Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

26. Truth

"Well, unless Yumi-san needs my help, I should probably get back to work."

Aria never expected to see him there and somehow it changed a lot of things.

They had now met outside of her work for the first time and if anything, the tension in the air only seemed to increase.

She knew that he had never been a regular client but the realization of just how much he seemed to affect her, even after weeks had passed, was scary as hell.

"We're good, thank you Aria."

Once Yumi answered, she knew that there was no reason to stay there, no matter how much her feet seemed to want to stay planted on that ground.

One single look into his eyes and you could see that he was thinking deeply as well.

Maybe if his mother hadn't been right there, in front of them, she would've gathered his contact info so they could talk later.

Still, it was for the best.

Aria didn't know for sure just how big of an athlete he was but given the big speech about responsibility on his shoulders, she knew that he was too good for her. 

No amount of curiosity about him could make her try and get anything more out of it.

So with her head held high, Aria finally moved, going back to work with a single wave of her hand towards him and a smile on her face. As good as it was seeing him again, there was nothing that she could do then.

🔥

Yuzuru couldn't just let it drop like that when his mother was giving him a look that he knew well.

It took just a few seconds after Aria left them for her to say something about it.

"How come I have never heard of this friend?"

"We met recently." he said nonchalantly, doing his absolute best to make it seem casual but probably failing even harder than expected.

"And she doesn't happen to be the reason why you were wearing your best suit recently?"

Yuzuru just looked at the ground and shrugged his shoulders. Lying to his mother was harder than just hiding the truth, even if omission could often be seen as a lie as well.

"Don't even start." he muttered to his mom.

"I'm just saying... after Julia I expected you to lay down and avoid girls for a while."

"I am and please don't mention Julia. The situation is far different."

For some kind of reason, comparing the two women felt wrong. If he learned anything from Aria, it was that his relationship with the other girl was a completely chaotic mess that should've never happened in the first place.

Yuzuru didn't miss his mother's reaction to that.

"You never told me what really happened"

"And I definitely won't do it in the middle of the grocery store"

"We'll talk about it at home then, but you're not escaping from it."

In the end, Yuzuru did his very best to avoid the conversation at hand but he had gotten his stubbornness from his mother and it showed. She was even worse than he was on a few occasions.

They finished their grocery shopping quickly and as soon as they were entering the door, he was being dragged to the living room.

"Okasan, there are things that need to be on the fridge." he said, mentioning the groceries that she had abandoned at the entry hall without a single bit of care.

"Then you better talk fast. You've been hiding what happened for way too long."

There was nothing more that he wanted to do but run. Maybe he would have if he didn't need his mother so much.

Maybe it was finally time to admit that he had to tell her about Julia, even if he had no plans to tell her the real circumstances of their last fight and the reasons why he ended up meeting Aria in the first place.

"Julia got used to me being away from skating. I know it's hard to believe but she isn't the angel she looks to be and had a lot of trouble understanding that my career will always come first."

"Yuzu-kun..."

His mother sounded disappointed in him and he knew why. She had always been a big supporter of his career but his mother had also told him countless times that he needed other things in life.

"Mama, you don't understand. When I got back to the ice and reinjured myself, she said that I had to look at the bright side since it gave us more time to be together."

Hearing that seemed to work in shifting her perspective because Yumi shifted from disappointed to mad.

"She said what?"

Yeah, you could always count on Yumi's overprotectiveness to come through. One thing was wishing for more of his attention, another was being happy that he got hurt.

"It doesn't matter anymore. It's like you always say, learning experiences make us who we are and I learned a lot with my relationship with Julia."

Now very proud of her son, she just smiled and nodded, agreeing with what he was saying.

"I was sad that you ended things just because I thought you were happy."

"I realized eventually that there weren't many feelings between us. It was more convenient than anything else. I think Julia enjoyed saying that she was with me to everyone at the rink, it was never that serious for either of us. I just allowed myself to be dragged into what I thought to be expected of me and lost track of how I felt in the process."

Seemingly satisfied with her son's answer, Yumi turned to move and finally get the groceries in their rightful place. Still, she stopped and turned in a sudden movement before finally asking.

"And where exactly does Aria fall into place in the story?"