. But I’m not doing it on purpose, it’s the girls who are a little too easy.
 

Here I’m now, sitting on the couch, trying to find something interesting to watch. Aish, screw this. I should sleep a little more. Just as I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I picked it up and checked the caller ID. Himchan.

“Hello?”
 

“Yongguk! What’s up?” he sounded excited.
 

”Not much, just lazing around. You?” I asked back, not so interested in the answer. 
 

“I’m at the skate park with Daehyun and… Ay yo sweetheart, wait for me!” 
 

“Himchan!” I tried to get back his attention.
 

“Oh sorry. It was just a hot chick there, I couldn’t miss the chance. Anyways, we thought that you would come over so we can hang out a little.”
 

“I don’t know, maybe later. I want to sleep now. Peace,” just as I wanted to hang up someone called after me.
 

“No wait!”
 

“What now?” suddenly, I heard someone slapping someone else and the phone switched from one person to another.
 

“Hyung, forget about what he said,” it was Daehyun. “He ran after some girls now. But see you later. Bye!”
 

I put the phone back in my pocket and closed my eyes again. It was so quiet at home and I liked it. It has been like this since… forever. I have no siblings, which is nice, but Zelo is so often at my house so it feels like a little brother. Slowly I started to fall asleep in this wonderful silence when all of the blue, I heard some strange noises coming from the outside. Really?!
 

I tried to ignore the sounds and get back to sleep but it was so disturbing that it was impossible. The noises were coming from a huge truck and I could hear some people too.

“Gukkie, come here!” my mother called from the kitchen.
 

“Why? I want to sleep!” while lying right here on this wonder couch, the last thing I wanted was to leave it.
 

“Come quickly, you have to see this!”
 

There was no point of sitting there and arguing with her because she wouldn’t give up. So, I got up and walked to the kitchen. She stood near the window and looked out curiously as if it was raining money or something.

“What?”
 

She waved me over and I walked closer to her to take a look at what she was looking at. It was the truck I just heard.

“Looks like we got new neighbours.”
 

“Good for you mom,” I sighed in dispeblief, “You know what, I’m out. I’m going to the park to meet the others.”
 

She just nodded her head with her eyes still on the truck. I put my shoes on and took my skateboard and my facemask. When I was outside, I put my left foot on the skateboard and shoved with the right one slowly. I drove past the truck and saw that most of the furniture and boxes were already in front of the house. The things I could see, looked pretty expensive. Must be a rich family.

”Mom, where is my bag?!” I heard a female voice, she was on her way out so I hurried away.

***

There were a lot of people at the skate park. Everyone came just to see today’s competition. I looked around and spotted my friends at a table in the corner. I skated up to them just to receive a paper ball from Himchan.

“What is this?” I looked down at the piece of paper that was in my hands.
 

”Open it,” he wiggled with his eyebrows.
 

I looked at him confused then down at the ball. I opened it just to find a phone number written in there.

“What is this?” I repeated my question from before.
 

“There is this really hot girl who has a really hot friend and I wanted to hook you up with her friend, so she left her number and said that you should call her,” he gasped for some air, after saying this really fastly.
 

“Really?” I arched my eyebrows in interest. Rule #1, never turn down anything like this.
 

He nodded and made thumbs up with his hands. I put the paper in my pocket and sat down next to them. We had fun for a while and as usual, Zelo and Jongup couldn’t stop laughing and embarrassing themselves. The time went by quickly and people began to gather around the ramp.

“It’s show time!” Youngjae jumped up while putting his facemask on, “Come on hyung, show them what you got!”
 

“Always” I smirked and went up.
 

There were many participants, but I already know most of them. The competition isn’t complicated. It goes like this: everyone starts skating and doing some freestyle, there are judges who are near the ramp and are watching over every single participant. We have numbers on our T-Shirts and the judges call us after them.
 

The music started which means, the competition is on. It was me and Zelo from our group. The rest didn’t want to join today. Me and Zelo skated forward to the other participates and started doing some freestyle. We jumped, switched ramps, skated around and did some pirouettes in the air. Soon, number after number was called out. Suddenly, I heard the judges call on number 14, which was Zelo’s. He was out. I looked around to find him and check on him, but I spotted him skating towards the others. He turned around and waved to show that he was happy. I continued to skate and stayed until we were just three.
 

“Okay guys, now numbers 5, 13 and 17 are left. This means it’s time for the seeeemi finaaaaaaale~” shouted one of the judges in the microphone.
 

The semi-final consists of three parts. One is about creativity, the other about skating on handrails and the third is about going up in height. The higher the better.

The first one is the easiest. These who aren’t able to do some creative freestyle are just retarded idiots. But all three made it.

In the second part, number 5 didn’t make it so she was eliminated. It was my turn. I grabbed my skateboard and jumped on it. I skated around a little before approaching the hand trails. I leaned a bit forward to grab the skateboard and jumped on one of the handrails. I drifted through it and landed nicely on the ground again. Good job Yongguk!

Number 17 was after me and he did pretty good too except the landing, which could have been a little better.
 

“Now guys, take a little break and afterwards we will go on with the finale!” announced the judge.
 

Everyone shouted, whistled and applauded. The judges turned off the music and I skated past everyone to reach the table where the guys were sitting.

“I knew it!” Youngjae came up and high-fived me.
 

”Just as usual,” Daehyun winked under his mask.
 

We were sitting at the table and it was getting darker. The yellow and red lights went on, and thus highlighted all the colors of the graffiti on the walls. While the others talked about how awesome I was and how I will own in the next round, I looked around to enjoy the view of all the colors and people who were gathered.
 

Suddenly I saw a girl, which I haven’t seen before, entering the skate park on her skateboard. She had a red cap and a red face mask just as ours. Who is that?

I have never seen her before but she was hot. She looked pretty confident while skating into the park and looking around, but it was still obvious that she was here for the first time.

“Yongguk, heard about the party that Zico will have next Saturday?” Himchan tapped me on the shoulder.
 

“Not really,” I replied but my eyes didn’t leave the girl.
 

“Oh, hyung we should totally go!” said Jongup while nodding to the music that again, which meant that it was time for the finale.
 

“We’ll see,” I looked at them and went up “...but now it’s time to own again,” I did the yes-sir sign and skated away.
 

The third and last part. Skating in the height.

I and number 17 shifted after each ramp. We owned one ramp after another, and it became higher and higher. We were now at the second last. It was 9 metres high. I stood on the deck and looked down. This seems much harder than I thought. It was my turn so I took a deep breath and came closer to the cope. I was standing on my skateboard and slowly rolled down before the speed increased for each second that passed. I arrived at the bottom and started to skate upwards. As I approached the other side, I bent down a little to take hold of the skateboard and just when I was coming up, I pulled the skateboard and landed on my feet.

Everyone applauded like mad. Now, it was the other guy’s turn. He tried to act cool and relaxed but I could see from his hands that he was shaking. He was afraid.

He prepared himself and rolled down. Just when he was about to reach the bottom, he lost his balance and crashed down. I could hear everyone’s oh-s and sighs, but he seemed okay. I looked down at him and smirked. Good try bro.

***

It was time to announce the winner and receive the medal. I stood next to the judges with the guys, and waited for my name to be called. I looked around and saw how everyone were smiling and cheering. At the front, in the first line, I spotted the girl I saw before. She still had the mask on and looked around at all the crazy people. I could see that she didn’t understand what was happening. She turned her head and that was when our eyes met. She looked at me and eyed me from head to toe and I mirrored her actions right away because this is a game I constantly play with other girls. It is now that most girls would look away but she kept her gaze on me. Interesting
 

I still looked at her, just to mess with her but she didn’t look away. Instead, she took away her mask from and that's when her hotness hit me in my face. It was her confident posture with her determined looks that made her stand out from the crowd.

“Hyung?! They called you!” I heard Zelo panic behind me.
 

“Chillax,” I tapped his shoulder and went forward to the judges.

As I walked up to the judges, I politely accepted my medal and turned to face the audience before doing an upside-down peace pose.

“So, is there anyone who wants to show Yongguk that they are better?” one of the judges asked the audience. This is a part of the competition. Someone from the audience can get the chance to ‘show me’ what they got. But as usual there wasn’t anyone. I’m too good for the-
 

“Yes there we have one!” the judge pointed at the audience.
 

I couldn’t really believe that this was happening but, I’m the best so bring it on.

When I followed the judge’s hand to see who he was pointing at, I was shocked to see who the person that was holding a hand up was.  

It was the girl.