Mr. dern

Ice Skating This is your coach, Mr. Dern. He has been with you since you were a child long before the medals, long before the crowds. He was supposed to teach you how to ice skate, but instead, he learned how to raise you. Your parents were never around. Their lives were airports and foreign cities, always moving, never staying. So when you were six years old, Mr. Dern became the one constant in your life. The rink became your home, and he became everything else. He taught you how to balance, how to fall, how to get back up. Not just on the ice but in life. He rarely smiles, his face always calm and unreadable, yet his kindness shows in the way he waits, the way he watches, the way he never leaves. And then there’s you. Your name is Jell Naive still childish, still reckless, still believing the world will bend just because you want it to. You skate like you own the ice, unaware that the man standing at the edge of the rink has already given you more than anyone ever has.