Ice Skates || Park Sunghoon

~ 2 ~

Seollim swiped at the tears still running down her cheeks, partly angry at herself now for crying in public. More than anything though, she felt embarrassed that the boy had seen her like that.

"None of my friends came with me today," the boy said, standing up and smiling at her, thankfully not mentioning her crying, or asking if she was alright. Clearly she wasn't, and right now he was just distracting her. And for that, she was grateful.

"Would you like to skate with me?" He asked, holding out his hand.

She hesitated for half a second before taking it.

"Thank you," she whispered gratefully.

"No, thank you," he said, his eyes sparkling. "Thanks to you I won't be alone today."

She couldn't help blushing; he was so sweet.

"What's your name?" He asked her, still holding her hand as he led her into the ice.

"Seollim," she responded, feeling kind of giddy. The young man had succeeded in cheering her up, and seemed to be succeeding in taking her mind off of everything. "What's yours?"

"Sunghoon," he said, pulling her closer to him as a pair of speed skaters zoomed by.

She watched him skate. Even though he wasn't doing any elaborate tricks or anything, he held himself with so much grace and elegance that people couldn't help but stop and take notice.

"Do you come here often?" He asked.

"Pretty much every weekend."

"Just for fun, or are you a skater?"

Seollim couldn't help laughing. "Me? A skater? No way. I could never be that talented."

He sized her up. "Are you sure? Maybe I could teach you some tricks," he suggested, winking at her playfully.

Was he flirting with her? She bit her lip, trying to hold back her shy smile. She could feel her face heat up despite the coldness of the ice rink.

Sunghoon stopped, taking his hand out of hers, much to her disappointment.

"I'll be right back," he told her, a proud smile playing on his lips. "Wait right here. And watch me."

Seollim just nodded, unsure of what he was about to do.

He skated to the middle of the rink, to where the figure skaters practice.

And then he started to skate.

Not the way they were before, but really skate, his body dancing to music that only he could hear. If he'd looked beautiful and elegant before, that was multiplied by a thousand now. She watched in awe as he completed jumps and spins with a seemingly effortless sort of grace. The other figure skaters stopped and stepped aside to watch. A lot of the casual skaters were staring at him open mouthed.

Sunghoon didn't notice any of that. He was in his own world now, his body completely owned by the unheard music as he danced across the ice.

After a couple minutes he stopped in a bow, clearly the end of his dramatic routine.

Seollim couldn't help it, she started clapping, the biggest grin on her face. Others joined in, until practically the whole rink was cheering for him.

He grinned, clearly enjoying the praise as he skated back to the edge of rink, where she was waiting. The rest of the skaters, realizing that they weren't going to get an encore, started doing their own things again.

"Well?" He said, grinning at her. His eyes sparkled when he smiled, and she thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. "What do you think? Impressive?"

"Very," she said, still staring at him in awe. Charming, handsome, and talented, he truly was the epitome of perfection, at least in her eyes.

Sunghoon laughed, the sound making her heart skip a beat. "Good. I did it to impress you," he admitted with a small, slightly shy smile. The shyness was so at odds with his bold dancing and confession that it only made her heart beat even faster.

Seollim tilted her head, looking at him playfully. "I hate to tell you this, but I'd already been impressed with you, even before that before that performance," she said, laughing at herself.

"But I hadn't even done anything," he said, scratching his head and giving her one of those heart stopping smiles.

"Yes you had!" Seollim protested. "You tied my skates for me, remember?"

"That's only because you seemed unable to tie them yourself."

"I usually can," she retorted. "I was just... a little distracted."

"A little," he said lightly, his forehead creasing in concern. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No thanks," she said, shaking her head. She smiled down at the floor, looking at her skates. "Thank you," she whispered, feeling her face heat up again. "For distracting me."

"I'd like to continue to do so, if that's all right," he said, taking her hand again. Her thoughts scattered. "Can I treat you to hot chocolate?" He asked, gently pulling her out of the rink.

"I'd like that," she admitted, following him, her heart screaming in happiness because of this kind stranger.