Water bottle. Check. 

Towels. Check. 

Extra clothes. Check.

Gloves. Check. 

Skates, blade guards and all that jazz. Check. 

Laptop, notebook, pencil. Check. 

Just like any other weekday, Seulgi dragged her bag along with her to the place she’d call a second home, Mokdong rink. Seulgi had been training at this rink since she was five. Eleven years later, on this warm spring morning, she was still training there. Nothing much about the place had changed, it was well maintained and the ice was surfaced regularly. However, over these eleven years, it would be an understatement to say that Seulgi’s skating had been improving. She was flourishing and you could say that she was also at the peak of her career. 

“Morning, Taem,” Seulgi greeted her friend who was rolling out his muscles in the locker room. 

“Hey Seul, how’s the triple-triple coming along?” 

“Ugh, I’m still underotating my triple toe by a little. Gonna work on it first thing this morning.”

Taemin smiled at her determination. Since Seulgi switched to singles, she became a girl of fire on the ice. You could see the passion burning so strongly in her eyes, she could melt the ice with a gaze. 

“How’s skating alone going?” Seulgi didn’t miss her chance to , with a small smirk on her face. 

“Shut up, it’s not going.” His partner had left him a few months ago, and he wasn’t actively searching for a new one. 

Both of their lives had changed so much over the latter half of these eleven years. Two years ago, they passed their senior test and first joined the competition scene as juniors and their skating friends circle was much larger. Both of them were skating pairs, with Jongin and Soojung. Jongin and Seulgi were always gold medalists, their skills were unrivalled. Taemin and Soojung came after, their technique might not have matched up to the other pair but their chemistry and performance on the ice was what garnered the support of many sponsors. They were the most promising pairs in South Korea — not that there were many pairs to begin with. 

All that was history when Jongin got scouted by an American coach, Caroline, a year ago. The tables started to turn. Being in a family of businessmen, the Kim name was a name to uphold. And, Jongin had no reason to say no: his family was more than eager to pay for all of his training overseas, the facilities and coaches in America were undeniably better. He was also conscious of the fact that Kim Yuna, everyone’s role model, had trained overseas before she became outstanding and unbeatable. With that, his aunt took him and left his life in South Korea behind, in the hopes of growing as a skater in the States. 

“Sorry Seul but I keep thinking of all the possible opportunities that might come with training overseas. There are so many other skaters to meet and compete against, we can’t stay in Korea forever...” 

With Jongin’s goodbye last spring, Seulgi was left in the dust to fend for herself. Unfortunately, that Caroline coach didn’t want Seulgi to come along - but that didn’t stop Jongin from leaving. Wanting to avoid any disappointment, from then on, she took on singles and skated individually. She took that disappointment, poured it into her skating, and quickly rose to the challenge. Seulgi was the best sixteen year old skater in South Korea. 

A year after Jongin left, right after Taemin and Soojung clinched bronze at their first Nationals as seniors, that same American coach came back for Soojung. Unlike Jongin, she actually wanted to stay in South Korea to continue skating with Taemin — singles had never crossed her mind, ever. However, her parents had plans to move to the States and saw this as an opportunity for Soojung to come along with them, while continuing to train under a better coach. They signed the contract and didn’t tell her, despite her siblings’ protests to let her continue skating with Taemin. The day she flew off was the day the news was broken to her, she didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye to her friends at the rink and at school. Taemin’s mother let him in on the fact that Soojung had gone to America and his coach managed to find a new partner for him. Dang, he didn’t even have time to mourn his loss. 

“I miss skating with someone, Seul…” Hey, now did he really say that out loud? Taemin continued to stare at the floor blankly as he voiced his thoughts.

“Taem, you mean you miss skating with her?” Seulgi teased but raised an eyebrow at him. “Dude, it’s barely been half a year since she left.” Granted, she knew the emptiness of not being able to see their best friends everyday, not skating with them, and the pain of having to move on quickly in order to stand a chance at the next competition. 

He smiled weakly, unable to give a witty reply. Soojung had moved on from him. Seul had moved on from Jongin too. He had to move on. 

“Stop moping and let’s get on the ice, I’ll skate with you.” 

His head whipped up to look at her in disbelief, and started laughing. They grabbed their skates and headed to the rink, laced up and hopped on to the ice. They did a bunch of pair twizzles, spirals, spins for fun and started skating in rounds. Taemin unloaded all that was weighing on his heart to Seulgi and she listened in silence. He knew she secretly missed skating with someone too, but her pride would not allow her to admit that, never in a thousand years. 

“Race you one round and see who slides the furthest!” Seulgi was caught off-guard by Taemin’s challenge and ran after him, in an attempt to catch up. The two friends slid across the ice on their bums and collapsed upon their halt to catch their breaths. 

“Let’s see who can do the longest sit spin,” Seulgi challenged Taemin this time. But, only god knows how long it had been since Taemin last did a legit sit spin on his own. Challenge accepted, except not to anyone’s surprise that Seulgi won. As they were recovering from their little stunt on the ice, a woman figure approached them from the back. 

“Lee Taemin, Kang Seulgi.” 

They turned around and made eye contact with the most majestic singles skater the world had ever seen — Yuna Kim. 

“An-n-nyeonghaseyo, Yuna-ssi… Yuna-nim..” Seulgi fumbled. She glanced at Taemin, whose mouth was ajar from shock, and elbowed him in the rib as if pressing a button that activated a bow. Yuna smiled at their clumsiness from outside the rink. “Come on out, I have some news for you.” They had never jumped off the ice quicker. 

Yuna has retired from competitive skating after her Sochi silver (a/n: SHE WAS FREAKIN ROBBED OF GOLD) and had been doing various other things: she was the Pyeongchang Olympics ambassador, she continued with her ice show ‘All that Skate’ and even participated in other skaters’ shows. She thought it was time to give back in a different way, she wanted to start coaching up and rising figure skaters in South Korea. She had been observing the National championships over the past few years and recognised Seulgi and Taemin’s potential for world-class excellence. She was especially drawn to Seulgi, since she successfully converted from pairs to singles and placed the podium in her first competition in a new category. She actually wanted to rope in both Taemin and Soojung as a pair but Caroline beat her to Soojung. Nonetheless, she still saw potential in Taemin as he was strong, yet quick on his feet. With Yuna’s experience of training both in South Korea and in Canada, and her connections with other retired skaters looking into coaching, she was confident that she would be able to form a team that would excel at Worlds, and hopefully the Olympics. 

A team. That was something Yuna didn’t have in her time as an athlete, no other Koreans were skating at her level. She wanted to do all she could for the younger skaters to ensure they could go compete as a team, and enjoy the company of each other while competing at their best in a foreign country. 

Yuna explained everything to Taemin and Seulgi, including sorting out everything with their original coaches and the training programme that she put together, and both skaters hung onto every word she had to say. When she finished explaining, and asked them if they wanted in, there was no hesitation to give a resounding ‘yes’. The rest of the morning was spent on discussing their personal goals for the next season and the expectations each of them had for this training programme. Oh and not forgetting Taemin’s appeal to get a new partner as soon as possible. 

That day, Taemin smiled the most genuine smile he had since Soojung left.

That same day, on the other side of the world, was the day that marked 4 months since Soojung had left South Korea. Not a day went by where she didn’t think of skating with Taemin and how his hands felt against her body and how his hold made her feel safe, She didn’t feel safe here, how her new partner lifted her made her feel like she would land head first on the ice. He was much taller than Taemin was and the height she was lifted off above the ground simply sacred her to bits. Even in death spirals and throw jumps or simple footwork, she simply couldn’t relax into the skate. Being on edge all the time made her muscles stiff and hurt all the time. 

She couldn’t not think about Seulgi and her relentless anger turned passion and how she had to be doing really well now, considering she won a medal at Nationals. Her mind sometimes drifted to Jongin, who now went by Kai. He always looked somewhat uncomfortable and dissatisfied, even though he seemed to be putting in more hours than he did when he trained with Seulgi. His efforts just didn’t reap the same fruits. They were also as good as strangers now, seeing how he refused to acknowledge her since she first arrived. 

The training here was worlds apart from what they did back at home, It was a more intense and regimental training programme in the States and Caroline gave them no days off. She claimed that since they came from another country they had ‘nothing to do’ and no family to visit. It was only 4 months but Soojung secretly wanted it all to stop, she wanted to go home. She wanted to skate at home. She wanted to joke with Seulgi in the locker room and share their inside jokes on the rink. She wanted to skate with Taemin and hold his hands as they entered the rink for their competition programmes. She wanted this to be over. 

The next day, she arrived at the rink late after her gym session and walked into a bloody rink. There was a huge commotion and everyone was off the ice, Paramedics were lifting a body off the ice and onto the stretcher. , who got injured? She couldn’t see the face of the guy, and the girl was crying her eyes out with her hands covering her face. A pair of skates lay in the corner of the rink and one of the blades was covered in blood. . The paramedics now held up the stretcher and were walking in Soojung’s direction and as they drew closer, she finally caught a glimpse of the guy. His shin was bandaged tightly, but blood was still sleeping through the gauze. His arm was draped over his face, his fist clenched tight - he definitely was in a lot of pain. Just as they passed her, she saw in his other hand, he was the ring on his index finger with his thumb anxiously. , it was Jongin. 

Later that day, Caroline gathered all her trainees and told them that Taylor, Jongin’s partner, didn’t track her partner well and ended up slicing his leg. Of course, she immediately was kicked from the team. However, Soojung was more appalled by Caroline’s lack of concern for Jongin’s welfare and her over-emphasis on getting their together so that they would win and stop injuring each other. She even said that it was partially Jongin’s fault for not avoiding her, he should have been tracking her as well. The dude’s leg got slashed and she didn’t even bother to talk about the rehab plan they had for him; he was cut off from the team as well. Soojung knew she hadn’t talked with Jongin for more than a year now, but she had to go visit him. She found out about his U.S number and hospital details from his only friend at Caroline’s training programme, one of the guys doing singles. That night, she decided to go to the hospital to see him.

His room was huge. All this space is just space wasted, space that could be to house other patients. Soojung disapproved, though she remembered that his family was really rich and the cost of this was nothing much. He scoffed, when he saw her come into the room after knocking lightly on the door. Of all the people from Caroline’s trainees, she was the one to come visit him even though they hadn’t said more than 5 sentences to each other over the past few months. Suddenly, an image popped up in his head: Seulgi and Jongin were on the highest step of the podium, they had won yet another gold. Soojung and Taemin were on the lower step, they’d won silver. Jongin had spent so much of his career looking into the crowds, in search of his family. For the most part of his career, he should have learnt that he was searching in vain, he ought to give up - his parents valued their business much more than his skating career, he knew that. A boy could hope, couldn’t he. However, without fail, both Soojung’s and Taemin’s families would surround them and congratulate them, regardless of if they won a medal or not. Jongin was always envious of them because of this. But, Taemin and Soojung would always share their flowers and gifts with him and Seulgi, comforting them in some sense. Here he was, in the exact same situation: his parents weren’t here, the vast space in his hospital room echoed this fact loud and clear. And here was Soojung, here to comfort him with her presence, once again. 

As Jongin came to this realisation, his walls broke down and he began to let himself be vulnerable with her. “Soojung, I’m never skating pairs again.” A tear escaped the corner of his eye, he swiped it away quickly but Jongin knew that it couldn’t have escaped Soojung’s attention. 

“What did the doctor say about your leg?” She cautiously dropped the question, eyes on Jongin, assessing the situation. 

“It was a pretty huge laceration...  Had to get a ton of stitches and I'm on painkillers right now.” 

She nodded and her eyes flitted between his bandaged shin, the IV inserted into his hand and the IV bag hanging on the bedside.  As Soojung watched Jongin stare at his injury, she had this inkling that avoiding pairs went beyond a y partner who couldn’t track. Jongin could feel her question and spoke first, “I got to recover too, I don’t want to be a burden to anyone, or risk another injury skating with someone less competent than Seul.” Jongin shrugged, he was trying to be indifferent, but he knew he was failing so badly. “Seul’s not gonna take me back, have you seen how successful she is right now?” Soojung smiled at the mention of Seulgi, and how he had been keeping track of her progress in singles too. “She inspires me, you know, to try it too. To go for singles. So, I’m thinking of going back to Korea to try it.” Silence falls upon the hospital room as Soojung dwells on what Jongin has said, and Jongin awaits her reply. 

“Soojung-ah, how have you been?” Jongin’s question snaps her out of her thoughts and she sighs. She tells him about working with this guy who’s new to pairs skating and how he’s so much taller and weaker than Taemin, she talks about how unsafe she feels in lifts on or off the ice and how his hands will never feel like Taemin’s. She tells Jongin about how lonely she’s been feeling in the States, her parents hardly have time for her now and she thinks she doesn’t fit in with the other trainees. 

“How about both of us try singles? Pairs was doomed since we left Korea, let’s face it.” To be fair, Soojung had considered this option barely a month after she moved to America. However, she lacked the confidence to skate alone, she had spent her whole career as a pairs skater. She knew she had to move on, she came to America for “greater things” and she wasn’t getting that with her current partner. 

Within those two days, four of their lives changed once again, even though they were halfway across the globe, and they hoped this time, change was for the better. 

hello hooman beans, I'm back lolsies. sorry to those who thought i gave up on this story because i did (initially). then, coronavirus got me writing again. the first few chapters are definitely going to be much more plot development (less fluff) but it's necessary before we build it back up to the fluff and cute romance. i've decided to make this well-balanced between taestal and seulkai too. so sorry taestal hopefuls, there will be much less taestal than you anticipate but hey seulkai stans here's a lil more content for you. i think their four people friendship has so much potential and it's an exciting story coming up hehe

hope yall like the first chap, please subscribe, comment and upvote if you do ! love yall so much