The Regressor's Ice Is Golden - Chapter 28

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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028.

“Up, check!”
Skaters erupted from all corners, launching themselves into the air.
Crash!
I shook the ice shavings from my clothes and scrambled to my feet.
“Again!”
What I’d just attempted was a Triple Salchow into a Triple Loop.
‘All right, let me think this through.’
The way I’d been jumping the Salchow before didn’t seem right anymore.
Fortunately, the approach area for the jump was empty.
I’d execute the turn and glide backward the same way as before, checking the angle with my right foot.
I’d press my left foot into the ice, but not just skim it like last time.
The moment I tried to plant my left blade fully onto the ice—
“Whoa.”
Without warning, someone shot past me at high speed.
Cha Seo-hee slowed and glanced back.
“Oh, sorry! I didn’t realize you were jumping.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Then she picked up speed again and skated away.
Incidentally, this was the third time.
As Cha Seo-hee receded, she planted her right foot and set her position.
Switching to her left foot, she launched herself into the air—a Triple Axel.
Whoosh!
Her left foot, suspended in flight, stretched into a Spiral Sequence.
“She’s lifting that free leg pretty high.”
Coach Park let out a low whistle.
“Did you two have some kind of falling out? Why are you always crossing paths?”
“I don’t know.”
She kept passing through the jump approach area, which threw off my timing.
It was too frequent to be unintentional, yet her reaction was far too casual to call it deliberate.
Meanwhile, she inserted her own jumps seamlessly and executed them flawlessly.
But I had to practice too, didn’t I?
I stopped near where Coach Park was standing.
“The Salchow—that variation you just tried could work. It’s not quite our usual method, but let’s attempt it solo first.”
“Yes.”
I took a sip of water and headed back onto the ice.
This time, I didn’t skate the full perimeter.
I cut sharply midway and turned back.
‘Perfect.’
This way, I’d be gliding on the opposite end of the rink from Cha Seo-hee.
Besides, the middle section was crowded with skaters practicing spins.
Even Cha Seo-hee couldn’t instantly catch up to someone on the far side.
Thanks to that, I finally had space for the jump.
I set my position again, engaging rotation through the blade pressing into the ice.
I felt my body lift.
At the same moment, Coach Park’s call rang out.
“Up, check!”
And the landing.
“Okay, you’ve got plenty of rotation. You could release a touch earlier. Now let’s add the Loop connection.”
“Yes.”
By the end of the morning session, I’d nailed the Salchow-Loop combination cleanly.
“All right, that’s practice for today. See you this afternoon.”
“Thank you.”
“What are we eating for lunch?”
“Let’s stop by the Medical Office first.”
“Huh? Wasn’t that my blister?”
We walked out at a leisurely pace, the Zamboni gliding across the ice behind us.
Lunchtime was essentially personal time.
Whether I was eating in the Selection Camp cafeteria, visiting the Medical Office, or training on my own…….
“So, we’ve got more work to do, haven’t we?”
Coach Park sat across from me, having scooped up what looked like an exaggerated bowlful of salad.
“This afternoon we’ll practice the Euler Flip.”
“Naturally. And there’s one more thing you need to do.”
Coach Park’s chopsticks tapped gently against his plate.
“I’d at least like you to work out the jump composition with me. You’ve pulled out this Excalibur of an Euler Flip, and here we are.”
“Ha ha ha…….”
I laughed it off while chewing on a piece of chicken breast.
“Still, I’m your coach in name, and I’d like you to share the burden of thinking things through with me before we head into competition.”
“Understood. Let’s work it out together.”
“Good.”
Coach Park poured fresh water and broached the subject.
“After we finish eating, there’s someone I need you to meet in the Rest Area.”
“Who?”
Coach Park simply smiled instead of answering.
And the person I met via Apple iPad video call after finishing lunch was…….
“Can you hear me okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, it’s Kim Ha-seol! Hey there~!”
I stared blankly at Cha Jin-hee sitting on the screen and Park Ji-ho peeking over her shoulder…….
‘How did they manage this?’
Well, school’s on break now, so they must have found a way and that’s how we’re having this call.
But what about Cha Jin-hee’s parents?
“She told them she was going to a study café, but she came to our place instead. How much time do you have left for lunch?”
“About thirty minutes.”
“Think that’ll work?”
“Yeah……, thanks to this.”
From the background, it looked like we were in Park Ji-ho’s room.
Park Ji-ho stepped aside to let me talk freely.
With just Coach Park, me, and Cha Jin-hee on the screen, things felt considerably calmer.
“So the reason I called her is that we’re going to revise the Turandot choreography together.”
“I’m sorry……?”
When had I agreed to this without even knowing about it?
But unexpectedly, Cha Jin-hee avoided my gaze and just cleared her throat.
As if the agreement had already been finalized.
So Coach Park took over the explanation.
“In Junior Free Skate, you have the Choreographic Sequence instead of the Step Sequence, right? When I checked the Protocol, the score came out lower than expected.”
“Really?”
Coach Park handed me a printed scoring sheet instead of answering.
Usually, the Choreographic Sequence doesn’t divide the Base Value by Level, unlike the Step Sequence.
The Grade of Execution bonus is also applied differently than with other elements.
Because of this, it’s characterized by greater freedom than the Step Sequence.
‘Then why……?’
Coach Park’s years of experience—having paid Ice Rink rental fees from choreography budgets all this time—wouldn’t have gone to waste.
I’d seen the scoring sheet after competitions, sure, but I’d never thought about it that deeply.
I figured I just needed to perform more carefully.
At most, I’d thought about raising my Precision and charm stats in my status window.
Was it really necessary to revise it through a video call with Cha Jin-hee?
Coach Park explained further, looking a bit awkward.
“So even though you’re in the middle of the camp, you’re going to have to leave the Selection Camp for a bit. Since we need to rebuild your jump composition anyway, that’s why we’re doing this video call now.”
“And another thing.”
Cha Jin-hee on the screen hesitated and fidgeted.
“I’ve been away from figure skating for a long time……. Coach mentioned it to me. He said you’re going through a growth phase. So he wants to revise the choreography to something that eases the physical burden while capturing bonus points.”
“Ah.”
Then I understood roughly.
Granted, I already needed to be careful with my hip joint, and the jump section was going to have a higher proportion of high-difficulty jumps.
But if the choreography stayed as is, I’d be exhausted before even reaching the second half.
Since we were building the composition from scratch, there was a high chance it wouldn’t match the choreography either.
After all, every jump requires a different approach.
‘So that’s why you reached out when planning the jump composition.’
I took a sip of water and nodded.
“I understand, but if you don’t mind, could you discuss it with me too? It’s my competition, after all. Of course, I trust you two wouldn’t do anything to sabotage my performance.”
“Fair enough. I apologize for that.”
“I’m sorry… My situation is what it is, so I talked to Coach first. I should’ve let you know right away.”
Cha Jin-hee laughed awkwardly and began pulling something out.
She picked up what looked like a phone or camera and adjusted the settings.
The screen wavered side to side before settling on the desk.
“What are you doing?”
“Look at this.”
Soon, Cha Jin-hee began spreading out what she’d retrieved across the table.
They were cards made from cut paper.
Each card had a jump and rotation count written on it.
“Oh, when did you prepare this?”
“…Ahem, I thought it would be easier to think through if we could see it visually.”
Anyway, Cha Jin-hee laid out the most important combination jumps first.
[3Lz-3Lo]
[3Lz-1Eu-3F]
“I have a question for you, Ha-seol.”
Coach turned to look at me for a moment.
“When you were practicing the combination loop earlier, which first jump felt the easiest?”
“Well, the Lutz, Flip, and Axel felt most manageable.”
“What about the Salchow and Loop?”
“Those were harder.”
Those three tend to be jumps where you take off from a greater distance, after all.
Because of that, if I land cleanly, my speed doesn’t drop much, so wrapping the loop is manageable.
“The Salchow and Loop are jumps where you go higher, aren’t they?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“So for the Triple jumps, you’d do the Lutz and Flip twice?”
“That’s probably how it’ll have to be.”
I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair.
According to the Technical Rules, you can only perform two of the Triple jumps twice each.
If I perform the Triple Lutz and Triple Flip twice each, the remaining Triple jumps can only be performed once.
Coach’s fingers tapped the table—tap, tap, tap.
“Wouldn’t it be better to do the Loop twice? I’d like you to have stable jumps that you land well.”
“Without a Triple Axel, it’s better to fit in as many difficult jumps as the Technical Rules allow. Even so, we can’t include things like Double Lutz.”
“Ah, right. You did say we need to include an Axel.”
Cha Jin-hee quietly placed another card on the table.
[2A]
The remaining slots were one two-in-combination set and three solo jumps.
While I stared intently at the screen, resting my chin in my hand, Coach sighed.
“Ah, this is getting complicated because there’s a combination Flip.”
“But… I’m not quite remembering this. Does the Axel have to be performed solo?”
“No, it’s fine to include it as part of a combination sequence.”
“Ah, I see.”
Cha Jin-hee let out a sigh.
In fact, Double jumps including the Axel are a bit more flexible in structure compared to Triple jumps.
Two of each type!
But the thing is…
“Even if we put it in a sequence, it’s awkward. We’re still one slot short.”
After fitting in one of each type of Triple jump, we still have one slot left.
That slot will need to be filled with a Double jump.
My furrowed brow turned to despair.
“Ugh… This is hard.”
“Hey, Kim Ha-seol. Do you… really have to include the combination Loop?”
Coach grabbed his head, and eventually Cha Jin-hee began speaking firmly.
“I mean, the Lutz-Loop does look cool, but… finding references is really difficult. Even if we try to choreograph it, it always ends up off-beat somehow. And you said jumping it is hard too. What about a Lutz-Toeloop instead?”
That could work too.
While the Lutz-Toeloop lags slightly behind the Lutz-Loop, it’s still an excellent weapon.
It’s no coincidence that it’s been the steady favorite of medal contenders for years.
It’s technically easier than the Lutz-Loop, anyway.
“But it does feel a bit……. Don’t you think it stings my pride? I won the silver medal with the Lutz-Loop, earned two tickets, and came to Selection Camp for that. It seems wasteful to use it only in the short program.”
“I understand that, but we need to focus and prioritize, Ha-seol.”
Coach Park opened his notebook and began writing.
“Let me map out the options we have. First: land the Lutz-Loop, Euler Flip, and a solo Flip. Second: land a solo Loop. Either way, we could maximize your base value, but I can’t guarantee your technique is ready for it.”
Various jump combinations appeared across the notebook pages.
“Third option: go with the Lutz-Toeloop and attach a Triple Toeloop to the Double Axel. Then you’d have to drop the Euler Flip and add a Double Toeloop-Double Loop instead. And the last, fourth option…….”
The coach wrote down another jump beneath the Euler Flip.
“You’d use the Euler Salchow instead. That way, both the Flip and Loop come out as solos, and you’d have two Double Axels entered separately.”
“Wait—wouldn’t that be three Axels total? Doesn’t that cost points?”
At Cha Jin-hee’s question, Coach Park rested his chin on his hand.
“You could squeeze out a bit more Grade of Execution, though. The total might actually be higher than what you’d earn from a single combination jump.”
“Ah, I see.”
In a combination, only the Grade of Execution value of the most difficult jump in the set receives the bonus.
For a Triple Lutz-Triple Loop combination, the bonus is calculated using only the base value of the Lutz.
In other words, you might earn fewer points than if you attempted the Lutz and Loop separately.
“Ha-seol, so what do you want to do?”
“I won’t lower the difficulty. I’ll just train harder for my stamina.”
That left two options remaining.
I cupped my chin in both hands and looked back and forth between the Apple iPad screen and the notebook.
The Returner’s Ice 28
E-book publication date | June 5, 2026

Author | Korkarolli
Publisher | Huh Heung-beom, Park Gun-won
Published by | Potent

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Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585

UCI | G720:N+A101-20260514092.0028
List price | 100 won

ⓒ Korkarolli 2026

This e-book is a work protected by copyright law.
This e-book has been published under contract with the author, and unauthorized reproduction, distribution, sharing, or duplication in whole or in part without written consent from both parties is prohibited.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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