Unforgettable | Yuzuru Hanyu

17. Return

Returning to the club after a few weeks away felt weirdly normal.

It was almost as if she had taken a small vacation and tried to come back as if nothing had happened.

Well, it was successful for the most part since it seemed like a lot of these athletes who had been arriving at the club couldn't care less about her, and the ones who still did seem to be too afraid to ask anything.

Never had she been so relieved.

Still, you could bet that there was a certain skater who wasn't as understanding.

From the moment she entered the rink, Kana felt the glare, the one that he had rarely thrown in her way. The one he threw everyone when they tried to approach him during practice time.

She couldn't understand what he wanted but she wasn't about to go to him and ask directly either. Whatever was on his mind, it was better kept there, and as long as they had some decent distance between each other, she could easily handle it all, right?

The thing was that she couldn't even explain why she wanted distance in the first place but if anything, this interaction was providing to be enough proof to the confused woman.

He didn't say a single thing as she warmed up and soon enough, it all felt normal again, everyone jumping around and going through their exercises and programs like every other time. Nothing had changed in the club.

Kana found herself enjoying it as some of the other skaters greeted her gently and made small talk about her improvements. She felt amazing as these athletes gave her a thumbs up and told her how good she was becoming. Sure, she was still far from being the best athlete ever, but it was very easy to tell how far she had come.

One of the people who always seemed to be supporting her was Matt, who was a skater about her age and who offered her a smile when she reached the ice. She always saw him as one of the friendliest faces at TCC and it was always nice to catch up with him. One of the only people who always made her day brighter.

There was no denying that it was easy to relax in that environment, feeling like everything was falling into place as everyone seemed to naturally focus on their own sessions.

It was only when the Olympic Champion himself started skating and jumping combinations that were too crazy to even count, that Kana's focus was back on him. Well, not just her's, everyone was obviously interested in his craziness and it showed.

The whole room seemed to stop as he jumped a 4loop-3 axel that Kana didn't even think to be possible and you could tell the exact moment that the coaches realized what he was doing.

"Yuzuru!" Brian screamed at the top of his lungs from the moment the skater landed safely, doing an extra high kick just to show off a bit further, a single glance thrown her way.

What was he even trying to do?

None of that stopped there. Just as fast as he was doing crazy jumps, he was going nuts in everything else. Kana could have sworn she had never seen him go at a step sequence the way he was then. It was very clear that this man wanted all eyes on him and there were no doubts that he clearly succeeded without much struggle. 

Well, it wasn't as if he even needed this to have attention on him, that was just a given by now.

"It's fine..." Yuzuru said with a scoff.

"My office!"

Everyone's eyes widened. No one was ever called into Brian's office unless they were in serious trouble.

Now you could argue that Yuzuru Hanyu wouldn't be in trouble because of something like this but it was easy to tell that the coach really wanted to have a conversation with him outside of prying eyes and understand what was going on in his mind.

Whatever it was, Kana wouldn't know it.

Yuzuru was inside that office for about 15 minutes before he left with Brian, who was disturbingly smiling for some kind of reason. The skater himself didn't look like someone who had been scolded to death either, they just looked happy about whatever the conversation was about.

She was once again very curious but none of her questions would have answers so easily.

So even if the skater toned off his clear attempts to show off, it was still obvious that he was trying to have the attention on himself.

Hours passed before she had any answers or even hoped to get a single one. She did her best to ignore that lingering feeling of hope that seemed to be stuck in her mind.

In the end, that hope wasn't even in vain.

As the skaters gradually left the ice and went home, it took just a couple of hours until she was pretty much alone with the coaches and the man himself.

It wasn't necessarily often that she stayed so late at the rink but after being away for so long, Kana felt like she needed to make up for it somehow.

Tracy and Brian were looking at both of them with weird looks on their faces, observing as if expecting something. She pretended not to see as they seemed to be busy talking about something she couldn't quite understand. Kana could have sworn she could make out part of that conversation.

"He should tell her"

"Yeah, but that's his choice in the end, it's not any of our business to even think about it."

"But aren't you at least a bit curious about the whole thing?"

"Brian... I may be curious but I don't want to meddle into their lives. It's his choice to tell her or not..."

Kana couldn't even begin to understand what all of it was about. Before she heard the conversation, it was easy to consider that it could be easy to assume that she and Yuzu were the topic of conversation but hearing their words only confused her further. 

What was all of that about?