Beyond the Sound | Yuzuru Hanyu

11.

Yuzuru didn't know it. But calling Maya with a challenge was just the perfect way to get her out of the house.

She was simply incapable of turning down a challenge.

Maya left the house on the next day even before Chiara got out of bed. Her friend had been working until late on the previous day as well and was still asleep when she left.

A simple note was more than enough to let her friend know that she would be out.

There were no doubts that she would have to answer some questions later, but she had things to do now.

Getting to the venue where Yuzuru was hosting his first show wasn't even that hard with public transportation.

He wanted to get her a driver, but Maya refused. There was no need for any of that when she could easily get there herself.

When she finally arrived on site, the guard looked at her with a weird and distrusting expression. It was more than enough for her to realize that trying to sweet-talk her way inside would most likely be a failure.

A simple call to the skater was enough to fix that.

In just a few minutes, his face was in front of her eyes for the first time since that first meeting.

Just like at that time, he was wearing all-black sports clothes and a mask that he removed upon seeing her.

"Maya... you have no idea how thankful I am to see you."

She wasn't sure what to expect, but a hug certainly wasn't it. The skater hugged her tight as if his life depended on it and the worst was that she enjoyed it. He was a good hugger.

"Let's just hope I can help in some way." she told him with a smile that he quickly returned.

Yuzuru guided her through the halls that he seemed to be remarkably familiar with, only to stop at the sound of a female voice.

"Yuzu? Who's this?"

He turned immediately and was quick to answer.

"Okasan... this is a friend of mine, Maya. She's a sound engineer and I asked her to come and see if she could help."

Okasan? That was his mother? She looked so young...

Well, looking more carefully, they were very alike.

"Ah... and you won't introduce us?"

Quick introductions were made, and the older woman seemed to be looking at her with some kind of expression that she couldn't understand.

Not that Maya wanted to worry about that when she had a sound situation to think about.

A simple look at the mixing table was enough to know that whoever oversaw this was very sloppy and careless.

Everything was a mess.

"Am I allowed to touch the equipment?" she quickly asked the skater.

Even before Yuzuru could answer, a man did it for him.

"No. Who do you think you are?"

If there was one thing that Maya hated was when men thought they could just undermine her without knowing anything about her.

"Excuse me?"

"I won't have any girl touching this and ruin what we worked on the whole day yesterday."

"If it took you a whole day to make this mess, then I don't even want to think how long it would take to do it properly."

"You bitch... You won't touch anything."

She was very close to slapping some sense into the man, but thankfully, Yuzuru stepped in.

"Yamamoto-san is allowed to touch and change anything she wants."

"But this is my venue... I'm the one making the decisions on anything sound-related. No performer has ever challenged my opinions."

"Well, I am. Given that I'm the one paying for the equipment, I have the right to say who gets to touch it."

Maya had to admit that the glare that the skater gave to the sound tech had some effect on her. He even looked a bit sexy when he looked and sounded so serious.

Not that she was thinking of the skater as a hot man... Not at all.

Yuzuru completely shut down the sound technician and told Maya to go ahead.

All her sudden thoughts about the man in front of her eyes had to be put aside so she could focus on the task at hand.

The first thought was how she wanted to rewire the whole thing.

Sure enough, it was a task that would take a big amount of time, but without it, there was a big chance that she would get lost in the current mess of things.

However, before she did that, the engineer chose to listen to the current state of things. To do so, she took her phone and played a random song on the speakers.

Truth be told, this was probably some of the worst sound she had seen. Maya was confident that most musicians would be able to set up everything by themselves and get better audio.

It was confusing because how could someone screw up so badly with professional quality equipment?

The tech wasn't at all happy as she took painter's tape from her bag and started labeling every cable as she rewired the whole thing.

The process took a long time, and it wasn't even something that a sound engineer would care about or even do in day-to-day life. This was usually the responsibility of the techs.

Still, every sound engineer should know how to do the job of a tech, even if they would usually work side by side to make sure everything is flawless.

Maya trusted her team of techs at the Dome, but she didn't trust this tech.

Doing everything herself seemed like the best solution at that moment.

It took about two hours to re-wire every speaker and pass the cables to the sound mixing table. During that time, Yuzuru would show up every now and then to ask if she needed anything while getting everything else ready for the show of the next day.

It was only after those two hours had elapsed that he made her stop.

"Yamamoto-san... stop for a little bit."

Maya was confused as to why he was addressing her by last name again, but she didn't question it in front of everyone.

"I'm almost done with the wiring."

"You have time, no need to rush. Have you eaten anything?"

"I had a coffee before coming here."

"I meant actual food..."

"No."

"I will order something. What do you want?"

"I... anything is fine... I mean, you don't have to..."

"I'm buying lunch for myself as well."

"You haven't eaten either? It's already 4 p.m.!"

"I know. Why do you think I'm dragging you to eat something?"

Maya couldn't understand why he hadn't eaten yet.

She appreciated that he cared for her, but everything was a bit strange to her. Maya was simply not used to this type of attitude from other people. It wasn't uncommon for her to work hours in a row and realize later that it was dinner time and she hadn't even had lunch.

But well, no one usually took the time or attention to notice her.

Not until now.

It seemed like Yuzuru just kept on surprising her.