Beyond the Sound | Yuzuru Hanyu

88.

The challenges had just begun for them.

They barely had time to recover from telling everyone and Yuzuru's team was already talking about starting with the plan.

Initially, they weren't sure it would work.

Maya's old phone was now back in her hands but now everything was completely tracked down. His team had access to everything and it had to be that way so they could ensure that the phone couldn't be tracked to Yuzu's condo.

They started out with a few texts. Some that they had told Yuzu to pretend to ignore.

No one would believe the story if he would gladly return to her as if nothing had happened after 6 years.

Then, the texts started to be more specific.

'I need to explain it to you. Please allow me to tell you everything, Yuzu...I miss you. I love you' she texted eventually.

They tried to make it all seem as realistic as possible.

Yuzuru's first answer only came 2 weeks later.

'It's been 6 years. Please don't contact me or I will block this number.'

It was almost crazy how they were writing these messages to one another while being in the same room, sometimes even in bed, entangled in each other's bodies.

'I beg of you, let me explain.'

'I can't do this, Maya. Not now.'

'You have to believe me. They forced me to do this, Yuzu...'

'Who's they? What did they force you to do?'

'End things... I don't know who they are but they sent me photos. I have the proof. Please call me.'

The texts kept going back and forth for almost a month until a message from an unknown number popped up on her phone.

'Stop approaching him. We are still watching. Remember what's at stake.'

Maya started shaking as she received the message and Yuzuru, by her side, understood it right away.

"What did they say?"

She showed him the text and Yuzu hugged her further into him.

"I'm here. This is good. It means they don't know you're here and they don't know about Kaiya. You are safe. You are both safe."

"But you..."

"I'm as safe as you are, beautiful. I'm right here. Let's wait for more instructions from the team and go from there."

"Okay."

Those instructions didn't take too long to show. They were telling Yuzuru to call her when they felt comfortable and to make it look convincing. The idea was for Maya to tell the story through the phone and Yuzuru had to try and react as real as possible.

Truth be told, acting like he was mad at Maya was difficult when less than an hour before they had been passionately making love, but this was something they both knew would come with the plan.

They followed everything to a tea and Maya, when they finished the almost hour-long call, just told him that he had a future in acting.

She had to admit that things weren't as hard as she initially thought they would be in their lives.

Even if she was spending a lot of time at home, the man she was doing this with was almost the same, leaving only for the rink at night.

Kaiya had two hours of ice time with one of the kids' classes at the Sendai Ice Rink. It was a risk that one of Yuzu's team members always picked her up and took her to the rink, but even so, one could never guess who she was when the condo had a lot of people living around.

Before they both knew it, 2 whole months had passed and their act was intense now.

From the messages, it was easy to assume that they had made up. They texted often and in a loving tone.

That part wasn't hard at all. They barely needed the inspiration when the words were so natural and true.

The threatening messages kept on coming, but it was unsure whether they would act on it or not.

Given how long it had been going on, Maya was starting to think that it was all harmless.

Still, they wanted to make these people show up to the surface and decided on one last try.

Arranging a meet.

There was this feeling that the threats had been empty so far since the people watching thought that Maya was abroad.

Some silly exchanged messages wouldn't mean a thing if she was far away, but if they were to arrange a presential meeting, it was only natural that the threat increased.

When Yuzu suggested the Ice Rink, Maya was a bit reticent.

"My team says it's safe. They can control the environment, they know the area better than anyone."

Maya wasn't even worried about herself, she was worried about him.

Spending the past months with him, and raising their daughter as a family certainly made it look impossible to have it any other way now.

There's no way she could imagine a life without that man now.

So she agreed and they booked it all with a call.

She was almost certain that she didn't sound convincing enough due to her fear but even still, Maya just wanted to trust Yuzuru as much as possible.

In reality, they were both in a very similar situation. Both were afraid of the risks that were so inherently present in something like this.

The nights before were almost 100% sleepless. Yuzuru and Maya went over every detail, every possible exit, and every possible situation. They had so many scenarios planned that it was almost too hard to keep up.

Most of all, she didn't expect Yuzu to show her bullet-proof vests on the night before the big day. He was taking every precaution possible and she wasn't even sure if that was supposed to be a reassurance or bring even more fear.

They made love for hours, Yuzu washing away her every tear and kissing the pain away.

Tomorrow was the day it all finished. Tomorrow was the day that they got their normal lives back.