***
A couple of months later
 

The cold winter days are finally taking their last breaths in Seoul city and you couldn’t wait until those beautiful warm sunrays would make their entrance again and highlight every building, every person, every park and even your dearest skatepark.

The skatepark. Since the cold and never ending snow fell and beautifully covered the whole city, you weren’t able to visit or skate even once there. They even closed the park for a couple of weeks because it was way too dangerous to keep it open and risk someone getting injured by slipping on the ramps.

But, just because it was winter time in Korea didn’t mean that you had to stop skating for a couple of months. In fact, your interest in skating just increased even more during that time because of your passionate boyfriend. He did make a huge impact on you with his main interest.

It was mainly because he started taking skating seriously since the call he got from Mr. Lovison. He offered Yongguk to re-sign the contract that has been changed according to Yongguk’s wishes, with exceptions here and there. They didn’t want to make a bad name about the competition and that’s why they were willing to change some things, as long as the winner is satisfied.

A week after Yongguk received the call, he flew back to the US for a big meeting with the event organizers and Adrian Lovison, the head of the skating festival. Once that was settled, Yongguk directly took the next flight home and picked up the check he won.

With that money he had to invest at least forty percent on something skate-related and the rest he could keep to himself. Being the great skater he is, he invested one hundred percent by buying a bigger part of the skate hall that was located near your apartment. He remodeled some parts with the help of the former owner who was still responsible for some minor parts.

It was really stressful for him in the beginning and you didn’t see him for weeks because of his busy schedule. He began putting his soul into this project and you were more than happy to see him like that at this young age, considering the fact that he didn’t went to college and instead continued doing something he burned for.

After three very difficult months, his hard work paid off and he could finally open his very own skate hall which everyone was so excited about. Only then, you went back to see him regularly a few times a week since you were busy too.

While your boyfriend owned a skate hall and finally was living his dream, you on the other hand still worked on your own. You were now in the middle of your first year in college and it was perfect although it could be stressful from time to time. Especially the weeks before your exams. But it was worth it since it was something you liked doing. Design was your thing and you couldn’t wait until after college to maybe start your own business.

With your part-time job at JR’s, you continued working with the things you liked so life was pretty much great. Working at a skate shop and designing skateboards was a dream job for a young girl like you. Time flew by fast but you didn’t mind at all since you lived life like there was no tomorrow.

You even started saving money so you can go and visit your parents during the summer break. Yongguk was going too and he even suggested to pay the flight for both of you, but being the independent girl you are, you denied his offer of course. Since he knew better than arguing with you, he let you do however you wanted.

Since it was the end of March and Yongguk’s birthday was right in front of your door, you had to get him a birthday gift. He has been busy these couple of days by preparing his first skating competition so he didn’t have time to see you which was good for you since you didn’t want him to question your many hours that you spent at JR’s.

Every day, after your shift, you would stay a little bit more with JR and design a one of a kind skateboard design for Yongguk. A tiger design with his own signature over the whole plank. It was the same signature that he has at the entrance of his skate hall. You even decided to use his favorite brand of wheels just to give the skateboard more personality.

Balancing school, work, social life and even love life wasn’t that easy but you didn’t complain. Being on your own had its cons and pros and you were aware of that.

You just arrived home from a long school day and decided to eat something before meeting up with JR and finishing some last things on the skateboard since Yongguk’s birthday was in a few days and your schedule was really tight ahead. As you threw your shoes to the side and entered your small kitchen, you heard a very weak knock on your front door. Knowing exactly who it was you shouted from the kitchen while making yourself a sandwich.

“It’s open!”

Two seconds later you heard the door open and short steps were taken across your floor.

“Where are you?” Sulli’s calm voice echoed through the apartment.

“In the kitchen!”

“Well, of course,” she laughed and entered the kitchen too.

“Laugh away,” you commented mockingly, “At least I’m the one who gets to enjoy this delicious sandwich.”

She rolled her eyes and continued on laughing at your childish behavior.

Sulli was living two blocks away from you which you didn’t know until the second week when you ran into her at the closest store. When you first met her in the beginning, she did tell you all that she lived near the skate hall, on the other side of Seoul, but you totally forgot about it.

Ever since you moved to this apartment that Zico’s parents owned, you have got closer to Sulli. The two of you would hang out at least five times a week and you enjoyed it. Since you were now living on the other side of town, you didn’t have to bump into Gyuri every time you would go out with your friends. When you are at work, you had to bear with her face that you always saw when she got home from wherever she was, but you couldn’t care less about her presence and just treated her like air.

She tried a couple of times in the beginning to talk to you and make you forgive her but the third time she brought up the issue, you cut her off once and for all. When you say that you don’t give second chances then you really mean it. You don’t like it when people don’t take you for granted because you are serious about things like this.

Ever since your last argument with Gyuri, she has been avoiding your whole friend cycle, including Yongguk, and you were more than satisfied about that. Having her out of the picture meant having less drama to deal with.

“So what are your plans for today?” Sulli asked after she made herself something to eat.

“Let’s see…” you slowly chewed on your food, “I’m going over to JR’s in a bit to finish off Yongguk’s skateboard design. After that I just want to take it slow for the rest of the day ‘cause this girl right here is exhausted.”

“Sounds good,” she commented while nodding her head, “I bet Yongguk will fall in love with your skateboard once he lays his eyes on it.”

“He better does,” you furrowed your eyebrows, “I spent hours and hours on it.”

“Tell me about it,” She rolled her eyes, “JB can’t stop complaining about how you and JR are anti-social whenever you are working on the design.”

“Well… can you blame me?”

“No, silly,” she chuckled, “It’s really sweet of you. Look what love does to you.”

“Shut up.”

“I mean only t-“

“I said shut up Sulli!” you could feel the embarrassment taking over your face because she was right. This was not your usual behavior.

“Alright, alright,” she made a grimace before taking a bite from her food.

“Do you want to come with me?” you asked her instead.

“Hmm…” she titled her head to the side while chewing on the bread, “Yeah, why not. I don’t have any plans.”

“Eat up so we can head over,” you told her as you left your empty plate in the sink.

***

“Wow it’s really nice,” Sulli commented impressed once she caught sight of the skateboard laying under the counter.

“I know right?!” JR clapped excited, feeling as accountable for the design as you did.

You let out a dry laugh as you shook your head at his actions. You picked up some last small things that you needed to put on the sides as JR prepared the tools. JB was sitting right behind Sulli and rested his head tiredly on her shoulder.

“I don’t have anything to say,” he said once the familiar silence filled the shop again.

Since your attention was on the skateboard, you could only hear Sulli chuckle before you heard a small slap which you assumed was hers too since JB made a silly comment that earned it.

“You have to hold it now in this place,” JR guided you while screwing the first small silver plate on one of the sides.

You did as told before he continued on doing his job. Just then you heard the doorbell ring, mentioning for you that someone entered the shop although it was past closing time.

With furrowed eyebrows you lifted your head and looked towards the door only to be greeted my three very familiar faces. Amber was the first one to enter the shop only to have Daehyun and Youngjae right behind her.

“Guys, you have no idea what just happened!” Daehyun shouted once he closed the door behind him.

“Are you really going to do this now?” Amber rolled her eyes in annoyance.

You and JR exchanged looks before turning towards them again.

“What happened?” you arched your right eyebrow and waited for him to continue.

“Amber just…” he started laughing hysterically, “she just…” his laugh increased for each second that passed, “She just checked out a guy right in front of our eyes!”

Everyone, including Youngjae, glared at him in suspicion. Something was wrong with that guy.

“I didn’t see anything,” Youngjae raised his hands in the air.

“Yes you did!” Daehyun pointed at him with a serious face, totally killing his uncontrollable laugh from just seconds ago.

“I did not,” Youngjae gave him a death glare before walking up to the counter.

“What do you want to say with that, Dae?” JR squinted his eyes at him.

“I think I know!” Sulli shouted from the side.

“What are you talking about?” Daehyun stared confused at everyone.

“Look what you did,” Amber let out a sigh before slapping the back of his head slightly and following after Youngjae.

“What did I do?! I just shared that nice moment you had.”

“Just shut up.”

“You two, it’s enough,” Youngjae rubbed his temples, “It’s just obvious that Daehyun is jealous.”

“What?!” both Daehyun and Amber shouted at the same time, making the rest of you laugh right away.

Lately, the two of them have been having those small fights regularly, making everyone suspicions about the reason to why. All of you have accepted the thought that there might be something between them in the future but you didn’t want to jump into conclusions and decided to wait till both of them realized it.

“That is so not true!” Daehyun denied.

“Shhh,” Youngjae put his finger in front of his mouth, “Just stop. You are giving me headache.”

“Where are Himchan and Luna? I haven’t seen them in a while,” you tried to change the subject and save Amber from this awkward situation because you knew her too well to understand that she didn’t know how to handle situations like this.

“Oh, they are in a very special situation,” Youngjae nodded his head slightly.

“Why?”

“They are off to Luna’s place. She wanted to introduce Himchan to her grandparents who are staying over for the weekend.”

“Oh snap,” you heard JB’s voice.

“Wow, totally taking their relationship to another level,” Sulli commented.

You only nodded your head in agreement. You and Yongguk haven’t come that far, partly because you just wanted to take everything slowly but also because your grandparents are in the US so it would be hard to do so.

“They said hi, by the way,” said Daehyun after calming down.

“Woah!” Youngjae shouted out of nowhere and when you looked at him you saw him stare at Yongguk’s skateboard, “That… is incredible!”

“Really?”

“I’m telling you! If hyung doesn’t like it, please give it to me okay?”

“Go away, Jae,” pushed him jokingly over the counter and went back to finishing the skateboard.

“Okay, okay jeez.”

***

It was the day of Yongguk’s birthday so you were on your way over to the skate hall where he was fixing some last things before heading with you off to a restaurant where you would meet his mother. He promised both of you to treat you for a birthday dinner and you couldn’t wait since you were starving. You didn’t eat anything the whole day just to save more space in your stomach for the delicious three course dinner.

After your meal, you and Yongguk decided to go out to a random club with your friends to celebrate his birthday in a more wild way and you were excited for that as well because you haven’t had fun like that in a while from all the school work that has taken over your schedule.

As you slowly entered the skate hall and your ears were greeted by the sounds of wheels rolling around on the fresh and new ramps, you walked around the hall with Yongguk’s birthday gift behind your back.

You looked around and smiled from the sight of lots of younger kids, skating around and having their time of their lives. It was a sight that warmed your heart and you could understand why Yongguk enjoyed spending time in here.

“Oh, noona you’re here!” you heard Zelo’s voice echo through the whole hall as your head automatically turned his way.

“And she already brought the present!” Jongup, who was standing right next to Zelo, pointed out the item you were holding.

“Shhh,” you waved your hands at them, “You don’t have to let him know in advance,” you whisper yelled.

“Sorry,” Jongup mouthed as he showed you a very nervous smile.

“Teacher, can you teach me how to make the Jin Ah slide?” you saw a little boy go up to Zelo as you continued on walking towards the office.

“Of course, but are you good enough for that? I mean, only really good skaters like me can do it,” he joked before ruffling the little boy’s hair.

Zelo and Jongup were one of the few teachers at the moment that were volunteering in helping young kids improve in their skating skills.

Ever since Yongguk opened the skate hall, he started inventing new things and trends. One of them was renaming the old bert-slide, which you used the first time on Yongguk, to the famous Jin Ah slide that beat Seoul’s best skater. Everyone, including you, thought that it was the sweetest thing someone could ever do and that made you appreciate his work even more.

“Jin?” a familiar dark and calm voice spoke from beside you, interrupting your train of thoughts.

You looked to your side and saw Yongguk leaning on the doorframe to his office with a surprised look on his face once he saw the wrapped skateboard in your hands.

“Aish, you are not supposed to see this yet,” you said disappointed.

“Oh really? Okay, I can pretend like I didn’t see anything,” he covered his eyes with one of his hands and began laughing cutely.

You just rolled your eyes and walked up to him to gently jerk his hand off of his beautiful face that you wanted to see. His smile reminded you a lot of his father’s but he hated hearing that.

Once Yongguk fixed everything with your college entrance with his father’s help, he didn’t try to contact him anymore. Nor did his father, as much as he wanted to. Yongguk decided that it was best this way since the two of them lived completely two different lives. Some things can’t always go as planned and bringing a father and a son back together is one of them.

“You sure aren’t tired of my face,” he said out of nowhere as he lifted your face with his index finger.

You blinked a couple of times before blowing hot air on his face, making him take a step back from shock.

“Really now?” he glared down at you.

“Yes sir,” you nodded your head and walked past him and into the office where you immediately headed towards his desk and chair.

You placed his skateboard on his desk and mentioned for him to open it, “Happy birthday babe.”

“Now?”

“Yes now. I want you to leave the skateboard here. It’s not like you can carry it to the restaurant.”

“Alright then,” he chuckled and didn’t hesitate before tearing the wrap away from the board. Once his eyes caught sight of the plank, he froze in his spot and just glared at it for a few seconds.

You sat there in silence and waited for him to say something.

“This is…” he picked the skateboard up,”… amazing,” he whispered the last part as he turned to look at you. “This is perfect. Thank you.”

You stood from the chair and walked up to stand right in front of him as he caressed every little detail on the skateboard with his hand.

“Really? You really like it?”

“Are you serious? I love it,” he smiled widely and put it to the side just to drag you closer to him and rest his hands on your waist, “Do you love me this much to make such a perfect piece?”

“Wow, stop exaggerating.”

“I’m serious. I’m so serious that I would like to make love to you right here and right now,” a small smirk crept onto his thick lips.

“Yah!”

“I know I know. I won’t do it right now. But tonight after the club, you should be prepared.”

“Really now?” you played along which made him smile even wider.

He nodded once satisfied, “Yes, but now it’s time for dinner, Jin Ah baby.”