Unforgettable | Yuzuru Hanyu

11. The skater

Kana wasn't the only one who seemed a bit affected by the other person's presence.

The seconds from the moment she heard his voice until she turned and saw his face seemed to go on forever as Kana fully took in the presence in front of her eyes.

It seemed almost impossible to explain how her body felt like jelly with just a few words. It wasn't even the innocent celebrity crush but rather something that seemed far more intense. She could almost feel her knees failing in that moment without a single answer as to why.

If the whole scene hadn't been intense enough for her, she hadn't been the one to completely stop in her tracks. For once, her best friend seemed to lose all color from her face as she understood who exactly was in front of her eyes but the weirdest thing was that the man himself didn't look much better.

Looking at the skater, it seemed like he had somehow seen a ghost. His eyes were completely fixed on her. What initially looked like a goodbye seemed anything but that as his whole body seemed fixed on the same place.

One look at the situation and it was easy to tell that something had to be going on.

Well, not that the coaches seemed to take the hint.

"Yuzuru! Already leaving? Wait! I want to introduce you to Kana, she's from Japan and actually trained with a few of your previous coaches!"

Tracy said those words with a huge smile on her face but the truth was that no one seemed to be able to react.

In a way, Yuzuru Hanyu, the man currently staring at Kana and 2 time Olympic Champion was still frozen in the same place. Kana, on the other hand, was still processing that those coaches that they had been talking about had been a part of making this man the athlete he was now.

How could she have been trained by such high-class coaches if she was just another random athlete? Was that why the Canadian coaches were showing so much interest in her?

The painful minutes that took for either of them to actually react only came to an end once the man in question finally seemed to wake up from his state.

"Really?" was all he asked, his eyes never leaving her.

It was so weird to her to feel that judging stare.

Kana couldn't even begin to explain how it felt. He seemed to be judging her in some way, a hint of disdain on his face.

Was she really that bad to look at? Had he seen her skate and somehow judged her because she was nowhere near good enough to be skating there?

The immense number of possibilities behind the reasoning of his behavior wasn't helping her at all. Kana wanted answers, not even more questions.

One thing that was now becoming painfully obvious was that whenever she found a small detail about who she used to be, it came with a bunch of new questions that she could have never prepared for.

"She's one hell of a mystery, that's for sure" Brian replied with a teasing tone, as if he was trying to make a joke.

There was no denying that neither of the coaches seemed to be able to read the room at that time.

"Mystery?"

This Olympic Champion seemed to be a big fan of one-word questions that only the other two people in the room seemed to be interested in answering.

"Miss Mizaki was in an accident a few years ago and completely lost her memory. She only recently realized that she had been a skater in the past. When we searched it up, Nanami and Tsuzuki's names came up."

"They trained a lot of skaters" Yuzuru ended up saying, as if dismissing everything. An attempt that didn't work in the slightest.

Still, his expression was slowly shifting as he heard more details of her story. It was the same old thing. He was probably feeling guilty for judging her too soon and was trying to gather all of his thoughts now. All of it was way too predictable for Kana, who had been through this process enough times to predict it by now.

"But they are all very good! We were just telling her that we could train her in the off-season and see how much of her old skills she could revive."

Once Yuzuru heard that though, a smile settled on his face. No one in the rink seemed to expect the question that he asked next.

"You live in Canada?"

Listening to him speak English seemed foreign as if it wasn't meant to be. His accent was heavy and you could note how hard it was for him but Kana still ignored all of those thoughts that had no place in the current situation.

"Yes..."

Suddenly, as if his whole demeanor had changed as he turned to the coaches and finally said what he thought of it all.

"I think it's a good idea!"

"See!" Tracy said with a huge grin to Kana as if trying to convince her.

Truth be told, she wasn't fully convinced. This all seemed to be a huge opportunity to confuse her even further. This hadn't been in her plans when she went to that public rink. it still seemed crazy how that one day seemed to be dictating the course of her current life.

Still, almost as if understanding her reluctance, the champion skater in the room seemed to find that time perfect to speak again but this time in a language that she hadn't heard in a very long time.

"You should do it! Good luck! I hope to see you around very soon!"

And just like that, he was turning on his back and leaving the venue.