⊱Danse sur glace⊰

Dancing on ice

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Exhilaration bubbled in my chest as I arrived at a rather huge frozen pond. The sun was peeking out of the horizon, casting a rosy light to the frozen white place, and the serene winter air was soothing my normally agitated mind. At this time in the morning, people were rarely hanging around cold places like this so I had the luxury of solitude there.

Humming a cheerful song that recently got stuck in my head from all the radio plays, I sat down on a fallen tree and changed my boots. The new ice skates I bought were very pretty and clean without unnecessary ornaments. They were almost identical to the ones I used to wear when I was younger and could freely skate outside for as long as I wanted.

A smile had been tugging my lips up ever since I entered a mall to buy the skates. After so many years, I was going to try skating again. My dad would be pleased to see me skate again.

My fingers stopped tying the shoelaces at the last thought and I looked up at the pale azure sky to recollect my erratic thoughts. If they continued, I would never be able to skate, let alone go up on the ice.

"Oh, the horror!" A familiar voice shouted and I jumped and curved my body to turn to Jimin who had a hand over his mouth while walking up to me. "Angel has robbed a store!"

Jaw dropping at the accusation, I stood up abruptly and nearly toppled because of the skates. "Hey! I bought this with my heaven allowance. Legally!"

With an amused smirk, he scanned me from head to toe and I scolded myself for being too excited that I wore a sparkly black ice skating dress. My cheeks warmed. Maybe I should have toned it down instead of acting like I was in a competition or something.

"Well, don't let me stop you," he simply said and gestured me to skate as I pleased.

"I-I wasn't going to," I unintentionally stuttered and breathed out a sharp sigh before turning around.

Acting like a professional since someone was watching me, I confidently stepped on the frozen pond and slid across the ice. Nostalgia instantly washed over me, pulling me to the past as I tentatively moved my legs. Today, I didn't have to worry about catching a cold that could be detrimental to my life. I didn't have to worry about getting scolded for skating too much that my body ached.

But today, the happiness I used to get from gliding across the ice was not like it used to be. Only a dull fulfillment like putting a last piece of puzzle I had in my hand for a while. No sparks of joy, no bursts of euphoria.

Bouts of jitters danced along the skin of my shoulders where someone touched, and I whirled around to come face to face with the blonde, smiling man before my lips parted in awe.

"You can skate?"

Jimin shrugged and followed me around as I skated backwards. "I used to skate during the winter. It helped with my dance skills like balance and grace, so..."

I hummed and twirled twice to face forward, earning an exclaim of amazement from him that surprised me. It wasn't anything dramatic.

"Can you do other cool moves?" He asked with a higher pitched voice and sparkling eyes.

I couldn't help my chuckles. Sliding to a more spacious part of the pond, I spun with one leg extended from a sitting position to a standing one. Widening his eyes, Jimin shook with twinkling laughter and almost slipped before I pulled him with my hands on his waist. Even I was surprised that I could still execute such move.

"I didn't know you were so talented!" Jimin beamed at me, genuinely amazed. His fringes kept brushing my forehead as he tried to recover and find his balance. "I- That's amazing, Saejin."

I was never praised by someone other than my father and Ria since I never showed my skating to anyone else. Warmth blossomed on my cheeks again and his face being so near mine dissolved my thoughts, leaving me a nervous mess. My first instinct was to downgrade myself.

"It's nothing. I bet you can do better. I mean- You're an amazing dancer- One in a billion-"

Well, that wasn't how I wanted to save myself from embarrassment. I exposed myself.

Jimin stood silent for a moment, doing nothing else but stare at me with an unknown expression that I grew even more nervous. Tension was brewing, threatening to scald me, and I had to pull him, skating around instead of simply standing under his heavy gaze.

"I can at least do this."

Before I could ask him what that was, Jimin wrapped an arm around my waist and held my face with his other hand before moving in front of me and skating backwards with one of his legs raised. Panicking, I held his shoulder and the back of his neck without thinking. His face was closer than before like this and I couldn't tear my eyes off his, captured and... hypnotized.

The rose and coral hues of the sky made everything seem surreal that I somehow didn't dare breathe.

It was me who slipped this time when my legs wobbled from the feelings he was evoking within me, and we stumbled and fell on the ice in a tangled mess.

While I was even more nervous from the way our cheeks bumped when we fell, Jimin started laughing. "Good thing we don't feel pain, right? I would have broken a bone or two just now."

"Haha, yeah," I quickly breathed out and pulled myself up before skating to the tree where our boots sat beside it. "I'm gonna go eat something."

Jimin followed me and changed his boots next to me while making those twinkling noises. When I stood up, something hard hit my arm, prompting a gasp from me. Mouth agape, I turned to my side and glared at Jimin who had a snowball in his bare hand.

"Hey!"

Ignoring my yell, he threw it at my face with a twinkling hearty laugh and bent down to make another one after I dodged it. Quickly grabbing a handful of snow, I threw it at him, making a show shower instead of actually hitting him, and he laughed louder, eyes turning into sparkling crescents. Bouts of laughter and snow showers decorated the empty area as we played without a care in the world.

I felt... happy... or something along that line that we could feel.

Covered in snow, we bickered each other with me trying to tackle him and him trying to hug me instead. At some point, he convinced me to make a snowman instead and we spent some time piling snow together, not noticing how the time was flying and the sun was shining ever so brightly above us.

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I finally wrote an update 😭

I can't skate to save my life lmao It's so hard, how can anyone stand or even twirl on a thin blade 🤭

Thank you for reading 🌸