There he was again. Outside in the cold winter evening, skateboarding with his friends. He wore the same, plain style of clothing every week. Plain, but it fit him perfectly. A white beanie with a white sweatshirt, matched with faded blue jeans and a pair of black board shoes.

Lily and her friend got closer to them as they shuffled towards the rink from the plaza beside it. She wore a puffy, white jacket and had her hood over her head, hiding from the cold breeze. Getting closer to the boy, she lowered her hood and looked down at the ground while walking, hoping the boy wouldn't see her.

She was nervous and didn't know why. It was just one boy. It just happened one day while she was skating with her friends. They pointed him out, said he was cute, and she fell for him. A boy she didn't even know about or talk to, even once. A boy that probably didn't even know she existed.

But she was so sure he knew she existed. The way he looked at her. She felt his eyes on her. Her friends noticed his eyes on her. The way he just glanced, maybe even stared at her multiple times he skated by her, whether she was off the rink or skating. He couldn't have not acknowledged her existence, considering those long glances.

Or perhaps she was wrong. Maybe they were for someone behind her, or she was imagining things.

No, she couldn't be. As much as she forced herself to believe that his attention wasn't on her, she couldn't. It was already too late; she had fallen for him.

Fallen for the way he made her feel special.

What kind of stranger would spend his time looking at her? She had to admit, she wasn't exactly the flawless, beautiful type of girl. She was just average and wore average clothes; sweaters and jeans with converse. The girls he hung out with were far prettier than her, wearing stylish clothes and putting make-up on.

So then why would he look at her?

No, wait, she had to stop thinking he was. He wasn't. It was just a coincidence. A coincidence that she always caught him looking her way. Of course. Nothing else. She had to forget about him, forget ever-

"Look! He's looking at you again!" Her friend beside her whispered excitedly.

Lily snapped out of her thoughts and looked up towards the boy, but couldn't see clearly because it was too dark. Was he looking at her? Her heart skipped a beat.

When she got closer to the boy, she quickly looked down, embarrassed because he might've caught her staring. She quickly walked into the arena, probably looking like a penguin trying not to slip on the ice. Yes, she was that nervous not to make a fool out of herself in front of him.

After getting out of the boy's sight, she sighed a breath of relief and loosened up, going to her usual bench at the top of the bleachers and sat down. She looked over to the door to see if he came in. No sign yet. She pouted inwardly and started untying her shoes and putting her skates on.

In the midst of tying her skate, her friend suddenly whisper-yelled her name, making her jump a little and turn to her with a questioning look.

"Look, he's right there! He was staring at you when he walked in!" She whispered.

Her heart skipped a beat again, her hopes rising again. It has to be. He has to like her. All these glances, looks, stares at her couldn't have been unintentional. She couldn't think of any excuses he could say if she ever dared to ask him about his habit of looking at her. Her hopes just kept getting higher and higher, thinking of all the possibilities between them.

Maybe he would go up to her and say hi. Then introduce himself or something. Maybe he was like those cheesy guys with the lame yet cute pick-up lines. Or maybe he was trying to act like a cool guy. Or what if he was a-

"Lily! I just saw him staring at you, oh my gosh."

She quickly lost what she was thinking about and turned abruptly to the friend that just said that, not believing her. She asked if she was serious.

"Yes, I'm serious! Lily, would I lie to you about this?! He's on the rink right now. Every time he skates past, he looks this way! Right at you! And he stares until he has to turn around!" Her friend exclaimed.

Lily blushed and looked at him, skating around. When he came around to the side she was sitting, she tried paying close attention to where he was looking. She waited... And waited...

"AGAIN!" Her friend squealed.

He made eye contact with her. Full eye contact. Although she would've liked to keep looking at him, it was her instinct to look down, blushing insanely because he had just caught her staring at him. Or what if it was the other way? What if she just caught him staring at her?

She skated around the rink multiple times with her friend, constantly looking for the boy. Sometimes it was hard to find him because she didn't want to look obvious, or he wasn't inside the arena, or he was just too fast for her. Being self-conscious didn't help her situation at all. What if he only liked confident girls? What if he hated the shy type and favoured the aggressive? She would have no chance at all.

Suddenly she felt a breeze of warm yet cool air pass by her. She looked in front of her and saw the guy, then realized he had just skated by her, the warm air being his body heat, and cool air being the speed. Her heart beat sped up, realizing that he just skated by close enough that she could feel his heat.

It wasn't the only time he kept teasing her though. He constantly skated close to her, whether it be just speeding by her, behind her with his friends, or just in front of her.

This can't be good, she thought. I'm just overthinking things...

Half-time came and it was time to get off the ice for them to clean it. Lily got off, but when she looked around for the guy, he was nowhere to be found. His friends weren't around either, so she just assumed they went outside to skateboard or talk. She kind of missed him, since she didn't have any "eye-candy" for the time being, but at least she could focus more on conversations with her friends, even though her mind wandered off occasionally.

The rink opened again and people started flooding onto the rink, but there was still no sign of him. Dejected, Lily went onto the rink with her friends, but couldn't concentrate as she kept looking for him. She wanted to feel special again from his looks, wanted to feel that special... "connection" if she could even call it that. But she didn't tell her friends this of course, otherwise they'd think she was a fool and full of herself. He probably did have a girlfriend, much prettier than her and more outgoing. Maybe he was just looking at her to if he saw her looking at him constantly.

10 minutes after skating had started again, the guy came back in. As she passed the entrance to the rink, she saw him on the bench, putting his skates on and made eye contact with him again, causing her to quickly look away again. Her heart beat sped up. He was finally back.

While Lily and her friend were skating around, she noticed the guy was skating with a girl more often. Looking at her, Lily could see she was really pretty and seemed nice. She felt a little pang in her heart. Was she jealous? Maybe they weren't even going out... Trying not to get her hopes up, she diverted her attention to her friend, but couldn't help not stealing a few glances at the guy and girl, feeling hurt but curious.

He put his hands on the girl's hips and skated around with her, pushing her in front of him. Even though they were doing this, Lily saw him glance over at her a couple of times, leaving her confused and zoned out, ignoring her friend.

Her friend finally noticed that Lily wasn't paying attention, looking over to where her attention was at, landing on the sight of the guy with a girl. The girl looked awfully familiar, but not so familiar that she saw her constantly. After a while of looking, she finally realized where she saw her before.

"Do you think that's his girlfriend?" Lily asked her friend, finally snapping out of it.

Her friend looked back at her, then to the boy and girl together, shaking her head. "I saw her around plenty of other guys, and I think she's just like that with them. She's hugged a lot of guys in their group of friends, and look, they're not even holding hands. Maybe that's just for fun?"

Lily nodded and looked at them again, trying to look for any signs if they actually were dating or not, but couldn't find any. She sighed a little and continued skating with her friend.

"Hey Lily, do you see the guy in the black jacket? With the hat?" Her friend asked suddenly.

"Yeah, why? Isn't he friends with the guy?"

"Yeah, but he's been staring at you. When we were sitting down tying our skates, he was sitting right in front of us, and he looked back and stared at you. Now I caught him staring at you again, skating."

"....... If only that was the guy. We need nicknames for them! This is getting confusing." Lily giggled, feeling flattered but at the same time, disappointed because it wasn't the original guy.

“Hmm... Oh! I think I remember hearing someone say his name. The original one. I think it was Jongin..? But I don’t think we should say his real name aloud; maybe use a code name... something like... Jordan?” Her friend asked.

Lily nodded in agreement and grinned, getting excited. “Jongin...” She whispered silently, testing out his name. It sounded a bit weird at first, since she was used to referring to him as “the guy”. But she’d have to get used to it after all, if she was going to have this obsession any longer. “Then what about the other guy? Should we just refer to him as “the guy” now?” She asked.

Her friend nodded in response and looked around to see if either boys were around, and whispered, “He doesn’t deserve a name if he’s just creeping on you.” Both of them giggled, knowing that she was just joking. They continued skating, but Lily felt a little sad, as there were only 10 minutes of skating left, and nothing happened between her and Jongin yet.

She thought for a while. It was March; she noticed him since around November. It's been 3 months, week after week of stealing glances at each other, and still nothing happened between them. She began to feel hopeless, since skating was officially over for the season next week, and she wouldn't see him until October; another 6 months. Half a year!

The whistle suddenly blew, signalling everyone to get off the ice. Lily looked at the time quickly. 8:59 already?! She was thinking for that long?! Might as well not think, she couldn't look at Jongin for long...

She waited at the boards for people to get off so she could, not wanting to be a part of the pushing and shoving happening. Suddenly, she felt a breeze and someone stopped right at the boards in front of her.

Jongin. Was he smirking?! That looked like a big smirk, as if he meant to scare yet impress her with his stop. She looked away, blushing. She couldn't let him see her like this; even though it was probably obvious, she didn't want him to see her embarrassed face.

After a while, he finally got off first, and she followed right after, heading up the ramp and up the stairs to the top bench of the bleachers with her friend, while he sat at the bench right beside the door. She quickly untied her skates and dried the blades, throwing her skates into her bag and putting her boots on. Lily looked up from putting one of her boots on to look for him, only to see the bench empty. Did he already leave? She pouted and got up when her friend was done, following her friend down the stairs and out to the lobby. She looked up and saw Jongin sitting on the floor with his friends, untying his skates and they both made eye contact again. Why is it when she looks at him, he's always looking back? Is this some sign that they're somehow connected? Or was she just imagining things?

She quickly shuffled out of the arena with her friend, getting into her dad's car to go home. Just one more week until skating is officially over... Lily hoped that something would happen that last week, anything to change her relationship with Jongin. She knew there was still a possibility she could run into him at the mall or something over the break, but it was highly unlikely, and even if they did run into each other, it would only be a split second, and nothing would happen for sure.

------

Throughout the week, Lily couldn't stop thinking about Jongin. She even caught herself daydreaming most of the time during classes, not being able to focus on the work. She tried to busy herself with homework after school, but her mind constantly wandered off. Finally, after a long week, it was Saturday night: the last day of skating for the season.

She got there a little late, so she quickly went up to her normal spot at the top of the bleachers with her friend, then sat down, getting her skates on. She looked up while fixing her jeans over her skates and saw Jongin sitting on his usual bench with his friends, and they both made eye contact when he turned her way. Lily blushed in embarrassment and looked down, putting her boots in her bag and standing up, going down to the skating rink.

Nothing really happened the first half of skating, as Lily was busy helping her other friend try to skate. She knew Jongin skated past her a few times and looked up, but nothing else was special. She sat on the edge of the boards while they cleaned up the ice and he went outside with his friends as usual. However, Lily noticed that one girl in particular was pretty close to Jongin. But then again, all the girls were, so she just brushed it off. She was probably a friend from his school, or could've even been a family member. She remembered that he had been really close to a pair of girls before, and they ended up being his cousins.

The second half of skating started and he went onto the ice with his friends, while Lily stayed with her friends for a bit, waiting for the crowd at the entrance to the rink to diminish. She kept looking for him without thinking, but every time she saw him, he was with a girl. Not even the same girl, it was 4 different girls, either altogether or separately. Either way, it irked her. Perhaps it was jealousy? But she didn’t even know the guy, how could she possibly feel jealous? Maybe it was just a bad feeling about something. Was he actually a bad person on the inside, and just didn’t show it when he was around girls or in public? Was this just a face for him to appear likable on the outside, but on the inside, he was actually a detestable person?

She sighed, getting annoyed with herself. She was thinking way too much; she didn’t even know the guy, for crying out loud! Here she was, assuming random things about this guy, and she was basing her opinion of him from it. Sure, he did dorky things occasionally and appeared sociable, but is that really him? She wouldn’t be able to tell without getting to know him. And she has tried very hard to get the courage to talk to him, but it fails every time. He’s always with friends, and she was too scared of being laughed at for trying to talk to him.

Lily finally decided to get on the ice with her friend, skating around aimlessly once again and chatting with her friend. She kept trying to remind herself that she didn’t know Jongin personally and couldn’t judge him for anything, so she tried focusing on her friend. Very hard. But now, Jongin always skated around her! With a girl! It was really distracting, and she felt like she was being played with.

The end of skating came quickly, and before she knew it, she was already getting up from the bleachers for the last time this skating season, waving to her friends, she went down the stairs and headed towards the entrance with another friend. She hoped that Jongin would be there outside so she could see him one last time before she left.

Lily walked out the doors and looked around for him. She saw him by the exit of the arena, and her heart sped up. She slowly made her way to the exit, but before she could even take a couple steps, she saw a girl run up to Jongin, hugging him and kissing him on the lips. And she swear she saw him looking right at her when his girl did that.

Her heart broke. After all those glances, all those thoughts off him, he ended up having another girlfriend. She couldn't stand seeing them anymore but also didn't have the strength to walk past the couple, so she excused herself to go to the washroom quickly. But instead of going into a stall, she slid down onto the floor by the wall of the door, starting to tear up, feeling tears fall down her cheek.

She had wasted her time. While she was thinking of him, it was obvious that he wasn't reciprocating her feelings. Maybe it was all a joke, or a dare. Or it could've been to get his current girlfriend jealous. She would never know.

Lily suddenly felt a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, uh, are you okay? I heard crying, so I came over..."

She looked up at the sound of a boy's voice. She was in the girl's bathroom... Then again, she was only by the door.

It was the guy that kept staring at her.