Chapter Text
Prologue
Ice had always been the only place where I knew what I was doing, and while the rest of the world spun far too fast, everything slowed down there — every breath became a rhythm, every movement a deliberate choice. It was the only place where I felt invincible. Or at least, that’s how it was until I arrived in Northlake.
Here, the ice already had owners. The school rink was the heart of the hockey team — and the pride of a boy who seemed to think the entire world revolved around him. Shikamaru Nara. A name everyone spoke with a mix of admiration and exasperation.
He was good — too good — and he knew it. I only wanted to train, to get better, to keep chasing my dream, but he seemed determined to remind me every single day that this was his territory.
His gaze said, you don’t belong here, and mine answered, we’ll see. At first, I swore I hated him — and maybe I truly did — the arrogance, the smug smile, the way he always seemed one step ahead.
But the problem with ice is that it remembers everything: every mark, every fall, every moment you lose your balance. What once was rivalry turned into curiosity. What once was noise became silence.
And the silence… was the worst of all. Deafening. Because sometimes the ice doesn’t break — it melts. And when that happens, there’s no control, no technique, no turning back.