Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

25. The mother

Yumi had just finished everything on her side of the aisle and there wasn't a single sign of her son.

She knew well that he would struggle with this particular task but he needed to learn how to be by himself eventually. So maybe even if her back hurt slightly, it was more of an excuse to get him out of the house than anything else.

Now that he was taking a bit more time than she expected, she found herself looking for him.

Truthfully, Yumi expected to find him lost, staring at something on the list and the items in front of him in a completely clueless manner.

What she definitely could have never expected was to see him deeply engrossed in conversation with an employee of the store.

It was in the detergent aisle that she found him. Yumi immediately remembered about the item on the list and cursed herself for not warning him. Asking him to choose one of those was far too much for someone who wasn't used to doing anything around the house.

Still, if it made him ask for help, she couldn't be too mad. It was a good learning experience.

There was just something about the way he was talking with the employee that made Yumi stare at them and analyze the exchange. It just didn't look like a professional conversation.

The smile on his face also told her otherwise.

She observed them for a while and the whole interaction. Maybe it was weird but it wasn't every day that Yumi saw such a view.

It was only after a couple of minutes that she realized they were speaking in Japanese.

There was no way it was a casual conversation, there was no way he had just met that girl and that was a very important piece of information for her curious eyes.

After a while, Yumi started feeling guilty for observing them and finally called out his name.

"Yuzu-kun"

When the young man turned around, she noticed a red color on his cheeks. If there were any doubts before, she was now sure that she had caught something he wanted to hide.

Yumi knew him too well not to notice.
"Oh! Okasan, hey"

It was impossible not to laugh when he was looking so lost when he seemed to be so flushed at the realization that he had been caught.

"Everything ok?" She asked, only making him panic even further as he realized he needed an excuse.

"Yes...huh... I was a bit stuck on the detergents."

"I can see that you got some help."

"Yeah..."

Yumi laughed right away and decided to turn to the girl.

"Well, if my son won't introduce me, I will do it myself. I'm Yumi."

It was noticeable that both Aria and Yuzu realized they had been caught when Yumi spoke to the girl in Japanese, clearly indicating that she had heard at least part of the conversation.

"Yumi-san...huh... Hanyu Yumi-san... It's nice to meet you. My name is Aria."

"Yumi is just fine and It's nice to meet you as well."

She stared right into her son's eyes, who seemed reticent to say anything while wanting to manifest exactly what he thought of the situation in front of him.

"Aria is a friend of mine. I just realized that she is working around here." He tried to excuse himself right away.

Yumi had no doubts that he didn't know about it. Maybe if he did, he would have wanted to come around more often.

What she still couldn't understand was the story behind the supposed friendship.

"A friend, huh? And here I was thinking you've been stuck at home for weeks."

"We mostly just text" Aria said right away in a quick lie. It was too easy to find excuses when she had once done these kinds of exchanges for a living.

"Through Line, of course" he added on instinct before his mother could even mention his lack of number.

"This generation..." Yumi mumbled right away.

She knew there was something that neither of them was telling her but she just dismissed it. When it came the right time, Yumi trusted that Yuzuru would tell her all about it.

"It's just easier."

"Hanging out in person is still far better. How about this? Aria should come for dinner."

His eyes widened right away.

The last thing he needed was for his mother to get the wrong impression. Even if things seemed to be gradually changing between him and the girl, he could never ask Aria to just go ahead and sign up for anything that involved Yumi.

"I would love to but I really can't, I have plans already."

It was with a deep breath that Yuzuru heard those words.

Well, deep down he kind of hoped that she would say yes but that was the part of him that liked to ignore the circumstances of their previous meetings.

If anything, it just brought him to reality.

Aria maybe wasn't an escort anymore but she was certainly used to situations like these and seemed more than ready to handle anything that might have showed up.

She had no interest in him. Even if she admitted to her true feelings about their shared morning. Making it more than it was seemed useless. All he would get out of it was heartbreak right before an important season.

No. He couldn't let it get to him.

The woman was just acting, saying what she thought he would want her to say in front of his mother.

Anything else was mere imagination of his brain. None of it was real.