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“YOU’VE NEVER BEEN SKATING!” Jihyo yelped as she shot up, her head previously resting on Nayeon’s lap.
“Of course, I’ve been skating” Nayeon claimed, “But not since I was like 12 years old.. like every other adult” she watchfully explained as Jihyo sat there staring in her direction.
“I love skating! How did I not know this?” Jihyo asked in a questioning tone, furrowing her brow.
“We have only been dating for 6 months, you’re not gonna know everything about me” Nayeon replies, hoping to answer her question.
“Well, I hope to one day” Jihyo says lovingly as she swings her legs around, so they fall over Nayeon’s. She leans in closer, leaving a delicate peck on the older girl’s lips, making Nayeon blush. She still wasn’t used to having someone be so affectionate towards her.
After a lingering stare, Nayeon sees Jihyo’s eyes flare with excitement.
“That’s what were doing today, having a date” Jihyo cheerfully announces.
“I’m taking you skating!” she concluded, with a toothy grin. Nayeon couldn’t help but smile back at her girlfriend’s excitement, even if she was a bit nervous about the idea. She hasn’t skated in years so she would definitely be a little rusty.
Jihyo was so excited to share one of her hobbies with Nayeon that her mind was racing with dozens of thoughts. Was it cold out, did they need jackets? Where should she take her? Where are her skates, does Nayeon have skates?
Trying to verbalize her thoughts, she spews out, “I have to grab my skates, do you have your own pair?”.
“Sweetheart, like I said before, I haven’t been skating in like 15 years, so the answers no..” Nayeon replies, letting out a chuckle at the question.
“Oh yeah, oops. Don’t worry though, I have a second pair that should fit you” Jihyo revealed, almost jumping out of her seat in anticipation.
“Wow, you must really like skating, you’ve even got two pairs” Nayeon adds as Jihyo starts heading towards the basement where the skates were.
“There just an old pair!” she shouts over her shoulder as she bounces down the stairs.
A few minutes later, Nayeon sees Jihyo appear at the top of the stairs with two pairs of skates hanging off one arm and a bright pink helmet with colourful stickers in the other hand. Nayeon notices that there’s only one helmet, which she assumes is for her.
“Do I really have to wear a helmet” she whines as Jihyo approaches.
“Safety first” Jihyo responds in a chipper tone.
“Plus, I don’t know how bad you are yet, wouldn’t want you to crack that beautiful head of yours” Jihyo jokes, earning a pout and “hey!” from the older girl.
“Fine, only because being safe is super hot” Nayeon grumbles in agreement, as she follows Jihyo to the door.
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It was a chilly day, both girls were bundled up head to toe. It was late February so there was still plenty of snow covering the landscape as they drove along.
Jihyo decided to take Nayeon out of the city to a small, outdoor rink that she used to skate on as a kid. After about a 30-minute drive, Jihyo pulls up to a small church.
“You brought me to a church? I thought we were going skating” Nayeon asked with a huff of warm air coming from her mouth.
“Yes, I brought you to a church, with a skating rink” Jihyo responded accentuating the word ‘with’.
“This is my favorite spot to skate, I used to skate here with my family when I was younger” Jihyo informed her.
Jihyo hops out of the car and grabs their gear from the trunk, Nayeon does the same. Jihyo hands Nayeon her pair of skates and softly places the helmet on her head, blocking her eyes.
“Ha ha, very funny” she cries, trying to look at her girlfriend from underneath the helmet. Jihyo lets out a laugh while Nayeon takes the helmet off of her head and places it under her arm.
“Ok, let’s go, the rink is around back” Jihyo beamed. She grabbed Nayeon’s empty hand, guiding her to the ice rink. As they rounded the corner of the building a small, homemade ice rink came into view. The rink had white boards encasing the ice, with a small gate being the only way to get in. The rink was much smaller than a normal skating rink, couldn’t have been more than 40 ft long and 20 ft wide. Just big enough for the local community to enjoy a skate in the winter.
“Ah perfect, nobody’s here we have the rink all to ourselves, how romantic!” Jihyo exclaimed, “Normally, it’s packed” she continued, unaware of Nayeon’s loving stare. She thought it was so cute when Jihyo got so invested in sharing her interests with her.
“Where do we put our skates on” Nayeon asked, her eyes never leaving Jihyo.
“Oh, over here there’s a bench” she tells Nayeon.
Jihyo once again leads the way with Nayeon in tow. She brings them over to a small wooden bench in front of the gate. Both the girls sit down on the bench and get ready to put their skates on.
“Here, let me tie your skates for you, dear” Jihyo suggests. She stands up from the cold bench and kneels in front of Nayeon.
Nayeon slides off her boots and places them under the bench as Jihyo picks up a skate from off the bench.
“Left foot” Jihyo instructs. Nayeon raises her left foot and tries to slip it into the opening of the skate. She can only get her skate on halfway on before her foot gets stuck. She lets out a small grunt at the inconvenience.
Jihyo lifts the skate up to her chest and places her palms under the sides of the skate, to make sure that the blades won’t shove into her and says “Push”.
Nayeon looks at her with a confused look on her face.
“Push?” she questions, “Is it not gonna cut you?” Nayeon asks with concern.
“Just trust me” Jihyo replies. Nayeon very hesitantly pushes her foot against Jihyo.
Her foot easily fits into the skate but as it does Jihyo let’s out a pained scream, while letting her head fall. Nayeon lets out a shriek of terror, thinking that she just plunged a sharp skate into her girlfriend’s chest.
“OH MY GOD!” She shouts, her eyes popping out of her head in alarm.
“BABE! ARE YOU-.. oh my god, I’m so sorry!” she stammered as she reached over to try and grab Jihyo’s shoulder to keep her from falling.
As Nayeon held on to what she thought was her injured girlfriend, she felt her shoulders shaking up and down. Panicked and confused she says “Babe, wha-…” before she could finish her sentence, she hears an evil cackle. The laughter gets louder as Jihyo lifts her head, looking at Nayeon with a huge smile and crinkled eyes.
Nayeon stares at her in shock, not knowing what was going on. Jihyo’s laughter gets louder as she sees the confused expression on Nayeon’s face.
Nayeon looks down at the skate and sees Jihyo’s purposeful placement of her hands and realizes.
Her mouth opens wide, as she shouts, “Youuuuu, asshole!” lightly shoving Jihyo’s shoulder away. Jihyo continues to giggle. She knew that was mean, but she couldn’t resist teasing her gullible girlfriend.
“I thought I just impaled you with a skate, Jihyo!” Nayeon seethed as she put a hand over her heart, trying to slow down her heart rate.
“I know that wasn’t nice, but I couldn’t help it!” she smiled up at Nayeon.
“Oh, just finish tying my skates” Nayeon demanded with a huff. Jihyo finishes tying both her and Nayeon’s skates.
Jihyo forcefully pushes off the bench and stands on the thin blades of the skates with ease. Nayeon on the other hand needed some help.
“Here” Jihyo says as she outstretched her arms for Nayeon to take a hold of. Nayeon gladly accepts the offer, unsure if she could stand on her own. She entwines her fingers with Jihyo’s as she pulls her up from the bench, Nayeon wobbles for a few seconds before regaining her balance. Jihyo guides Nayeon towards the gate that was only a few feet away.
“Watch your step” Jihyo advises as she slowly steps onto the ice with Nayeon still behind her. Nayeon lets go of one of Jihyo’s hands to grab on to the boards that surround the rink.
She cautiously plants one foot onto the ice, while having a death grip on the board. The slippery surface beneath makes her feel weary as she looks up at Jihyo.
Jihyo sensing her hesitation says, “It’s ok, I’ve got you I won’t let you fall” in a reassuring tone. That’s all Nayeon needed to hear to gather the courage to position her other skate on the ice. She quickly shifted her foot from the mat outside the rink to the smooth ice, letting out small shrieks of fear, Nayeon stared at her feet and took a second to find her composure.
She did it, she’s on the ice and didn’t fall. She peeked up at Jihyo, excitement filling her eyes.
“I did it, I did it!” she chanted in a squeaky tone. Jihyo gives her a huge grin as she slowly pulls Nayeon along. Nayeon’s eyes dart back to the ice, she lets out small giggles of satisfaction as she watches her skates glide across the ice.
“I’m going to bring you over to the boards now” Jihyo informs her. She earns a hum from Nayeon, who’s very focus and still staring at the ground.
Jihyo lightly pulls Nayeon over to the boards where she once again lets go of one of Jihyo’s hands to grab onto the side.
“Ok, you hold on to the wall and my hand” she told Nayeon, “and we’ll do a few laps so you can get more comfortable” she stated.
Nayeon agreed with a simple ‘ok’ and pushed forward with one foot. With each lap, Nayeon was less shaky and unstable on the thin blades. After a few more guided circles and laughs Nayeon speaks up, “Ok, I think I’m ready to try on my own”.
“Are you sure?” Jihyo questions.
“Yeah, I think muscle memory is starting to kick in, it doesn’t feel as awkward” Nayeon chimes in.
“Alright, give it a try, I’m gonna let go now” Jihyo informs her, she receives a small head nod from the older girl.
Jihyo gives her one last pull to keep up her momentum before she lets go. Nayeon slides forwards with ease. She begins to push the skates back, it looks more like a shuffle of feet then a glide, but she continues to move forward.
In the exhilaration of the moment, she screams and shouts, “Hey! I’m doing it! Ha ha ha!”. She was skating on her own, she was pretty proud of herself right now.
But there was just one thing Jihyo and Nayeon forgot to think about, how to stop.
The panic sets in when Nayeon realizes the very important step she doesn’t remember how to do as she is heading straight towards a giant white board.
“Jihyo! Hyo!! How do I stOPPPP!” her shouts turn into a screech as the wall approaches. She puts her arms out trying to prepare for the impact.
From behind her Jihyo starts giving her instructions, “Turn your skates!”.
But Nayeon didn’t have time to register what she was saying. The toe of her boots slammed into the boards with a loud thud, stopping her right in her tracks. The sudden impact throws off her balance and causes her upper half to shoot backwards. But before she falls, she somehow manages to grab onto the board and re-orient herself.
Jihyo quickly slides up behind her, placing her hand on Nayeon’s lower back to help stabilize her. She shoots her head up in Jihyo’s direction.
“That was close, you almost went down there” Jihyo mentions beside her.
Nayeon gives her a glare and responds with “Yeah, just a little”.
“I think you forgot to teach me how to stop” she says in a deadpan voice.
“My bad…” Jihyo rubs the back of her neck as she apologizes.
Nayeon shuffles around so that her back is facing the boards. She sticks her arms out and grabs the air indicating to Jihyo that she wanted her to take a hold. She puts a pout on her face and asks, “Help me”.
Jihyo devilishly smiles at her and says, “Oh come on!”.
“I know you can do it” she eggs Nayeon on as she slowly starts drifting backwards, farther away from where Nayeon was standing.
A look of disbelief washes over Nayeon’s face as she watches Jihyo skate away.
“Come get me!” Jihyo bellowed with a laugh.
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All Nayeon could get out was a small ‘hey’ as she pushed off the wall to chase after her mischievous girlfriend.
Still not the most confident skater, Nayeon stumbles her way across the ice. She tried her best to catch her, but Jihyo was much faster. She was halfway around the rink by the time Nayeon had barely made it a few feet.
Nayeon was so focused on not falling that she didn’t realize Jihyo was quickly approaching behind her. She took a second to look up from her skates to survey where Jihyo was, but she was confused when she couldn’t see her anywhere on the rink.
Suddenly she felt a body gently collide into her back, which pushed her forward. She lets out a small squeak of surprise, now knowing where Jihyo was.
Jihyo slithers her hands around Nayeon’s waist and squeezes tight.
“I thought you were supposed to catch me” Jihyo giggles as she nuzzles into Nayeon’s neck. Nayeon squirms when Jihyo lays small kisses on her exposed neck, a smirk growing on her face.
“Ehh, it wasn’t fair, you’ve had much more practice” Nayeon argues.
“Oh, I guess so” Jihyo says smugly. She slowly loosened her grip around Nayeon’s waist and held onto one hand. The couple skate around the small rink a few more times before Jihyo glances over at Nayeon and observes that she looks a little tired. Jihyo understands, the first skate of the year usually tires her out too.
“I’m getting tired how about we head back home” Jihyo suggests.
“Oh, good idea. I’m pooped” Nayeon sighs.
Jihyo giggles at her choice of words, that’s one way to describe it.
“Are your feet supposed to hurt this much” Nayeon complains to her girlfriend.
“Yeah, when you’re not used to them” Jihyo informs her, as they head to the gate. “Alright let’s get off the ice” she says.
Nayeon allows Jihyo to help her off the ice. She almost fumbles over her own feet in the process but manages to stay upright with Jihyo by her side.
Nayeon takes a seat on the bench as Jihyo leans down to untie her skates.
“Thank you for bringing me here, I had a lot of fun” Nayeon revealed, watching Jihyo’s hands.
“I’m glad you liked it. I enjoyed myself too!” She gleefully cheers, shooting a smile up at Nayeon.
Jihyo removes the skates from Nayeon’s feet and sits beside her on the bench.
“It was really cute watching you stumble around like a baby deer” Jihyo adds on.
Jihyo earns a soft smack to the shoulder from that comment. Nayeon scoffs again, rolling her eyes at the remark. She puts on a pout and looks at Nayeon with doe eyes.
“Ugh, how can I stay mad at that, you're adorable!” Nayeon gasps gazing into her big brown eyes.
Nayeon purses her lips and leaves a kiss on her forehead. She releases with a loud ‘mwah’ sound, dramatically throwing her head back. Jihyo giggles at the affectionate gesture. Her cheeks warm up and turn a little pink.
“Maybe I’ll give you a foot massage for those aching feet of yours” Jihyo pipes up, still stuck to Nayeon’s side.
Nayeon perks up at the idea, “I like the sound of that” she says as she lightly pecked Jihyo’s rosy cheek.