Unforgettable | Yuzuru Hanyu

8. His Training Grounds

The events of the Olympics were still deeply engraved in her mind.

It was impossible to ignore how her body seemed so completely drawn to the man and how unexplainable her every reaction seemed to be.

She couldn't explain how she wanted to know his every thought as he performed to the absolute peak during that short program.

The truth was that it wasn't even just how her body reacted but also the curiosity that she had to understand how his skating seemed to have a different effect on her. Kana hadn't been certain in the beginning but it was now impossible to ignore how she seemed naturally drawn to everything related to this Japanese man.

It's safe to say that she wasn't exactly surprised to realize that he had gone to Pyeongchang and taken that gold medal as if it was the absolute easiest thing to do and he did it in style.

If she thought he looked like a prince before, the costume of his free program was even more regal. 

Kana knew that her best friend was judging her for wishing to see the Free Program as well but at the very least, Stella wasn't bragging about being able to finally convince her of how cool the sport was.

There were no regrets as she watched this Japanese skater. He was the epitome of what she loved in skating.

In a way, watching him was almost encouraging enough to explore that side of figure skating that she had been avoiding.

Should she have done that ability test after all?

It was only weeks later that she finally considered the whole thing again. Kana had gone to the effort of researching his skating in secret, going as far as watching every public video available to her.
One could even say that she was a bit obsessed with the man.

Still, she made sure that no one else knew about how much she constantly searched him up or tried to find little details about this man. It was one of those things that just seemed better to keep in secret.

Weeks passed until she finally admitted her curiosity for the sport itself. Kana couldn't explain but with the amount of information she was digging on the subject, it was very hard to keep ignoring it all.

In reality, it took just a few days until she started to change her mind. The curiosity was too big to ignore and even if she hadn't skated properly in years, Kana was getting more and more interested in knowing what her level used to be.

Is it even possible that she had been competing against the best skaters in the world? Her hopes weren't too high but not even attempting to know was starting to feel more and more like a mistake.

So just a few days later, she sat down with her best friend and said what had been on her mind for the last days.

"I think that doing that test might be a good idea."

It was easy to tell that her friend didn't understand at all what she meant at first but as she slowly processed the information, you could note her expression changing.

"You want to do it? For real?"

The excitement in Stella's voice was undeniable and Kana almost felt bad for not allowing any of it to happen before.

"It doesn't hurt that much to know... I'm already wondering about it every day"

As soon as she said that, Stella jumped on the couch and hugged her tight.

"Yes! I need a few days to make sure it's still possible but we're gonna do it!"

It had been easy to undervalue how Stella felt through it all but she was now ready to allow her friend to guide her through this world that was still mostly unknown to her.

Seeing her excitement now only seemed to prove further that this was the right call. It wasn't as if she would lose anything by doing it. At the very least, it made Stella happy.

So that's exactly how she found herself entering the building of the Toronto Skating and Cricket Club a few weeks later.

When Stella told her that she had found a really nice coach for this, Kana didn't realize who exactly she meant. The truth was that she was even too clueless to understand the true extent of how important this coach was.

Stella could have made her life easier and told her something about it but she had been quite quiet in the last few days.

The building was big and the halls were filled with all the achievements of the athletes who trained there. It was very easy to tell that this team was very proud of those who trained under them and did what they could to provide them with the right tools for success.

Kana had been mindlessly looking at the achievements until her eyes focused on one face in particular. He had been younger when the picture was taken, but he was still as recognizable as ever.

"This is Hanyu, right?" She found herself asking her friend, who had a grin from ear to ear on her face.

"Yes. He trains here, actually. Isn't that exciting?"

The sudden prospect of seeing that man brought shivers across her body. It was one thing to see him on TV and overreact, it was another to meet him in person. If he already had such an effect on her through a screen, it was impossible to predict how her body would react to the actual man.

Trying to hide her newly acquired fears, Kana asked one more thing.

"He isn't here today, right?"

"Hanyu is injured, they said he should be off the ice for a few months. Besides, we're pretty much in the off-season already."

The answer wasn't as relieving as she had expected but she gathered all of her strength and finally said it.

"Let's just do that test."