Chapter Text
Sunghoon is a professional figure skater. Well, at least he used to be a professional figure skater. It all suddenly changed when he injured his left knee a couple of months ago. He was at the prime of his career, better than ever. But the doctor told him there was nothing to do, his knee would never be the same and pushing it would do more harm than good.
He wasn’t stupid. Sunghoon knew better than to try and cling to something that was unfixable. It still sucks though. Especially now that he has to enter college and act as if he was a regular twenty two year old, not the Olympic athlete that he was so used to being.
Yeah, now he was a good one to two years older than all the other college freshmen and if he was being honest it made him feel really insecure. Like a failure; an old guy being behind on life (he had just begun his twenties).
He was packing all his stuff now. He had been living in the national skating team’s dormitory for most of his life, and now he was leaving. He was starting college next week in Seoul. He was stuffing all his belongings in his suitcase to the best of his capacities. Biding his last goodbyes to his old room. It was pretty sad, but he would rather not dwell on it too much.
After a decently comfortable ride. Sunghoon was now in front of his new living place; a boarding house just a couple blocks away from his university. His parents were covering the full rent; they’ve been trying to be as supportive as possible so he wouldn’t have a hard time, harder than it already was, at least. He himself had chosen this house to stay in, the commute would be minimal, most services were included, the room looked nice enough in the pictures and the neighborhood itself had a good reputation. Sure, the rent was kind of high; but as a former Olympic medalist Sunghoon deserved to have this, at least that’s what he thinks.
Getting his luggage to the second floor proved to be a little annoying, with his bad knee and all. But he managed. Looking at his room, the one he was going to be living in for the next couple of years, it wasn’t half bad. He had a desk, a king sized bed and his own bathroom. The one thing he hated about the dorms he shared with the other athletes had been sharing the bathroom. At least there would be no one calling him a clean freak now that he had his own room.
He wasn’t big on interior design; so the walls would probably remain as plain as they were now. He should still buy some daily necessities, eventually.
Without even attempting to unpack his suitcase, Sunghoon plopped down on the bed and fell asleep in a matter of seconds (he was more tired than he thought)
When he opened his eyes again he took his phone to check the hour. Fuck. It was eleven P.M. He pondered, should he keep on sleeping? Should he call his parents to tell them he’s already arrived and was okay? Should he get dinner? He ended up doing none of the above, naturally. He just stared at the ceiling for hours, replaying every mistake he had made since elementary school. Tormenting himself was one of Sunghoon’s favorite pastimes.
Eventually he heard noise coming from downstairs. He overheard the footsteps and hearty laughter of someone entering the house, apparently talking either with themselves or through the phone with a joyous tone in their voice. It was probably someone getting home after a night partying with friends, it was Saturday after all. Not that Sunghoon could relate, of course; he barely knew what Seoul’s night life was like and his social circle was veryyy limited (he liked to blame his very rigorous training schedule for that)
Paying close attention to the footsteps, he could hear the person going up the stairs and into one of the rooms. Just a couple minutes later music starts coming from that same room. Oh hell nah, Sunghoon didn’t have the energy to deal with some obnoxious housemate. Was that Aespa he was hearing? But before he could get up and complain about the noise he just fell victim to exhaustion and ended up sleeping through his neighbor’s k-pop jam session.
That night Sunghoon dreamed. He had a clear dream of himself when he was way younger; testing his newfound abilities on the ice. Speeding, jumping and twirling on his skates like a fish in the water. His dream had Red Velvet's Psycho as background music for some reason.
He was still through the excitement of reliving the discovery of skating when Spycho suddenly faded into the background and his phone’s ringtone started sounding instead. He probably slept through four phone calls before actually starting to wake up.
When he finally managed to shush the grogginess away, he checked and saw some missed calls from his mom; no one should count on Sunghoon to answer his phone to be fair.
He quickly texted his mom to let her know he was alive and well, then opened his door to peek into the hallway; the coast was clear, not a person on sight. He came down into the communal kitchen and weighed his options; going to the grocery store to buy something and whip up a quick breakfast, order delivery, suck it up like a man and wait for lunch.
While considering what to do with his empty stomach he heard one of the doors upstairs opening and someone started walking down the stairs. Since Sunghoon was standing all by himself in the kitchen the guy coming down inevitably made eye contact with him.
Sunghoon stood there like a mannequin; the dude was beautiful, objectively, and broke into the sweetest smile when he saw Sunghoon, almost screaming “Good morning! You must be a new tenant!”. But also, Sunghoon could have sworn he’d seen him somewhere before.
The other guy approached him with a skip in his step and didn’t stop until he was five centimeters away from Sunghoon’s face.
“I was just thinking about ordering some breakfast from the bakery down the block. You want some? I swear is delicious” said the guy with way more enthusiasm than Sunghoon was ready to process that early in the morning “–since you just arrived here, food’s on me this time” well that solved his breakfast dilemma.
With a platter of fresh baked goods in front of him (the guy was right, it was delicious) and some coffee in his system, Sunghoon gained enough energy to hold a conversation “–thank you for the food. I’m now indebted to you...”
“Sunoo! My name is Sunoo. And you don’t have to be so formal, we’re probably the same age–” Sunoo was saying with a matcha latte mustache, he didn’t seem to care though, he looked delighted “–oh, or are you younger than me? I can be a great hyung, don’t worry. I know everything there is to know about our college. Oh! You are going to my same college right? I’m on my second year by the way–“
Sunoo seemed more than capable to keep the conversation going all on his own, so Sunghoon relaxed and focused on what’s truly important; eating. Usually he wouldn’t be stuffing his face with croissants and breakfast bagels; his athlete diet wouldn’t allow it. But he was no athlete now, he could eat whatever. He had just come to this realization and was still processing what to do with that freedom. For the moment, he was not going to let the free food go to waste.
“–and your name is... ” Oh, that was his queue. He downed his food with the coffee and spoke.
“My name is Sunghoon, Park Sunghoon. Nice to meet you” as he spoke he saw Sunoo’s expression change from calm cheerfulness to absolute shock, his eyebrows shot upwards and his mouth formed a small ‘O’
“You are Park Sunghoon?! Oh my god, YOU ARE! How could I have not noticed?!” the boy covered his mouth with his hand and practically jumped out of his seat. Sunghoon was no stranger to being recognized. He had been on TV a couple of times after all. But he was still pretty taken aback by Sunoo’s reaction. Before he could say anything, the boy was already running up the stairs; leaving Sunghoon sitting all alone. Okay, rude.
He heard some ruffling upstairs and a couple of bagel bites later the boy was coming back downstairs, holding something in his hand. He sat down in front of Sunghoon and dramatically put whatever he had been holding down on the table; a couple of photos. Sunghoon leaned forward to take a better look. They were pictures of him, on a skating rink, not that long ago, they weren’t from a competition… “Wait! I remember you!” Now Sunghoon knew why he felt like he’d seen the boy somewhere before, because he had indeed seen him before.
“You were the journalism major that asked my coach for permission to interview me” Sunghoon said, excited to finally catch up to something. Sunoo seemed happy too. The photos he had brought down were the ones he took for his class project, which involved writing an article about an influential person, Sunoo had chosen Park Sunghoon.
“Still a journalism major, for your information. And if I remember correctly… Oh shoot! You’re older than me” He was suddenly apologetic and started bowing down, putting his hands together asking for forgiveness. When he assumed it was enough apologizing he quickly came back to his cheerful self “I can’t believe I was having breakfast with figure skating star Park Sunghoon! And not even noticing! Jesus I am such an idiot” he said, but he was clearly amused.
“So tell me Sunghoon-shi. What are you doing here? Looking to broaden your horizons? Is a college degree the new requisite for Korean athletes? Oh and what were the chances of ending up in the same house as me!? So cool”
Sunoo was coming at him with full speed and Sunghoon wasn’t sure he wanted to pick up was Sunoo was putting down, especially the why he was just entering college part. So he stuffed his mouth with the last bit of bagel, quietly refusing to answer any questions.
It was kind of obvious now that Sunghoon thought about it. Sunoo had the same excited way of speaking and innocent yet mischievous look in his eyes that he remembered from that one short interview last year. In Sunghoon’s memory’s defense, it was a very quick encounter; Sunoo needed a brief interview to write his article for college and Sunghoon just had to answer a couple of questions and get some photos taken to then continue with his practice. Now he was debating whether this was a good or a bad coincidence. Sunoo was right; what were the chances?
Now with a full stomach, Sunghoon remembered some pressing matters.
"By the way, I have to ask. Who was it that was having a k-pop concert at ungodly hours last night? Was it you?”
Sunoo’s cheeks turned bright pink. Guilty as charged. He cleared his throat and tried to defend himself “Well, it was me. But it has never actually bothered anyone before. Everyone here is a very heavy sleeper”
“Oh, yeah. How can you be so sure they aren’t bothered?”
“Because they have told me… ?” Sunoo said like it was obvious “I’m sorry for disturbing your sleep. I’ll try my best so it doesn’t happen again” apology aside, Sunghoon was more hung up on the realization that Sunoo was on talking terms with all the other tenants. Was Sunghoon supposed to talk to them too? Ask about what things may annoy them? Let them know he was not a heavy sleeper?
Maybe he should have asked to live in an apartment and work part time to help with the rent. Too little too late. Damn it.
Somewhere between Sunoo finishing his latte and Sunghoon checking his phone for messages, a comfortable silence fell between the two of them. He spared a couple of glances at the pictures taken of him last year, it felt like an eternity ago. The kid wasn’t a bad photographer either, he made Sunghoon’s good looks justice.
As Sunghoon held the photos Sunoo had taken of him in his hands, the boy in question was too busy smiling at his phone, giggling even. But then he seemed to remember the other guy’s presence across the table and looked up at him.
“Hey, Sunghoon-shi. Since we start classes tomorrow, how about I give you a tour of the campus? It’d be great! I know uni like the palm of my hand. Oh! Maybe you could tell me your schedule and I’d make sure you already know where all your classes are” the younger seemed really excited at the idea of showing Sunghoon around.
“I’ll pass. I’m not a kid, I can just find my own way around the campus. Besides I have a lot of unpacking to do today” Sunghoon didn’t actually have a lot to unpack, but he wasn’t planning on spending the whole day getting condescendingly dragged around by someone he just met.
College was just a ten minutes walk away anyway; he’ll just make sure to leave really early tomorrow and find his way to the classes.
Sunoo was persistent though.
“Oh, I see. I could still show you around the neighborhood. You know, letting you in on the best restaurants and shops for students. Oh! You should vis–“ But as he was about to probably tell Sunghoon where to get the best Americanos, Sunoo was interrupted by someone entering the house.
As the door opened and the newcomer could be seen, Sunoo’s face lit up like a Christmas tree “Jungwon!!” he whooped as he quickly got up. The other boy seemed just as excited to see him, letting his luggage fall to the ground, he ran to give Sunoo a hug.
The boy that just came seemed to be just around Sunoo’s age, maybe younger. As they hugged, the boy’s wavy hair contrasted with Sunoo’s silky pin straight one (Sunghoon wondered if it felt as soft as it looked). Jungwon was it? The kid was so immersed in greeting his friend, it took him a solid ten minutes to realize Sunghoon was there.
“Oh, Jungwon. This is Sunghoon, the new tenant. Sunghoon this is Jungwon, he’s also living here” yeah, as if he couldn’t have guessed from the luggage the boy was carrying
“Nice to meet you” he said and bowed slightly.
Sunoo said “By the way he is older than us” to Jungwon in a fake whisper “don’t make the same mistake as me just because he is new” and he giggled a little.
As the new guy introduced himself, Sunghoon could already tell that he wasn’t as open and talkative as Sunoo. He was polite, of course, but he still kept a slight air of distrust. Sunghoon couldn’t blame him since he was the same.
As the two boys went upstairs to leave Jungwon’s luggage, Sunghoon could hear them talking “Oh, I was planning on giving Sunghoon a tour of the neighborhood. Wanna join us? It’d be fun”
“Hyung? A tour? What about that movie you had told me we’d go watch as soon as I came back? Don’t tell me you forgot. We had been planning it since before break”
“Fuck, you’re right, the movie!” and before entering the room to unload the bags, Sunoo screamed to Sunghoon downstairs “Sunghoon-shi sorry! I can’t hangout today! Something important came up! Next time maybe!”
Sunghoon was mainly surprised at how the boy just assumed he had accepted his invitation in the first place, when Sunghoon was very much planning on saying once again that he was too busy to go.
Anyway, he made sure Sunoo took his photos with him before leaving. He didn’t want to keep staring at his past self for any longer, no matter how good he looked.
…
Sunghoon’s first week as a college student went on relatively smooth. He didn’t like feeling like a fish out of water, so he quickly came up with ways to get things done as efficiently and hassle free as possible. There still were a lot of things that he felt he was behind in, but he was already working on it. That was regarding the studying aspect of it, of course.
There were other areas he didn’t know where to even begin; one of them being socializing. While getting to know the college and his classes, Sunghoon slowly realized that he had no friends; to be fair it was his first week. But also, he realized he never needed to have friends.
Sunghoon was a man of focus, and the only thing he had to focus on for all these years was skating. But for some reason now that he was a college student, he started feeling more socially incompetent than usual. Not a feeling he enjoyed.
He also quickly came to notice that Sunoo, the boy that he had met once before getting in, was very good at that socializing business. At least it looked like that to Sunghoon, because to him it seemed like the younger had friends everywhere. Whenever he saw him, the younger was either hanging out with someone, texting someone, on a call with someone or inviting Sunghoon to plans he had made with someone. But if he had to make a wild guess, that boy who also lived in the boarding house, Jungwon, was Sunoo’s closest friend. The two of them were attached to the hip and it seemed they could hold full conversions just with exchanging looks (which made Sunghoon feel very left out every time he was in the same room as those two)
Back in his training years, Sunghoon would overhear the other skaters murmuring, saying that he was arrogant and full of himself. Young Sunghoon used to beat himself over those comments; was he really that awful? Did everyone hate him?
But as time passed he just ignored other people’s opinions. It still could get under his skin sometimes, so he kind of avoided being in the spotlight for any situation that wasn’t a skating competition. And on that same track he ended up going through his teenage years without ever getting close to other kids his age. Their loss, honestly.
Gossipy kids and skating rinks were in the past now. Current Sunghoon had other things to worry about. Like for example the math lecture he was in. Yep, Sunghoon had chosen to major in Finance and Economy; was it fun? Not really. But it was practical, and Sunghoon loved practical. Missing classes in high school to focus on his training did take a toll on his math knowledge. But he was getting there, give him some time.
As the teacher was going on a tangent on how proud he was that hardly anyone passed his class, Sunghoon’s phone got a notification from ‘Kim Sunoo (housemate)’.
The freshman knew he would regret giving the boy his number, he felt pressured to do it anyway. Sunoo would text him every other day asking stupid questions like ‘Are you feeling okay?’ ‘Wanna watch a movie?’ ‘Do you have plans this weekend?’. Sunghoon would often leave them unread. But the class was about to end and it seemed it wasn’t a stupid question this time. The message read
Kim Sunoo (housemate): Hiiiii
Kim Sunoo (housemate): Me and Jungwon were planning on getting some pizza tonight
Kim Sunoo (housemate): would you want some? Just tell us when you finish classes and we’ll wait for you at the house. Don’t forget to tell us which flavor you want ;)
Sunghoon would usually say he’d pass. But he was in fact craving some pizza, plus his other option was to eat a granola bar alone in his room. So he tried to not overthink it and texted Sunoo to order some Neapolitan for him; pepperoni was his favorite, but he was still trying to watch his figure.
He couldn’t help being a little excited on his way back to the house. And not exactly for the pizza. Weird. Maybe it was curiosity, that giddy feeling in his stomach.
He literally lived with those two guys. It wouldn’t hurt to talk to them a little, out of curiosity, and make sure they weren’t plotting to murder Sunghoon in the middle of the night. And he hasn’t forgotten, he owned Sunoo a meal, he might as well pay for the pizza and call it even.
When he arrived Jungwon and Sunoo were too busy talking to notice him (rude). It seemed like Sunoo was complaining about a difficult classmate and Jungwon was telling him to pay it no mind. It was Sunoo the first one to acknowledge Sunghoon’s presence.
“Sunghoon-shi! Hi!”
Jungwon gave him a nod of acknowledgement, very generous of him. “Where’s the pizza?” Sunghoon asked as he put his backpack down on one of the chairs, always keeping track of what’s important.
“The delivery guy is like five minutes away”
“You already paid?”
“No?”
“Ah, good. I’ll pay for it, all of it” Sunghoon took out his card to emphasize his point. He expected a thanks; but Sunoo basically whooped and clapped, saying nonsense like “Legendary! Sunghoon-hyung is the best! Such a caring hyung. You must be loaded” and then gasped after realizing he called him hyung. He covered his slip up with an awkward laugh and moved on.
Sunghoon felt his heart do somersault. There was something about the way Sunoo said the word, it was… cute? He also noticed that the younger got a little embarrassed and that made him embarrassed in return.
Before his brain could come up with weirder thoughts Sunghoon sat down next to the other two and let out a tired sigh; he was tired. Walking around with his knee could sometimes prove troublesome, it hurts out of nowhere and leaves Sunghoon wondering why.
Before the silence among the three had a chance to turn awkward, the bell rang; the pizza was here. Sunoo basically jumped to open the door, almost forgetting to take Sunghoon’s card.
As they ate the pizza Sunghoon tried to pace himself; there still was a little voice in his head that scolded him for surpassing his daily calories or not getting in enough grams of protein. After finishing one slice his hand hovered over another one, he was weighing the pros and cons of eating a second slice. While his hand was still hesitating mid air, he saw as Sunoo took the slice and practically fed it to him, holding it an inch away from his face.
“Me and Wonie had already finished three slices each. You need to catch up or we’ll eat it all”
Sunoo made it sound so funny, like it was no big deal. Like Sunghoon could have eaten the pizza like a pig and he would’ve just giggled about it.
He ate the slice Sunoo was holding and it was so fucking good; he might go for a third and a fourth one.
As he was quietly enjoying his dinner, Jungwon and Sunoo were having a full on conversation next to him; either they thought Sunghoon was part of the conversation or they didn’t care he overheard. From what they were talking about he could gather some information about their lives: Jungwon was a vet student, Sunoo was double majoring in journalism and cinematography, they both had sisters and neither of them was from Seoul. And people said Sunghoon didn’t care about others; look at all he learned about them in a couple of minutes. Peak social skills.
For once the conversation turned to him. “Sunghoon-shi, how are you liking uni? You do have a lot of early morning classes, it can’t be easy” Sunoo asked. It implied he noticed when Sunghoon wasn’t home in the morning, interesting.
“It’s been okay. Some teachers and classmates are really weird, but nothing out of the ordinary”
“What’s your major” it was from Jungwon.
“Finance and Economy” he tried to be nonchalant, he wasn’t sure if it was something worth bragging about or something to be secretive with. There was a lot of uni culture he hasn’t learned yet.
“Wow, you must be good with numbers then” said the youngest of the three, there wasn’t much soul in it though.
“Well, I’m not terrible” he shrugged, it was the truth. He might need some tutoring down the line, but so far he’s been doing well. He knew he was smart. If there was something he had to worry about it would probably be the group projects; the thought of them send shivers down his spine.
Not for the first time he noticed his housemates’ sense of style. Sunoo always dressed… soft. He likes sweaters, hoodies, light colors and comfy clothes that made him look like he didn’t even try, like he just wakes up and the clothes fall on him perfectly. It was the opposite of Sunghoon’s sense of style; he knew it could look like he was trying too hard to look cool, because he was. He wore dark clothes, nothing too street, nothing too cheap looking. He was very thoughtful about the aura his clothes gave off and he hoped it paid off.
They had all finished eating. Sunghoon was thinking of the perfect phrase to excuse himself and go to his room. Then Jungwon’s phone rang; his eyes widened and he said ‘Jay hyung’ under his breath. With the phone still waiting in his hand the youngest gave Sunoo a pointed look, the latter nodded and said “Come on. Answer, it’s Jay” while patting him on the shoulder. Jungwon excused himself and went up to his room. Sunoo saw him go with a cheeky smile on his face.
Now it was just him and Sunoo. “So… who is this Jay?” he asked. Sunoo looked a little conflicted before leaning closer. “I don’t know if I can tell you” he whispered, but then he adopted a mischievous look.
“let’s just say… Jay is a third year law student. He is handsome, he is kinda cool, oh and he’s fluent in English” He seemed to consider for a little longer “… he is a very good cook too, or so he says. He also plays for both teams, if you know what I mean” he emphasized with a wink.
Sunghoon had no fucking idea what he meant, was this Jay guy a soccer player? What he did know was that he was a little annoyed now; when Sunoo said this guy was handsome, did he mean slightly above average handsome? Did he mean better looking than Sunghoon handsome? It was a very important difference. And also, why was being good at English worth mentioning? What did Sunoo find so cool about it? (Sunghoon was terrible at English).
He found himself trying to read Sunoo’s expression. For some reason he now wanted to know what Sunoo’s opinion on this Law student was, how close they were and why him contacting Jungwon mattered. And also, what teams was he playing for?