Chapter Text
“Jongin!” Jongin looks up confusedly until he locates the voice calling his name from the uppermost row of bleachers. The metal stairs thunk hollowly under his footsteps as he clamors up to where his training-mate and the newest Novice men’s top 10 finisher, Oh Sehun, sits with his boyfriend Junmyeon. Jongdae follows him with a giant bucket of popcorn and a fluffy blanket tucked under one arm.
“Hey, Dae.” Sehun nods at him as Jongin pulls the blanket out and drapes it over all four of their laps to shield a little from the cool temperature of the ice rink. “Fourth group,” he tells Jongin, who nods and brushes his still-damp bangs away from his eyes and pulls his hood up. “Warming up.”
“Where’s Jinki?” Jongin strains to find a glimpse of his sunbae circling the ice with six other men.
“There,” Sehun murmurs, pointing to a familiar figure pulling into a backspin. Jongin easily finds Minho from his purple top, then turns his attention to Taemin, who is still circling the rink, shaking his legs out.
Lee Taemin. Jongin can only dream about being as good as him. The way he had advanced through the levels of Men’s figure skating and dominated the most prestigious competitions in the country (and world) was exceptional in every sense of the word. At fourteen, he’d made his first Nationals appearance as an Intermediate skater and promptly blew everyone out of the water with bright, eager eyes and a hunger that was palpable despite the gangly, awkward limbs that didn’t quite know what they were doing. A year later, he’d had his triple Axel. When Jongin was fifteen, he was still figuring out his double Axel. While earlier today, Sehun’s top 10 Novice finish seemed more the general, surefire speed for up-and-coming young skaters, Taemin’s advancement from Intermediate to Novice 3 years ago had promptly brought about his first place finish at Nationals, leaving everyone speechless and placing him in the favor of skating fans around the world. Thus his fast progression to Junior came as no surprise to anybody. Last year, Taemin was assigned to two Junior Grand Prix (JGP) series competitions as a result of his bronze medal at Nationals, joining the Junior version of the most important competition series on the international stage. There, he secured himself a silver medal at JGP Finals (along with a nice check). And now, Jongin reaches for the popcorn in Jongdae’s hands while he watches Taemin warm up an effortless triple Lutz combination in the final warm-up group with his sunbaes. There’s no doubt that 18-year old Taemin’s senior debut is the most anticipated skate tonight.
“Head tilt,” Sehun laughs, and Jongin glances over to the sidelines, where Coach Kibum’s head is tilted so far to the right as he watches his three best skaters warm up that his neck looks broken.
“Why is he doing that?” Jongdae asks, completely clueless to everything.
“It’s his nervous tick,” Jongin explains, chuckling a little. He’s giddy tonight.
“So,” Junmyeon begins while reaching over Sehun for the popcorn, “Congratulations! You’re going to your first JGP!”
“Yes,” Jongin agrees, smiling in spite of himself. “It feels surreal.”
“Do you know where they placed you?” Sehun asks, bouncing his leg a little.
“Not yet. They announce Junior together with Senior. I don’t care though. They can send me anywhere.” Jongin laughs a little. He really doesn’t mind which two of the six Junior Grand Prix tournaments the South Korean Skating Federation would decide to send him to. Earning enough points at those two tournaments to advance to the JGP Final in his first season would be totally unexpected either way. Those feats were, in Jongin’s eyes, reserved for a certain talented (and impossibly cute) sunbae by the name of Lee Taemin. After last year’s disastrous National debut as a Novice rookie, Jongin had completely changed tactics, choosing to approach National- and World-renowned coach Kim Kibum, to lead him through his Junior debut. For some reason, Kibum had welcomed him, insisting that he had “unrealized potential.” The coaching change had paid off, and Jongin had won himself a spot on Team South Korea as well as a Junior bronze medal just hours ago.
~
“Nice one, kiddo.” Kibum ruffles his hair when Jongin steps off the ice after the awards ceremony with a wide smile. “Well-deserved.”
“Thanks, Coach!”
“But you still have a long way to go.” Kibum pokes his shoulder with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes and Jongin stumbles back a few steps. “Don’t relax just yet. JGP is gonna kick your ass.”
“Okay, Coach.” Jongin’s smile can’t be wiped off his face. “Whatever you say.”
“Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOO!” Sehun shrieks when Jongin makes his way back to the athlete’s lounge and Jongin lets out a shout of laughter as well, wrapping himself (skates and all) around his best friend. “Who’s Kim Jongin? I only know--”
“JUNIOR BRONZE MEDALIST!” Sehun and Jongin scream triumphantly at each other. The door opens and the rest of Coach Kibum’s team stumbles in as well.
“MY HOOBAEEEEE!” Minho tackles Jongin. “I’m PROUD OF YOU, NINI!” Jongin gasps as the breath is knocked out of his lungs.
“Ah--thank you, sunbae--” Jongin gently pries himself out of Minho and Sehun’s death grips and bows to Jinki, who offers him a hand to shake. When he turns to Taemin, the elder offers him the tiniest of smiles with a faraway look in his eyes and holds his hand out for a high-five, grasping onto the tips of Jongin’s fingers when their hands meet. Jongin looks up in surprise.
“I see Kibum was right about your potential,” Taemin murmurs, and Jongin’s breath catches in his throat.
“Er--I have a ways to go--”
“Good job, Nini.” Taemin ruffles Jongin’s hair, then sidesteps him to begin warming up. Jongin’s hand goes up to his cheek to make sure he isn’t blushing.
“We’ll, er, leave,” Jongin says quickly, bowing again as he drags a smirking Sehun after him. “Give you Senior sunbaes some space to warm up.”
“We’ll celebrate after!” Jinki waves them out. “Congratulations!”
~
“What’s he doing? That’s really cool,” Jongdae mumbles around a handful of popcorn.
“You’re gonna eat the whole thing before they compete. And that’s Jinki. Quad Salchow. It’s a jump with four revolutions in the air,” Jongin explains patiently. Jongdae’s strength is not skating, it’s being an economics major.
“What are your predictions?” Sehun asks on the other side of him. “Taemin top four?”
“If he skates like he usually does, yes.” Jongin’s mouth twists to the side. “Minho will win. Changmin second, Jinki top five at least.”
“Nah. Jinki’s gonna do better than that. I think it’s Minho, Jinki, Changmin, Taemin.”
“The real question is who we’re sending to Worlds,” Jongin points out. “Worlds is the most important competition on the international stage, and we only get one spot this year.”
“Wait, why? But you get to send 3 skaters to the Worlds, right?” Jongdae pipes up, and Sehun snorts.
“Because we did shitty last year.”
“Because how many skaters a country can send to the Worlds is determined by the country’s performance in the previous season,” Jongin’s explanation is much more thorough. “Long story short, we only get one spot this year, and this person has to at least place in the top 10 for us to get two spots next year.”
“Or top 2,” Sehun adds. “For three.”
“Three spots is too much to hope for. Only the Americans and Russians get spots like that,” Jongin snorts as the skaters clear the ice. Jongin nervously clenches his fists as Jinki’s program begins.
“Why am I more nervous for him than for myself?” he whispers to Sehun, who nods in agreement. Jongdae only watches with vague interest. Next to him, he can see Sehun’s lips grazing Junmyeon’s ear as he quietly points out elements for his non-skater boyfriend.
“Commentate, please,” Jongdae pleads, poking Jongin’s side. “What’s happening?”
“His quad Salchow, which you just saw in the warm-up, is up first,” Jongin murmurs. He holds his breath as Jinki lands it effortlessly. “Nice landing. It will probably receive more points because it was near perfect.”
“What happens if you fall?”
“Then you get an automatic one point deduction as well as a negative Grade of Execution, which means the jump isn’t worth as much anymore. For example, a quad Salchow is worth 10.3 points. But if he fell, he would’ve automatically been deducted 4.8 points, along with whatever else he might’ve done--like maybe he didn’t rotate enough, or maybe it was just a mess in general.” Jongin whoops in Jongdae’s ear as Jinki nails his quad-triple combination. “YUS!”
“OW!” Jongdae cringes away and Jongin high-fives Sehun.
“That’s it,” Sehun announces. “That’s all he needs.”
“Yep, everything else is decently easy for him.” Jongin nods in satisfaction. Jinki throws himself into a combination spin.
“Woahhhh…” Jongdae’s eyes go wide and his hand stills with a handful of popcorn halfway to his mouth. Jongin and Sehun are silent, but they’re both counting under their breath.
“Review,” Sehun mutters when Jinki pulls out of his last position a few revolutions too soon, and Jongin nods in agreement. “Should’ve held it more.”
“Why? I thought it looked good,” Junmyeon murmurs.
“Because you need two or more revolutions to make it count as a position. A position is basically one of those cool poses you see us do in the spin. You need at least eight revolutions if you’re going for a more advanced spin, per say. You can earn up to a Level 4 spin depending on how many features you put into the spin. Extra revolutions is one of those features. But if I counted right, I think he only did… six? Seven?”
“He knows better than to do that,” Jongin shakes his head. “Kibum’ll beat his ass.”
“Not a big deal. Still a good Level 3 with plus GOE.” Sehun shrugs.
“What is a GOE?” Jongdae asks.
“It’s not really important…” Jongin begins, but Jongdae insists on an explanation.
“I wanna learn. Even if it’s just like, surface knowledge. I wanna actually know what I’m watching when you skate, since you’re good now.”
“Excuse you, I was good before this. Anyways, GOE stands for Grade of Execution. It goes from negative 3 to positive 3 depending on how good you executed the element. A GOE of 0 just receives the base value of the stunt, positive GOE adds bonuses and negative GOE leads to deductions.”
“Okay, so then wouldn’t somebody be able to get a maximum GOE on everything and max out their score with the most complex routine? You said last time that the score values of the individual elements added together determine how much a routine is worth, if I remember correctly.” Jongin laughs at this.
“Technically, yes. But that would mean that you have to score perfect in artistry which is also slightly subjective, and it’s also scored differently than individual elements. Plus, nobody’s ever scored perfect for all elements before. There are ways to increase complexity, but I promise you there’s pretty much no such thing as a ‘maximum score’. The world record for a combined score is around 340 points. And every skater’s average is different, but typically to place within top 5 for Senior Men’s international competitions, you gotta get at least 240 combined. There have been less complex programs that have beaten more complex ones… In the end, skating is still pretty subjective sometimes.” Jongin claps loudly when Jinki’s music hits its final strings and Jinki bows to the audience.
“How much?” Jongin asks Sehun, who bites his lip in thought. “Like… 140?”
“140, 160… Anywhere in that range.”
“Wait, why so low? I thought you needed around 240?” Jongdae interrupts.
“We’re talking about just his long program score. Skaters have two programs: the short program is, as you may have guessed, shorter and has less elements. It’s more focused on technique and it also sets up warm-up groups for the long program, otherwise known as a free skate. The better you place in the short, the later you skate in the free. Jinks scored like what, 93 points yesterday? Combined with his free skate score, he’ll probably make around 250, we’re guessing,” Jongin explains. When his score comes up, Sehun nods in satisfaction.
“264.23. Is that his season’s best?”
“I don’t know,” Jongin claps with the rest of the crowd and immediately texts the group chat even though he knows none of them will read it until all their teammates have gone. “Good enough for top five, at least.”
“He’s in the lead, though…” Junmyeon leans against Sehun’s shoulder and shivers a little from the cold.
“Not for long,” Jongin murmurs as Changmin presents himself to the judges and begins. He’s only met him once or twice at competitions, and they’ve never spoken. Presumably Minho is closer with him, but Changmin trains in Busan with a completely different coach.
“Woah…” Junmyeon and Jongdae both murmur as the 287.68 pop up on the scoreboard some ten minutes later, but neither Sehun nor Jongin are surprised. Changmin’s been around for just as long as Jinki, and he made the Olympic team last January. Minho had missed it that year due to an injury; Jongin distinctly remembers the slew of curse words as he had sat on the ice, gripping his ankle, knowing that he’d blown his chance to skate. Taemin had still been a Junior that year, and Jinki had just missed the team by a margin of three points.
“MINHOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Jongin shrieks when he takes the ice. “Oh, he’s pissed,” Jongin remarks. Minho’s eyes are narrowed into slits and everything about his stance is tense, as if he’s ready to fight for every jump that night.
“As he should be. He skates best when he’s pissed.” Sehun sniggers when Minho takes his place. “This is his comeback season.”
“Was this your friend that smashed his ankle?” Jongdae asks, and Jongin nods.
“He’s back, and better than ever.”
“He sure is!” Minho’s opening triple Axel is massive.
“Holy shit, I think he cleared the boards,” Sehun murmurs.
“Oh wow.” The four of them remain completely silent, drawn in by the sharp silhouettes that Minho makes, his effortless carriage and edges across the ice, and the way he hits every nuance of the music.
“And that,” Jongin breathes, rising to his feet with the rest of the crowd and joining in the tumultuous applause that thunders across the entire stadium, “is a comeback.” All the frustration in Minho’s eyes has been replaced with joy and gratitude as he gets down on his knees on the ice and touches his head to the cold surface.
“Oh my god, we’re not even done with the night yet!” Sehun shrieks over the din of noise. Junmyeon puts two fingers in his mouth and wolf-whistles.
“Taemin’s gonna tear the place apart!” Jongin laughs as they finally sit back down, feeling ecstatic and excited. He can sense the celebration tonight is going to be a good one when the camera trains on Minho and Kibum sitting in the kiss-and-cry section (a little area where skaters and coaching sit and wait for the scores) together and Kibum throws up an “okay” sign, beaming just as widely as his student.
“The scores for Choi Minho, please.”
“Please, please, please--” Sehun grips Jongin’s arm. “Please--”
“His total score is 280.17, putting him second place--”
“YES!” Jongin screams, but it gets lost in the applause again as the crowd rises to its feet for the second time that evening and Kibum drags a shell-shocked Minho into a massive hug.
“He’s going to Worlds,” Sehun nods. “He’ll get the spot. There’s no way he won’t.”
“Oh, definitely. That’s not even a question anymore.”
“What about Changmin? He beat Minho,” Junmyeon points out.
“Catering to the audience. They’ll riot if Minho doesn’t get his shot at Worlds this year after missing the Olympics. I’d be shocked if Changmin was actually expecting to get that Worlds spot,” Sehun shrugs.
“Minho was really good,” Jongdae mumbles when Jongin sits back down. “I think he’s my favorite.”
“Taemin’s my favorite,” Jongin says quietly and Sehun shoots him a teasing smirk.
“You like him best because he’s cute.”
“No!” Jongin protests, even though his cheeks turn pink. “I like his skating style and I really look up to him…”
“Sureeeee.”
“You’re my favorite,” Junmyeon tells Sehun, leaning into Sehun comfortably. Sehun smiles and presses a soft kiss into Junmyeon’s hair. Jongin ignores their PDA and looks up to watch Taemin conversing with Kibum on the sidelines.
“He IS cute!” Jongdae shrieks next to Jongin as the Jumbotron camera pans to Taemin, and Jongin silently agrees, although cute might not be the best adjective to describe the focused tunnel vision that Taemin is absorbed in at the moment. “Nini, you have such good taste.”
“I just know this bitch is only pretending to pay attention,” Sehun chortles, watching Taemin’s face. As if right on cue, Kibum snaps his fingers in front of Taemin’s face with a scowl. Taemin nods restlessly and Kibum gives up, waving him off.
“Representing: The Korea Ice Academy in Seoul, South Korea: Lee Taemin!” And just as predicted, the crowd goes wild.
“Korea’s sweetheart, making his senior debut,” Sehun commentates, pretending to be the announcer on television, and Jongin bursts into giggles at Sehun’s pitch-perfect impression. “He’s been a fan favorite since his first Nationals debut all the way back in 2014, and last year he really threw down the gauntlet with a bronze medal at the Junior World Championships. Now, at 18 years of age, he’s the youngest one in this final warm-up group, squeezing himself in with a fifth place finish in the short program--popped a triple flip to a double yesterday--but he’s one of the most anticipated skates of the night.”
“Keep commenting,” Junmyeon requests, and Jongin is so bent over with wheezes that he barely registers the music beginning.
“Skating to music from the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack, opening here with a quad Toe--” Jongin holds his breath as Taemin speeds into it and lands it flawlessly. “Perfect execution. Just 18 years of age, folks, and he’s already proven he can hold his own against big-shot names like Choi Minho’s flawless performance earlier!”
“Holy shit,” Jongdae drops the popcorn from his hand back into the striped box as Taemin pulls into a corkscrew spin. “Aren’t his balls uncomfortable?” Sehun’s commentary falters as he bursts out into a fit of silent laughter.
“Shut UP!” Jongin struggles to keep his giggles silent, smacking Sehun’s shoulder repeatedly as the two roll around in hysterics.
“That’s the least of our worries,” Sehun chokes out, clutching Jongin for dear life lest they topple over on the narrow bench. “Oh my…”
“I’d be worried about my balls getting crushed if I was that cute,” Jongdae insists, and Jongin claps his feet together when just his hands aren’t enough.
“Commentary!” Junmyeon insists, eyes still glued to Taemin.
“Ah, sorry. Ahem.” Sehun wipes tears from his eyes. “N-Nice combination spin there. You’ll see Taemin’s ease and use of skating skills as he picks up speed in this transition. He has a natural flow and flawless carriage across the ice, very uninhibited in his style and technique.” The music slows down to give Taemin a bit of space to breathe in the choreography, then he picks up speed around the corner to send him flying into his quad-triple combination.
“Quad Sal, triple Toe, you can see the knee bend in the landing of the first jump in order to save that second Toe. A little shaky on the landing but he doesn’t panic, just pulls himself out of it nice and easy. And triple Flip next, an easy jump for him--OH!” Sehun jumps and Jongin gasps as Taemin pops it into a single. “Popped into a single Flip, an uncharacteristic mistake for him.”
“A stupid mistake,” Jongin mutters.
“Totally unexpected, he made the same mistake last night in the short program… Back in focus now, and right into a triple Axel!” Sehun cheers, losing a semblance of his professionalism. “Bouncing right back from that little bobble… Oh, this is just spectacular, quad Loop perfectly executed--” Sehun’s commentary is cut out as Taemin pulls into his footwork sequence and the audience roars its approval, clapping along to the music right to the very end.
“Well, it may be raw talent, but it is talent !” Sehun’s commentary cuts off as the crowd rises to his feet and stuffed animals rain down on the ice. The camera focuses on Taemin’s face, shining with sweat, eyes still glimmering with a fiery gaze, but filled with self-pride now.
“That was amazing…” Jongdae’s jaw is slack as he stands up and claps with the rest of the stadium. Jongin’s standing, too, clapping quietly as he stares up at the Jumbotron while Taemin blows a kiss and wiggles his fingers at the audience shyly.
“Thank you,” Taemin mouths to the camera when he’s seated in the kiss-and-cry. He’s still breathing heavily and Kibum is dabbing sweat off his forehead with a napkin.
“I think he might win…” Sehun’s mouth twists.
“He won’t beat Changmin,” Jongin protests.
“Wait, yeah. He messed up a little, right?” Junmyeon pitches in, but Sehun and Jongin shake their heads.
“Messing up doesn’t really matter in the big picture. You can definitely fuck up and still beat out clean skates,” Sehun tells him. “But I’m just saying--”
“Yeah, but politics won’t let him win,” Jongin points out. “Changmin would be second then, and a rookie would’ve beat him. Plus that means he would’ve squeezed Jinki off the podium.”
“Jinks will get squeezed off the podium regardless with that skate,” Sehun argues. “And it’s happened before. Last year, remember at the US Nationals? Bradie Tennell beat Nagasu.”
“I still don’t think he’ll beat Changmin,” Jongin murmurs, and he’s right when the scores come up, putting Taemin in a comfortable third-place spot, but he still gasps in disbelief.
“279.44… oh my gosh, he almost pushed Minho,” Jongin claps a hand to his mouth, furiously calculating in his head. “That’s--that’s--”
“About 0.75 of a point,” Jongdae supplies.
“Less than a point difference between Minho and Taemin.” Sehun’s feet tap on the metal stadium floors excitedly. “Jesus Christ, this night is just sensational.”
“Who uses sensational in a sentence?” Jongin chortles, reaching for the popcorn with relaxed shoulders now that the rest of their team has skated. “So there’s no way the remaining two are gonna move the podium, is there?”
“Nah. They’ll be fifth and sixth,” Sehun waves it off. “You still wanna watch?”
“Nope, let’s go find them.”
“Wait, what about me?” Jongdae asks. “I can’t go in the back.”
“Oh. Well then, stay here with Myeonnie and watch. We’ll be back!” Sehun and Jongin clamor down from the stands, ignoring Jongdae and Junmyeon’s protests behind them.