Unforgettable | Yuzuru Hanyu

7. Him

Kana couldn't explain it, how her eyes were so fixed on this one man that she had never seen in her life.

For some kind of reason, and despite seeing every other men on that ice, she couldn't stop staring at him.

She heard his introduction made by the announcer and it wasn't hard to understand just how many medals this dude had under his belt. He seemed like the biggest name out of the bunch.

Was that why she couldn't stop looking at him? Had she admired him in the past?

As much as that seemed like a plausible justification, Kana had this feeling that something else was going on. You could ask her to point it out and she wouldn't be able to but the pull she felt seemed stronger than a random admiration could provide.

Trying to tie the pieces in her mind didn't seem easy either. Sure, he was Japanese, but so was another skater in the group, one that didn't at all provide the same effect.

It wasn't just the way she couldn't keep her eyes off him but also the goosebumps that seemed to inexplicably settle on her skin. It was almost as if he had this power over her that she couldn't control and he was doing all of that through a damned screen.

She watched the warmup in complete silence, gathering every thought while trying to keep all of her doubts away from Stella. If her best friend even suspected something, there was a chance that she would be pestered about it for a long time and right then, she could barely figure out any of the thoughts in her brain.

"Ah, he's so good!" Kana heard her friend utter, quickly breaking her focus on the Japanese skater.

"Who?"

"Hanyu, of course! He's the Olympic champion after all! I wonder how he is after the injury!"

None of her friend's words clicked in her mind. Yet, with the man being apparently so good, that could be the explanation for her natural way of fixating on him. Maybe she had been a fan of his skating in the past and part of her remembered that.

"Injury?"

"Yeah, his physical condition is a mystery to everyone! He got injured in a competition in November and no one saw him skate ever since! He even missed Nationals but was still chosen to compete at the Olympics because of his medal record and prestige!"

"I haven't watched him..."

"Not yet... But that does remind me, he wears Irene gloves too, you know?"

That revelation made her heart beat faster for some kind of reason that Kana couldn't explain.

"He does?"

"Yes! They're from his home rink. He's the one that made the whole merch line so popular after all!"

Well, if she had been a fan in the past, that would certainly explain the gloves. She probably bought them because of that.

Yeah, it was a good explanation.

Yet, deep down in her core, Kana couldn't help but shake the feeling of familiarity. There was something about him that made her heart beat faster and goosebumps appear on her skin and either she was looking at the whole thing in way too much detail or there was something there to uncover.

This was the whole reason why she didn't want to explore her past, it brought way too many questions that she couldn't answer. Now her curiosity was on a new high. She wanted to see what made this skater so great after all.

As the warmup ended, she stared into the TV and saw just how popular the man was, the questions that filled her brain were more than scary. The mere possibility that the reason behind her reaction wasn't platonic or out of admiration was making all of her thoughts scramble away.

Thinking in silence must have intrigued Stella, but the woman just looked at her without a single word as the skaters left the ice.

In just a few moments, she saw the man that had caused such a strong reaction from her body appear on the screen again. The costume he wore was beautiful, making him look like a true prince with all the blue and gold accents. If the reaction of her body had been strong before, the way her heart was beating now seemed completely unexplainable.

Only then did she realize that what she was feeling wasn't just admiration but also attraction.

Maybe it was something about him being Japanese but for the first time in a while, she found a man insanely attractive, even if the thought was deeply buried in her brain as she tried to dig further into her thoughts about the whole thing.

It seemed like everyone in that arena knew it as well. There was something special about that man and the way he took on that ice. The confidence in his eyes was almost scary but for sure founded as he landed jump after jump with crazy footwork and transitions in between. You could say all you wanted about all of the other marvelous skaters that had been on the ice before but the truth was that, in her eyes, none of them came remotely close to the majestic performance that this man was seemingly pulling off.

Kana seemed to be in a trance, even as he finished the whole thing. It was impossible to explain her body's reaction to him but his skating was magnificent enough for her to push aside all of her previous thoughts.

The whole thing had been a complete rollercoaster of emotions that she couldn't explain and if anything, she was even more confused than in the start.

Why him?