Gold (Yuzuru Hanyu)

14. Medals

From the ice rink we were headed to his place. On the way there, we stumbled upon a few Japanese restaurants, turns out, Toronto has quite a few, naturally, Yuzu had to stop by and get curry.  He's such a child.

The joy on his face when he walked out with a bag of curry is something I never want to forget.

He explained that his mom still hasn't returned, and he was basically dying of hunger.

-When is she coming back?- I asked once we were back in the taxi.

-Uhh, she should be back on Tuesday.- He was thinking.

-How's the baby?- I asked, remembering the reason his mom went back to Japan.

-Oh yeah, wait, I'll show you.- He took his phone out of his pocket, pulling up pictures of the newborn.

-She's so cute.- We both agreed.

Then he searched through his phone some more, and pulled up more baby pictures, but this time his own. I instantly recognized it was him. 

-Awww, look at you, you were so chubby.- I pointed towards his cute cheeks. 

He showed me more photos, pointing out how old he was, or who was in the picture. I saw his sister, his mom, his dad, school friends.

Most of his pictures were on the ice.

-Puberty did right by you.- I said after seeing all of his mushroom haircuts.

...............

His place really was in the parallel street to mine, his building no different than mine. 

Once we got to the elevator I got scared, knowing how I felt about them, and Yuzuru and me in them. But this one wasn't covered in mirrors, and Yuzuru wasn't staring at me intensely, but was rather talking about his apartment here, and how much he missed his family home, back in Japan.

-How often do you get to go home.- 

-More often then you would think. I train here, and everything, I also travel for competitions, but my work is Japan based. Throughout the year a have several ice shows in Japan, many interviews and commercials to do. And other stuff too.-

-You probably don't even get to see home.-

-Yes. A lot of times, I went back to Japan, and hadn't seen a familiar face.-

-That's kind of sad.- I looked at him sympathetically. 

-It's fine, It's work. I love what I do.-

...........

 His place was a bit bigger then mine, and it had a bit more of a "home" vibe. A women's touch was obvious, since the place was nicely decorated.

-I think my mom just misses home so much, she turned this place into Japan. And let's not talk about this.- He said as we entered the living room, where a whole wall was covered in drawings of Yuzuru. 

-Don't get me wrong, I love this. It's just a bit embarrassing.-

I looked at the wall in awe. All the drawings, and paintings were amazing. They showed Yuzuru like I've never seen him before. He was in various different costumes, he was strong, he was powerful, but in others he was elegant, gentle and beautiful. There really were sides of him that I haven't seen yet. But I was interested, I wanted to know all those sides of him.

-Give me your jacket.-

I mindlessly took it off , staring at the art, which was probably drawn by his fans. "Damn, he has fans, who would all probably want to stand right were I am standing right now", I thought.