Foreign Ground (Yuzuru Hanyu)

9. Busy Streets On Empty Stomachs

"You think I can't do it?" He challenged.

"I don't think you would." She replied, crossing her arms.

"Why?"

"I just don't think you got it."

"Dare me!" He pushed.

"I dare you!"

"Fine, but you too!"

"Fine, but you first!"

"Fine." He puffed out, flipped the hair out of his eyes and with a deadly expression of absolute focus, took a step forward, sat down and finally - laid down on the dirty hallway floor. His face was right beneath hers, hair falling aside, reveling faint eyebrows, a soft hairline and his expression going tender, amused.

"Now you." He mouthed.

The floor was dirty and cold, and Lilis frowned wanting to back down, but her pride too big to allow such a decision. Instead, she placed herself right next to his warm body on the cold hallway floor.

"You happy now?" He asked, turning his face towards hers, hair now falling differently, shaping his features in a new way, giving Lilis a desire to reach out and place the restless locks back into place. 

"No."

"Well you said lay on the floor."

"Yeah, like on a street."

"Street?" He frowned.

"You know, like in the movies... Characters lie on an empty street in a pivotal moment, thinking about everything that has happened to them."

"Why street? It's dangerous."

"Well life is dangerous, you never know what will come your way." She shrugged, feeling the solid ground beneath her shoulder blades.

"Why not busy street then?"

"Cause that would be stupid."

"This is stupid."

She looked away, eyeing the ceiling.

"What's pibotal?"

"Pivotal?" She looked back, but his gaze was now directed upwards, letting Lilis' eyes trace the shape of his ear.

"Mmmm"

"It's like, the most important moment in the story, the moment when the character realizes the truth, whatever that might be. It's the turning point of the story."

"So... like first jump in program?" He looked back.  

"Mmmmm, maybe."

"What is that for you?"

Lilis imagined tucking a piece of that black silk behind his ear as it was resting against the small pair of moles on his cheek. "I don't think I have it."  

"Never?"

Lilis watched as the pupils got smaller, getting eaten away by the reddish, chestnut irises. "A few times." She admitted, her breath getting caught in her throat.

"When?" He pushed, seeming breathless himself.

She thought about it; about all the life changing moments in her life, all the songs that gave her goosebumps, all the books that left her mindless and all the moments her eyes traveled to examine the strange shape of his cupid's bow. 

She took a sharp breath and looked away once again, "I was six years old, I had just moved back from Japan to the States and I started school again. I remember that first day when I got into the classroom and started crying my eyes out cause no one changed their outdoors shoes to indoors. It seems funny now, but to me, back then, it was a the culmination of everything: moving back, new school, new friends, different language... And the shoes just ticked me off, it was absolute loss of control... Devastating for a six year old, who had lost everything already."