Beyond the Sound | Yuzuru Hanyu

39.

Against all odds, Yuzuru went to the interview with Disney with a single painkiller.

Given just how he was dragging himself around the house, she expected it to take a few more to do anything but he just took one, got dressed, and left the condo with a kiss on her cheek.

He had asked her if she wanted to go, but it seemed like an excuse for anyone to make rumors that she wasn't ready to face.

The reality was that his words of the previous day had been haunting her.

Not the ones about marriage, she honestly felt strangely calm about that implication. The one thing that made her more concerned was when he thanked her for being willing to be in that position, the one of the woman in his life.

Just how often did he think of what all of that implied and how worried he had been about it?

She couldn't possibly begin to think about what he had been through the years with the media that made him scared that no one would be willing to take that place.

Why did people even care if he was seeing someone?

Seeing his interviews over the years made her realize that he had been struggling with assuring people that he wasn't an idol for anyone to judge.

He had told her that he knew that his pro career opened a lot of things and made them more comfortable in looking into his life.

It seemed like a lot of people forgot that he was still an athlete and that hadn't changed.

More than ever, Maya admired his family for being under all that scrutiny for so long.

It was a bit crazy, but her thoughts were completely consumed by that topic for the whole afternoon, only to be broken by the front door opening.

"Are you okay?" he asked almost as soon as he entered the condo.

"yeah."

"You seemed to be in deep thought."

"Just considering how you keep your life private from the media despite the insistence they seem to have."

"Is this about the marriage thing? I don't have plans to propose that soon, Maya."

"No, Yuzu... It's more about what you said about occupying that space in your life rather than the title."

"You're okay with that, right?"

"Yeah. It is just crazy to me that you seemed so scared about that."

"it's because I know I will lose fans when the world finds that I'm in love."

Maya smiled at the way he chose his words to explain how he was feeling.

"You seem okay with that."

"I want people to like me for my skating, not for my body or looks. Those who leave were probably not there for the right reasons from the start.
I know it will be hard for a lot of the fans to hear the news, some will feel like I've been lying, but in the end, the ones who care for my skating will stay."

"You're not as worried as I thought you were."

"When the time comes, it will be okay."

"I know."

"I thought you would be more scared about it."

"I don't care what they say about me, as long as everything is okay with you and you can keep skating. I had a dream of being a famous pianist, being a famous wife won't be that different in terms of media exposure."

Yuzuru laughed at her stupid comparison. He knew she was trying to lighten the mood and appreciated it.

"I won't say who you are unless you really want me to."

"So you do plan on telling the world about me?"

"Well, I plan on making a marriage announcement... Same thing."

She slapped his chest teasingly and Yuzuru kissed her.

As much as he was joking, it seemed like he had placed a lot of thought into this, making her wonder if he ever had someone else that he had considered marriage with.

"When did you even think of all of this?" she couldn't avoid asking.

"After our kiss in Yokohama. I might have been away from you for a whole month, but there wasn't a day I didn't think of you."

"The amount of planning you did even before I knew how I felt about you is kinda crazy to me."

"To be quite honest with you, all of this planning was mostly just me dreaming."

"Dreaming, huh?"

"You would be surprised with the ideas you can get by dreaming a little bit."

"I swear you are getting crazier with every day that passes."

"I know... Part of the fun."

Maya just smiled at the crazy man she was now calling her boyfriend. As mad and crazy as he was, she only got more in love with every day that passed and a new detail of his crazy personality was revealed.

With every little teasing comment he made to her about marriage, she got more convinced that he wasn't joking as much as she thought he was in the beginning.

Maya was truly considering that maybe Yuzuru had been thinking about it.

And well, it was crazy, but most importantly scary.

As sure as she was about her feelings for this man, marriage, to her, was something that felt logical to discuss after you've been in a stable relationship for a while.

Yuzuru, however, was never one to follow the norm.

What would she do if he asked the dreaded question? Would she be crazy enough to sign up for that then?

Who was she fooling?

Maya would say yes to any possible request this man made.

She just hoped he wouldn't be as crazy as she thought he was.