Chapter Text
“I heard he’s from Australia.”
“Everyone’s heard that he’s from Australia, Riki.”
Riki huffs as a response, snatching Jay’s bag of chips away and ignoring the older’s indignant hey!
It’s a normal day at Decelis Academy— students are gathered at the cafeteria, uncaring of their volume and table etiquette as they talk and laugh loudly, silver cutlery clinking against glass plates.
Routine is a big part of Decelis— ingrained into their minds ever since they were children. Everyday at six, the resident assistant wakes everyone up and chaos breaks out. Boys line outside bathrooms waiting for their turn to shower while those inside play around, throwing soap bars and clothes around.
Classes start at seven thirty, and end at three. Extracurricular activities happen afterwards, and everyone is expected to be back at the dorms by six.
School passes by mundanely, mindless chatter about classwork and assignments are usually the topic of conversation. Gossip doesn’t really flow around, the perks of being in the same school with the same few hundred guys since seventh grade.
Perhaps the monotonous routine that’s been drilled into their heads is the reason why everyone is so interested in this new kid.
It’s getting annoying, how much they’re talking about him. It’s like they get one new kid every ten years, which is not true, because Decelis is too prestigious for snobby elites looking to show off their financial status to not send their kids here.
And while his friends still find this new kid to be more interesting than studying for their mid-terms, Sunghoon is frankly— sick of it. Seriously, who even transfers halfway into their last year?
Sunghoon’s heard his name more than he has gone to the bathroom in a day, and he knows way too much about a guy he hasn’t even met. Every time he’s with even one of his friends, it’s always ‘did you hear’ this about him or ‘did you hear’ that about him.
It’s always interesting, of course, to have a new student, but he can’t be that intriguing, right? Sunghoon’s never even seen him before, so how come all of his friends have?
So, Sunghoon thinks the way his eyebrow twitches whenever they talk about the new kid again is perfectly justifiable. It’s not like he has something against Jake (his name, apparently), it’s just that Sunghoon can’t really wrap his head around why he’s always the topic of conversation.
And this doesn’t limit to his friend group.
Girls in the girls school near Decelis come to gawk and giggle about him after school, teachers praise him for being able to catch up with the syllabus so quickly despite being from a different country.
They’re all things that Sunghoon has always been subjected to, and to share the spotlight after years of being at the centre of the stage makes him a little uneasy.
So he’s a little jealous, what about it? You would be too, if you had to share first place with a ghost everyone can see but you.
“I heard he’s a part of the soccer team now,” Sunoo pipes up, pushing away his barely-touched tray. It’s quickly attacked by Heeseung, who shoves a whole bun into his mouth. Everyone turns to look at Jay, who’s still fighting Riki for his chips back.
When he gives up and lets Riki have it (because Jay will always be too soft-hearted for his own good) he finally turns to the others.
“Yeah, he’s really good. And very nice.” He shrugs dismissively, going back to picking at his salad. The school lunch is sad, especially when you consider how much they pay for the school, but everyone still eats it. When he notices the prolonged silence around the table, he looks back up to see everybody staring at him incredulously.
“What?”
“That’s it? He’s really good? The school’s current golden boy is just really good?”
Sunghoon pretends what Sunoo says doesn’t strike his heart.
Current golden boy? Sunghoon’s supposed to be their school’s golden boy. He has all the trophies and certificates to prove it. What does that guy have? A Nobel Peace Prize?
Jungwon seems to be the only one who notices his silence— or maybe it’s the deepening frown etching onto his face, because he nudges Sunghoon with his elbow and snatching him back to reality. He stands up, grabbing his tray.
“Sunghoon hyung and I have to go. You have practice soon, don’t you hyung?”
He blinks dumbly at the younger male, before snapping out of his trance.
“Yeah, it’s in-” he checks his watch, “twenty minutes.”
Jungwon nods, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “I’ll walk you there, I have a meeting in thirty and the council room is on the way.”
Jay’s eyebrows furrow and his mouth twists into a frown, confusion blooming across his face. “You don’t have council meetings on Frida-” He shuts himself up at the look Jungwon gives him, looking like a wet cat.
“Emergency meeting.” Jungwon says simply. Sunghoon nods in response, picking up his things in a haste to be able to catch up with Jungwon, who’s already walking away.
When they drop off their trays, he shoots Jungwon a grateful look and they wave to their friends before leaving the cafeteria.
Decelis is a nice school, though it’s older than even Sunghoon’s grandparents, it’s been renovated enough times to fit to modern standards.
There are four buildings in total; the main building, where classes and club activities are held, two dormitories and a sports building. The land is massive, stretching to almost a thousand acres of plain field.
The nearest town is a one hour train ride over and there is nothing else around them except for woodland and a large lake in front of the main building, and it is as peaceful as it is creepy at times.
The student council meeting room is definitely not on the way to the sports building, where the ice rink is located, but Sunghoon is thankful for the sentiment.
“Why do you hate the new student?”
What he’s not thankful for, and honestly should have expected, is the interrogation that happens whenever he and Jungwon are alone together.
They’ve barely stepped out of the main building and the new student has already been mentioned. Summer is around the corner, and the sun is now beaming down harshly on everything. It’s humid and way too hot for Sunghoon to deal with this right now.
He feels a muscle in his jaw jump. Sweat is already beading on his forehead and back, and the sunlight is too bright for him to be able to open his eyes properly. He shields it with a hand, and glares at Jungwon.
“I don’t,” he says it through gritted teeth, and he can see the way Jungwon rolls his eyes from his peripheral vision. He’d always been bad at lying. “Why did you lie about the meeting?”
Jungwon flicks his hand, a bemused look on his face.
“Don’t change the subject— you know why.” The look changes to be a bit more serious. “He’s really not a bad guy, you know. I talked to him when I was touring him around the school. He really has that confused puppy look nailed down.”
Jungwon stops. Sunghoon stops with him, glancing at him curiously.
“I don’t know, he was actually kinda cute.”
Sunghoon thinks his jaw might fall off his face.
“What?!” He shrieks, and it echoes through the silent terrain. A few crows caw in surprise, wings fluttering as they fly away. Surprised by his own volume and the way his voice cracks midway, he clears his throat and composes himself.
“Cute?” He chokes out, because Yang Jungwon doesn’t call anyone cute. He rarely gives out compliments in the first place, and he definitely doesn’t like to. Sunghoon remembers the last time Jungwon gave him a compliment was when they were in freshman year, and the latter had stayed back to watch him skate. He told Sunghoon he jumped well after he managed to land a triple axel. Radio silence from then.
“Yeah,” Jungwon says after a few seconds of consideration, starting to walk again. Sunghoon falls into step with him, still dumbfounded. “You’ll get it when you see him.” Is the only explanation Jungwon gives him, and Sunghoon doesn’t think he will.
They reach the sports building faster than he thinks, though to be fair he spent most of the walk there in a daze, the words he’s kinda cute resonating through his mind.
Jungwon bids him a goodbye, walking off towards the dorms ahead of the sports building. Sunghoon waves after him, slipping into the sports building once he’s out of view.
The sports building stacks in three floors, and a racing track behind it. The ice rink sits on the ground floor, past the swimming pool room, and Sunghoon fills out the sign in/sign out sheet hanging on a nail tacked into the wall next to the door of the rink.
The air in the ice rink is always crisp, cold and biting, even without actually stepping into the rink. It’s a relief for Sunghoon, and he wipes off the sweat that dampens his nape.
He makes a beeline for the locker room, changing into his training clothes and doing his warmups on solid ground. It’s routine, for him, he does this everyday. The rink is always empty when he practices, save for the occasional hockey practice on Thursdays.
(Sunghoon always leaves when he sees the captain of the hockey team, Jung Sungchan, and his obnoxious face because apparently half the team thinks he’s a priss just because he prefers to dance on the ice instead of banging bodies with other men on it.
It’s a little ironic, because Sungchan definitely has something going on with one of the boys in the dancing club, but he’s too much of a coward and homophobe to say anything about it.)
It’s freeing to be on the ice, Sunghoon’s done it for long enough for it to feel more like instinct than training. The money prizes he gets from competitions is just an added bonus.
He relishes in the clean ice as he skates, in the cold air that freezes his lungs. He’s earned the nickname of Ice King in his years of competing, and he used to be embarrassed, but now he thinks it’s quite fitting.
There’s nowhere else other than the ice for him.
Today, though, as Sunghoon glides across the ice, he feels a brooding presence following him. He shakes off the feeling, trying to relax as he eases into a spin.
It doesn’t go away, so Sunghoon stops. He scans around the rink, and sees a lone figure standing behind the glass in front of the stands.
Sunghoon feels goosebumps trickle his skin, and it’s not from the cold. Slowly, he skates to where the figure is standing, and as he closes in on it, he sees it’s a boy.
He looks to be around the same age as Sunghoon, and he just continues to stare as Sunghoon nears him. He looks dazed, like he’s zoned out on Sunghoon’s figure.
He’s wearing a washed denim jacket— which in this heat, should be illegal— over a plain white tee, and his baggy jeans are the same colour as his jacket.
He doesn’t even look up to meet Sunghoon’s eyes when he stops in front of him, and Sunghoon has to knock on the glass to get his attention. Immediately, his gaze snaps up, and his eyes meet Sunghoon’s.
Sunghoon actually shivers.
“Hey,” his breath comes out as a small cloud, and the boy still looks a bit dazed, but his expression morphs into slight confusion when he sees Sunghoon in front of him.
“Do you need something?”
The boy finally seems to regain his senses, because his eyes go wide and he looks around extremely confused. “Oh! Uhm, I was just looking for a place to get away from the heat-”
His gaze finally lands on Sunghoon again after darting around, and he gives him a sheepish smile. A drop of sweat rolls down the side of his face, and Sunghoon feels the need to wipe it off.
“It just felt the most cool here. Sorry, I didn’t realise I was staring.”
Sunghoon gives him an awkward smile, and the other boy mirrors him. Sunghoon lets his gaze drop, slowly scraping the ice under his feet with his skates. This whole situation is just awkward, awkward, awkward! Why did Sunghoon even go up to him? He’s never been good at talking to new people.
“My, uhm,” Sunghoon’s head snaps back up when the boy speaks again, giving him all of his attention. “My name’s Jake. Jake Sim.”
Sunghoon’s heart drops out of his ass.
His jaw falls too, and the blood in his veins starts to rush way too fast. What the fuck? What the fuck? What the hell is Jake Sim doing here?! In front of Sunghoon, in his safe space?
When Sunghoon doesn’t answer, standing there with his jaw open like a fucking idiot, Jake just laughs awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. “Well, I’m gonna go..” He gives Sunghoon a small smile, dropping his hands and tucking them into the pockets of his baggy jeans.
“See you around, stranger.”
He turns around without a second glance, pulling open the heavy doors and leaving. They shut with a thud, and it resonates throughout the now empty rink.
Sunghoon blinks dumbly at the empty space in front of him, Jake’s silhouette still lingering like a ghost.
Fuck.
///
As expected, training doesn’t go well.
After landing on his ass way too many times, like he did when he first started at the age of nine, Sunghoon gives up and leaves.
The sun is already setting when he does, and when he reaches his dorm and lays on his bed staring up to the blank ceiling after his night routine, Jay snoring lightly on the bed a few feet next to him, he finds himself unable to sleep.
Alright, so he made a fool of himself in front of Jake Sim, big deal. It’s not like Sunghoon cares about him, much less about what he thinks of him.
It doesn’t matter that yes, Jake Sim is as handsome as people say he is, and that yes, he has an extremely nice smile, and yes, his hair falls perfectly even if a tornado passes by, because Sunghoon has ultimately decided that he and Jake will absolutely never meet again.
First of all, they don’t share any classes, clubs or sports. Secondly, Sunghoon barely sees him anyways, so what are the chances he will for the rest of the year?
Amazingly, his theory is proven wrong the very next day, because why is Jake Sim standing in front of him right now?
“What.” Is what he says, looking in between Jay, Jake and their RA, Taehyun. Boxes are stacked into a corner on Jay’s side of the room, and his desk has been cleared out. Clothes are strewn across his bed, and some are already folded neatly into a box that sits on the floor.
Jay throws his arm around Sunghoon’s shoulder. “Remember when they told us we were going to be switching dorms for the next semester?” No, Sunghoon did not remember that. He should really start listening during assembly.
“Well, Jake is going to be rooming with you!” Jay slaps his back particularly hard at that, and Sunghoon nearly chokes on his spit. He doesn’t bother masking his glare, and Jay just grins at him.
“Jake’s going to be moving all his stuff in today, so I hope you two get along well. Help him around, will you Sunghoon? He’s still new.” Taehyun speaks up, nudging Jake slightly. The boy gives him a sheepish smile, and then he peeks at Sunghoon from under his lashes.
Holy shit, Sunghoon must’ve hit his head yesterday during a fall, because this has to be some type of alternate universe. Him and Jake, roommates? Is the devil at play here?
The devil, it turns out, is Jay, because he had somehow managed to bribe Taehyun into letting him room with Jungwon, even though the student council members have their own floor.
Jay tells him this when Taehyun and Jake leave to go get Jake’s stuff and Sunghoon feels like melting into the floor. Curse Jay and his inability to stay two metres away from Jungwon, now Sunghoon has to suffer the consequences.
He falls face-first onto his bed, the groan he lets out muffled by his pillow.
“It’s not that bad, Jake’s a really nice guy. I know how you feel about him but try to at least be cordial to each other, alright?” Jay comforts as he sits down next to him, patting him on the back.
Now they’re gossiping about him behind his back? Sunghoon wants to cry.
Jay takes his silence as a reply, and he gets up to put away more of his stuff into the boxes that litter their floor. He’s humming as he does, and Sunghoon wants to rip out his hair. There’s nothing to be jolly about.
There’s a knock on the door, and Jay yells ‘coming!’ before swinging it open. Sunghoon doesn’t have to look to know it’s Jake, and he hears Jay shuffling around the room as he clears up the rest of his things.
He feels his bed dip, and then someone’s pinching his side, and Sunghoon jumps up with a yelp. Sunghoon pouts at Jay, the betrayer, but the other boy just levels him off with a glare of his own.
“Don’t be rude. Jake can’t carry all those boxes by himself. Come help.”
Jake is standing awkwardly by the door, with a few boxes around his feet. He’s carrying one in his arms, and he glances nervously as Jay pushes Sunghoon lightly by the shoulder.
Sunghoon wants to yell no, I don’t want to, I don’t want to room with this stranger, I don’t want to have to deal with him for the rest of the year, I don’t want to get to know him, I don’t care, but he doesn’t.
He knows how childish he’s being, and knowing the image his parents try to uphold, he knows they’ll chide him for being so immature, but he can’t help it.
Jake makes something in his chest bubble, makes his skin crawl and his hair stand. He feels like letting out a full body shudder every time they make eye contact, and all his senses yell at him to run.
Surely, that has to mean something, right?
Jay glares at him a second time when he stays on his bed, and Sunghoon sighs resignedly as he gets up. He picks up a box with the name ‘Jake’ scrawled on it messily from the floor, and sets it on the bed.
Jay has moved most of his boxes onto a flatboard trolley, which is funny, considering he only has four boxes to move, but Jay has always been one for the dramatics.
He grips the handle of the trolley once he’s done, tapping it twice as he glances forlornly at his side of the room. Then, he turns to Sunghoon and winks, grinning.
“Don’t miss me too much.”
Sunghoon fakes a gag at that, and he can hear the way Jake huffs out a silent laugh from the side. He ignores it.
Jay rolls his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. He pats one of the boxes on the trolley before rolling it to the doorway. “I’m off! It won’t kill you to make friends, Sunghoon!”
Sunghoon misses the chance to hit him, because he’s already making his way down the hallway, whistling. Jake’s still standing by the doorway, trying his best not to make eye contact with Sunghoon.
Sunghoon sighs, stalking over to Jake and grabbing the box he’s holding right out of his hands. Their fingers brush when he does, and Sunghoon tries not to shiver at how cold they were.
“Make yourself at home, it’s your space too.” He sets it on the desk this time, and Jake’s empty hands fall limply to his sides. “Alright,” he responds, but Sunghoon doesn’t reply, just flumps back down onto his bed.
He hears Jake shuffling around the room, hears the ripping of tape and the clutter of his belongings as he puts them all into place. After a while, Jake starts to hum, and of course he has a nice voice, even while he’s humming.
Oddly, the sereness lulls him to sleep. He doesn’t wake up until the next morning, to the sound of birds chirping outside the window. Sunghoon blames it on the fact that he hadn’t gotten any sleep last night.
Not because of the dream involving a boy with brown hair and a bright smile that he didn’t want to wake up from.