mimosluvr - Tumblr blog

mimosluvr · 1 month

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that cherry blossom image almost brought me to my knees i’m gonna be honest

this was so so good!!! cute & awkward lino for the win!!!!!!!

Perfect

Genre: light angst, fluff, suggestive

Cw: Dancer!Minho x Gn!Reader, cheating, past relationship trauma, minho is struggling to get over it, happy ending don't even worry, he's cute and awkward (my favourite min to write)

Wc: 4.8k

Summary: He wanted to not be affected by his past relationship, but it had been 7 months and he still couldn't just confess to you.

AN: This was so fun to write!! I contemplated going further at the end but I didn't think the whole fic was giving smut vibes you know, but let me know what you think!

"Min," you called from the comfort of his sofa, fingers tapping away on your phone while your other hand massaged the soft fur on Dori's head. The rhythmic purring created a tranquil melody in the room.

He glanced at you through the open doorway, your question interrupting his thoughts, and for a moment, his heart pumped at the domesticated scene before him so much that he almost forgot to reply.

He managed a thoughtful, "Yeah?"

"Why haven't you invited me to your party tomorrow?"

Oh.

Minho froze, feeling the weight of your gaze on him, watching his shoulders lift slightly. There was no room to pretend he hadn't just been caught off guard. It was in moments like this when he cursed your uncanny ability to speak your mind confidently, something that he had never been able to do.

The last thing he wanted to do right now was to reveal more than he was ready for- especially without confessing the unspoken feelings he had for you. Ones that he had been trying to push away. But he didn't want to offend you either.

"It's.. not a party," he mumbled, looking down at the unfinished sandwich he had been making. "More of.. a get together."

"With all your friends?" you scoffed, prompting him to glance up, meeting your now-intense gaze.

The phone had been abandoned in your pocket, and he felt a surge of discomfort at your sudden undivided attention. The desire to run away from the conversation tugged at him, the tempting option of faking a heart attack to get out of it seeming like the best one.

"Why don't you want them to meet me?"

"It's not that.." He began, the words faltering on his tongue, but despite his efforts to deny it, he knew it was exactly that.

One of Minho's past relationship had left him weary, the betrayal he had experienced had broken his trust and left him uneasy at the thought of opening up to anyone new. The wounds inflicted by his ex-partner's infidelity ran deep despite how much he tried to get over it as quickly as he could.

There was no time limit on grief and healing, he knew that, but he felt as if it had been long enough now- 7 months, and he was still so hung up on the feeling of someone who he thought was one of his closest friends and his girlfriend running around behind his back.

Despite his facade of indifference that he made sure to emphasize when they were both telling him they didn't mean to hurt him, Minho had made the painful decision to sever ties with both his friend Woojin and his ex-girlfriend the moment he discovered what was happening behind his back. For months, mind you, he didn't let himself he convinced by their cries.

They wouldn't have done it if they cared.

He had acted as if their actions hadn't fazed him, burying the hurt and anger deep within himself. But despite his attempts to move on and just forget, here he was, still thinking about it, still letting it linger.

As much as Minho tried to deny it, those ghosts still haunted him and hung over something potentially happening with you. The fear of being hurt again had tainted his view on introducing his friends and his love interests, causing him to view every interaction through a lens of suspicion and doubt. He couldn't shake the feeling that history might repeat itself, even though he felt that he could trust you- he knew that he could if he even stepped up and told you how he felt for you.

But.. he was just your friend. At the moment, he wouldn't even have an excuse for getting hurt again if you did happen to like one of his friends more than platonically.

He just couldn't do it. Not yet.

As he thought about the idea of introducing you to his friends, he found himself replaying memories of his past relationship, the signs of deception he had missed like when his girlfriend kept finding excuses to visit Woojin and have him come over. The thought of exposing you to his social circle filled him with dread, as if doing so would somehow invite the same pain and betrayal back into his life despite you not even being his girlfriend in the first place.

Even with his growing feelings for you, Minho couldn't silence the nagging voice in the back of his mind, whispering warnings of more hurting and avoiding his pain. Until he could just forget and move on, the prospect of introducing you to his friends remained something he didn't want to cross just yet.

And he also couldn't tell you all that.

"I didn't think you'd get along with them."

The words felt hollow to his own ears even as he was speaking them, and he knew by the look on your face that you knew he was lying. He knew it was a terrible excuse.

"If you don't want me there, it's okay," you replied calmly as you looked down, but there was a hint of dissapointment in your voice. "Just don't lie to me."

Minho felt a pang of guilt in his heart, he knew he owed you the truth- honestly, it was rich of him to withhold it from you when that's what caused all his pain and heartbreak in the first place.

Oh but he did want you there, he really did. But it couldn't be as a friend. It couldn't be as the girl from nextdoor, Minho's neighbour. He wanted you to be Minho's girlfriend, to be by his side, on his arm so that he could shield you away.

But he couldn't, of course, so he didn't invite you.

The thought of you mingling with his unfortunately attractive and funny friend group filled him with a sense of unease. He couldn't bear the idea of any of them showing interest in you, let alone the possibility of you reciprocating those feelings. The thought gnawed at him, that one of them could be better for you than him. One of them probably wouldn't keep you away and under wraps, trying to keep you all to themselves.

He knew that he had to confront his insecurities or let you in.. or let you go, just something. This current arrangement really wasn't working for anyone but him.

As you laughed to yourself and stood up, Minho felt something strange wash over him. He wanted to ask what was so amusing, to understand the thoughts racing through your mind, but the words caught in his throat when you looked up at him.

"Enjoy your party," you announced suddenly, your tone letting him know of the sadness in your words. Minho's heart sank as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

I want you there.

Just say it. Say it.

His feet were still planted in the kitchen and his mouth was still sewn shut as his front door clicked shut gently behind you.

Fuck.

It wasn't a party, it was a get together, he was definitely right about that. In his mind parties usually contain more than 8 people, and they.. party? This was just him and his friends messing about at his house, a get together if you will.

But Minho felt awful, he couldn't stomach the fact that you might be mad at him, or that he might've made you think he was embarrassed or ashamed to introduce you to his friends.

"Lighten up," Jisung laughed, passing him yet another beer. "Or tell me what's wrong."

"I'm not gonna talk even if you get me drunk," he scoffed, taking it anyway- he already was tipsy but he was confident in his ability to not blabber while drunk.

"Is it cause the girl from next door isn't here?" Seungmin smiled coyly, a delightful addition to the conversation.

"No," he defended, obviously too quick for it to be a natural lie, but he wasn't going to let up.

The girl from next door.

See, that's what he didn't want, he didn't want you to just be the girl from next door. He wanted it to be y/n, his girlfriend, who happens to also live next door.

The one who let him rant and rant about his ex girlfriend, who comforted him and told him it was okay for him to be upset and hurt- the only one he truly told that he was upset and hurt. The one who knows his cats and his house inside out, who always offers to help him and give him company, who laughs at his jokes when he knows they're not funny, who

The one he really really likes, despite it all.

"Where is she again?" Felix asked, popping his head into the conversation, prompting Minho to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

"She's busy," he shrugged, taking a swig from his bottle and hoping they weren't going to notice the redness of his ears.

"Doing what?"

Seungmin again, with that stupid smirk.

"She didn't say, I don't know, why would I know?"

"Alright, I got it."

The sensation of two hands shaking him from behind the couch startled him, causing him to jolt slightly and spilling beer over his shirt. He blinked, trying to process the unexpected interruption.

"Why don't you tell her how you feel already?" the voice laughed, tone filled with a mix of teasing and just a plain urge for him to stop torturing himself.

Minho's heart skipped a beat. They knew? They all knew?

Well, if they didn't, Chan certainly didn't leave room for misinterpretation.

There was no escaping it now, their knowing looks trapping him inside his head. The truth hung heavy in the air, demanding to be acknowledged.

"I- I don't.." he started, his words struggling to articulate his thoughts and fuck now he was blushing and they were all going to tease him about it and never let it die. With a sudden surge of panic, he jumped up from his seat, eager for an escape.

"I'm getting a new shirt."

As Minho climbed the stairs, grumbling under his breath, the echoes of laughter from his living room bounced up the walls.

Felix followed him up, a soft sound of a knock on his door and a short grunt from Minho as he was pulling off his shirt.

"We're just joking." He smiled, always so bright and cheerful.

"Yeah," he shrugged, pursing his lips, "I know."

"There's nothing wrong with having feelings for her."

"Yeah I know," he huffed, bringing his hand up to rub at his red cheeks that he hid from Felix by facing the opposite direction- digging through his drawers for another shirt.

The younger man sat on the edge of his bed, kicking his feet gently, eyeing the way that Minho was turned away. Yet another attempt from him to hide.

"You're allowed to move on, it's been long enough."

"Yeah.."

It has, right? It's been more than half a year, why is he still dwelling on what happened? He's sure the two of them aren't hung up on him after cheating on him.

"I know."

You spotted a man leaning against Minho's wall, his posture relaxed and yet commanding- in a gentle way. A surge of curiosity washed over you as you observed him, realizing that this was one of his friends, one that he for some reason didn't want to meet you. He seemed nice enough.

From his physique, it was evident that he was athletic, his muscular build contrasting with Minho's somewhat leaner frame. He had been getting bigger lately though, especially within the last few weeks.

...

It was hard not to notice.

Really, how weren't you supposed to see? It was like everytime you saw him coming home from the gym he was wearing one of those tight black shirts that accentuated everyth-

As if sensing your gaze, the man looked up and caught your eye. A warm smile spread across his face, accompanied by a friendly wave. You returned the gesture with a smile of your own.

The mystery friend beckoned you over, a sense of intrigue pulling you away from the mindless crochet you had been engrossed in. With a slight skip in your step, you abandoned the half-finished blanket for Doongie and headed to the door.

A wry smile tugged at the corners of your lips as you took in the irony. Even when you were mad at him, he was still so present- in everything. You couldn't help but be reminded of him in the simplest of activities. The thought brought a mixture of exasperation and longing.

Despite the uncertainties of whatever it was that was lingering between you and Minho at the moment, there was a glimmer of excitement in the prospect of connecting with his friend, if only for a moment before you were banished away again.

Banished may be a strong word, but it's how you felt.

You just couldn't wrap your head around why he didn't want you to meet his friends. He'd already met yours and it went great, they all loved him. Your neighbour had met your parents, even, helped them move their luggage from the car when he noticed then from the kitchen window when they came to stay with you for a weekend.

What a nice man, they had said.

"I'm Chris," the mystery man smiled, holding his hand out.

You took it gladly, "y/n, you're a friend of Min's?"

He nodded, "yeah, we dance together."

"That's so cool! How long have you been dancing for?"

One of Minhos dance friends, from his team you're guessing, he vaguely mentions them every once in a while, not that he ever gives you any information about them that you don't have to pry out of his grasp.

"Like.. years, I can't remember a time when I didn't dance."

You smiled, "that's great that you're so passionate, are you all dancers?"

He saw you looking towards the back door, a longing expression dancing across your features slightly- not wanting to reveal how much it had hurt your feelings that he didn't want you there.

"Yeah we're all dancers," Chan smiled sympathetically, he wasn't sure what was going on between you two, but it didn't take a genius to figure out you weren't happy about not being in there with the rest of them. "He didn't tell you?"

"I knew he had dancer friends but that was it."

He nodded, a thoughtful pout flashing across his lips. "Come in?"

"Oh.. no," you quickly laughed, failing at not letting your new acquaintance know you were troubled. "Min didn't invite me and I don't.. you know, it'd be rude."

"He didn't invite you?"

"No," you smiled with a pityful giggle.

Chan's brain was whirring, trying to put things together in his head- he'd said you were busy and that was why you weren't there. But you didn't seem to be busy at all, frankly. And now it's revealed that Minho didn't even invite you?

"Why wouldn't he?"

"That's what I thought," you agreed, tossing your wrists out, "I asked him a few days ago and he just made up some stupid reason."

Chris tutted, entertaining the beginning of your rant with a smile on his face as he gestured for you to continue.

Something tipped him off that you had some things to say about the situation.

"He said he was worried I wouldn't get along with you guys?"

"Stupid," he nodded.

"Yes! Thank you, I mean, it's not the end of the world if one of you didn't like me.. you know, and he's- Minho's met all of my friends and he's met my parents and I don't even know your names? "

"Damn, he doesn't mention us at all?" Chan laughed, his dimples making an appearance as he laughed at your huffed expression.

You smiled exasperatedly, "I practically know nothing."

He opened his mouth to reply, but your eyes spotted a second man who peeked his head out of the front door to see where your new friend had gone.

You waved immediately, catching his attention- and causing Chan to turn back to see who you had found.

"Oh Changbin, this is y/n," he cocked his head, and you didn't miss the questioning look he sent Chan at the mention of your name.

"Not busy?"

"Well, I was crocheting a little cat blanket 5 minutes ago but I'd much rather be talking to you guys," you smiled warmly.

"Ahh nice to meet you then," he grinned- shaking your hand, "you got a cat?"

"No, it's for Doongie, but don't tell Min."

"Surprise?"

"It won't be, but also I'm mad at him at the moment."

They laughed, leaning against the wall as you stayed your side of the painted white fence.

Your neighbour had helped you paint it actually, dropped everything to assist you as soon as you'd mentioned in a passing comment that you were tired of the reddish woodstain of it.

Navigating the emotional signals that Minho sent your way was like trying to decipher a complex puzzle with no clear solution. His actions often left you feeling confused, yet there was always an undeniable allure to him that never failed to captivate you.

It was a constant tug of war, each conflicting emotion fighting for dominance in your heart. One moment, his words or actions would make you think he liked you, and the next, he would do something like this that had you doubting it all- pushing you away and lying to you.

Despite the rollercoaster of emotions, there was a magnetic pull to Minho that you couldn't deny. Honestly, his enigmatic nature only added to how captivated you were by him, drawing you in deeper even as you struggled to make sense of his pushing and pulling.

There was a part of you that couldn't help but be utterly smitten by him. The mere thought of him never failed to set your heart aflutter even when he was being like this and you were annoyed with him.

The rest of the boys slowly filtered outside to join Chan and Changbin and you, each taking a second to introduce themselves and say hi before easily being caught up to speed on the topic of conversation. More so, investigation on why Minho hadn't wanted his friends to meet you.

They were a loud bunch, the 6 of them, and they clearly had no reservations or boundaries with personal questions- which seemed to be the only real reason you could think of that he wouldn't want them around you.

The question that hung in the air- "Do you like him?" -caught you off guard, causing your cheeks to flush with embarrassment. It was a blunt inquiry that left little room for evasion, one that you didn't expect straight away.

Despite your best efforts to maintain composure, your reaction would have been enough. With a sheepish smile, you acknowledged the obvious, knowing that there was no point in denying what was already written across your flushed face.

"That's so cute! He-" One of them started, being elbowed in the side by the one with fluffy hair that was stood besides him.

"He.. what?" You asked, observing the smiles and glances that passed between the group in front of you. You laughed, "what is it?"

As Minho descended the stairs with Felix, anticipation bubbling within him after the strangely therapeutic heart to heart he'd had with his younger member- about how he should confess, just get it over with atleast.

A sour taste filled his mouth, and his heart sank in his chest as he realized that the laughter he heard was emanating from outside the front door. Your laughter, and theirs.

Dread washed over him as he approached the open door, the sound of conversation growing louder with each step.

He couldn't help but notice the easy rapport and laughter that flowed effortlessly between you all. His heart clenched with a mixture of pride and apprehension as he watched you interact with his friends, your charisma and beauty shining brightly despite the cloudy sky.

He observed the undeniable chemistry between you and his friend group and felt his limbs grow heavy. He couldn't help but feel overshadowed by their charisma and charm, and a wave of self-doubt washed over him as he imagined you comparing him to them just like what had happened 7 months ago. Or 8, or 9, who knew when she realised Woojin was better?

He couldn't shake the thought that you might find his friends more appealing, more suited to you than he could ever hope to be. They were all disgustingly handsome, and he knew it was an undeniable fact- there was no use in hoping you didn't notice.

A hand patting his shoulder jolted him forward out of the hallway, and the circle around you parted like the red sea at Minho's arrival, tension thickening the air around the two of you as you fixed your gaze on his guilty expression. His laughter sounded nervous, an attempt to diffuse the palpable tension that hung between you.

"So you've met everyone," Minho hummed, his voice strained with anxiety as he attempted to steer the conversation away from the uncomfortable confrontation that he knew was brewing before him.

But you weren't about to let him off the hook so easily.

"Why would you tell them I was busy?" you questioned, tone laced with a mix of exasperation and disappointment. Your accusation sent a shiver down Minho's spine- he knew you could see right through him.

"Y/n," Minho mumbled, stepping closer to the fence, grateful for Chan's intervention as he ushered the rest of their friends back inside.

Minho knew he needed to address the issue now, head on, no more avoidance.

"I didn't... I-" he began, his words stumbling over each other as he struggled to articulate his thoughts.

"What's so bad about me that your friends can't even meet me?" you interrupted, your voice tinted with hurt.

"Nothing! No, no that's not-" Minho protested, his heart sinking at the thought of you thinking it was anything negative to do with you. He scrambled for the right words, desperate to reassure you that it was his own insecurities and fears.

"It's fine.. Min," you sighed, your disappointment palpable as you began walking towards your slightly ajar front door. "I won't-"

The sound of Minho effortlessly jumping the fence behind you made you scoff in disbelief, but before you could react, you felt a gentle tug on your summer dress. You met his gaze when you turned back to face him, vulnerability reflecting in his eyes.

"I didn't want you to meet them," he confessed, sucking in a breath like that was his big confession.

You knew that.

Minho blinked owlishly at you, a flicker of uncertainty crossing his features as he glanced down at his hand, releasing the fabric of your dress that he had bunched up in his palm.

"I... thought you'd like them more than me."

"What?" you scrunched your face in confusion, disbelief washing over you like a gentle wave as you struggled to process his confession. The idea that Minho could doubt himself in comparison to his friends that you'd just met left you feeling bewildered and saddened.

The man who had done everything you ever asked, kept you company when you needed it, listened to you rant and vent to him more times than you could count, drank with you until he had to tuck you into bed and stumble back down to the couch because even though he was drunk too you were always his first priority. The one who brought you countless portions of food that he claimed to have leftover, who let you come over and see the cats whenever you wanted even if it was just an excuse to see him.

Minho's feet shuffled on the concrete of your doorstep.

The wind blew the falling blooms of your cherry blossom tree between the two of you- a few resting gently in his black hair as he pouted down at the ground.

"What are you talking about, Minho?"

"I thought... if you met my friends, you wouldn't... I thought I wouldn't have a shot with you anymore," he sighed. "I don't know if I ever did."

Minho's big eyes met yours and his bottom lip slipped under his teeth.

"And now I've blown it anyway, right? You're mad at me?"

He looked up, silently begging for you to just put him out of his misery- at least tell him he didn't have a chance, tell him which of his friends had inevitably caught your affection.

Tell him so that he could stop looking at you like you were his entire world, admiring the beauty in such a simple expression. Even now, with your eyes scrunched at him in disbelief, he saw a cherry blossom land in your hair- finding the sudden urge to reach over and tuck that strand of hair behind your ear.

He'd keep the flower in, it's pretty.

It suits you. It matches your pretty summer dress that you wore even though it wasn't summer- it was hardly the weather for a dress like that and yet you wore it because you liked it and god he just..

He had to tell you.

"I love you," he spoke, his voice barely audible above the sound of the birds tweeting around in the background. "And I was scared. And I didn't want you to like any of them more than me, just like she did.."

Minho's admission of self-doubt tugged at you, empathy stirring within you as you recalled the frustration you had felt when he had told you about his ex-girlfriend. The mere thought of someone cheating on Minho, the most perfect man you had ever met, filled you with anger.

You wondered how you didn't realise your feelings for him then, honestly, and god knows he was too filled with hurt to process the fact that you were telling him how amazing he was and how lucky anyone would be to have him and if you had him you definitely wouldn't ever let him go.

You couldn't bear to see him in this anguish any longer, yearning for a closure than only you could provide.

"Min," you pursed your lips, voice soft yet stern like you were telling him off for even thinking that. "I like your friends, they're cool, but.. I love you."

His eyes sparkled with the hope and relief you'd just instilled in him.

"You're so perfect, I.. I couldn't imagine ever looking at anyone the way I look at you."

Bashful laughter peaked from Minho's throat as he shook his head, his mouth opening to say something, anything, but you beat him to it. Your lips gently pressed against his, a tender gesture that left him momentarily stunned.

A squeak of surprise escaped him as his eyebrows shot up, his hands hovering in the air as if suspended in disbelief. But as the warmth of your kiss enveloped him, all his doubt melted away, replaced by a rush of overwhelming affection and gratitude.

With a soft sigh of contentment he leaned into the kiss, his hands finding your hips as yours rested on his chest, finally getting to savour the sweet taste of your lips against his own.

The muffled sound of cheers and clapping made the two of you swing your heads around in surprise. There, all 7 of his friends had their faces pressed against the glass of Minho's kitchen window, alight with joy and pride.

You and Minho shared a sheepish glance before bursting into laughter, and as he backed away to finally bring you to his 'get together', you decided it didn't even mean that much to you anymore. Not after what had just happened anyway. You'd waited way too long.

You grabbed his hand, waving goodbye to his friends and dragging the man stumbling inside your house so that you were away from prying eyes and teasing smiles.

The shy grin that graced his lips made you need to push him against the door, listen to the gasp that escaped him and watch the way his ears went bright red.

Perfect, he was perfect, down to all his little tells and quirks.

"Go easy on me," he giggled nervously, "I didn't mean to hide it for so long."

You hummed, basking in his stuttered breathing as you played with the hem of his shirt- your fingers grazing the warm skin of his stomach underneath.

"Say please."

Taglist: @linos-kitten @agi-ppangx @milf-ivy @stayinlimbo @lastgreatamericandynasty1

(taglist has two lines now, yippee!! TYSM 🫶)

If you'd like to be added to a taglist, comment under this post!

#lee know fanfic #lee know #lee know x reader #lino my beloved #i’m going to confess to something…#woojin being the bad guy had me gagged #i never see his name in fics so when i saw i was like 😦😦😦😦😦😦😦😦😦

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mimosluvr · 2 months

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oh my GOSH!!!! i came here after seeing @stayinlimbo ‘s post & i’m so glad i did???? this was so so good, the evolution of minho’s emotions i think i just fell to the ground ……… so good

Cold as ice

Genre: fluff, first love, suggestive smut

Cw: FigureSkater!Minho x FigureSkater!Reader, slow(ish) burn, first kiss, he's shy, grumpy x sunshine kinda, rivals to lovers if you really squint, making out, hickies, smutty thoughts

Wc: 11.7k

Summary: Minho finds the icy cage around his heart melting sooner than he thought, and you were the flame

A/N: This was so fun to write I genuinely loved this sm, the song vibe is sparks by coldplay if anyone wants to listen while they're reading like me lol

Minho stood at the entrance of the Olympic ice rink with a newfound excitement for his skating career- his heart racing with a blend of nerves and ecstasy. He felt the cool air hitting his face, the frostiness biting at the moisture on his lips, felt his limbs being pierced with the harsh cold of where he felt most at home, and he knew he belonged.

He had sacrificed the majority of his life to get to this rink, gave up countless hours, missed important life events, and trained vigorously to the point of exhaustion just to stand here and compete for his country. A part of him looks back and wished he could've formed better connections with the people around him, a small twinge pulled at his heart when his peers didn't send him off, but he knew he didn't regret it.

Not when he was the one that got to stand on this ice, when he was the one that was going to represent his country and stand on the podium with a gold medal when all was said and done.

Minho loved being alone on the ice like this, he loved when it was just him and the sound of his blades cutting through the frozen surface- no one watching, no one putting pressure on him to be better. He felt an unparalleled freedom when he was allowed to just skate, to not feel.

The rink was his canvas, each push of his legs painted a picture over the ice that transformed it into proof of his dedication and passion for the sport he had devoted his life to.

The man had graduated from rink to rink in his journey, upgrading with every step of progress- and as Minho flawlessly executed the junior championship routine that had gotten him into the most important rink in his skating world, he marveled in the feel of it all. How much smoother the ice felt under his feet, simply how much more room he had to practice each jump and glide that merged seamlessly with his movements.

In his mind, the arena echoed with applause and the sweet taste of validation that he would get for all the hard work that had led him to this refined moment on the glistening surface.

"First time?" He heard a soft voice call out to him, the sound of another pair of blades gently scratching the surface reaching his ears at the same time.

He looked up and didn't see another figure skater anywhere on the ice.

But he did see an angel.

You glided across the ice so gracefully that it looked like you were floating.

You effortlessly lifted your leg and caught it behind your head, pushing yourself into an upright spin. Minho couldn't help his eyes from scanning across your legs, captivated by the seamless fluidity of your movements. He swallowed the lump in his throat.

Minho had a rule that he wouldn't let himself forget, and that was not to let anyone get in the way of his gold medal. He never bothered to become more than acquaintances with anyone he used to skate with- and the few friends he had outside of the ice eventually grew away from him, intimidated by his all consuming dedication to the sport.

He knew he couldn't break this rule now more than ever, so Minho stayed silent, just observing the mysterious skater from the corners of his eyes. As you continued to skate, each twirl and jump performed with an effortless grace, he came to the realisation that he hadn't found much joy in watching other people skate until right now. Minho remained in his solitary rhythm, maintaining the distance he had carefully cultivated to protect his focus.

As soon as he tore his eyes off of you, it was like you knew that you had lost his attention. Your soft voice, like a gentle breeze, began gliding through the air again, spurring his eyes to look up once more at your routine.

"I remember my first time on this ice too, amazing right?"

Still, he hesitated, torn between the familiar path of solitude and the intriguing possibility of.. no.

"What's your name?"

"Minho."

He may be opposed to making friends but he wasn't impolite, he'd answer if you asked him a direct question.

"Korea, right?"

He nodded.

"I watched your championships."

He hummed, staring down at the fluffy socks that were peeking out of your skates.

Minho already felt uneasy, knowing that you knew his style of skating, had seen his best performance to date, how he reacted to the crowds, yet he remained in the dark about anything to do with you.

The asymmetry of your knowledge of eachother made Minho weary, he felt like you had an advantage over him already.

"I'm Y/n." You announced, extending a hand to him but he didn't take it.

The air was heavy with the unspoken tension that had bubbled up in him from this small interaction.

"Making a friend isn't going to stop you from doing your best, you know?" You offered, your words cutting through the frosty air. Minho looked up, meeting your eyes with a conflicted expression. Despite your gentle encouragement, his focus on the gold medal remained unwavering. He didn't want just to do his best; he wanted to bring home that prize.

His gaze shifted down to the patch of your country's flag sewn into your jacket, and he pursed his lips, a silent acknowledgment of the reality of the situation, you were here to try and beat him too at the end of the day.

It was ingrained in his mind from a very young age that he didn't need friends in this world. He needed to win. Minho chaneled all of his energy into surpassing his peers instead of conversing with them- he knew their names, and he knew their rankings. He didn't entertain any attempts at training together, lest they all steal his routines and steal his success.

"If I was going to make a friend it wouldn't be with someone I was competing against."

"Suit yourself, Minho," you grinned, "I'll be here if you want company."

He was sure he wouldn't want company, but he gave you a small nod nonetheless and watched as you slipped a pair of earphones in your ears and relocated to the far end of the rink so as not to collide with his space.

He appreciated that.

When he next came, during the more acceptable hours of the next day to be out skating, the ice was teeming with other competitors when he went back. He groaned under his breath, of course he couldn't police the rink, but he hated this.

Now he had to pay attention to his surroundings properly, he didn't get to just skate and lose himself in the silence, he had to watch everything, not just focus on himself.

Now he would feel uncomfortable in his own skin everytime a pair of eyes looked him up and down.

He felt uncomfortably exposed like this.

He felt like his every glide was being watched, examined, picked apart, stolen for other routines, magpied by other coaches.

No, he'd come back later.

He'd come back when he could focus.

There was no use being on the ice like this, not when he could barely keep his eyes straight in from of him; darting his eyes back and forth every two seconds to check for other skaters just in case someone got too close and he would collide-

Minho's fear materialized just then, right as he was thinking about avoiding it, he failed to see you right in front of him. The two of you tangled together in an unexpected embrace, his limbs flailing to keep himself upright amidst his moment of weakness- a stark contrast to the usual upmost precision and control that he prided himself on.

He cleared his throat, a habit that he used to shove the lump of embarrassment that made it hard for him to swallow out of his airway.

"Sorry," he mumbled, his ears tinting in a cherry blush that seemed much more bright on the ice.

"Are you okay?" You asked him, trying to surpress a smile at how his hands squeezed your arms, surprised by the unexpected shift of balance.

He noticed then. That he was still holding on to you tightly, and quickly removed himself, rubbing at his cheek subtly to try and force the blush back down his neck.

Cute.

"I'm okay."

"Be careful," you nodded towards him, skating backwards through the current of people. He watched as they all seemed to contort around you, fitting you into their paths and you didn't even need to look at where they were.

Minho wondered if that was a skill that came with skating around other people. If having friends on the ice allowed him to better suit himself for not skating alone.

When would he ever need that, though?

"Wouldn't want anything getting in the way of your gold medal?"

He heard your voice before he saw your face again, pirouetting around him like a ballerina.

You stopped in front of him, a playful smile tugging at the corners of your lips as you stared up into his stoic expression. It seemed he was as emotionally resilient as the ice.

"Do you speak only when someone's asking you a question?" You quipped, teasingly.

His response was a curt, "no."

You giggled at the irony, and a crack appeared in Minho's rigidly crafted exterior as he pursed his lips into a small smile and let his head flop down to hide it.

You wished he didn't hide it, though, as that split second his face held something more than that blank expression you wanted to chase it- tilt his head back up to see the smile he didn't want to show you.

"Well, you wanna skate?"

He looked to the side and let the anxiety bubble back up through his veins at the sight of all the other people moving past his field of view.

"How can you skate with so many people?"

You shrugged, a casual nonchalance in your response, "habit, I didn't really get to use private rinks a lot."

The admission carried a hint of your own experiences, and you wondered for a brief moment if he was going to open up about his to continue the conversation.

He didn't continue.

Of course not.

"What about you?"

Minho's stoic exterior seemed to reassert itself, mending the cracks as soon as you asked him a question about himself that he deemed suspicious. The question lingered in his air and in his thoughts as he pushed himself along behind you.

You faced him, skating backwards carefully as it you were guiding him through the people, opening up a path for him to start a new journey on the ice.

He watched you smile and greet everyone you skated past like you had known them for years, and maybe you had, he truly couldn't tell. Maybe if he hadn't been so shut off you would've asked about his day so far like you were chatting to an old friend.

Your question was deemed forgotten, but he still mulled it over- thinking about how talented and truly passionate you must've been to get this far without the opportunity to skate in a private rink.

Thinking about how he probably wouldn't have gotten this far without it, most of his love for the sport came with the fact that he could be alone.

Thinking about asking you about your experiences, to dissect how different the two of you were in that regard.

He skated behind you, internally grateful for the path you were clearing for him, but he didn't vocalise his appreciation.

He glided in silence.

In the next week, the man had found himself exhausted with the fridge that came in his dorm and reluctantly reatreated to the canteen. With his tray in hand, he looked around at the semi-filled tables, observing the groups of people, most just competitors from neighbouring countries huddling together.

It felt foreign to him.

But Minho was no stranger to eating alone. With a quiet determination, he selected an empty table and sat down gently, placing his head on his palm as he started to pick at the offerings that had came with his tray. The clatter of cutlery and hum of distant conversations accompanied his solitude, he had done this many times before, but he didn't feel quite as alone until right now.

He thought the rest of these people would be the same as him, closed off and obsessed with success, he didn't think it would be like school all over again- with cliques and small exclusive groups of people that all looked so happy eating together.

Friends.

They were all friends.

Then, a burst of laughter resonated from a nearby table and something stirred in his chest. He glanced up, and as he had expected, it was your table- the pleasant sound of your laughter that disrupted his thoughts.

You met his eye and a quick, strange, panic seized over him- he felt his face heating up and he didn't know why. Minho swiftly averted his gaze and pretended to be engrossed in the intricacies of his half eaten meal, masking the way his pulse spiked when you noticed him looking.

God, that was wrong. That felt wrong.

That felt like something that would get in the way of his gold medal if he entertained it.

Minho's sudden focus was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a second tray landing on his table. Startled, like a lonely kitten, he looked up with wide eyes to find you standing there at the foot of the bench opposite him.

There was a moment of silence shared between the two of you as surprise flashed across his face, replaced with uncertainty, and then quickly painted back over with his usual plain expression.

"You looked like you could use some company," you shrugged with a casual smile.

Minho hesitated, this new turn of events throwing him for a bit of a loop. It was clear you were going to join him no matter what he did, so he might as well just accept it and try and finish his food as quick as he could.

"I didn't need it."

"Well, now you've got it," you replied with a gentle insistence.

He watched as you sunk down into the chair, resting your elbows on the table and your chin in your intertwined hands as you looked back at him.

The man cleared his throat, blinking rapidly and subtly chewing on the inside of his cheek as he looked back down. His nervous tics betrayed the emotional conflict occurring deep in the back of his mind.

Why were you so insistent on getting him out of his shell?

He wanted to ask, but that would in turn be getting himself out of his shell, so he sat in silence to regain his control- no different to before you were sat across from him.

That lonely feeling from before dissapated though, and for that he was grateful.

From that moment onward, every time Minho would show himself in the canteen- a subtle shift in the dynamic between the two of you took place. No matter which table he chose, no matter how far away from your usual spot he placed himself, you made it a point to come and join him.

Even despite the fact that he ate in silence, you did it opposite him. A small smile etched on your lips spoke louder than any small talk you could've tried to bother him with. You were happy with this arrangement and he couldn't figure out why for the life of him.

He knew he was difficult, knew that his cold and judging exterior that he presented was challenging for everyone around him. He prided himself on his control, the fact that he could navigate the confusing social interactions around him with said coldness, but something about seeing you sat across from him despite it prompted a lump to stir in his throat.

Why were you putting up with his silence?

Did you really have any interest in the thoughts he didn't share with anyone, or was he just a dull challenge? Someone for you to open up and then spare nothing but a morning greeting on the ice when all was said and done?

What if, in the process of sharing himself, you regarded him a puzzle solved and just.. moved on?

Over the weeks, yours and his schedules seemed to blend together seamlessly. The two of you found yourselves on the ice together more often than not, despite Minho's initial attempts to shake you off. He sought the emptiness of the early mornings and the late nights and, so it seemed, did you.

The rink became a shared space for the two of you, and it had gotten so bad that he looked for you when he entered- he would stay far away sure, but he looked for you. He couldn't help but glance around to make sure you were there, sat on the bleachers adjusting your skates or already twirling on the ice, your presence had somehow already become a part of his new routine.

Today, however, you weren't there.

He had gotten so used to skating in tandem with you, seperate routines, and yet intertwined on the frozen canvas as the marks that your skates left threaded together by the time the both of you were finished.

For a moment, a subtle but undeniable pang snagged at Minho's heart.

It wasn't quite sadness, no, more like discomfort.

The ice felt emptier now.

He whipped his head around as he span, his eyes searching the room for your bag or something of yours to quell the weird feeling pooling heavy in the bottom of his legs.

The sound of his blades cutting the ice felt louder now, echoed stronger without the other half of the room being polluted with the sound of yours slicing through his beloved silence.

Did he like it? He didn't know anymore.

What he did know was that he didn't like not knowing where you were.

That need for control reared its head, and some sort of anxiety washed over him like a gentle yet unrelenting wave. This was his routine now, he skated with you, and now you were gone.

His thoughts weren't clear with you gone, and his thoughts weren't clear when you were here- the confusing emotions that stirred restlessly within him made him frown. He almost longed for your presence, longed for the knowledge of your whereabouts, and longed for everything to go back to how it was when he didn't have to worry about distracting things like you.

He wasn't used to confronting problems like this.

When had Minho ever needed to navigate his emotions in order to concentrate?

He could push those down, he usually could ignore it all and just skate. He was having trouble just skating recently and it was bothering him, you were bothering him.

The man huffed to himself, a frustrated acknowledgement of his sudden codependency on your companionship, it struck him as a little amusing despite everything.

He could almost be moved to laugh out loud at the absurdity of it.

Minho found himself walking straight to the canteen when his session was over, the need to ask you where you'd been lingering in his mind- an impulse to understand why you'd disrupted his routine.

However when he arrived, he didn't find you sat at your usual table either. A frown etched into his face as he stood amist the moving current of people, caught between leaving and maybe.. asking?

He sucked in a breath, hesitation pushing through him before he pursed his lips and headed toward your usual table.

"Hey," Minho greeted, masking his small amount of worry with a composed exterior. "Have you seen Y/n around?"

The other skaters looked up, sharing glances between themselves, no doubt they recognised him as the man you always joined, the one who always sat alone. Three men and one other woman sat at your table, he didn't have a faintest clue of any of their names, but he picked up an Australian accent as the one closest to him spoke first.

"Yeah, she took a spill this morning. Went to get checked out by the medical team."

Oh.

You were hurt.

That upset him.

"She'll be back soon though, she didn't want to go, it was just her coach making her check it out."

A wave of relief washed over Minho, his initial concern fading. "Thank you," he replied, nodding at the information.

Minho chewed on the inside of his cheek.

Maybe if he had made more of an effort with these people, with your friends, he wouldn't have been the only one in the dark about your situation. The walls he'd built to isolate himself had isolated you from him, and the realisation made him sigh.

He turned on his heel to leave, losing what little appetite he had in the first place.

Minho's knee bounced up and down with restless energy as he sat on the bleachers the next morning. He took small sips of his hot chocolate, watching the empty ice and the way it glistened in the light- the thought that it was similar to the twinkle in your eyes didn't escape him.

One cup sat untouched next to his thigh, waiting for your arrival.

His gaze flickered to the entrance, wondering when you would appear. When you did, he straightened his back and fixed his posture, clearing his throat of that lump again before he could realise what he was doing. It was a reflexive action, and it wasn't intended to alert you of his presence so abruptly, but you smiled as you fixed your view on him.

Minho watched you approach, climbing up two of the levels to sit beside him silently. The action melted a part of his icy walls, the fact that you were willing to just sit next to him- just share his company.

Your eyes fell to the cup he held in his hands, and then flickered to the one that sat besides him- in between the two of you. As your gaze met his, you grinned knowingly and the warmth from it caught him off guard.

He blinked rapidly, composed facade faltering as he looked at you like a deer caught in headlights- blush tinting his ears. He had to look away.

"It's for you," Minho mumbled, gently pushing the cup towards you slightly as his eyes locked on something far in the corner.

From then on, he brought you a hot chocolate every day just to see that smile again.

Most of the time, and if he would arrive later than you, he would leave it by your bag- opting to watch you from afar when you realised what he'd done. Sometimes he would be bold enough to wait for you and hand it to you himself on the rare occasion he was feeling that confident.

Today you happened to be stood right behind him in the line to the small sponsored cafe that he had buying the drinks from. He didn't know how to navigate this.

He fully intended not to break his routine today, but there was something about having you right there that made him nervous.

Minho kept glancing over his shoulder at you the further down the line he got, and this time you looked back. A coy smile tugged on your lips, as if you knew of his struggle, waiting to see what he would do now that he didn't have the option to drop the drink off from afar.

Control yourself, he thought, this is fine.

He paid for the two hot chocolates still, except only picking one off of the counter when they were done despite the barista calling out for him.

He heard your rushed footsteps from behind, the other drink in hand as you fell into step with him.

"Thank you," you hummed, looking up at his reddish brown hair.

The man spared you a passing nod, playing with the hem of his jacket to steal his focus away from wanting to observe your smile from so close.

"I'll pay you back."

That made him look.

He shook his head, "no need."

"But these are expensive."

He thought back on one of the very first pieces of information he knew about you- that you never got to skate in empty rinks growing up. He assumed that you didn't have the means to book one out or pay for private sessions like he did.

He didn't particularly think the drinks were expensive, but you did and you still wanted to pay him back.

"It's fine."

"Minho.."

His heart skipped when you said his name.

"I'm not going to accept your money no matter what you say, so, you might as well just keep it and stop complaining."

You smiled, and he cocked his head towards you inquisitively.

"I think that's the most you've ever said to me."

He blinked.

You were right.

He cleared his throat of embarrassment yet again, fixing his gaze forward on the journey back to the rink- the guards on his skates tapping gently against the linoleum flooring.

You laughed now, a joyous sound that spread infectiously to his face no matter how much he willed it not to- and he smiled with you.

When the two of you got back to the ice, it was then that Minho noticed you sitting on the bleachers, taking off a pair of trainers to slip on your skates instead and he wondered why you hadn't just worn them on your way like he usually did.

As if you knew why he was watching you, you smiled bashfully, pursing your lips into a pout that he couldn't help but think was cute.

"I lost my guards," you laughed. "I can't damage these blades either."

"You didn't bring back-ups?"

He skated away from the edge of the rink as you shook your head no, joining him on the ice. The distance between the two of you didn't loom so large now that he wanted to gauge in conversation with you.

He couldn't help but smile.

That was stupid.

"The sports shop is only a 15 minute drive away."

"I can't drive," you shrugged.

He could.

Minho kept the information of his driver's license to himself as the two of you began your normal routine of skating together yet apart, but the prospect of offering you help nagged at his brain every time he caught a glimpse of you.

As he glided across his side of the rink, strewing together twirls and spins and jumps into the same routine he'd been practicing since he got here, his mind wandered to you.

He contemplated the simplicity of it.

Would you like me to take you?

He could surely ask, there would be no harm done- the probability of you saying yes far outweighed you saying no, but he still chewed the inside of his cheek in nervousness.

No? Why would I want you to take me?

A shiver shuddered down his spine at the thought of it. If that happened he probably would never open his mouth to you again.

Minho's face almost pressed down against the ice as he skillfully executed a hydroplane, his leg extended straight out with precision. The seamless movement demonstrated his mastery of technique and control as he moved into a spin, hands pressing into the frozen surface, guiding him into a position that bordered on lying horizontally.

He could feel the chill seeping through his clothes- making his face pink as his cheek brushed the ground.

Minho felt a sense of pride as he lifted back up on his feet, his movements seamlessly transitioning from the spin to a standing position. As he glanced up, a small smile played on his lips when he noticed that you had stopped your routine.

Something stirred within him as he realized you were watching, an urge to push himself further, to impress you with his skill on the ice. Despite the logical part of his brain dismissing it as somewhat silly, he quite liked when you looked at him.

Each next move was executed with a precision that showed years of disciplined training, but there was an added flair- a desire to showcase his abilities in a way that went beyond the standard routine.

As he landed his triple lutz, Minho couldn't help but steal a glance in your direction. The sparkle in your eyes fueled a newfound motivation within him. The ice beneath him almost began to melt, just like how yours did when he watched you for the first time with all that awe.

Minho finished the routine, his eyes blinking up at you from across the rink. There was a brief pause, a moment of anticipation where he almost expected you to say something. But he had given you no reason to believe he ever wanted you to interrupt the silence he loved on the ice so much.

So you stayed quiet, a bitten lip adding a touch of intrigue to your expression, a detail he wished he could've seen up close.

He wondered what thoughts hid behind your eyes as you watched him, what you wanted to say, if there was anything more behind the quiet gaze you directed his way.

The cold air seemed to linger with a different energy as he skated towards you when you headed to the exit.

He watched in silence as you slipped off your skates and started to tie the laces of your trainers instead.

This was his chance, surely.

Just ask.

He was quickly putting on his guards when he had stayed quiet for too long, prompting you to disregard his gaze with a content sigh and head out of the hall with your belongings.

Minho followed behind you, his fingers nervously pulling at the seems of his jacket as he took in a deep breath.

"Y/n," he called.

You looked over your shoulder at him with a curious expression.

"Would you like me to take you?"

The man waited for your response with subtle anticipation, shuffling from skate to skate with an antsy energy. His simple question held a whole lot of meaning that he hoped wasn't lost on you. He hoped you knew how much of a step for him this was.

Somehow, no immediate response was worse than you just rejecting him.

"I can drive," he looked down, watching how the tips of your trainers got closer as you closed the distance between the two of you. "It's no trouble."

The prospect of offering you a ride held a significance deeper than the practicalities. He was opening up to you, or trying, atleast.

You laughed, the sound breaking the tension in the air, and Minho flashed you a fleetingly nervous smile. He couldn't help but wonder what was so amusing.

"I'd like that," you finally responded, a playful glint in your eyes.

He let out a breath, the burden of rejection lifting off of his shoulders as he straightened his posture with a newfound confidence.

You were like a candle flame, gently melting the frozen enclosure he cased himself in. Minho followed behind you, your magnetism pulling him close while you browsed the aisles of the sports shop. The quiet hum of the fluorescent lights and the crisp scent of new sports equipment surrounded the two of you.

"Which do you think?" You smiled, holding up one made of hard plastic and one that was so fluffy he didn't think he could make out where it started and ended.

"Do you need soakers or guards?"

"Guards," you sighed, placing the soaker back down into its pile of soft companions.

As you examined various different types, Minho couldn't help but find a certain comfort in the simplicity of the moment. He discovered a newfound appreciation for your flickering flame that had begun to melt the ice around his shielded heart.

His lips pulled into a downturned smile, picking it straight back up as soon as you moved on to the next miriad of brands and colours to look at.

"There's too many to choose from!"

"What were your old ones like?" He inquired, hiding the white fluffy fabric blade jacket behind his back.

"My old ones were boring."

He hummed with a nod, watching your fingers trace over the different shapes and sizes.

"They were grey, like yours."

"Mine are boring?" Minho raised his eyebrows, a teasing lilt to his tone that spurred you to look up.

"No, they suit you," you quickly added.

He laughed, actually laughed, and the genuine sound caught you off guard. It was pretty, and it made you blush.

You swiftly looked away, focusing so intently on the array of guards like they suddenly held the secrets of the universe. Swapping the white one you held for a baby blue pair, you held it up and pursed your lips.

"I'm gonna get these."

He gently took them from your hand.

"Go look at the skates, I'll pay."

You opened your mouth as if to argue, but he had already started the walk back to the tills before you could even say anything.

As you wandered over to the skates, a subtle warmth settled in your stomach. You could tell that Minho expressed his appreciation through acts of service, showed his feelings through actions instead of vocalising them.

You browsed through the different pairs, admiring the long blades and the pretty details engrained into the leather.

Your skates were white, and Minho's were black.

Binary opposites.

You heard his footsteps behind you quicker than you thought, and softly swivelled to find him holding the small bag with an equally small smile. Despite the differences, there was an undeniable charm to the fact that you were two seperate poles of a magnet.

Because opposites attract.

"Are you ready to go?" He asked, and you nodded, suddenly overcome with a strange sense of bashfulness as you fell into step with him.

He led you out back to where he had parked, placing the bag down in the backseat before sliding behind the steering wheel. Minho fastened his seatbelt, but didn't start the car, his eyes drifting over to where you twiddled your fingers in the passenger seat.

"What made you want to start skating?"

You looked up at the question that broke the silence.

"I like the cold."

The admission hung in the air, and he waited, his gaze unwavering, inviting you to share more if you felt inclined. A question danced in his mind.

He was cold when you first met, is that what drew you to him?

"What about you?"

Your eyes met and it was like the world outside of his car faded.

He was okay.

He was still going to be okay if he let you in.

So he did.

"My parents used to take me to a frozen lake near our house, and I just fell it love with it."

"How old were you?" You hummed.

"About 3, I didn't know a thing about skating, I just knew I wanted to be there."

As he reminisced, a nostalgic smile pulled at his lips.

"And then we moved to Gimpo."

"What happened in Gimpo?" You asked

"I got my first coach," he smiled, a sad sort of smile that made you want to reach over and take his hand. "She said I had so much potential."

The words lingered, carrying a weight that clearly meant a lot to him. You stayed quiet, a reassuring nod spurring him to continue, and sat peacefully.

"She told me not to bother making friends if I wanted to keep it."

So his coach's advice was what had pushed him into his pursuit of loneliness alongside the pursuit for his gold medal. Your heart ached painfully in your chest.

He thought of all the connections he could've had if he knew that it would be like this, like you.

"You've got one now," you smiled at him, and he nodded.

The journey back to the ice rink was a pleasant one, the gentle sound of soft guitar leaking from his speakers. He offered to turn it off when he realised it was in Korean, but you shook your head.

He told you about his 3 cats back home, his love for pudding and jokbal, despite never having tried either of them- you agreed with a smile when he asked you if you liked them.

You knew his favourite colour was mint, and his favourite flavour of ice cream was strawberry, despite the fact that he really did like mint choc chip and he almost couldn't choose. He didn't really have a favourite artist, but his favourite song was '10 out of 10' by a group called 2pm. He couldn't swim and he was afraid of heights.

You knew his birthday and his mbti and the fact that he kind of wanted to be a policeman when he was growing up, but he loved the ice too much. You knew that he had been recorded in the olympic qualifying lines and it was on an episode of nat geo, and no he wasn't going to show you and he really didn't want you to try and look it up because it was embarrassing.

It was like a switch had been pressed on his heart as soon as you made it out of the olympic halls that made him suddenly want to share things with you, and you quite enjoyed the change.

Minho looked at you, waiting at the entrance to the rink for him, his eyebrow subtly raised in a silent question about your intentions.

"You've never skated with a partner before, right?" you inquired, breaking the silence with a question that carried the promise of something new.

He paused for a moment, mulling over your words. Skating had always been just Minho, a realm where he could be free, on his own. The prospect of partnering on the ice was unfamiliar territory.

"No, never," he admitted, a mix of curiosity and uncertainty in his tone. He had never thought of navigating the ice in tandem with another.

"Do you want to?" you asked, your question hanging in the crisp air.

You were asking if he wanted to reshape his entire view on the sport.

Make a friend, skate with a friend, the whole thing didn't seem so daunting when he thought about it like that.

But some sort of truth lingered below the surface, that's not what this was.

Minho hesitated, his gaze flickering from you to the rink. The prospect of stepping into the realm of pairs skating was both alluring and challenging.

After a moment, he nodded, and you took his hand so casually that he wouldn't have even noticed if the touch alone didn't send warmth through his limbs.

Skating with a friend shouldn't make his heart beat this fast.

A simple friendship was not what had bloomed in the middle of all of this, and it was even worse than what he was afraid of in the very beginning when he first heard your voice.

"Do you trust me?" you asked, the question hanging in the air between you as you pulled him along, effortlessly falling into pace with eachother.

Minho looked down at his skates for a moment, contemplating the implications of your inquiry. He had never done this before. Any of it.

He had never changed his routine for anyone, never let anyone in as much as he let you in, and he had certainly never started spending double the amount of money on drinks in the morning just to see you smile.

When he met your eyes again, he didn't have to say a thing to confirm it, but he did anyway.

"I do."

As you both continued to glide together, you let go of his hand and a small pout fell upon his lips, making you giggle. His arm was still outstretched, as if he was chasing the connection from before. With a graceful ease, you gently raised your leg in the air and Minho's surprise was evident as he watched the fluidity of your movements.

When you told him to take your ankle, there was a moment of hesitation in his expression. He took it anyway, the warmth of your nude tights meeting his cold hand, and as he supported your body- he felt you moving back, closer to him.

The man panicked with a bated breath, no choice but to slide his palm further up your leg. He swallowed that lump down again as his hand rested underneath your thigh, holding you almost against him and yet you still glided closer.

The two of you were losing momentum now, and Minho didn't know what else to do, the natural current of the move you were trying to execute with him spurred his hands to grip your waist and pull you to his chest.

So that's what he did.

He swore you must've been able to feel his heart threatening to bang right out of his ribcage- aching to be close to yours.

With you both standing upright, you could continue skating, and yet his hand didn't leave the small of your back.

Minho observed the light wind catching your hair as you both pushed along, and in that moment, he couldn't help but be captivated. The ice held a certain magic when you were on it with him like this. The strands of your hair danced behind you, catching over your ear and shoulder.

His fingers gently moved up to free your hair, tucking it away behind you so it wasn't caught.

Beautiful.

You looked across at him, a spark of spontaneity prompting you to put your hands on his shoulders to ease the two of you into a slow spin, the crisp air around you crackling with tension.

Your eyes fell to Minho's lips, the magnetic pull between you both drawing you closer, slowly, gradually, almost touching. The world around you seemed to blur.

Just as a tender moment was about to unfold, someone pushed through the door to the rink, clanging and making noise, shattering the fragile bubble of intimacy. The intrusion was abrupt, and the spell of the shared spin dissipated in an instant.

As the noise from the cleaner echoed in the rink, you both pulled away, a silent understanding between you that whatever that was had passed.

"You're not supposed to be in here this late," the man called out, "the rink shuts at midnight!"

Minho frowned, a quiet disdain for the man present on his features as he stepped off of the ice and collected his belongings.

He knew that.

He didn't know that so much time had passed already, he swore he only got here at 11pm.

"Sorry," you smiled to the cleaner, "we didn't realise it was that late."

Minho nodded, a quick bow to show his apologies before he was following you out of the same door that had interrupted everything.

Now he was just left with the feel of butterflies dancing around in his stomach with no way out.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" You cocked your head slightly to the left, avoiding his eyes with a bashful smile.

"Yeah."

He didn't see you the next morning, and Minho's first thought was that you had sustained another minor injury. An instant surge of concern propelled him to the canteen as soon as he could to confirm it with your friends. However, to his surprise, you were there, seemingly unharmed. An unexplored emotion rushed through his heart- why wouldn't you tell him you weren't going to be there?

The air around him felt heavy with a mixture of concern and an unexpected tinge of jealousy that he struggled to comprehend. Should he go over? Ask you?

Or just sit alone again, or go back to his dorm and deal with his unstocked fridge?

He didn't have to wonder for long, because you beckoned him over as soon as you noticed him stood amidst the moving people, frozen in uncertainty. Your smile was bright, and all the negativity that clouded his thoughts for a second was washed away in favour of those familiar fluttery butterflies again.

Your friends turned to look at him, and he swallowed down that lump, taking in a breath and heading over to where you were.

"Min, I'm sorry it was my coach, she-"

Min.

His thoughts blanked and he didn't even hear the rest of what you were saying, just settling into the space next to you that you tapped as that nickname you'd just given him fogged his brain.

"It's okay," he smiled politely and small, once he'd registered that everyone on the table was looking to him for his response.

"I am sorry, I should really get your number or something, huh?" You pursed your lips into a guilty grin.

His number, right, yes.

He nodded, his eyes struggling to stay on yours.

"Sorry, um.. these are my friends," you tossed your wrist out to the rest of the table.

He waved awkwardly to them as they introduced themselves, Felix and Joshua, two more figure skaters from Australia and America, Yuqi, a Chinese skater too, and Chris- an ice hockey player self dubbed Australia's best left winger.

Minho felt a wave of unease pour over him again, the second he'd gotten used to being in your company he was thrown into the deep end with 4 new people. He nodded and smiled as they spoke, quickly pulling eachother back into whatever they were talking about before he arrived. They did try to involve him, one of them occasionally would ask him a question or ask him to weigh in on the subject, but he only gave short answers.

He kept taking subtle glances at you beside him, searching for that connection to keep him grounded.

You squeezed his hand under the table, a reassuring gesture that instantly soothed his nerves. He quickly looked down at the unexpected contact before fixing his gaze back on you, a genuine smile graced his lips again, and you intertwined your fingers with his.

Mingling with your friends wasn't that daunting really, he just wasn't used to it.

He quite liked them, actually, and as he started to feel confident enough to say more than a few words every few minutes, he started to feel at ease on your table.

Minho's thumb brushed back and forth over the back of your palm, the teasing smile he sent your way after he started to see that blush on your cheeks added a touch of playfulness to the moment. If anyone else at the table noticed, they didn't say anything.

He started to sit with the 5 of you from then on. No longer did he seek out an empty table, he would come and sit next to you, seamlessly integrating with you all like he had been there from the beginning. Secretly holding your hand under the table became an added bonus that he very much looked forward to.

You exchanged numbers too, and oftentimes he found himself texting you as soon as he got back into his dorm, finding out more about your life, your tastes and favourite things just like you had done to him. The days until the competition dwindled down into the single digits, and the solitude that both you and him shared in the ice during early mornings and late at night became scarce.

Now everyone was on the ice, at all hours of the day, and it set him on edge.

In the middle of the warm down stretches that were part of his nightly routine, his phone buzzed with a notification for him to meet you by the doors of the rink in 5 minutes.

It was already 11 at night, he really should get some sleep- he'd be performing for his entire career in 30 hours, 58 minutes and 25 seconds.

24 seconds..

23 seconds..

Minho slipped on his shoes and a coat, and twisted the lock on his dorm door as he started the cold walk to the rink.

You were there before him, and shot him a small wave and a nervous smile when he stood in front of you.

"Sorry," you breathed in, the look of his fluffy just-showered bangs covering his eyes making him look double the amount of endearing to you as usual.

"Why?"

"Well I.. wanted to see you, properly, but you're clearly ready to sleep."

A smile pulled on Minho's cheeks at your bashful shrug, he had long since stopped trying to hide them around you.

"I don't mind," he spoke gently, the warm air materializing in front of him due to the cold. "I wanted to see you too."

"You did?"

"Of course," he almost scoffed.

You giggled, folding your arms around yourself as you stepped closer to the man.

"What?" He asked, blinking down at you.

"Nothing."

"What's funny?"

"You are, Min."

Min. There it was again.

He smiled, a bashful expression forming on his face as he cleared his throat, looking away momentarily. The redness of his ears almost seemed to shine through his messy hair. He took your hand, intertwining his fingers with yours, and led you towards the exit.

As you walked together, he pulled out his keys and unlocked his car. The invitation didn't hang in the air, because without a second thought you got into the passenger seat.

The quiet intimacy of the moment spoke volumes, but it always had, hadn't it? Just like every other time when you would accept his silence.

He took the driver's seat and the engine hummed to life, as the car pulled away, the world outside seemed to blur into a palette of city lights you could barely focus on.

Sharing silence with Minho had never felt uncomfortable; instead, it was peaceful and calm, as if this is how it was always meant to be. The gentle hum of the car and the soft sound of the tires against the empty roads accompanied the short journey. You took in the view ahead with a gasp as the car pulled up to the top of a hill, the lights twinkling back at you like a miriad of stars.

Minho's deep brown eyes met yours, and a shared appreciation for the beauty in front of you lingered. Though neither of you seemed too occupied with the view of the city.

His fingers tapped against the steering wheel nervously, his other hand leaning on the armrest between your seats.

"This will all be over in just 2 days," he whispered, his adams apple bobbing up and down and you just knew he was trying to get rid of a lump.

"You're not coming back?"

"I am.. are you?"

"Yeah, so don't say things like that."

He nodded with a guilty smile, looking back outside.

"I never thanked you."

Minho furrowed his brows at your words, a hint of confusion flashing across his face as he examined yours for a hint as to what you were going to say next. What could you possibly need to thank him for? In his eyes, you've done more for him than you could ever imagine.

"1 month and 2 days worth of hot chocolates, that's £108, I checked," you started, "and the guards and the soakers, that's atleast £130."

"You did thank me for all of those," he shrugged- like the notion that he had spent that much money on you wasn't anything to draw attention to.

"Min.."

"I think I like it when you call me that," he said, his eyes falling down to the shape that your lips made when they said the nickname you'd given him.

"Min?"

"Yeah, Min."

You laughed and turned in your seat to face him properly. "I think I like you."

He stared up, searching your eyes for any hint of insincerity in your words. The smile faded from his lips into more of a confusion riddled expression, like he couldn't believe you'd ever say those words to him- and you let your head fall with a laugh.

As you looked down at your hands in your lap, Minho's confusion only deepened.

"I like how quiet you are, and I like how much you love to be alone."

He wanted to comment on how that had changed, how you had changed that, but he didn't dare interrupt.

"I like how much you love your cats, and all the pictures you send me," you smiled to yourself, "and I like how you'd rather show instead of tell me how you feel."

You weren't just a small flame, you were his entire sun, and he couldn't believe that you felt like this over someone like him. His breathing stuttered when you looked up again, gradually pulling towards him as you spoke.

"I like skating with you, and I like the tingly feeling I get when I'm around you."

So you did feel it too, the butterflies.

"I like holding your hand under the table, and I like it when your ears go red every time."

He could barely keep his eyes open for more than a second, his face flushed as you grinned.

"And.. I think it's really adorable when you blink so fast," you whispered, just centimetres away from his lips.

He laughed nervously, the sound quietly vibrating between the two of you in the confined space of the car. He looked down, to the side, anywhere away from your eyes because he thought he'd overload with emotion if he did.

He wanted to vocalize how intense this all was, how intense his feelings for you were, but the words seemed to escape him. The weight of emotion didn't sit heavy in his chest like it always had before, ready for him to ignore and shove further down, it danced around his limbs and bloomed in his stomach, making it difficult for him to even sit still.

The uncharted territory of expressing his feelings so boldly, the fact that he even had these consuming feelings, left him momentarily speechless. He took a deep breath and attempted to steady the racing beat of his heart.

"I think.." he started, his voice a quiet whisper, anticipation hanging in the air. "I want to kiss you."

"Then kiss me."

He glanced up then, ironically, because the shared gaze was brief when the two of you finally drifted together, eyes fluttering down as he gently held your cheek- pressing his lips on yours.

It was small, and sweet, and he shyly looked down afterwards.

"That's it?" You asked teasingly, pressing one more peck on his lips to chase it down.

"No."

Show not tell.

That had always been how he navigated his emotions, and he planned to show you exactly how he felt, how much he felt- kissing you like you were his oxygen, like he couldn't live without it, without you.

He pushed forward, his other hand leaving the console in favour of leaning against the headrest of your chair- forcing you backwards. He couldn't be bold with his words, but he could definitely kiss you with the confidence of someone that could.

Your arms wrapped around his neck, threading your fingers through his fluffy hair and Minho felt all giddy inside.

He smiled when you let his tongue in, and a long groan resonated pulled through his throat when your hands fell to his neck, pulling his shoulders, feeling his chest.

You moved away to catch your breath, immediately burying your head in his hair.

"Better?" He laughed, almost out of air- leaning over your body.

The man felt you nod, and he hummed softly, the hand holding your head moving to the edge of the window to hold himself up.

He cleared his throat quietly after a minute or two, "are you okay?"

You giggled, moving away to hold his arm, "why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Well, I just- this is an uncomfortable position and I didn't want to move if you weren't okay.."

"Sit down if you're uncomfortable," you furrowed your brows.

He did, with a pout, but he did.

"I wanted to keep kissing you, so I stayed."

With a click of a seatbelt, you shrugged it off your shoulders, moving over to slide into his lap. You hadn't accounted for the presence of the steering wheel that now dug into your back, disrupting the progression of the moment. A wince and a giggle escaped your lips, and Minho's expression was stuck between minor concern and trying not to smile.

Your looked up to meet his eyes again, and shared laughter echoed throughout the car.

He attempted to adjust the steering wheel first to provide more space, leaning forward and accidentally pushing you further against it. You let out a quiet yelp and he gave up immediately. After a few blank seconds, it was like a lightbulb sparked above his head and he leant sideways this time to pull the lever beside his chair.

Then, he attempted to kick the seat back, but it went too far, and he had to spend a second adjusting it properly, nervous giggles leaking from his throat as he chewed the inside of his cheek in concentration.

The awkwardness of what should've been something intimate and personal just made the moment more special. It may not have been the perfect scripted scene, but the journey to getting where you were right now hadn't been perfect either, and that was what made it uniquely yours.

You smiled and he smiled when the seat found it's rightful place, staring into eachothers eyes for a second before he gently ushered your head forward, his lips coming into contact with your neck.

His fluffy hair tickled your face, but it wasn't nearly enough of a distraction for the feeling of his tongue and teeth gently sucking on your skin.

Everytime you let out a quiet noise of content when he would find a particularly sensitive spot he felt lighter, like he could soon float away and just live up in the clouds where his head seemed to be when he was thinking about you.

"You can't leave any marks or the judges might dock my points."

You pulled back, and he chased your skin slightly, his plush lips falling into a natural pout as he looked up at you like a neglected puppy. Anyone would've thought you'd taken away his favourite chew toy.

A giggle left your mouth and you just rested the side of your head under his chin, listening to the his heart jump into your ear- syncing with the rythm of your own.

The city lights that twinkled outside casted a soft glow inside the darkness of his car, the only sound being the shared breaths and the soft thump of heartbeats. The tranquility was grounding- it's gentle waves washed over the anxiety that had been surfacing within the past few days, the pressure of your coach and the competition and the judges and the audience almost spilling throughout your system.

But Minho took it all away.

Each of his breaths lifted you up and down soothingly, and you could've seen yourself drifting off cuddling with him like this. Your eyelids were getting heavy, and his hands playing with your hair wasn't helping.

"I'd stay like this forever," he whispered, pursing his lips when he pierced the quiet. "But I do have to drive us back."

The two of you didn't see eachother the next day, the last day, busy schedules overruling everything because of the proximity to the biggest performance of your shared careers. Dress rehearsals on the ice and final critics of routines consumed the entire day, but it didn't stop the texting whenever a second of freedom was granted.

You shared complaints and anxious thoughts with him, and he comforted you- carefully concealing the part where he was also feeling more nervous than he had in his entire life in the last few hours of practice he had.

As he took to the ice, Minho couldn't shake the feeling that he could've done more though he executed the spins and glides perfectly. They were perfect, like always, perfect, controlled, precise, but he didn't know what was wrong. It all left a nagging awareness that tugged at the edges of his composure.

Something wasn't perfect.

That gold medal was his, he was sure of it, he couldn't have been more sure of it. Confidence shone through every perfectly executed movement on the ice. He was skating better than he had ever skated in his life. His routine was a masterpiece, meticulously composed of his best moves and most impressive jumps. The improvement he had undergone in the span of a few months since first stepping into this rink was staggering.

Something clung to him, the thought that his anxiety might be because of you.

That's what you had admitted to him over text, you'd just thrown a passing comment out into the world that maybe you were only so nervous because he wasn't there. That you didn't get to hold his hand today, or hug or kiss him, or even see him before you'd be in front of a panel of stern judges.

He'd accepted that too, he definitely knew that he would feel uneasy.

So why was something still nagging at him?

Your coach had decided to put you in a blue dress that hugged your figure, adorned with tassels that swirled around you beautifully. The vibrant color and elegant design had Minho entranced even before you stepped onto the ice. The not so subtle distraction that it would feel nice under his palms lingered in his mind as he watched you.

If he could skate onto that ice right now just to kiss you, tell you how gorgeous you looked in that dress, how the sight took his breath away- and would not be leaving his mind at night, he would.

He'd tell you how good it made your legs look, how it highlighted all the parts of you that he longed to see without the costume.

Fuck that, he'd show you, with his hands and his mouth on yours.

But not right now.

Right now his eyes twinkled like the chipped ice on the metal of his skates as he watched you glide into the middle of the rink like you were floating. The crisp air carried the rhythmic cut of blades on ice to his ears, but his attention was fixed solely on you. Your movements were graceful, and captured every part of him, mind, body, and soul- you had it all. His heart skipped a beat as you spun and twirled and he swore that you were the vision of elegance and freedom.

Stuck at the edge of the rink, he was mesmerized by your skill and beauty. It was as if time stood still, and the world faded away, leaving only the enchanting spectacle before him. The rest of the rink looked colder than usual but the ice underneath your skates looked like it was melting from the warmth of your smile alone.

You finished your routine by heading into a triple axel, his triple axel, the climax of your performance. He held his breath with the audience as you launched into the intricate spin, the ice beneath you transforming into a stage for your artistry.

You landed it well, perfectly even, and he let out that breath he was holding, a smile of relief pulling at his lips.

His coach snapped his fingers for his attention, garnering the turn of his head to look. "Are you ready?"

He nodded, "I am."

"I've never seen you smile at someone else's performance."

Minho blinked rapidly, his ears tinting with a little blush. He was that obvious that even his coach could see.

"It's good to see you coming out of your shell."

"Yeah," he hummed, letting his coach quickly fix his collar. "It is."

He wasn't just coming out of his shell, he was falling in love.

But Minho put his thoughts aside and focused only on what his heart was telling him, stepping onto the ice with a newfound vigour, inspired by the success of your performance. Pride welled up in him as he dived straight into his carefully constructed routine perfectly, not just because of his technical ability but for the emotional resonance that now fueled it.

He had always valued control, but he couldn't control your routine, and he hypothsised that that had been the source of his anxiety. Now, as he glided on the ice, he felt a sense of liberation. The weight of everything filled him, making the experience cathartic. He was no longer a machine skating just for the sake of being alone, now, there was a new sense of artistry to his routine, a different passion thawing through his veins that he hadn't had before.

The ice beneath his skates became a canvas for a different kind of performance, one that was more than just how well he could stick the landing. Minho's movements carried the echoes of newfound connection, and as he embraced the artistic freedom, he realized that you had not threatened his control, you never had. Instead, you had brought his skating to a level where passion and precision coexisted together to create something as beautiful as what bloomed between the two of you.

Passion and precision; two sides of the same coin.

Black and white; binary opposites.

Call it what you wanted, he was truly falling more and more in love with you with every second.

He felt the very last drops of his icy shell melting away when he beamed up at the audience and the judges as he glided past, too fast to find your eyes from wherever you were- but he could feel them.

His performance, his masterpiece, was unfolding perfectly, the wind blew into his hair and the frost bit his cheeks- just how he liked it. Everything was falling into place, all of it, his whole life.

You'd told him that this had all accumulated about 490 hours of skating together from all those early mornings and late nights- you'd worked it out. 490 hours he spent here in this rink with just you, not even counting the rest of the hours where you weren't alone with him.

Hours and days and months of work, his whole life, really. It was all playing out perfectly.

He'd have a gold medal soon, and he'd get himself a girlfriend straight after.

He thought about it while he jumped and glided and twirled, extending his limps into a passionate dance. Thought about asking you out, you saying yes, kissing you again, finally, driving you back up to that spot- hitting that spot inside of you as he made love to you in his backseat, fogging up the windows until you couldn't even see the city lights anymore.

Show not tell, as always.

And he'd show you forever, make love to you forever, as long as you let him, show you how grateful he was that you pushed past that cold exterior and singlehandedly thawed it all away with just the warmth that you carried.

He'd hold your hand and flaunt it to all your friends instead of leaving your intertwined fingers under the table. He'd flaunt it to the whole world if he could, hold it up along with his medal, both equally important.

Minho from 3 months ago would scoff at the notion of anything coming close in significance to his medal, but things change, and change isn't always bad.

What didn't change was the quality of his performance like he'd thought it would.

Minho from 3 months ago knew that technicalities were going to win him his titles. How many turns, how many rotations could he do in the air, could he do it 6 times in one program? He'd be the best skater if he could.

He was almost stiff then.

He kept going, move after move, 3T, 1Eu, 3S, 1Eu, 3S, 1A, and then a hydroplane.

He liked the hydroplane, he put it in all his performances because he just liked the way it looked. It was like his signature, the full side of his head touching the ice as he glided along, it was more artistic than technical like the rest of his moves.

He'd accidentally cut his skin more times than he could imagine perfecting it, and it was ironic, because he didn't value the artistry in the sport before. He valued what the judges would like.

That's what his passion lied in, harbouring his potential, like he had been taught by his very first coach.

Don't make friends, you don't need friends.

If you needed friends it would be the judges.

To make friends with the judges you need to impress them.

Impress them by proving how much better you are, how many more turns you could do, how well you could stick it.

Don't feel it, that's nonsense.

Think it.

Calculate it.

Work it out.

But now as he finished the best routine of his life, he felt it, it was his heart that was guiding him, not his logic or his mind or any calculations.

It was you.

He found you in the audience then, you were beaming across at him- and he was beaming right back, holding that final position to cement the legacy that he was creating for himself.

It will always be you.

A/N: I HOPE IT ISNT TOO OBVIOUS THAT I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FIGURE SJATING

also I have literally never fully written a slow burn in my entire life cause I feel like I can never make it very slow so I'm sorry if this is too fast paced LMAO

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