Beyond the Sound | Yuzuru Hanyu

8.

Maya didn't give any details to Chiara about the show.

It wasn't as if she didn't want to, it was just that they made her sign an NDA about it.

By now, she was more than used to signing these types of papers. When you work closely with artists and on secret shows, it's only natural that they take action to make sure that everything remains a secret until it's the right time.

The Italian obviously understood.

This wasn't the first time that they faced an important show with big artists.

What Maya knew was obvious was how much attention she was giving this project.

She had barely been sleeping while doing her research about the topic and she hadn't even met Hanyu yet.

They told her that he would contact her when the time was right.

But that seemed to be taking way too long.

Her dedication and interest in the project started slowly calming down as she didn't get any news.

And well, she wouldn't have any contact whatsoever in the next 2 months.

It was only in October that she got a phone call from an unknown number.

Knowing that she could be contacted by the skater's team, Maya took the call right away.

"Hello?"

"Is this Yamamoto-san."

"Yes, yes. Yamamoto Maya."

"Hello, this is Hanyu."

Maya completely stopped in her tracks and sat down on the nearest chair.

Why was the guy calling her himself?"

"Yamamoto-san? Are you there?"

Clearing her throat and doing her best to pretend like she wasn't shocked, Maya finally answered.

"Yes. I'm sorry, Hanyu-san. I must admit you've surprised me. I didn't think you would call me yourself."

"Why not?"

Did this man think that most people just contacted their sound engineers in person?

"It doesn't really matter, does it? I'm sure you have better things to do with your precious time."

"Huh... yeah, right. So, I'm going to be in Tokyo for a couple of days and was wondering if we could meet and talk a bit about the show?"

Maya had to admit that she thought that he was doing this a bit too late given that time was running out quickly, but he must have had a good reason behind only starting on this now.

"Sure. We just have to schedule a good time for you. I'm only doing shows at night so everything else should be ok."

"I see. I will text you the best time, is that ok?"

"Sure. Could we meet at the Dome?"

"If that's alright with you."

"Of course."

"Okay... Thank you, Yamamoto-san. I look forward to working with you."

"You as well, Hanyu-san. I will see you soon then."

Maya had to admit that just the short dialogue with the man told her that he wasn't like anyone she had worked with before.

This was about to become interesting.

🎚️

They met a few days later.

The skater merely asked when she would be at the venue and said that he would find his way there and let her know by text when he arrived.

Just that interaction was different from any other artist or performer that she had worked with.

She had never texted with one before.

At the same time, this was also the first and hopefully only circumstance when she was doing a bit more than sound engineering.

To be fair, Maya had no idea what to expect, but she didn't think he would just come to the Dome and ask to be taken to her.

Maya was chatting with Chiara after setting up everything for the show happening in the next few hours when she heard her name being called.

"Yamamoto-san?"

Years of being called randomly made her turn right away, only to face a man that she had googled a few months prior.

He looked like the most normal of men, in his black sports clothes and boba hair.

It's safe to say that her silence was noted by the girl at her side.

"What's wrong, Maya?"

"Nothing... hum... Hanyu-san just surprised me... Hello, nice to meet you."

He smiled right away, and she noted how warm it was.

"Nice to meet you too. I'm sorry if this is a bad time."

"Not at all, let me just find an office for us to talk."

"Of course."

Maya didn't miss the way that Chiara was looking at her but didn't bother trying to justify herself. They would have more than enough time for her friend to interrogate her at home.

It was quite easy to find a place to talk to the skater and in no time, she was guiding him through the offices and into a meeting room.

"This is more formal than I expected" he joked, surprising her.

"Oh... I can..."

"It's alright, Yamamoto-san. But next time, we can do this over coffee."

"I can get you one if you would like."

"I'm good but thank you. Shall we?"

"Absolutely."

They both sat in the meeting room and looked at each other. It was a bit awkward but eventually, the skater broke the silence.

"So... as you can probably imagine, this is all very new to me, and I will need all the help I can get."

"I can imagine, it's quite new for us as well."

"It has never been done here, has it?"

"Not to my knowledge. It makes sense given that we have Saitama close by and it's a bit more prepared for something like this."

"Yeah, I've been in Saitama a few times. It's not very common for me to just get offers like these, but I figured I couldn't say no, even if I'm not sure if this is a good idea."

The skater said it with such an uncertainty that she was starting to realize that maybe he was just as confused as they all were about the situation.

"Well, since we're in this, it will have to be. It's just a matter of getting everything ready on time" she joked.

"That's the type of motivation that I need. Thank you."

"Deadline motivation?"

"I'm unfortunately a lot like that and my busy schedule doesn't help."

"I bet. We're on a tight schedule for sure. I will need to know what your ideas about the rink are because it will be a bit tricky to get everything to sound good and I need as much time to get it ready as possible."

"Well ..."

"You have no idea yet, do you?"

Maya had to admit that this was kind of frustrating. He wasn't giving her anything to work on.

"I'm preparing my first solo show to perform in just a month so I have been leaving this project a bit aside. I've thought about the show concept and what I will be skating. Everything else is a bit of a blur right now."

"Do you have enough time to discuss it for a bit?"

"I'm all yours."