the time at the hockey game

It's a bright Friday afternoon and Eunmi is smiling as she makes her way towards the school gates. She's almost out, almost free for the weekend, when she heard a voice behind her, calling out her name.

Suppressing a sigh, she stops and turns around. Racing towards her, blonde hair flying everywhere in the wind, is Rebecca. Eunmi and Rebecca have know each other since she moved to Vancouver; Rebecca was the one to show her around on her first day at the school. Whilst they're not as close as they have been, every once in a while the girls go out for a coffee ( generally Eunmi's idea ) or to a party ( Rebecca's favorite pastime ).

Still, it comes as a slight shock when a grinning Rebecca holds out a pair of cheaply made tickets. They're made of flimsy card and read:

Under 18s Hockey Tournament Final.
Friday 26th January @5PM.
Free Entrance.
Refreshments available.

"My boyfriend's playing and I'm going to support him. His sister was going to come with me but she cancelled last minute, because she's sick. Then I saw you and I thought 'hey, I wonder if Eunmi wants to come?'" Rebecca  explains.

At some point, they've begun walking towards the student parking lot, where Rebecca's shiny black car is waiting.

Eunmi thinks of the alternative plan for her evening: riding the bus home; watching Netflix with her Mom; Skyping her sister...

Eunmi shrugs.

"Sure, why not? We need to catch up, after all."

So she climbs up into the passenger seat of Rebecca's car, half-listening to her friend chatter on about her upcoming eighteenth birthday party.

~*~

"Bro, are you ready?"

Yoongi spins - slightly awkwardly in his gear - and grins at Joe, the captain of his team.

"I was born ready."

Joe snorts and shakes his head. 

"You say that every time; it's so corny, man."

"Yeah, but it's true." He replies, before heading towards the entrance to the rink.

Even from a way out he can hear the general noise of the crowd, which translates into a buzz inside him. He peers out and sees the seats filling up. Not far, just behind the goal, Yoongi sees two girls moving to their spaces. One of them holds up a hand-painted sign reading "We Love You Joe". She taps the other, who rolls her eyes but-

Holy shit, that's Eunmi.

He blinks but she remains in the seat directly behind the goal, most definitely not a figment of his imagination. ( Embarrassingly, that happened once. He was waiting in line at Starbucks and thought he saw her, but when he approached her it turned out to just be a girl with peach toned skin and long dark hair. Not as captivating as Eunmi. )

But there she is, talking to the girl Yoongi guesses to be Joe's girlfriend and entirely obvious to his presence. Not for long though, as Joe shoves Yoongi's stick into his hands and leads them into the ice.

Yoongi glides across towards his place in goal, relishing in the sounds of the crowd's cheers reverberating around the room. Admittedly, they're mostly just friends and family, but the feeling is still there.

It's the same pumped up, buzzing feeling that he gets when he nails a difficult piece on the piano or, he realizes with with a sort of sinking feeling, when he's with Eunmi.

Soon, the game commences and he loses himself in it, barely even aware of the beautiful girl mere feet away from him.

~*~

Eunmi will admit that she's not the biggest hockey fan. Or any sports, really. So she can't really be blamed for pulling out her phone during the confusing starting procedures. Out of the corner of her eyes she sees the two teams, one in red and the others in blue, skating onto the rink.

These are actually pretty good seats Rebecca's gotten them; she's really close to the guy in goal, who's hunches over with his back to them.

The game drags a little at first, occasionally she helps hold up Rebecca's sign for her boyfriend or claps when the people around her clap, but mostly Eunmi isn't enthralled.

Until the guy in goal turns around. Her lips form an 'O' as she sees his face, barred by his helmet but certainly still him.

Apparently, Rebecca has noticed him too, as she nudges Eunmi.

"Cutie in goal."

Eunmi laughs, although her heart is suddenly thudding hard against her ribcage.

"Do you know him?" Eunmi asks, trying to stop her voice from sounding too shaky.

"Hmm, I think he's pretty new. Joe calls him Min, but I don't know his first name."

Yoongi. Eunmi thinks. Min Yoongi, that's his name.

He's focused on the game, skilfully saving a few attempts to score by the opposition, so Eunmi watches him from behind.

Of course, he plays hockey. Of course. He's already a musical genius of some sort and now he's on a hockey team too. This also comes with the realization that he must have a good body too.

Honestly, he puts Eunmi's meagre extra-curricular activities to shame. Is there anything this boy doesn't do?

Oh, yeah: conversation.

~*~

There are a couple of short breaks during the game, where the teams huddle into circles or disappear off the rink, but nothing really gets interesting until the last couple of minutes. One of the reds is positioned to take a penalty. Yoongi, clad in blue, is ready in goal.

"This is so important right now." Rebecca tells Eunmi. She doesn't need to; it's clear by the almost tangible anticipation in the room. "It's a penalty shot, and if the opposition get it then we draw, but if we block it, we win."

So it's all down to Yoongi, really.

Even Eunmi is holding her breath as the guy taking the penalty shot prepares, then hits the puck. It skids towards the goal, the opposite side to Yoongi's stick, and for a single, gut wrenching moment it looks like he's going to miss it, until he twists and somehow manages to hit it, sending the puck far away from his goal.

The crowd, on this side at least, erupts into applause and cheering. As does Yoongi's team, jumping around and hugging each other.

"Yes!" She yells, along with everyone else. "Go Yoongi!"

His head whips around then, as if he'd impossibly heard her single voice amongst the cacophony of sound. His eyes search for a moment, before they land on her.

They lock, held together in their own private moment, everybody else just in the background.

Eunmi claps, her lips pressed together as she smiles at the atmosphere around them, and at him.

Yoongi lets his stick drop from his hands and clatter onto the ice as he breaks out into a grin at what he's just achieved, and at her.

As soon as the teams skate off the ice and out of sight, Rebecca hugs on Eunmi's arm.

"Where are we going?" She asks as Rebecca pulls her in a beeline through the crowds of people.

"The changing rooms, of course."

Eunmi has never been into male changing room, but the word conjures images of sweaty, shirtless boys and steamy showers. Dear God...

"Are- are we allowed to go in there?" Eunmi asks when they stop outside the door labeled 'HOME TEAM CHANGING ROOM'.

"Of course, I'm the captain's girlfriend." She says, pushing the door open.

The first thing that hits Eunmi is the smell. When she'd imagined a room of sweaty teenage boys, she'd somehow forgotten that it would smell of body odor and who knows what else.

Still, she follows Rebecca's lead in. By the sounds of it there are at least two showers running, but thankfully those are shut into stalls. Instead, Eunmi's eyes scan the room: a total of six boys, but not Yoongi nor Joe.

Then one of the showers cuts off and Joe emerges, a towel wrapped around his waist and nothing else. Rebecca squeals and races towards him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Well done, baby!" She exclaims, not giving him a chance to respond by pressing her lips against his.

One of the boys whoops as they make out passionately, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the room. Eunmi is slightly concerned about how loosely his towel is knotted around his waist, and how she may be about to see her friend's boyfriend naked.

When Joe has moved away from kissing his girlfriend's neck, he spots Eunmi over he shoulder.

"Oh... hey... Eunmi." He says in between kisses.

Eunmi and Joe know each other vaguely; it's impossible to know Rebecca without Joe, apparently they've been going strong since the start of freshman year.

"Get a room." She rolls her eyes, muttering.

Joe laughs and she rolls her eyes again ( it's a bad habit, really ) until she swivels slightly on her heels and stops.

Yoongi is in the same state of undress as Joe ( and damnit she was right, his body is good ) and walking right towards her.

He halters when he notices her, but he's already close enough that she can see the rivulets of water coming from his wet hair and rolling down his shoulders, his eyelashes clumped together with droplets. It is quite possible that Min Yoongi has never looked as good as he does right now.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Rebecca, who has finally detached herself from her boyfriend to let him get dressed, steps over.

"Do you two know each other, or something?"

Eunmi blurts no just as Yoongi utters a yes.

He proceeds to blush furiously. Eunmi, who isn't the kind of person to blush, tears her eyes from Yoongi to Rebecca.

"Sort of." She says. "We've bumped into each other a few times, that's all."

The summary doesn't seem enough, and she can tell from Yoongi's expression he doesn't think it is either.

Perhaps sensing the something between the pair, Rebecca shrugs and moves away. Eunmi's heart is pounding; she wonders is Yoongi's is too, or if it's just her who feels this way.

Yoongi is desperately trying to think of something, anything to say. But it's hard to think when he's standing half naked I'm front of his crush ( yes, he said it. Crush. )

So he goes for the obvious thing and says he's going to get dressed. She nods and sort of smiles.

Yoongi moves to the most private part of the changing room, where he's completely out of Eunmi's sigh. He gets dressed quickly, not even noticing the way his shirt clings to his damp skin. He ruffles his hair with a towel to partially dry it, then shoves his stuff in a bag and heads to where Eunmi, Joe, Joe's girlfriend and a couple of others are waiting near the door.

"We're thinking of going to get some fries, because I'm famished right now." Joe tells him. "You coming?"

Ridiculously, Yoongi's eyes dart straight to Eunmi. She's looking right at him, wide eyed and gorgeous. He looks at the wall just past her.

"Do you want to come and get some food with us?"

This is it. This is the point they've not gone past before. If she says yes, it may well change their entire dynamic.

"Sure." She says, somehow managing to catch Yoongi's gaze despite his attempts to avoid eye contact.

He shouldn't be that surprised, it's hardly like he just asked her to a candlelit dinner, but he is. He's pretty sure Eunmi from the plane would have rolled her eyes and told him to dream on. Something has changed.

The rest of the team are here now, so the group heads towards the door. Once they're outside, Joe asks where they're going to go.

"There's that new dinner like a block away from here, we should try there. Bri just got a job there and she can get me a discount." Yoongi suggests. Everybody agrees but Eunmi.

"Bri." She says, almost to herself. Then, she quickly hugs her friend. "Rebecca, this was fun, we should do it again sometime soon. But I just remembered I have to go. Bye!"

And then she's speed walking in the opposite direction, without a single glance behind her.

Why does this girl keep appearing and disappearing from Yoongi's life with no explanation? Moreover, why does he keep wishing her to come back?...