Gold, love and mint tea (Yuzuru Hanyu )

38 - Reconciliation

"Can I ask you something...?" Yuzuru starts in a serious tone, eyes downcast.

"Of course." I say with a frown, taking a few steps towards him.

"Do you not want to be with me?" he blurts out, clenching his fists.

"I- uh... what?" I stammer, confused by his question.

"You're avoiding me and you don't want to be seen with me." he says in an angry tone, his eyes now locked on a spot behind my shoulder "And you're flirting with Javi."

"Okay. You're just jumping to conclusions, Yuzuru." I huff, crossing my arms over my chest "First off all, I think you know as well as I do that Javi flirts with everyone, including you. He likes to tease people, sometimes make them uncomfortable but I know he's joking because we're just friends."

"That doesn't explain everything else."

"I am not avoiding you!" I scoff in frustration, throwing my hands in the air "And let me make something clear: I am not here to be with you. I'm here to train, just like you. When we're at practice I'm a skater, nothing more, nothing less and I need to concentrate! Is that so hard to understand?!"

"I know! But you didn't even want to kiss me during the break!" he raises his voice, finally looking me in the eye.

"Because I'm not ready for everyone to know! Is it so bad that I want to keep this just between us?!" I shout, feeling my blood boiling.

"Why?! Everyone already knows!"

"Oh please! Brian didn't even know that we've known each other since 2014! My guess is he only knows what he read in those articles that came out after worlds!" I roll my eyes, turning away from him to resume the search for my phone.

"But he doesn't care!" he yells, angrily stomping his foot.

"I care! My friends don't even know anything."

"Yeah right..." he scoffs indignantly.

"What? Don't believe me?" I let out a humorless chuckle "They only know what they see. I haven't told them anything because I like to keep my love life private!"

"Well what do you want from me?! Because one day you're all over me and the next you-"

"Don't. You. Dare." I hiss, my tone bitter "Unlike you, I have made what I want perfectly clear. Maybe you should figure out what you want first."

"I-" he sighs deeply, his expression softening "I didn't mean it tha-"

"Don't bother. Come find me when you get over yourself Yuzuru. You're acting like a child." I interrupt him bitterly, shoving my phone into my pocket and brushing past him, only stopping at the door to look back at him for a moment "And by the way, jealousy and hypocrisy isn't a good look on you. Plus, you said it yourself. I'm not your girlfriend."

~

"What is bloody wrong with you two?" Chris growled, stabbing her fork into her pasta angrily. The three of us were back home, eating the carbonara I reluctantly made even though I was in no mood to cook. The rest of the day had gone by rather uneventfully, Yuzuru and I both avoiding each other, both too distracted to actually focus during practice. If there was one thing I could not deal with it's this relationship affecting my skating.