Songs For Us [English Version]

Thirty-six. Say you missed me

"Do you think he'll dare to mess up with Hiroyuki?"

Irene shook her head no, but she was glaring daggers to a certain place across the rink. Then, she turned to Dalia with a sardonic glint in her face.

"He's one of my kids. If he tries anything funny and ruins even the posture of a finger, I'll drive him to the hospital myself."

Dalia did not ask why the most disliked coach in Majadahonda would have to go to the hospital, the answer was written in her Coach's glare.

The problem was that there was no choice but to deal with Ivan Paz for at least one season. Irene Zhdánov had two skaters of international level, junior and senior, and eventually, Irene would need to monitor one or the other at competition.

"But now that I think about it... Why don't you say the same thing about me?"

Coach Zhdánov was known at the Club for her stern persona and unrelenting instruction style, albeit her skaters were either immune to the strong aura or did not care anymore, after everything the woman made them go through. Hence, not many dared to ask her for coaching, despite delivering results.

Irene shrugged, grabbed her bag, and began to make her way to the rink exit.

"Hey!" Dalia's feigned indignance quickly faded into a smirk.

Most of the time, Irene struggled to keep the free spirit that Dalia Rodriguez was. If any, the one who would have a hard time would be coach Paz monitoring her.

~~~

'Yuzuru did this', 'Yuzuru did that' - Gilian had stopped paying attention after five minutes of such sentences. After Mariluna and January asked about Toronto, he knew it was going to be a long afternoon. It was not bothersome, but he really didn't care about their fangirling.

"You have no idea how magical watching Ballade during practice is. I even saw the costume for this season."

Gilian had developed a knack for studying for his Programming I course everywhere he could, and then he stopped listening.

"Gil"

His friends of years knew he was just a quiet soul, so they let it be. Gilian would talk and listen whenever he was needed to.

"How was playing live? Maybe we could force you to play the piano at the Club's festival so we can see the show too."

Gilian snorted.

"Dal said 'just this one time'"

The only reason Gilian had endured playing the piano in front of a crowd, was Dalia's deep love for music. She was always daydreaming about skating to his playing, live... Gilian had only wanted to make her smile. Was he playing favorites? He didn't care.

"And... how's Florence?" Malu asked, tone cautious.

Whereas Dalia simply shook her head, Gilian huffed in annoyance glowering at his book.

"We have not talked... in a while"

That did not mean Florence was not an everpresent presence, Gilian knew it. Furtive, he glanced at the now clean skin of the arms once covered in purple.

How long will this time be until she decides to trouble her daughter...?

"I... think I should tell you something" January stammered, looking at her food.

"I know she comes to our place, Jan."

Dalia was rather calm under January panicked expression.