As the days passed Seungho got busier and busier with his work, he was so focused on it that he completely forgot about everything else, which included Chan telling him that the two would go skating.
So when Chan showed up at the classroom once he finished his lesson with the other Stray Kids members Seungho was quite surprised to see him.
“Oh Channie hyung, if you are here for the members they already left,” Seungho said with a small smile.
“I am not here for them, I am here to pick you up, my schedule is clear today and according to Yooa, you are free for the rest of the day as well so I thought we could go visit the open-air rink that I found,” Chan said with a big smile showing off his dimples.
“Wait like right now?” the boy asked in surprise.
“Yep, and as I said before I ain’t taking no as an answer”
“Well then uh let’s get going”
The two left the JYP building, Chan wore a hat but no mask. He felt it would draw too much attention because it looked like he clearly had something to hide if he covered himself too much.
The two arrived at the rink and it was empty, Seungho was surprised at first but then he remembered that it was a Thursday and that basically no one would be there at 3 pm as most people were still at work.
They went over to the booth to get their skates and once they had them they started putting them on, for Seungho it was nothing he started skating at a young age so putting them on was nothing for him but for Chan, it was a little harder.
Seungho let out a small laugh as he got up and moved closer to Chan, he crouched down in front of the older boy and moved the boy’s hands out of the way with a small smile and started tying the older boys skates for him.
When they were done Seungho helped Chan up and the two walked towards the rink, Chan was a little off-balance at first but he got the hang of it quite quickly.
“I haven’t skated in years so I am not going to be great” Seungho said to himself, he wanted to just reassure himself that he won’t be that good since he hasn’t been training or anything for at least 5 years, but Chan heard him and smiled a little.
“If it makes you feel better I have never skated before,” Chan said with a reassuring smile, Seungho nodded.
“Be careful okay?” Seungho said and held a hand out to Chan, the older boy took it and followed the younger boy onto the ice, it was definitely slippery but he still tried to keep calm, he was a little more at ease knowing he was with Seungho.
“Show me what you got, go out there and have fun okay?” Chan said happily and held onto the side of the rink so Seungho could go off.
“I will show you later, for now, let’s just skate together I need to warm up first”
The two ended up skating around the rink, Seungho led Chan around the rink helping the older boy get used to the feeling of moving around on the ice. When they decided to take a break Chan sat outside the rink and once Seungho rested a little he got up and went onto the ice again.
He took a deep breath and looked over to Chan the older shouted some encouraging words for him, the boy closed his eyes for a second and the took off, he skated around the rink, clearing his head of everything he tried thinking of the time when he first started off with skating and somehow he started enjoying the ice.
He sped up a bit and started smiling. He was enjoying it. He felt like he was young again and it felt like he was free and he could do anything, he let his joy take over his movement and he started moving faster spinning around and doing step sequences.
And when he got up to speed and got the feel of things he did a few easy jumps he was enjoying it so much so that when he stopped he was out of breath and he didn’t mind it he wanted to continue skating he didn’t care about anything.
Chan applauded loudly causing Seungho to laugh a little, another cheer came and Seungho saw the girl at the booth cheering in awe, he sent her a thankful smile and moved to get out of the rink.
“That was amazing Seungho, I watched all your competitions but somehow this was the most amazing one yet! Like you looked free on the ice” Chan said in excitement.
“You watched all of them?” Seungho asked in surprise.
“What can I say, I am a fan,” Chan said with a dimpled smile.
Seungho could explain what he felt at that moment he was excited to know the older boy actually kept tabs on him but he also felt a little sorry knowing he probably made the older boy worry when he just disappeared and that got him thinking on how anyone else must’ve felt when he left without a word it made him feel bad and got him wondering if anyone actually still remembered him.
The two skated around a bit more, Seungho showed Chan some moves and tricks that the boy wanted to learn, they were enjoying their moments together. When more and more people started arriving at the rink the two decided to leave, one Chan didn’t want to overwhelm Seungho with everyone watching him, he was worried the younger boy would feel pressured and for Seungho he was worried someone would find out it was Chan and they would mob the boy once they figured it out.
The two went out for dinner together and then went for a walk, they talked about whatever came to mind.
“It was amazing honestly, I never felt like that before, skating like that was nice I felt really free”
“You looked really free, you looked like you enjoyed it a lot, if you ever get back into skating competitively you would knock everyone’s socks off,” Chan said to him in an excited tone, Seungho couldn’t help but smile, those words were really nice to hear.
“Hmm, I am not sure if I will go back to competitive, I mean who even remembers me still?”
“Me? I will be your number 1 support boy, so if you want to do it, do it but if you don’t want to then I won’t push you but all I can say is maybe make a social media and you would be surprised to see how many people are waiting for you”
“I will check it out a bit,” Seungho said with a small smile.
The two went back to the dorm building and they split up after Chan saw off Seungho at his room and then went back to his.
When Chan got back to their dorm room he walked in and saw his members waiting for him with teasing smiles.
“So how was the date~?” Minho asked him.
“It wasn’t a date… I took him to go ice skating okay?”
“Sure it wasn’t a date, just two dudes ice skating, just dudes being bros,” Felix said with a laugh.
“Of course we went ice skating, I wanted to see my favorite figure skater skate again for the first time in 5 years, I saw the opportunity and took it,” Chan said and once he was done it struck him, he probably wasn’t meant to say that.
“Figure skater?” Jeongin asked, surprised.
“… I wasn’t supposed to say it” Chan said
“Well, you said it, now explain a bit more” came from Changbin.
“Okay so… Seungho is actually a figure skater like he was one of the best we were all sure he would end up in the Olympic team but instead, he disappeared just before the competition picks 5 years ago and when I saw him again I was really shocked and surprised but I was really happy to see he is okay but I found out he might not be all that okay, he had an injury but the reason he never came back was that he lost the joy of skating…” Chan explained.
“And I wanted to let him skate again because when he spoke of it I could tell he was sad, he longed for the ice but he didn’t have the motivation to go on so I took him without the option to say no, he enjoyed it so much he looked so free,” Chan said but as he spoke his members picked up on something in his voice, he looked genuinely happy, so because of that, they didn’t want to tease him anymore.
“Okay now… show us some videos of him” Jisung said excitedly.
In the end, the 8 boys were all squished on the sofa and with a few of the boys sitting on the floor, Chan started playing videos of when the boy was skating back then and the members watched in awe as they saw the boy they only just met, they never expected him to be that amazing.
“Wait… I know him!! He appeared on the news just before I left Australia, they were talking about how he was everyone’s top pick for the Olympic team right? Cho Seungho” Felix said excitedly now that he remembered watching the interview.
He remembers the boy looked somewhat miserable on the ice but watching his earlier videos of his career he saw the boy’s eyes sparkle as he skated and he understood a little what Chan meant, even he who just met the boy wanted to see that sparkle again.
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