Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

58. Not so bad

Aria had to give some credit to her dad. He didn't freak out or show any of those very obvious thoughts running through his head.

Instead, he watched in silence as Yuzuru slowly approached him and bowed in a respectful movement before introducing himself in Japanese.

"Hello Sir, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, my name is Hanyu Yuzuru."

She saw it right through her dad. He was impressed with the younger man's politeness and that was always a good way to start, even if she was still scared shitless of his reactions.

"My daughter tells me you're her boyfriend..."

"That would be correct, Sir..."

"This is the first time she introduces me to one of her boyfriends... I don't know what it is, but something tells me she likes you a lot."

Aria eyed her father with a suspecting gaze. Knowing that man, it was impossible to ignore this lingering feeling that he was up to something. It couldn't be this easy. Her dad needed to have some kind of second intention if he wasn't about to nag them both about this.

"I surely hope so" Yuzuru ended up answering with a big grin on his face, looking at her with a satisfied expression of a man who had just successfully convinced the father of his girlfriend that he was a good guy.

"And how did you meet?"

"We're both living in Toronto, happened to meet by chance in a bar."

Well, it wasn't necessarily by chance, he had booked her after all but they did meet at a bar. Not that her dad needed to know the details behind their first meeting.

"And you enjoy Toronto? I always found Japan to be a better place to live in."

"I do miss home a lot, even if being with Aria helps a lot. I enjoy Canada but Japan will always be home. If it wasn't for my coach being there, I would prefer to just stay here."

That seemed to gather all of her father's attention.

"Now that you say that... You look like this figure skater I saw on the TV a few days ago."

Aria rolled her eyes right away, knowing fully well that her dad's poker face was terrible and that it was now clear that he had realized that a long long time ago, even if he was pretending that he didn't know.

"That's a possibility, for sure." 

The mere fact that Yuzuru actually went as far as answering him was almost hilarious but Aria just allowed them to be, no matter how silly it was.

"A famous athlete... I can see why you don't mind introducing him to me."

"What's that even supposed to mean?"

"That I've been waiting for years for you to be ready to show me one of your boyfriends."

Somehow, Yuzuru's laugh in reaction to that only made her stare at him with a serious expression. Her dad didn't need any encouragement when it came to mocking her.

"Maybe they weren't boyfriends in the first place."

"I do hope I've raised you better than that."

If only you knew... she instantly thought to herself. A single gaze at her boyfriend was enough to show that he had the exact same thing in his mind.

Just as she was about to consider all of her life choices by going there with Yuzuru, the noise of the front door opening got everyone to stare at it, showing her mother getting inside, carrying way too many bags of groceries for her own good.

Well, not that it mattered because as soon as her eyes settled on her daughter, every single bag was falling to the ground as she ran to her daughter.

"Aria! What?!"

"Hey, mom."

As nonchalant as Aria could sound, feeling her mother's hug after so much time felt better than anything in the world. She wanted to stay there forever and avoid all of the troubles in this damned cursed world.

Couldn't things be a bit easier?

"What are you doing here?!"

"So I shouldn't come and visit you?" she joked right away.

"Shut up! You should and you always have to!"

"Well, she found herself a Japanese boyfriend so I think we will finally see her a few more times a year."

The way that her dad didn't hide at all how happy the whole situation made him should have been concerning but Aria was so used to his personality that finding the quirky and funny side in this situation was truly the best possible outcome of this whole thing. At least he wasn't trying to scare Yuzuru away.

Her mother took just a few seconds to assimilate the whole thing, staring at the young man currently sitting in her living room as if he were a being from another planet.

"I... I know him..."

"Mom, this is Yuzuru. Yuzuru, my mom. And yes, he's a bit famous..."

It was inevitable. Aria should have predicted that most of Japan would've known this guy, even if she had been completely oblivious to how famous he was for a decent amount of time.

"A bit?! He's everywhere! I'm pretty sure I just saw his face in the grocery store"

His infectious laughter filled the room. It was a good thing that he was so chill, otherwise, this whole thing could have quickly gotten out of control.

"Alright... let's just say it like this... he might be famous but when he's on the house, he's Yuzuru, my boyfriend, and not Yuzuru, the hotshot skater, alright?"

"So I'm divided in half?" he couldn't help but joke. Yuzu was clearly trying to lighten up the mood and cheer her up a bit when Aria had no idea how to react. She had expected her parents to freak out about her having a boyfriend and here they were, dealing more with his fame instead of anything else.

There was no doubt then... Aria had chosen the best guy ever for the job.