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“Seriously?” Jay complains as he passes by the reception desk. “Have you taken a shift every day this week?” He nods at where Jake is standing behind the register.
Jake grimaces, trying to hide the heat he feels in his cheeks. “Chaewon was sick this week?” Jake says weakly, like it’s a question. Jay stares flatly at him. Jake is full of shit, and they both know it.
The ice rink has an overwhelming number of college students on call. Someone else could have definitely covered Chaewon’s shifts. In fact, when Jake first got this job eight months ago, the rink assured him that he would only be required to work two days a week. And when he asked if could work more than two shifts, he was told that they over hire on purpose to give college students flexibility. They said that he was always welcome to ask around for more shifts, but the rink would only be able to guarantee him a maximum of three days a week.
So yeah, plenty of people could have covered for her. But Jake volunteered. He’s been volunteering for extra shifts a lot recently, which has definitely not escaped Jay’s notice.
For the first few months, he would only work three days. Sure, he would pick up an extra shift here or there but most weeks, he worked three days. It’s actually how he and Jay became friends. Unlike most, Jay actually abides by the two-shift rule. After starting, Jake quickly learned that the two-day requirement was actually more of a suggestion—most people only worked one shift a week. Some, like Beomgyu, only take a shift every other week. Given that the rink over hires, shift coverage is usually never an issue. The schedule gets posted every month and then everyone texts each other passing around the shifts that have been assigned.
Since Jake and Jay both worked multiple times a week, they started to spend breaks together naturally. Then a few months into starting, Jake found out that Jay was his roommate’s favorite fuck-buddy, and so they started hanging together outside of work as well. And now that Jay and Jungwon have put an official label on things, it feels like he sees Jay at his apartment almost as much as he sees Jungwon.
“You worked five shifts last week, too.” Jay pointed out.
Jake winces. They both know Jake has been…overeager to pick up extra shifts in recent months. A few of his coworkers think he’s tight on cash. Some think he is committed to keeping his long-running streak as employee of the month. But Jay…Jay managed to figure out the truth two months ago because Ni-ki is incapable of keeping his mouth shut during group movie nights.
Before he can say anything in response, his reason for the extra shifts walks in.
Park Sunghoon.
One of the skaters for their university’s men’s figure skating team. And not just any skater—he is very clearly the team’s best skater. He was good enough that he could have continued to just skate professionally, but he wanted to go the college route instead. It had been big news when he announced that he would be attending Wilson University. He’s a junior now, like Jake, but his celebrity has yet to wear off—if anything, he is actually more famous now on campus then he was when he started.
And while the figure skating team uses the university’s official rink for practices and games, Sunghoon—for some reason—has started coming to the public rink a few times a week too. Jake assumes it is because Sunghoon doesn’t feel the allotted practice time is enough, but he isn’t really sure. The first time he came to the rink was around four or five months ago. Jake remembers because he was incapable of speaking words. But ever since that day, Jake has noticed that Sunghoon has ventured to the public rink a few times a week.
Unfortunately, Sunghoon doesn’t seem to have a set time or a set day that he shows up—Jake has tested every shift available. Really, the only guidance that Jake has is that Sunghoon usually tries to come when the rink is less busy.
His preference for a less crowded rink actually works better for Jake because while weekend shifts require two or three people at the reception area, they are also the most in demand. Jake usually gets a weekend shift once every other week, but typically, his three shifts are comprised of afternoon shifts throughout the week.
This semester, Jake just happened to arrange his schedule so that most days, he is done by 11 AM in the mornings. It was easy enough to clear his afternoons as most of his physics classes are in the mornings and his labs are at night. And instead of going to the library, he is able to get most of his school work done while working. So, for the last few months, he has been steadily coming in 4 or even 5 shifts a week just in the hopes he can see the dark-haired skater that he has developed a bit of a crush on.
It’s pathetic. He is well aware.
Jay has been teasing him mercilessly ever since he found out, but Jake doesn’t know how to stop his feelings. Last week, despite taking 5 shifts, he didn’t see Sunghoon at all, so he went a bit overboard this week—he made sure he had a shift every day, even on the weekend.
Jake narrows his eyes at Jay and Jay snorts as he backs away, hands held up in a surrender. Sunghoon approaches the reception desk.
“Hi.” Sunghoon says, his voice soft. Jake has practiced this part. In the beginning, all he could do is waive and flail around awkwardly, but he has gotten past that level of social ineptitude.
“Hi,” Jake waives, smiling widely. “Two hours today?” He nods at Sunghoon’s skating bag.
Sunghoon shakes his head, frowning. “Just one today.” He says, sounding a bit congested. “Still recovering from being sick last week.”
Jake nods, but inwardly, he slaps himself. Of course, Sunghoon had been sick. Of course, that’s why Jake hadn’t seen him at the rink. He’s an idiot. A hopeless idiot.
“Ah,” Jake says. “Don’t push yourself too hard today then.” He gestures at the rink doors.
Sunghoon quirks his lips in a tilted smile. “I’ll try not to.” He says as Jake prints Sunghoon’s ticket and grabs him a locker key. Sunghoon brings his own skates, so Jake doesn't need to worry about grabbing a pair of rental skates. Instead, Sunghoon just inserts his card into the chip reader and Jake waits for it to clear.
Once it does, he holds out the ticket and the key. Sunghoon nods, grabbing the items from Jake, his fingers grazing Jake’s palm as he does so. Jake tries not to shiver from the feeling, but he’s pretty sure he’s unsuccessful. Sunghoon stares at Jake for a few seconds longer and then readjusts the strap of his bag.
“I’ll see you later, then.” He nods and turns in the direction of the doors.
“Have a good skate!” Jake calls at Sunghoon’s retreating back.
Once Sunghoon is out of site, Jake falls forward banging his head again the counter.
“I think that’s the longest conversation you two have ever had.” Jay says from somewhere behind him.
Jake groans, not lifting his head. “Did you watch the whole conversation?”
“Yep.” Jay laughs. “It didn’t occur to you that you didn’t see him last week because he wasn’t coming by the rink?” Jake groans again. “Well, at least you’ll get employee of the month again.” Jay laughs and Jake can hear his footsteps as he walks away.
He’s really past the point of pathetic now, he thinks.
The next week, Jake sticks his normal three shifts. He wishes it were due to self-control, but it’s actually because he needed to go office hours and had an intense lab that he needed to block out extra time for.
When Sunghoon doesn’t show up on his Tuesday shift or his Thursday shift, Jake begins to lose hope that he will see him this week. But then, much to Jake’s relief, Sunghoon steps through the entrance mid-way through his Friday shift. Sunghoon’s hair is curled today and Jake nearly walks into the stool near the cash register as soon as he sees him. Jake hasn’t ever seen Sunghoon with his hair styled like this—it’s mesmerizing.
As Sunghoon approaches the reception desk, Jake tries to pull himself together.
“Hi,” Sunghoon says, smiling.
“H-hi,” Jake waives, still admiring Sunghoon’s hair. He’s missing part of his script, he thinks. But he can’t help himself—he just stares at Sunghoon dumbly.
“Can I do three hours today?” Sunghoon says after a few minutes of silence.
Jake mentally slaps himself. He should have asked how many hours Sunghoon needs today. Though three is definitely more than usual. “Three today?” Jake asks, curiously.
Sunghoon nods. “I skipped yesterday.” He shrugs.
“Are you still feeling sick?” Jake asks, the ability to speak returning to him.
Sunghoon shakes his head quickly. “No, I…uh…” He grimaces. “My friend and I had too much soju on Wednesday night…”
Jake lips tilt up, understanding. Spinning around on tiny medal blades while hungover sounds less than ideal. Jake can’t even skate sober.
“Ouch.” Jake says, sympathetically. “Been there.”
Sunghoon raises an eyebrow. “Soju your weakness as well?”
Jake shakes his head. “I get drunk off wine coolers.” Jake blushes. “I’m an extreme lightweight.” He isn’t sure why he just admitted that. Who admits that sort of thing to the guy they are trying to impress. He mentally slaps himself.
He tries to think of a way to redeem himself, but before he can, Sunghoon barks out a laugh. Jake hasn’t heard his laugh before, but he likes it. It’s a bit goofy—a total contrast to his princely image.
“I guess that makes sense.” Sunghoon stares at him, lips still twitching. “You’re pretty tiny.” He says playfully.
Jake has officially lost the plot. Not only is this their longest conversation. But Sunghoon is actually teasing him. Jake isn’t sure how to keep it going but he desperately wants to.
“I’m 5’9, actually.” Jake crosses his arms. Sunghoon raises an eyebrow at him, skeptically. “Okay, 5’8,” Jake admits. Sunghoon keeps his eyebrow raised. “Fine.” Jake pouts. “I’m 5’7 and a half, but it’s a really big half.”
Sunghoon laughs again and Jake thinks he might be becoming addicted to the sound. But before either of them can say anything more, there’s a cough behind Sunghoon. A woman with blonde hair, taps her foot and gestures to the small child that is clearly trying to break free from her grasp.
Jake’s eyes widen and he jumps toward the register to print Sunghoon’s ticket. Sunghoon nods his head at the woman. “Sorry,” he says and he inserts his card into the chip machine.
Jake hands him the ticket and locker key in short order and Sunghoon practically scurries away, but before he opens the rink doors, Jake calls out, “Have a good skate!”
The rest of Jake’s shift is surprisingly busy for a Friday, but luckily, he does manage to take a ten-minute break during Sunghoon’s skate time. Jake isn’t sure if Sunghoon ever notices Jake watching from the break area, but Jake can’t bring himself to stop. Sunghoon is truly ethereal when he skates—the way he glides across the rink is so effortless. Jake could watch him for hours.
As Jake is getting up from the break area to go back to the reception desk, he throws one last glance over his shoulder. Sunghoon is completing a series of complicated spins. Jake smiles to himself and then puts his hands in his pockets, heading back out. He doesn’t see that as soon as Sunghoon finishes his last spin he looks over to the break area where Jake was sitting and frowns at his absence.
While it might surprise some of his coworkers, Jake actually hates the rink’s employee of the month tradition.
Sure, he gets a $10 amazon gift card, but he also has to walk around the whole day with a bright orange sash that says Employee of the Month . Jake isn’t one for attention and the sash is a bit of an eyesore.
And of course, today is Jake’s first shift since the last month ended, so it’s a bright orange sash day. It’s also a weekend day, which means he isn’t at the reception desk alone and his coworkers will know if he removes his sash. He had already tried removing it before Nicholas and EJ showed up, but they noticed immediately.
Jake readjusts the sash, as Jay walks in. Jake glares at him. “You’re not working today.” He points at Jay.
Jay smiles, shaking his head. “You know Jungwon and Ni-ki would kill me if I didn’t get a picture of our favorite employee of the month.” He says, pulling out his phone. “Give us a smile.”
Jake flips Jay off instead but Jay just cackles.
“Did you really come all the way down here just to take a picture of me?” Jake grumbles as Jay slides his phone back in his pocket.
Jay shakes his head. “Nah, I forgot to pick up my paycheck the yesterday.” He nods toward the direction of the back offices. “I figured I could kill two birds with one stone if I picked it up today.”
Jake rolls his eyes.
“He tried to get out wearing it.” Nicholas says to Jay, conspiratorially. “Even offered his amazon gift card to us if we let him off the hook.”
Jake glares at Nicholas as Jay laughs again.
“I don’t get it. If you hate it so much, then why do you keep taking on so many shifts?” EJ asks Jake. “Are you really that strapped for cash?”
Jake shakes his head. “No, it’s not that.” Jay snickers and Jake contemplates throwing something at him. Before he can follow through with the threat, the lobby door opens and three men walk in.
Jake freezes because one of the men is Sunghoon. Even though it’s a weekend day, Sunghoon is somehow here. Jake looks down at his sash and groans. He doesn’t recognize the other two, but of course, today would be the day Sunghoon would come to the rink with his friends.
Jay gasps and then waives at the group. “I didn’t know Heeseung was friends with Sunghoon.” He says, excitedly.
Jake blinks. He’s heard that name. Heeseung is one of Jay’s friends who throws a lot of parties. Jake hasn’t ever met him, but he wonders if that’s who got Sunghoon drunk the other night.
“Yeah, and that’s their other friend, Sunoo.” Nicholas nods at the shorter of the three men. “I think he’s known Sunghoon since middle school.”
Jake doesn’t have any time to ask more questions before the three of them approach the reception desk. Since it’s a busier day, there are two registers open. Jake doesn’t know whether to smile or cry when Sunghoon chooses his register. Sunoo walks up to the one in front of Nicholas and EJ begins getting locker keys. Heeseung bypasses the registers and walks over to Jay.
“I didn’t realize you were working today.” Heeseung says.
Jay shakes his head. “I’m not.” He jerks his head toward the back offices. “I was just coming to pick up my paycheck.” Jay glances at Jake and Jake glares at him, already predicting what will come out of his mouth next. “And visiting our employee of the month, of course.”
Nicholas snickers and Jake kicks him in the shin. Sunghoon looks over at Jay and Heeseung and then back at Jake. He sees the sash and says, “Congratulations?”
Jake can feel the warmth in his cheeks, but he manages out a small, “thanks.”
“This is actually Jake’s fifth straight month as employee of the month.” Jay adds. Jake glares at Jay. He is going to kill him when he gets home.
The other boy, Sunoo, looks at Jake curiously and Jake wants to burry himself into the ground. “It’s because he takes the most shifts.” EJ says, and Jake actually thinks he is trying to help Jake. Unfortunately, his answer is the opposite of helpful. Sunoo’s eyes light up with mirth as he looks at Jake and then back at Sunghoon. Jake doesn’t like the look at all. He tries to calm in his thoughts—there is no way he could possibly have put the pieces together so quickly. It took Jay months.
“How many shifts do people normally take?” Sunoo asks EJ. Jake wishes there were a way to send a mental signal to EJ to get him to stop talking, but he can’t think of anything, so he just closes his eyes.
“Maybe 1 or 2 a week?” EJ says. “Jake took seven the other week though.” EJ points at Jake. Jake opens his eyes and sees that Heeseung and Jay are both trying to hide smiles now. Jake shakes his head and looks at Sunghoon. He’s not smiling. Instead, his brows are furrowed and he looks extremely confused.
“Uh, so…how many hours are you guys skating today?” Jake says, trying to change the subject. Jay coughs but Jake can tell it’s an attempt to cover a laugh. Still, Sunghoon saves him.
“Just 1 today,” he says. Then, he points at Sunoo and Heeseung. “And they’ll need to rent skates.” Jake nods as EJ goes over to ask Heeseung for his shoe size. Jake prepares Sunghoon’s ticket and grabs the locker key that EJ placed next to him.
“Do you have…” Sunghoon shakes his head. “Are there specific days you normally work here?”
Jake shrugs. “Not really. I, uh, cover for people sometimes.”
“I see.” Sunghoon nods, inserting his card into the chip machine. Jake looks over to see Heeseung is now at the other register and Sunoo is waiting off to the side with a pair of skates.
He takes his time handing the ticket and key to Sunghoon and Sunghoon smiles. “Have a good skate,” Jake says, making eye contact instead of yelling it at Sunghoon’s retreating back.
Sunghoon nods. “You too.” Then, he freezes. “I mean not you..” He points at Jake and shakes his head. “Cause you’re not skating…” He stops himself from continuing and Jake giggles.
“Happens all the time.” He waives Sunghoon off. “Don’t worry about it.”
Sunghoon nods to himself and then turns away from the counter. He doesn’t quite make out what Sunoo says to Sunghoon but he does catch “so you’re both idiots, then.”
Once the doors close, Jake whips his head towards Jay. “You’re cooking my dinner for a week.” He points. “A whole week.”
Jay snorts, but then he nods. “That’s fine.” He glances back toward the ice rink. “I think it went better than you thought it did.” With that Jay walks off toward the payroll office, and Jake turns toward EJ and Nicholas.
“Suddenly, everything makes so much sense.” Nicholas says, clearly holding in a laugh.
EJ stares at Nicholas, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Our employee of the month is actually just a hopeless romantic.” Nicholas smirks. EJ gasps looking toward the doors and then back at Jake. Jake just rests his head on the counter and prays for the ground to swallow him whole.
The next time Jake sees Sunghoon, it’s a weekday, thankfully. He seems stressed or nervous, so their conversation isn’t long. Jake wonders if everything is all right. Even from the little bit of skating that Jake caught during his break, Sunghoon looks off-kilter.
Usually, Sunghoon just waives at Jake when he drops the locker room key back off at the front desk, but today, he pauses and stares at Jake.
Jake stares back, unsure what to say.
The silence between them stretches for what feels like minutes before Sunghoon throws a piece of paper at Jake and practically runs out the door.
Jake blinks rapidly and then lunges toward the pieces of paper.
Jake,
You may have already guessed this based on the way my friends acted last weekend…But, I’ve been trying to work up the courage to ask you out for months now. I came to the public rink a few months back when the school rink was closed for maintenance. But I keep coming back because of you.
I was hoping to tell you this in person, but if you’re reading this, then I guess I went with plan B, which is this letter.
Do you think you can take less shifts next week so we can go out on Friday?
Sunghoon
(P.S. I like when you watch me skate)