Changing - Yuri Plisetsky x Reader

Chapter 1

"Mom, I already told you, I'm okay. No, it wasn't a bad decision to let me travel around Japan for a bit. Yes, I am eating well. No, I am not overworking myself. N-No, I'm not hanging out with boys. Mom, your questions are getting ridiculous. I'm hanging up." I speak to my mother who is on the other line of the phone. I hang up embarrassedly and shove my phone into my bag.

Gripping the grip of my suitcase tighter, I look around the train station I landed at. There are a few people walking around who look at me strangely. They probably aren't used to people travelling to this small town.

I look at the train station's sign, reading "Hasetsu". Nodding to myself, I head out of the station and search for a bus that brings me to the hot springs I wanted to go to.

It has been ten months ever since I started my break from competitions. Of course that doesn't mean that I have stopped ice skating. It's quite the opposite. I have been travelling around Japan, staying at different villages and towns that have ice rinks. Usually, I stay at more populated villages but this one has an amazing hot spring, so I've heard.

Picking up my luggage and bringing it with me to the bus that I have waited for, I sit down by the window and gaze out of it as the bus starts to drive. Noticing how beautiful the surroundings look, I pull out my phone again and plug my earphones into them. I pick out my favourite playlist and put my earphones into my ears to listen to the beautiful music.

Everything is more beautiful with music. Beautiful harmonies reaching your ears while dazing at a beautiful yet foreign landscape make you feel like you are part of it, that you are already familiar with it. Music can make people experience different emotions, depending on how the melody is played. The same tune played differently can express the opposite of the original melody. That makes music so beautiful. Combined with a stunning sight, one can reach perfection. This is why I came to love ice skating.

A melody plays, you feel the emotions expressed by the music, so you emphasise this very feeling to make them reach the audience, you get lost in the melody, feel free and if the audience senses the same emotions as you do, then you have achieved perfection.

In my last year of being in the junior's section, I thought I had reached perfection. Yet during my last performance where I expressed the innocence and the curiousity of a young child, people were laughing, feeling happy. This may be a good thing from the percpective of another person but to me it was losing the perfection I have achieved a time ago. Because of this I took a break from competitions to find this perfection yet again.

After a good twenty minutes of driving around in Hasetsu, the bus halts at my station near the hot springs I am heading to. Quickly walking to the hot springs, I think about when I should head to the ice rink to practice.

Shortly after arriving at the hot springs, a middle-aged woman greets me warmly. "Welcome to our hot springs." She says as she takes my luggage and walks into the building. "A-Ah, thank you but there is no need to carry my luggage, I can do that on my own." I say politely as I try to grab my luggage again. "What a polite young girl." The woman states as she lets go of the luggage to bring her hand up to her face to cup it while smiling at me.

"So what can I do for you?" She asks me. "I would like to rent a room for two weeks or so if possible." I announce while bowing slightly. "Of course it's possible. We haven't had a young guest like you in a while." She declares while chuckling. "By the way, dear, how old are you?" She asks me curiously. "Sixteen, ma'am." I answer. "What a beautiful age! So what brings you to our hot springs?" She questions shortly after getting nostalgic. "I have been travelling around Japan for the past ten months." I explain to her, smiling. "Your parents didn't throw you out, did they?" She asks concerned.