The next day the hotel was a ghost town, abandoned and hollow, the emptiness ringing through the hallways, lounges, bars and cafes. The Figure Skating World Championship 2019 was forever behind Saitama; the masses of fans, figure skaters, judges and journalists were all gone, disappearing the moment the music stopped.
Yet, there was someone left at that very same hotel. It wasn't a figure skating fan, nor a judge, let alone a part of the media coverage team; it was just a girl passing by, someone wasting time in Japan.
Lilis sighed for the 10th time that morning. Finding herself seated in the lobby of the ghost hotel, catching wi-fi, yet doing nothing with it, she just mindlessly observed the hotel stuff go about their day. She couldn't help but compare watching the lobby boy run around and the cleaning lady mop the floor with watching a figure skating competition; it's absurd, she knew that, but couldn't help wondering if the receptionist would be breaking records herself if someone had told her there was a gold medal at the end of the day and a history for her to write her name in; both were just people doing their job. She sighed again, abandoning that thought.
The hotel, without all the frantic, confused guests was as boring as The Ellen show without Ellen.
"What am I doing here?" She sighed... For the 12th time that morning, when her phone gently vibrated in her hand, awakening her from her despair.
"Hello?" She answered reluctantly.
"Hello, this is Tanaka speaking. Is this Ms. Ririz?" A deep, yet gentle voice spoke.
"This is she." She swallowed.
"Is this a good moment?"
"Sure."
There was some shuffling on the other side before Lilis could hear a reply, but from a totally different source.
"Ri?"
"Hi Lemon." She sighed, contently, for the first time that morning.
"Hi..." She could hear a smile.
"Did you sleep well?"
"I did... A lot... It's late now... I thought you maybe gone."
"I said I'll wait."
"Thank you..."
Lilis waited, but he didn't speak, "Do you maybe want to come over to my hotel? It's really empty, I was planing on exploring."
"Exploring?"
"You know, like in the movies. Hopefully it doesn't turn into one of those badly filmed horror ones."
"Horror? No horror please, enough for Saitama." He laughed, somewhat sarcastically.
"I hope there won't be any horror.... So.... Wanna come over and explore?"
".... Is it... really empty?"
"Yup.... Just me.... and the cleaning lady... All the fans have gone away."
"......Okay.... I'll come over."
............ .......... .......
"How did you manage to stay?"
"I canceled flight."
"You don't have a manager?"
"Ummm... I do, well, lot of people, working, everywhere... But I said I'll stay, so they don't ask, but maybe they are mad with me."
"I'm sorry."
"No, I say I'm staying."
"Is your mom still here?"
YOU ARE READING
Foreign Ground (Yuzuru Hanyu)
FanfictionLilis meets Yuzuru Hanyu at The Worlds 2019. She doesn't know anything about figure skating, but she's confused as to why he didn't win, so she asks him, or he asks her. And together, they end up in Greece. "I never loved anyone." He suddenly confes...
