♡01

italics are her thoughts btw

Narrator's Pov

It was another dreadful day of school as Kang Hyemin counted down how many hours were left till the school day ended. She was looking forward to today's practice. Especially since its competition season.

Hyemin sighed quietly as she observed one of her classmates struggling to answer the teacher's questions; that student was clearly not paying attention to the teacher's comments just moments before.

Six protons. Carbons have six protons.

She looked out to the window as she saw the seniors in the field, her boyfriend Yeom Hyunwoo. He was sitting by the bleachers with some of his friends.

She recognized some of them as she sometimes sat with them during lunch although she was never interested to know them.

Something that caught her attention was the way Lee Gaeun, one of the seniors and Hyunwoo's friends, was being a little too touchy with her boyfriend by holding his hand and having her head on his shoulder.

In addition to that, her boyfriend seemed less and less affectionate with her as the days flew by. At first, it was the little things like letting go of her hand whenever their fingers were intertwined but now he seemed too busy to hang out with her.

She thought if she was overreacting since her boyfriend seemed fine with the skin-ship but it still bothered her. Gaeun was considered as the 'it' girl here. She had it all; good looks, perfect body, money, which gained her popularity.

The only problem was that she lacked in academics, a lot. Hyemin tried tutoring her once and well it ended with her brain cells killing themselves not even 20 minutes into the tutoring.

As soon as Hyunwoo's eyes met hers, however, he quickly let go of Gaeun's hand and moved his shoulder making Gaeun almost fall. Hyemin gave a wave to her beloved boyfriend and he gave a (fake) smile in return.

Time flew by as she was distracted by her thoughts and the bell rang. She tidied up her table, took her necessities was about to head to the cafeteria when her teacher called for her.

"Hyemin can you help me carry these books to my office?" asked Ms Bae. She nodded and did so. The office wasn't that far but with these kinda heavy books it seemed forever to get there. When she finally reached there, she put the books on Ms Bae's table and headed to the cafeteria.

By now, almost all the classes were dispersed meaning the hallways were crowded, so Hyemin didn't even realize her wallet falling out of her pocket as she walked through the crowd of students.

It caught one of the student's attention when he stepped on something. Picking it up, he looked back up only to see the owner of the wallet getting lost in the crowd. "Excuse me, you dropped your-"

"-wallet,"

"Ayo wassup," his friend, Jake greeted him. Jake must've noticed the unfamiliar-looking wallet in his friend's hands as he asked, "Who's wallet is that?"

"Someone dropped it, there's no name or anything. Just a..." Sunghoon peeked in the wallet and there was a photocard and some money. A Jaemin photocard to be specific.

"A Jaemin photocard and some money," he finished his sentence. "Let's go tell the office to make an announcement about a missing wallet," said Sunghoon.

"But wait what if someone pretends to be the owner or something," spoke Jake.

"That could happen..." he wondered to himself.

"Anyways let's go eat, I'm hungry," Jake started dragging Sunghoon to the cafeteria leaving Sunghoon no choice but to put the wallet in his pocket.

'I'll look for the owner later,' thought Sunghoon.

Hyemin headed to her and Jiwon's usual table, Jiwon was already there. They conversed for a few minutes, sharing random thoughts or dreams they had the night before.

That was until they both heard a voice they despised with their whole being. Choi Areum, who always found a way to make everything about her. Not to mention the way she acts around Park Sunghoon, one of the guys in her grade, just to get his attention.

"Hey babe, Let's sit together, I'll introduce you to my friends!" said Areum and dragged a girl whom Hyemin didn't recognize, while Kim Sunoo followed behind.

"Who's that?" asked Hyemin.

"The new student in our class," answered Jiwon as Hyemin nodded. Jiwon quickly scanned her eyes throughout the cafeteria but that didn't go unnoticed to Hyemin. That was until Jiwon'ws eyes fell on a table not far from where they both sat.

Before Hyemin could see where Jiwon was looking at, Jiwon cleared her throat and looked away with slightly reddened cheeks. It's been like this these past few weeks.

It's definitely because of a guy.

However, she was gonna wait until Jiwon told her herself about the oh-so mysterious guy that she is probably crushing on.

"So how's training going?" inquired Jiwon, earning her attention.

"Eh just the same old training. Stretching, put on ice skates, practice the same routine for the next 2 hours," Hyemin answered.

"Are they gonna join again this year?" asked Jiwon, taking a bite of her lunch, referring to the BGH Figure Skating Team. Their town had 2 figure skating team origins; IE (which was the team Hyemin's in) and BGH aka their long-time rival.

If the first-place winner was from BGH, the second-place winner was almost certainly from IE. They were continually in competition with one another. Their long-running feud was well-known around town.

Even though they practiced at the same ice skating rink, both teams considered each other as rivals and competitors because both teams possessed naturally gifted figure skaters. So they just avoid each other unless it's competition season, when they'll probably have minor quarrels or squabbling, but that's it.

"Coach said yes. And you know what that means," she answered, her lips going into a fine line at the end of her sentence.

"He's gonna be there??" questioned Jiwon, getting a little too excited.

"Unfortunately," sighed Hyemin. "If we lose to them again this year, coach is gonna lose her shat,"

"Oof, well good luck," said Jiwon, laughing a little at the end.

"What about your new house, are there ghosts?" Jiwon continued, exaggerating the ghost part while waving her hand spookily.

"Yeah, no ghosts do not exist. And the house is actually nice. It's nice to have my own room ya know," Hyemin answered, taking a bite of her lunch.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

The last bell rang for the day as students hurried to leave the school, not wanting to stay here anymore. Jiwon was already waiting for her outside before they said their goodbyes and she went home. Hyemin looked back at her phone then around the school parking lot.

Just then, a red car pulled up in front of her. Her hand reached for the door handle of the passenger seat before she realized there was a familiar figure sitting there.

"Ice skating rink?" Hyunwoo asked as soon as she got in. With a nod, the car moved forward.

"You ice skate?" questioned Gaeun, looking at her and she nodded.

Hyemin couldn't help but feel a small twinge of jealousy since her boyfriend's attention was all on Gaeun, he didn't even seem to acknowledge her existence.

With her hands on her thigh and her lips suppressed into a fine line, she thought of a few things to occupy her mind and not overthink.

They reached their destination but Hyunwoo had parked a few meters away since there was a small jam near the entrance and unfortunately, it started raining a few minutes prior but Hyemin didn't mind.

She used her jacket to cover her head and got herself ready to run to the entrance. She muttered a "Bye love you," and ran to the entrance.

Hyemin was greeted with the cold breeze of the AC as soon as she entered and the receptionist greeted her which she gladly returned. She walked to the back door and put her bag down near the seats that were located next to the skaters' lockers.

Then a thought hit her. She slightly frowned when she realized Hyunwoo didn't say it back.

Maybe I didn't hear it.

"Well look who's here," a voice said, walking closer to her while Hyemin mentally groaned at the familiar voice. "Last year's second place,"

He knew she hated losing yet he still wanted to rub that in her.

"Oh shut up Sunghoon, we only lost by 0.7 points," she rolled her eyes. She knew he just wanted to get on her nerves especially since it's competition season soon. It was always like this.

Every time 'round this year, some BGH members would try and get on their nerves and Park Sunghoon was always one of them.

"You guys still lost either way," he said with that annoying smirk of his. Oh, how Hyemin never wanted to smack someone so much until she met Park Sunghoon. Especially when he bragged about their amazing victory.

Like last year when she got second place for the pairs category and the first place was Sunghoon and his partner. She didn't hear the end of it for the next 2 months.

"Well this year is gonna be different," she stated while turning around, not wanting to deal with Sunghoon any minute longer.

"You said that last year. And the year before. And the year before that too. And-"

"Do you ever stop talking," she cut him off, looking at him with unbothered eyes.

"Do you ever stop breathing,"

She slammed her locker shut and sighed frustratedly.

God is really testing my seat in Heaven huh?

Hyemin carried her ice skating shoes and simply walked away to their usual practice place meanwhile Sunghoon chuckled to himself amusingly at how he succeeded to piss her off.

"Sup," her friend, Minhee greeted her when she entered the ice rink and she mirrored his actions.

Minhee had recognized that look on her face. It was the look of irritation and naturally, a familiar person popped up in his mind.

"Sunghoon again?"

"He really is trying to get on my nerves. We really have to beat them this year, I can't stand losing to them again," Hyerim whined, eyebrows furrowed and lips suppressed into a fine line.

Just then, their coach entered and the skaters gathered around her as she made her announcement.

"As you know, the competition is really soon so I'm gonna need you guys to do your 100%," and they all nodded at her words.

"First up we're gonna practice the solos, the others can wait their turn. After will be the pairs,"

Everyone except the people who were gonna do solos followed the coach. Since Hyemin was competing in the pairs category with Minhee, she went back to the waiting room with him as they conversed to pass time until it was finally their turn.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

The practice was finally over as the skaters from both IE and BGH teams since their practice times were similar.

Minhee waved at Hyemin as he got into his car and left. He offered her a ride but she rejected his offer since she didn't want to trouble him.

She walked to a bus stop that was located near the Ice Skating Rink. Within a few minutes, a bus pulled up and she entered it.

The bus was pretty empty even though it wasn't that late yet. Nevertheless, Hyemin walked to the furthest seat in the back of the bus.

As soon as she sat down, exhaustion washed over her while she gently massaged her left arm. Today's practice was a bit rough since she kept on making mistakes which made coach really mad. Long story short, she got a whole lot of scolding and nagging.

I don't blame coach though, competition is a week away and I'm still here making mistakes.

Hyemin let out a frustrated sigh and massaged her temple in order to cease the small migraine she was starting to get.

Before Hyemin knew it, sleep washed over her and she dozed off.

Meanwhile, a well-known figure entered the bus and sat down at the first seat he could find.

ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

A poke. Hyemin was woken up with a rather harsh poke on her right shoulder.

"Kang Hyemin, wake up," Sunghoon said, taking her right out of her little nap.

"It's is the last stop," he continued. Her brain wasn't fully awake yet so it was lagging as she looked at him in confusion.

"Oh," was all she muttered. Sunghoon turned around and left the bus while she stretched a little before taking her school bag and leaving.

There was no road sign anywhere for her to be aware of her location. She recognized the place due to the house exterior design that was similar to hers. So she took out her phone to use the GPS.

While looking at the tens of houses that were next to each other, she accidentally made eye contact with Sunghoon who was walking on the pavement on the other side of the road.

'I didn't know she lived in this area' he wondered to himself.

After a few minutes, she recognized the familiar-looking car that belonged to her cousin, Chaeyoung.

She crossed the road just at the same time, Sunghoon did too. She got out her keys and before she entered, her eyes managed to catch a quick glance at Sunghoon who entered his house right across hers.

What did I do to deserve this?

It seemed like everywhere she went, Park Sunghoon was right there. He reminded her of those annoying flu's that comes at random times then doesn't leave for a very long time.

ok so i didn't expect to write the chapter this soon but that one commenter who said he/she/they were excited for the first chapter made me so happy so i started writing asap :))

also wow this chapter is the longest ive ever written, 2.4k workds damnnn

i hope this chapter was good enough for you guysssss