big moments; minho/amber one-shot
gymnastics au; inspired by the olympics of course, stick it, & the fab five
“Amber Liu on vault” announced the generic female voice that made Amber always cringe, over the speakers to the audience. Amber stepped up onto the platform and began her routine of dusting chalk onto her feet. It would be her last rotation before the numbers decided who would be going to London. She didn’t feel nervous or anxious or even happy. As she stood at the end of the runway staring down the vault the only thing running through her head was what she hated about gymnastics. She hated the judges and the scoring system; your score only determined how well you measure up next to the standard of perfection. She hated the ‘dangerous’ tricks being scored lowly even though the men were allowed to do them. She hated the leotards most of all; sparkly and pink and constantly refusing to stay in place no matter how much tuff skin she sprayed. If an interviewer were to ask Amber what she liked about gymnastics, at this very moment she’d have no answer.
The horn announcing that she would have to begin her vault routine brought her back to arena. She performed her pre-routine habit of swiping the bottom her left foot and then her right because she knew that no matter how much she might hate gymnastics right in this second, she would still have to run.
“We present to you the 2012 Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Team!” The camera lights flashed, someone shoved a bouquet into their arms, and some old gymnast that had nothing else to do after they retired shook their hands. Amber looked to the girls surrounding her (Luna cried, Victoria didn’t stop smiling, Sulli waved to her fans, and Krystal collected the stuffed animals thrown towards her) and felt like she had stolen a place on the team. She was not a typical gymnast; she didn’t smile the cheesiest smile she could muster towards the judges before starting like Luna, she couldn’t contort her body like Victoria, she didn’t have the beauty the sponsors look for and found in Krystal, and she certainly did not have the bubbly personality that dubbed Sulli the nation’s golden girl. Amber shouldn’t have even been here, but for some reason she was.
Next they brought out the Men’s team and each of the members hugged each other, sharing the excitement, or at least pretending to in Amber’s case. When the last male stepped up in front of her, Amber was pulled into a hug and lifted off of her feet and for the first time since the beginning of the trials she smiled genuinely. When Minho finally let her down he was beaming while he said, “You did it, llama! It’s great to have someone else from my gym that qualified.” She nodded in response and decided that she might have an answer for that interviewer after all.
Together the five girls walk through the village cafeteria and each of them constantly point out the other athletes they recognize. When they sit down and eat their lunches and all of them turn starry eyed at Park Tae Hwan, Amber decides she likes these girls, quite a lot actually. Krystal is in the middle of talking about much she wants to meet Michael Phelps and practice her English with him when Minho suddenly sits down besides Amber.
“Hey girls, I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.” He smirks at Krystal, obviously catching a bit of their conversation before sitting down.
“Hey Minho,” she greets her gymmate. “Where’s the rest of your team?”
He steals one of her grapes before leaning his elbows on the table and saying, “I knew you were interested in Jonghyun, but I didn’t think it was more than you’re interested in me.”
Amber rolls her eyes and throws a grape aiming for his eyes, but to her dismay he catches it easily in his mouth. While still chewing he steals the rest of her grapes and says something about having to go to practice. When he’s out of earshot, at least Amber hopes he is, Victoria shouts “I didn’t know you and Minho were a thing!”
Amber picks up her fork and focuses on her salad, “We’re not. We’re just from the same gym, that’s all.”
Sulli sighes as she pokes at her own salad, “You’re so lucky.”
“Why’s that?”
“Have you seen him?!” exclaims Krystal. “He might even be better looking than Michael.” The sixteen year old girl seems to contemplate this in her head, “Okay, maybe not better but pretty darn close.”
“And he’s obviously way into you,” declared Luna.
Amber just laughed as she opened her vitamin water, “Why would he be when there’s tons of gorgeous female athletes surrounding him here?”
The four other girls just shook their head at Amber’s oblivion.
It’s night before the team finals and Amber knows she should be sleeping but she just lay in bed while staring at the ceiling. She tried to blame it on the loud music coming from the never-ending party down in the rec room, but she knows it isn’t true. Her phone lits up announcing a new text message and when she unlocks her phone under the covers she discovers it’s from the very reason for why she isn’t sleeping.
“Minho? Are you there?” she whispers, although she’s not exactly sure why, when she finally reaches the location specified in the text. ‘In front of the rings in ten.’
He pops out of nowhere and nearly makes her scream. “Now why exactly are we here when we should be resting before finals?” She was still whispering.
He doesn’t speak; he only stares at the giant Olympic rings standing in front of them. The spotlights light them up even in the middle of the night.
“We’re going to climb up those,” he said as he walked closer to the legs that held up the massive symbol.
“Are you crazy?” she yells slightly at him. “Let’s go back to our dorms, we’re going to get in so much trouble.”
His gives her his classic smirk, “Who said we were going to get caught?” He stood next to the base and interlocked his fingers, “Here I’ll give you a boost.”
Before Amber could even think about what she was doing, she found her foot resting in his hands and Minho lifted her high enough to grab onto one of the lower rings. When she was situated she reached down to help Minho up. The two of them sat in the yellow ring with their legs stretched out side by side.
“I’m glad you’re here with me, Amber.” She felt her heart clench at the usage of her real name, Minho always called her by her gym-dubbed nickname.
“Cause we’re from the same gym.” She squeaked.
Even in the dark Amber could see him shake his head. “No, because you’re you.” He says softly. She wonders how long they would have stayed up there if it weren’t for the group of athletes that had a little too much to drink that spotted them up in the rings and telling everyone to ‘look at the two in the rings’ and Amber swears they take a few pictures too. Both of them scramble down and run into the darkness. They don’t stop running until they’re in front of Amber’s room. Even though they’re Olympic athletes and they could run that distance without a problem, they feel their hearts beating crazily.
“Good night Amber.”
“Night,” she whispers.
Once again Amber finds herself staring down that impossibly long runway with the big, beige beast laughing at her. While she chalks her feet once more she realizes that she feels almost absolutely nothing. The other girls describe butterflies or the urge to throw up; she searches and finds neither. For the first time in her life Amber deviates from her pre-routine habits; she looks into the crowd. There sitting in the front row, she spots the men’s team cheering on their female counterparts. That’s when she spots him and that’s when she gets both of those feelings the other girls talk about.
She takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself in swiping her left foot and then her right before starting to run.
The moment her feet touch the mat and don’t leave, she lifts up her arms and arches her back while smiling at the audience, because for the first time she has someone she wants to share the excitement with.
The five girls stand on the top of the podium with their arms wrapped around each other. They only let go of each other when their national anthem is played and Amber actually sings along with the others when she normally just listens. After they step down, the men’s team instantly rushes them and everyone is hugging everyone, admiring everyone’s gold medals. There is one pair that hugs each other, but doesn’t let go.
The teams celebrate their wins together with instant ramen in the captain’s room while watching the other Olympic coverage on SBS, comforted by their first language. Even though they’ve showered and changed, all of them still wear the medals and the smiles.
When Minho hands Amber another container of ramen she smiles even brighter at him. She laughs slightly when she suddenly realizes something. Other couples wear the gold around their fingers, but they would wear it around their necks and Amber wouldn’t have it any other way.
-
i'm such an olympics fan, i had to write an olympics-verse au. gymnastics was the first cause i could just really see minho as a gymnast and if amber were to be one i knew she would feel kind of out of place or something. i love phelps fangirl krystal and how all of them love park taehwan. it's not exactly mentioned but the men's team is pretty much shinee cause f(shinee). amber's vault performance was totally inspired by mckayla maroney and the whole sitting in the rings bit was inspired by this:
there may be other olympics au if i can come up with ideas for who should be what sport, suggestions completely welcome~
“Amber Liu on vault” announced the generic female voice that made Amber always cringe, over the speakers to the audience. Amber stepped up onto the platform and began her routine of dusting chalk onto her feet. It would be her last rotation before the numbers decided who would be going to London. She didn’t feel nervous or anxious or even happy. As she stood at the end of the runway staring down the vault the only thing running through her head was what she hated about gymnastics. She hated the judges and the scoring system; your score only determined how well you measure up next to the standard of perfection. She hated the ‘dangerous’ tricks being scored lowly even though the men were allowed to do them. She hated the leotards most of all; sparkly and pink and constantly refusing to stay in place no matter how much tuff skin she sprayed. If an interviewer were to ask Amber what she liked about gymnastics, at this very moment she’d have no answer.
The horn announcing that she would have to begin her vault routine brought her back to arena. She performed her pre-routine habit of swiping the bottom her left foot and then her right because she knew that no matter how much she might hate gymnastics right in this second, she would still have to run.
“We present to you the 2012 Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Team!” The camera lights flashed, someone shoved a bouquet into their arms, and some old gymnast that had nothing else to do after they retired shook their hands. Amber looked to the girls surrounding her (Luna cried, Victoria didn’t stop smiling, Sulli waved to her fans, and Krystal collected the stuffed animals thrown towards her) and felt like she had stolen a place on the team. She was not a typical gymnast; she didn’t smile the cheesiest smile she could muster towards the judges before starting like Luna, she couldn’t contort her body like Victoria, she didn’t have the beauty the sponsors look for and found in Krystal, and she certainly did not have the bubbly personality that dubbed Sulli the nation’s golden girl. Amber shouldn’t have even been here, but for some reason she was.
Next they brought out the Men’s team and each of the members hugged each other, sharing the excitement, or at least pretending to in Amber’s case. When the last male stepped up in front of her, Amber was pulled into a hug and lifted off of her feet and for the first time since the beginning of the trials she smiled genuinely. When Minho finally let her down he was beaming while he said, “You did it, llama! It’s great to have someone else from my gym that qualified.” She nodded in response and decided that she might have an answer for that interviewer after all.
Together the five girls walk through the village cafeteria and each of them constantly point out the other athletes they recognize. When they sit down and eat their lunches and all of them turn starry eyed at Park Tae Hwan, Amber decides she likes these girls, quite a lot actually. Krystal is in the middle of talking about much she wants to meet Michael Phelps and practice her English with him when Minho suddenly sits down besides Amber.
“Hey girls, I hope I’m not interrupting anything important.” He smirks at Krystal, obviously catching a bit of their conversation before sitting down.
“Hey Minho,” she greets her gymmate. “Where’s the rest of your team?”
He steals one of her grapes before leaning his elbows on the table and saying, “I knew you were interested in Jonghyun, but I didn’t think it was more than you’re interested in me.”
Amber rolls her eyes and throws a grape aiming for his eyes, but to her dismay he catches it easily in his mouth. While still chewing he steals the rest of her grapes and says something about having to go to practice. When he’s out of earshot, at least Amber hopes he is, Victoria shouts “I didn’t know you and Minho were a thing!”
Amber picks up her fork and focuses on her salad, “We’re not. We’re just from the same gym, that’s all.”
Sulli sighes as she pokes at her own salad, “You’re so lucky.”
“Why’s that?”
“Have you seen him?!” exclaims Krystal. “He might even be better looking than Michael.” The sixteen year old girl seems to contemplate this in her head, “Okay, maybe not better but pretty darn close.”
“And he’s obviously way into you,” declared Luna.
Amber just laughed as she opened her vitamin water, “Why would he be when there’s tons of gorgeous female athletes surrounding him here?”
The four other girls just shook their head at Amber’s oblivion.
It’s night before the team finals and Amber knows she should be sleeping but she just lay in bed while staring at the ceiling. She tried to blame it on the loud music coming from the never-ending party down in the rec room, but she knows it isn’t true. Her phone lits up announcing a new text message and when she unlocks her phone under the covers she discovers it’s from the very reason for why she isn’t sleeping.
“Minho? Are you there?” she whispers, although she’s not exactly sure why, when she finally reaches the location specified in the text. ‘In front of the rings in ten.’
He pops out of nowhere and nearly makes her scream. “Now why exactly are we here when we should be resting before finals?” She was still whispering.
He doesn’t speak; he only stares at the giant Olympic rings standing in front of them. The spotlights light them up even in the middle of the night.
“We’re going to climb up those,” he said as he walked closer to the legs that held up the massive symbol.
“Are you crazy?” she yells slightly at him. “Let’s go back to our dorms, we’re going to get in so much trouble.”
His gives her his classic smirk, “Who said we were going to get caught?” He stood next to the base and interlocked his fingers, “Here I’ll give you a boost.”
Before Amber could even think about what she was doing, she found her foot resting in his hands and Minho lifted her high enough to grab onto one of the lower rings. When she was situated she reached down to help Minho up. The two of them sat in the yellow ring with their legs stretched out side by side.
“I’m glad you’re here with me, Amber.” She felt her heart clench at the usage of her real name, Minho always called her by her gym-dubbed nickname.
“Cause we’re from the same gym.” She squeaked.
Even in the dark Amber could see him shake his head. “No, because you’re you.” He says softly. She wonders how long they would have stayed up there if it weren’t for the group of athletes that had a little too much to drink that spotted them up in the rings and telling everyone to ‘look at the two in the rings’ and Amber swears they take a few pictures too. Both of them scramble down and run into the darkness. They don’t stop running until they’re in front of Amber’s room. Even though they’re Olympic athletes and they could run that distance without a problem, they feel their hearts beating crazily.
“Good night Amber.”
“Night,” she whispers.
Once again Amber finds herself staring down that impossibly long runway with the big, beige beast laughing at her. While she chalks her feet once more she realizes that she feels almost absolutely nothing. The other girls describe butterflies or the urge to throw up; she searches and finds neither. For the first time in her life Amber deviates from her pre-routine habits; she looks into the crowd. There sitting in the front row, she spots the men’s team cheering on their female counterparts. That’s when she spots him and that’s when she gets both of those feelings the other girls talk about.
She takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself in swiping her left foot and then her right before starting to run.
The moment her feet touch the mat and don’t leave, she lifts up her arms and arches her back while smiling at the audience, because for the first time she has someone she wants to share the excitement with.
The five girls stand on the top of the podium with their arms wrapped around each other. They only let go of each other when their national anthem is played and Amber actually sings along with the others when she normally just listens. After they step down, the men’s team instantly rushes them and everyone is hugging everyone, admiring everyone’s gold medals. There is one pair that hugs each other, but doesn’t let go.
The teams celebrate their wins together with instant ramen in the captain’s room while watching the other Olympic coverage on SBS, comforted by their first language. Even though they’ve showered and changed, all of them still wear the medals and the smiles.
When Minho hands Amber another container of ramen she smiles even brighter at him. She laughs slightly when she suddenly realizes something. Other couples wear the gold around their fingers, but they would wear it around their necks and Amber wouldn’t have it any other way.
-
i'm such an olympics fan, i had to write an olympics-verse au. gymnastics was the first cause i could just really see minho as a gymnast and if amber were to be one i knew she would feel kind of out of place or something. i love phelps fangirl krystal and how all of them love park taehwan. it's not exactly mentioned but the men's team is pretty much shinee cause f(shinee). amber's vault performance was totally inspired by mckayla maroney and the whole sitting in the rings bit was inspired by this:
there may be other olympics au if i can come up with ideas for who should be what sport, suggestions completely welcome~