Walking on Sunshine

Chapter IV

I knew those triplets weren't to be trusted. A week after Yuuko and the triplets came over to visit, they just had to tell Minako about Viktor. I sigh as I keep my hands on the steering wheel with Viktor seated beside me on the front. After the triplets told Minako about Viktor, then Minako telling my family about him, my mother called me the other day insisting that I come over to the Yu-topia to introduce him to the family. I couldn't be more embarrassed now that everyone thinks that I have a boyfriend. I feel a ball of embarrassment pool at the pit of my gut at what their reaction could be, now with Minako in the picture. Especially Minako. She had always been one to take the events in my life so seriously.

"Yuuri, are you alright?" He asks as I prepare myself for the potential onslaught of questions about my nonexistent love life. Just one more turn around the corner and I'd be at Yu-topia with people making talk about me. Hasetsu is a small place, after all. Rumor spreads like wildfire here and nearly everyone practically knows everybody. By now, I just wonder how many people Minako has told already.

"Yeah, I'm alright." I let out another sigh and then hold my breath as I take a turn at a corner with the inn at my right. "Well...here we are." I stop the car and park it before the entrance.

"You seem really tense, Yuuri," Viktor comments out of the blue as we step out of the vehicle. "Don't you want to see your family?"

"I do, but..." I feel my cheeks heat up as I began to fiddle with my thumbs in front of me. "How do I explain this..." I mumble as I scratch the back of my head. "Apparently...." I take a gulp and raise my head up to look at Viktor. "People think you're my boyfriend now..."

"Oh, did they?" Viktor looked amused as his lips curved into a sly smirk. "I don't mind it at all." He adds a chuckle.

"B-But I do!" I begin sputtering as my cheeks heat up even more. "I-It's so embarrassing..."

"I'm embarrassing?"

"N-No, that's not what I meant!" I panic and frantically shake my head no. Now I'm even more embarrassed with how my words came across to him. The least I wanted to do was offend someone, most of all Viktor. "It's just that....!" I pause in the middle of constructing my sentence to find the right words to say. "It's um, you see..." I mumble again as I cast my eyes down to the ground, too ashamed to even look him in the eye.

Instead of giving me a hurt look, Viktor lets out a soft chuckle instead and gives my shoulder a pat. "Oh, Yuuri, you're so cute." I can feel the blood from my body migrate north to my face, my blood vessels threatening to burst. If I wasn't embarrassed as it was before, my embarrassment is now up to the hundredth power. "I was only kidding!" He lets out an even louder laugh this time.

"Viktor, you sadist!" I say as a matter of fact as I pull myself away from him.

"Actually, I'm more of a mas—"

"I don't need to know that!" I take in a deep inhale and heave a frustrated huff as I slowly begin calming my nerves down. "Okay." I breathe in again and regain my composure. "Let's head in, shall we?" In the back of my mind, I conjure up the potential possibilities that await me the moment I step inside the inn. In matching clothing too, to boot.

"Alright!" Viktor follows after me as I walk towards the entrance and slide the door open.

"Kaa-san, tou-san, Mari-neechan, I'm home!" I call out as I take off my shoes and place it on the shoe rack. Viktor does the same. Then, I hear the loud shuffling of feet on the wooden floor and out comes my mother dressed in the inn robes with a stain that looks suspiciously like katsudon sauce on her apron.

"Yuuri, welcome home!" She greets me brightly as she stops herself just before she was shy of hugging me. She always knew I liked my space. Unlike some people. I turn my head to glance at Viktor. (Not that I'm complaining.) "How are you? Are you doing well in the farm? Did you eat well?"