Chapter Text
"It's just in. Jaemin Na from South Korea has prepared a brand new free skate program for the upcoming season as we head closer to the Korean nationals! Jaehyun, what's your take on this?" Johnny asks his partner in crime for figure skating podcasts, Jaehyun.
"Well, we've meddled with this topic almost on every broadcast we had about him. We've been begging for him to get a new free skate program because reverie is JUST not it."
"Definitely. He's been milking out that program for so long, but it didn't give him desirable scores... for his standards, of course. Even after adding another quad at Worlds, his GOE was just not enough to get him to break Renjun Huang's FS record." Johnny sighs. "I don't think anyone will break that record anytime soon."
"I don't think Huang can do it either unless he gets his one out of a million luck is up on the roof again."
"So you're saying Huang won out of luck?"
"No, his skating for The New Beginning was indeed gorgeous," Jaehyun pauses to think of a more appropriate way to say it. "But the judges were a tad generous for him that day, don't you think?"
Johnny laughs. "God, you've always been such a Na Jaemin apologist."
"Am not!"
"I just think Na always loses his grit for the free skate program, that's all. It's such a rare occurrence to see him being first for his free skate," Johnny points out, "In contrast to that, he's the god of short programs. He has broken the world record eight times for the short program, yet only once for the free skate. That bit doesn't help him a lot because we know how inflated the free skate scores can be."
"Speaking of his free skate program, we haven't gotten to the point of what song will he bring." Jaehyun flips through his cue card for the following line. " Maniac by Haechan."
"You know that song?"
"Of course, I know that song. I don't live under a rock."
"Some people think you do." Johnny snickers. "You don't usually pay attention to K-Pop anyway."
"That's K-Pop? I thought the singer's some sort of a popular survival show winner or something."
"He's Haechan Lee, or just Haechan, a member of the group NCT who had his solo debut less than a year ago."
"Oh, so he's like, the Zayn of the group?"
"No, sir, he hasn't left the group yet." Johnny stops. "I mean, forget the 'yet'. He's not leaving the group! Confirming that before any of his fans cancel me."
"Well, judging by popular Maniac is, pretty sure he's gonna pull a Zayn," Jaehyun says nonchalantly. "This is coming from a guy who allegedly lives under a rock."
"We're getting a little out of topic here. Let's get back on track, shall we?" Johnny finds a way to shorten the possible duration as he chuckles. "I'm really really looking forward to Jaemin performing with this song. It's so unlike him!"
"I don't even remember the last time he performed with anything that's not a piano piece. That sort of song benefits him so much, you know?" Jaehyun coincides with a questioning tone in his voice. "His face in general just fits the theme and is enough to get him extra PCS. I think that him choosing a song like this, a rather modern take and something he's never done before when it's getting much closer to the Olympics, feels rather... risky, don't you think?"
"I think it's a great idea. The judges must love a pleasant surprise. His face fits the idol criteria, too." Johnny nods in agreement. "Also, the song is hype enough to support five quads. He can give quite a dramatic interpretation to its lyrics."
"He's Chopin-dramatic, not TVXQ-stripping-off-clothes-dramatic."
"You seem to put no faith in your favourite skater."
"You'd know the strength and weakness of a skater if they're your favourite." Jaehyun pauses. "Not that Na's my favourite, anyway.."
"Then you have no right to underestimate him like that," Johnny concludes swiftly. "Na Jaemin, if you're listening to this, we plead you good luck with your new program. Can't wait to see a different side of you!"
—
"So, it's official?"
"What's official?" Jaemin scrubs the ice off his favourite blades, his eyes still intact to them as he's still in a conversation with Jisung. "Minho and Taemin-Hyung dating?"
"No, Hyung, your new free skate program!" Jisung claps his hands excitedly. He is one of Jaemin's juniors representing South Korea, three years below him, with half of his experience. If Na's the frontman of Korea's Men Singles, Jisung's right behind him. "I've never seen you practice with the song on. I've always known it's gonna be something different, but I never expected that. "
"Did you just shuffle the top ten chart and go with whatever's there?" Chenle, a fellow Chinese ice dance skater, saunters in, welcoming himself into the conversation. "Jaemin and K-Pop. What a way to end 2021."
"Did Minho-Hyung force you into this?" Minho is a star-studded retired figure skater training several formidable skaters such as himself and Jisung under his private compound with his own personal ice rink. "I don't think he'd like such big of a change, though."
"Twitter is speculating that you're friends with Haechan. Are you? Friends with Haechan?" The Chinese skater shoves his phone right in front of Jaemin's face, making him almost lose his balance.
"Yeah, get that away from me." Jaemin pushes the boy to the couch, telling him off. "And no, I'm no friends with an idol. I don't even know what his face looks like."
"Already five fics under the Haechan/Na Jaemin tag, damn." Ningning makes her way towards the locker room with her purple skates clunking the ground. Jaemin gives her an exasperated look. "What? Winter told me."
"The internet is true, a weird, weird place." Jaemin scrambled into his backpack, searching for his AirPods so that he could dismiss the conversation quickly. "You take two people with absolutely no correlation with each other and call them a couple."
Jaemin means it. It's not a rare occurrence for him to hear a fan pairing him up with Huang Renjun, though the two never had an actual conversation besides sitting next to each other on post-competition interviews. The fans call them lovers; the media call them ultimate rivals. All of this because, well, all they do is take turns gold and silver on the podium.
He knows him and Jisung are a huge thing among the fandom, too, though in a much more brotherly way. What can he say? The junior is the only skater in Minho's Dream Camp (that's literally the name of their training team) who doesn't get on his nerves all the time. Chenle and Ningning are constantly bickering and spreading rumours like hellfire. Winter is a Gen Z with a huge mouth and knowledge of what's going on in the figure skating fandom, and Giselle.. well, he can't find a flaw in her either. Perhaps the fact that he can speak multiple languages effortlessly, whereas he's still struggling with his English, irks him a lot.
"Which pair has the most fics written for them again?" Chenle chimes in, his hands resting on Jaemin's shoulder, fingers tapping relentlessly.
"Him with Huang Renjun, of course! God, you guys are just legendary." Ningning giggles.
"You sure it's not me and Rina?" Winter enters the locker room with a plushie doll (supposedly from Karina, another ice dance skater) in her arms.
"You and Rina are already a menace, and everyone knows you're a couple already." She jolts. "Just go back to the national skating team if you do miss her."
"If they add a same-sex pairs discipline, I will!" Winter exclaims as she hugs the doll tighter. "Speaking of Rina, she should be free by now. I want to call my baby..."
"Gross." Chenle shakes out the cringe out of his body. "I swear, Coach Minho should really give those two a time-out. There's a reason why Winter hasn't been able to land her axels correctly."
"Really? Kim Minjeong..." Jaemin sighs. "I'll use the rink this afternoon to assist her."
"Na Jaemin!" Coach Minho barges into the room with a face crumpled up like a piece of paper. His tone was tense and annoyed, which wasn't such a good sign for someone with a blazing temper. "Told you the change of programs was a bad idea."
"What happened?"
"We just got an E-Mail from Haechan's label." Taemin blasts into the room a few seconds later, out of breath because he had to run to match Minho's crazy pace. "They said the singer personally refuses his song to be used in Jaemin's free skate program."