The rain stopped, washing away the old to begin a new chapter. There they stood, hearts in their mouths, as still as statues for what seemed like an hour. Both oblivious to the other fact that rains, in another perception, can create a sense of melancholy and isolation, or in a more deeper sense, a loneliness they never knew coming.
Jungwon already pulled away but his feet are thinking otherwise, it won't let him run. Why does good times goes too fast and bad times are measured? It's really not fair. If only he can ask for a time stretch, to know her a little more, he'll demand one.
"The skates--?" Hyejin timidly asked.
"Oh!" Jungwon immediately took his sight away from her face and scrunched down to take it off. "Thank you for the quick lesson. I can go back to the city with a wide smile on my face." he said, back to his normal self.
"I can definitely see that now." Hyejin couldn't help to be fascinated by his deep cheeks sockets everytime he smiles. 
"I know I look silly when I smile, like, it's so wide. But I can't help it. It's just the way it is." Jungwon was amused by his own cristisism.
"No." Hyejin was fast to disagree. "I like it. I mean, you look cool. It's not bad as you think it is."
I will probably be left unsaid, but everytime she stared at him, there seems no end to her fascination. The only time her gaze breaks is when he turned his head to meet her eyes. She looked at him like she ruffled her favorite book, turning another page she hasn't read.
He's leaving soon and she won't deny, the feelings sucks. She's feeling a weird kind of sadness she couldn't explain, like her emotions feel bruised, the same way as with a physical bruise, but took time to come up and obviously shows.
"Yang Jungwon--" she wanted to say something but could get to straighten it out.  
She saw the flash of enthusiasm in Jungwon's eyes hearing what she's about to say -- or not. She's just being delusional to see such flickers in it.
"Y-You take care. And be healthy."
Hyejin saw him nod, his smile, even more wider.
"You too. Do you have Weverse? You can watch our live. I do the lives mostly in there. You can leave a comment. I'm replying to fans messages--"
Jungwon brought himself to a stop. He sounds absurd. Absolutely. How could he actually say that?
"I don't do social media--" Hyejin killed his chance. "I promised myself to train hard. The competition will start at the end of this year and if I make it, it will continue by the first quarter of next year. But I'll try to check it out when things are less busy."
There was some kind of hope he got there. But things, unpredictable as they are, do not always go right, they dont, most of the time. Guess he's gonna leave everything to destiny.
"I gotta keep going now. I just went out to grab some snacks and Sunghoon Hyung--" Jungwon stopped after getting a sight of a man from the trickled window.
Out of the dark, in the growing light, the guy's silhouette becomes full colour. Jungwon got a big cat like eyes and it went even bigger after recognizing the man's face. The guy's thick eyebrows are bumping while he looked around, definitely searching for him.
"S-Sunghoon Hyung?!" Jungwon exclaimed, hand flew in his mouth to stop another scream. "W-Where's the back exit? I need to get out of here now." he was hit by panic as he searched for a way out.
"O-Oppa?" Hyejin was confused by his sudden fright, moved her sight to look on the outside.
"Please don't tell him I'm here! And that we spent time together. Just don't say anything! Please?!" he pleads with begging eyes. 
Hyejin, although confused, was forced to agree. She took the skates out of Jungwon's hands and gave him a one last look before she gave the direction where to run out. Time has finally come to say the last goodbye, but it's not the way she expects it to be.
"Take that door. It will carry out on the back wing. But be careful. There are lots of clusters in there and kinda dark."
She knows it is foolish to wish he would stay. Seeing him running away, Hyejin was taken by a sudden emotional tumult. The disturbance it sent her is all over the place. It's stronger than the first love, when first love is suppose to be stronger than all the love in the world. How could she feel it to someone she came to know for just a short time? 
Jungwon is on top of his game, so impossible to reach, someone who cannot love her, or at least, like her. It's so crazy. She's going crazy. 
"Oh?! Hyejin-a." Sunghoon was affected by great suprise seeing her all alone in the middle of a wide rink. "It's late. You're still grinding?"
Looking at the approaching Park Sunghoon, Hyejin was covered by a moment of uneasiness. She glanced fast at the back door. Jungwon sprinted so fast, like a kitty dashes across the room as fast as he possibly can. It appears like something is chasing him and he gets that unexpected surge of adrenaline. He disappeared in just a click, like a clumsy cat up to for a trick.
Hyejin cleared her throat before opening her mouth to speak. "Oppa--" she answered, felt like every muscle in her body tensed up. "I waited for the rain to stop."
"Your perfectionist nature isn't depleting, Hyejin-a." Sunghoon chaffed.
Hyejin chuckled, her grip on the skates had somehow loosened. "I need to. I'm competing soon."
"That's good to hear. I know you can go far. You're so much better than me." Sunghoon smile is giving courage, the one that she actually needs. "Give me a call when you're in Seoul. I'll spare some time to watch you perform."
"Nah. You're my worst critic." Hyejin laughed as she straightened her body for another query. "W-Why are you here?"
"I'm looking for our leader cat, Yang Jungwon. He went out to buy some snacks and it's been an hour and he wasn't home yet. I went to the store but he wasn't there anymore. I'm thinking maybe he went to search for cover here."
"He's not here." 
Hyejin felt a light choke. She sucks at telling lies, making her gag at her own words, and sometimes in a worst possible way, getting caught before she could finish the dishonesty.
"Yeah, I can see that. Where did that clumsy cat go?" Sunghoon heaved a worrying sigh.
"Maybe he searched for cover somewhere else."
Sunghoon nodded, quite content. "I'm thinking the same. Aish! That clumsy cat. We're going back to the city tomorrow. Break's over."
"I know--" Hyejin was once again put to a stop. "Yeji told me. You take care, Oppa. See you when I see you."
Sunghoon lightly chuckled. "You too. But don't say that as if we're not going to see each other again. I'm seeing you soon. I'll be cheering for you."
Park Sunghoon had a way of encouraging her to see all that she was capable of. Being her skating buddy in the early age of five, where others thought she couldn't do it, he believed in her, standing as her protector by holding her back, hitting upon her self esteem. 
She answered with a smile just in time the crashing sound, a clang of the garbage lid, echoed from the exit hatch. Hyejin gripped the skates back as she controlled the panic not to show up on her face.
"What was that? Is there someone else in here?"
"No! No one's here!" Hyejin's sudden shrill halted Sunghoon's feet to take the stride. "It's.. It's just a cat. Yeah, a cat."
"A cat?" Sunghoon's eyebrows dramatically lift.
"Right. A cat. A big one." Hyejin gupled the tremors down. 
She couldn't understand the trickery but felt it was necessary to do at that moment. Getting Sunghoon's attention is the best way to lead him astray and not think about the "cat." 
"How do you know it's big? It might be some person secretly watching you and you have no idea. Let me take a look."
Hyejin pulled him back and immediately wrapped her arms around Sunghoon's arm while dragging him away of the exit door.
"I wanted to take a peek." Sunghoon vehemently muttered.
"You know what? Let's head home now. I'm certain it's not a person. That cat is a little aggressive especially in a perceived threat. Do you want to get scratched?" 
Sunghoon stepped back, ceasing the plan he wanted to do. "That's scary."
"Not really." Hyejin smile extends to her eyes. "Just clumsy."
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