Unforgettable | Yuzuru Hanyu

2. Trouble

Kana's life was pretty much dependable on every hour that she had to work at the lab, writing her thesis or doing research. She didn't do much outside of it and maybe that was the true reason why her life felt underwhelming at that point.

It wasn't as if she didn't enjoy what she did. Kana strived on discovery and knowledge but any human being needs things outside of their jobs and besides her best friend, she didn't have all that much of it.

It was hard to explain how the accident of 6 years before had forever changed the path of her life. Maybe she didn't even realize how much.

From the moment she left the university grounds, her next destination would always be home and so forth. It was an easy routine to build, even if boring at times.

The only real hobbies that she found after everything that happened were gaming and cooking and none of them involved leaving the house for too long.

Maybe that was the real reason why her best friend seemed so adamant about getting her to parties or events that she was constantly attending. 

Kana might have been 23 years old but it was almost as if her brain was 40 at heart. She hated partying and you could be 100% sure that she would only go anywhere if dragged.

Well, there was an exception. Live music.

The love for music was something that she easily found mere weeks after the accident that took away all of her identity. Kana seemed to be easily drawn to classical music. It wasn't that difficult to quickly understand that a lot of the most famous songs and composers seemed to be familiar in her mind.

A lot of the songs she was presumably earing for the first time seemed oddly familiar at times. Almost as if part of her old life made her listen to a lot of the genre.

This passion for the genre had been the one thing that Stella would use.

Well, Kana was truly the one to blame when she so blatantly begged for company in a Haiden recital. She was not one to go anywhere by herself and the whole thing was too scary. Still, she didn't want it any less...

Maybe because of how much she really wanted it, her best friend quickly used that to her advantage.

When the Toronto Symphony Orchestra happened to be giving a recital of the Baroque era, Kana begged her friend to attend with her. She couldn't imagine going to any social event by herself so it was either going with Stella or not going at all.

Maybe it should have been surprising when the other woman accepted dutifully but once she gave her condition, Kana understood why.

"I'll go if I can drag you somewhere too."

"But..."

"That's the only way, Kana... I'm not going to endure 2 hours of boredom and get nothing out of it."

As much as she didn't want to take this condition, it just seemed inevitable. Kana really wanted to attend this concert and it wasn't as if Stella would drag her to a nightclub... Even if she did, it wasn't that impossible to withstand it for a few hours, right?

No matter how wrong she could have been, that wasn't a problem for that that but rather some other time.

So she went with Stella to the concert and you could have bet it was for sure worth it. The orchestra played beautifully and each song almost made her want to dance and allow movement to take over.

Her best friend often joked that she had probably been a dancer in her past life from how her posture was always impeccable and how movements just seemed to flow naturally from her. In Stella's words: You're too graceful.

The big problem was that when her best friend did remember to charge her promise, Kana could have never expected what she would want from it.

It was all fun and games until she realized that there was one thing that her best friend had been asking for years and she had always refused. No one would judge her when the risks were so completely obvious.

Every single time winter arrived and the Christmas market started in the center of the city, Stella was constantly around her begging them to go. Kana could have never anticipated that her friend could use the concert to her advantage now.

So when the time came and Stella went to her with that expression on her face and a clear sign of being about to ask her something, all that Kana wanted was to run away.

"You promised! We have a deal!" Stella instantly said once her friend's expression became obviously pained by the suggestion.

"Can you just choose something else? The club? A frat party?"

"You hate those!"

"Yeah, but they aren't half as dangerous as being on a slippery surface on a thin blade! Why does it have to be Ice skating?"

As soon as those words left her, Stella was grinning from ear to ear. A very easy tell-sign that Kana was in severe danger.

"It will be fun, I promise! Besides... it seems like the best place to find your knight!"

The roll of her eyes was completely uncontrollable. Kana wasn't finding the situation funny in the slightest.

"What the hell is that even supposed to mean?"

"Just imagine this... You almost fall and two strong arms hold you, your eyes meet and that's it, love at first sight."

"You should start writing romance novels, you have talent for it!"

This whole thing was nothing new. If anything, her best friend seemed to have a nack for always wanting to set her up with random men and this was yet another thing.

"Come on! It's just skating! I promise I won't let you fall."

"That doesn't seem like something you can assure me..."

"Well, you will only know if you try."