Unforgettable | Yuzuru Hanyu

3. Gloves

As reluctant as Kana was to just accept her fate and allow the other woman to guide her to this dreaded place, it wasn't as if she had much of a choice when they had made a deal. She couldn't just back out of it and expect her friend to just accept it.

So she just went along with it, taking a deep breath and considering all of the things that could possibly go wrong. It wasn't fun in the slightest.

After agreeing to the whole thing, Kana should've probably guessed what would come with it. In no time, Stella was giving her a whole list of things that she would need for their adventure.

From the warmest of clothes to the socks she should wear and even the very strong recommendation to not forget some warm and old gloves, it was very easy to feel overwhelmed with so much information at the same time but she didn't have much time either because Stella left soon after.

When the day for her nightmare came, Kana did her very best to pretend like her whole mind wasn't focused on this one thing and how terrible she would be at it. 

She was woken up by her best friend at a hell hour without any sort of a good excuse.

"Come on, Kana! We have to go early or the kids will plague the whole rink! How am I supposed to teach you how to skate if the rink is full?"

One could argue that she really didn't want to be taught how to skate but knowing Stella, saying that wouldn't help her case in the slightest.

Kana had placed most of what she would need at her bedside so the morning would be less chaotic. The one thing that she almost forgot was her gloves.

Living in Canada had taught her which gloves were better for the winter but she didn't want to ruin a nice pair with the ice. It wasn't as if it was too cold on those days, it was merely a matter of protecting her hands from the cold surface whenever she fell and you could be certain that she was about to do that a lot. 

It was because of this that she went to the back of her closet and retrieved a pair that she hadn't seen in ages. Kana couldn't even remember where she had gotten them since they were amongst her belongings after the accident but she had never used them until now. They were cute, all black with a little cartoon and a few words that she never truly understood in a gold accent. As pretty as those gloves were, she had never worn them since she thought of them as maybe too childish for a University student.

Now seemed like the perfect time to finally use them and not be too mad if they got ruined, no matter how cute they were.

Kana had been ignoring her best friend for the past hour as she bullied her into hurrying up. It was 7 am and she highly doubted that the place would even be open at that time. It was an open-air market, for god's sake.

Still, around 7:30 am, they were leaving the house with Stella jumping excitedly as they walked.

"I have no clue why you're so excited."

"You would be too if you knew how cool it is to skate! You will love it once you're there!"

There was no denying that Kana didn't agree in the slightest but she just kept quiet through the whole walk to the park. At least it was close enough. The last thing she needed was to completely freeze her ass off before they even arrived there.

When they did arrive, she had to admit her surprise. The skating rink was in fact already open and there were people skating already. it seemed like Stella was right on this one thing.

The whole process of getting ready to enter the ice turned out to take longer than she could have ever expected. From renting skates to finally placing them on their feet, it seemed like almost half an hour had passed. One good thing was that her best friend did know what to do otherwise they would be both completely lost.

Stella ended up guiding her through the complicated process of placing those killer blades on her feet, teaching her how to tighten the damn things. All that Kana wished was that it would take a bit longer because all she wanted was to delay the inevitable moment that would lead them to the slippery surface of the rink.

No such luck when Stella knew her so well.

Just a few minor details later and Kana was being dragged to the shiny white ice that seemed even scarier now. The cold air surrounding them was uncomfortable and it was hard to believe that some people actually enjoyed this.

One deep breath and she finally accepted her face.

God, if today is my last day on earth, please make sure Stella finds a nice man instead of the usual players she dates.

It was almost hilarious how she seemed more afraid of this than anything else she had done in her life until then.

They hadn't even attempted to get her on the ice and she was already trembling.

It took Stella's voice to get her out of the perpetual death thoughts.

"You brought gloves right?"

Nodding, Kana took the dreaded things from her pocket and placed them on her hands, completely unaware of how her best friend was staring at her as if she had two heads.

Once her eyes did focus on Stella, she couldn't understand what was going on but it was impossible to ignore how her friend's eyes were completely fixed on her hands.

"What's up?"

"You have Irene gloves?!"