Facing Phantoms, Pursuing Flowers

Your Biggest Fan

Yuzuru woke at 5am.
Why?
Can't sleep.
Again, jet lag issues.

He got up, brushed up and showered, then headed to the breakfast hall. When he arrived, he spotted a tiny figure sitting at a lone table by a window, furiously punching numbers into her calculater.

'Doing homework?' Whispered Yuzuru in her ear.

'Agh' she gasped in shock and whipped her head around.
'Yuzu! What was that for?! Why did you do that?'

'Because I can' grinned Yuzuru. 'Anyways, why are you doing work?'

'Because I have nothing better to do' said Melody sarcastically.

'Need help?'

'Nah, its just Math. I excel at Math. You know, cause I'm Asian.' She smirked. 'Now go away, you're distracting me.' She shooed him away.

And Yuzuru left to grab some breakfast and joined Mao Asada and Satoko Miyahara, who was also in the GPF, competing against Melody.

Time passing.....

After practice, Team Orser, had lunch together and Brian gave Sota a long pep talk, which Sota was looking like he was trying hard not to fall asleep on, as at 6:00pm, Sota would have to perform his short program infront of the whole CCIB.

Minutes before the competition, Sota was all dressed with his Team Japan jacket over his Poeta Flamenco costume, pacing back and forth in the hallway backstage.

'Sota! Time to warm up, you're skating 4th, don't waste time being nervous!' Yelled Brian.

The whole of Team Orser came to watch thier 'bro' and support him. Shoma came too.

During Roman Sadovsky of Canada's performance, Sota started pacing in nervousness again and mumbling to himself.

'What if I can't perform well? I'll let the fans down and disappoint them. Then no one would want to watch me again. They would think I'm an awful skater if I don't deliver tonight!?' Panicked Sota.

Melody decided to try to comfort him.
'Hey, Sota! Calm down. Don't be so nervous. Its not going to help...............Listen....
Speaking as a fan, not a competitor. I am your biggest fan, so it doesn't matter how badly you do, if you pop or fall on every jump, travel in every spin and stumble in every step sequence, I will always be your biggest fan. So even if you do badly, you can rest assured that you will still have one faithful fan standing by you, cheering you and supporting you always. '

Sota looked up at her and tried for a weak smile.

She pulled him in a supportive hug and this time, Sota's heart really exploded. Hugs didn't really happen much to him back in Japan, so this was quite shock to him.
After he was released from the hug, she slapped him on the back and said 'I know you can do it, you know you can do it, so go out there and show the crowd you can do it'

'Thanks Dy! Can always count on you to give pep talks ' he joked, right after, he skated off on the ice as Roman had just finished his short program.

Sota's program....

Minutes later, Sota came to the Kiss and Cry to get his scores. He wore an unpleased look. Melody swore she could here him curse his triple axel as he made his way over to Brian.

'The short program scores for Sota Yamamoto of Japan, 72.85'

You could see the disappointment flash across his face.

By the end of the Junior Men short program, Nathan Chen ended up in first, Dmitri Aliev in second and Sota was in third.

'That was bad.....I didn't get the spins levels and the triple axel!! At least I didn't fall...So disappointing...' said Sota to Team Orser as they headed out for team dinner together.

'Yeah yeah, you can say you have so much more to improve and well it wasn't the best skate ever, because of some mistakes but honestly, don't look at how far you still have to go, look at how far you've already come.

Besides, you're triple axel could be like the evolution of Yuzuru's quad Salchow.
For three years Yuzuru could not land the quad sal clean and consistant, but he said this, 'If you can't do something, practice it until you can do it, if you can do it, practice it until you can do it perfectly, if you can do it perfectly, practice it until you can do it perfectly everytime.' Encouraged Melody.

That whole pep talk actually cheered Sota up, made him realize things he never noticed, such as, looking at how far you've come, not how far you still have to go.

Thanks to Melody, dinner was much more fun as Team Orser was all in a good mood. Mostly excited for Yuzuru and Javi to skate, as the Men's short program is later in the night.