Playing with Fire | Yuzuru Hanyu

59. Confrontation

Expecting absolute chaos when you introduce your boyfriend to your parents is only natural.

It's even more normal when your dad is an armed forces man with a history of being crazy.

Still, none of that seemed to be true now when she looked at her boyfriend and father, excitedly talking as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Being in the kitchen and helping her mother with food as she eyed them was not on her bingo card for that year, or in fact, for any year.

"He's cute." she heard her mom say all of a sudden, distracting her from the scene ahead.

"I think so too..."

"I knew there was someone when I last called you... I just didn't expect him to be famous."

Aria couldn't possibly explain to her mother how that didn't matter to her in the slightest. Being with Yuzuru for a few months only made her realize that this man in particular seemed to have a talent to make it all worth it, no matter how much she had to avoid being seen in public by his side.

Just looking back and realizing how they had even started dating, everything only seemed more unreal.

"To be fair, I didn't expect him to be famous either. It's easy to forget when we're not in Japan."

Her mother only smiled, probably completely unable to understand what she meant fully but not even saying it out loud.

"Aren't you afraid of it?"

Aria didn't need her mom to explain what she meant. It was very obvious that Yuzuru's fame had consequences, ones that she was very willing to endure when it came with the perk of having this man.

But was she truly ready for everything? Probably not.

The thing was that they had made a promise to one another. A promise to always stay together no matter what happens. A promise to fight against every single possible struggle and move on with their life. This was a goal that they would fulfil.

Yuzuru seemed to notice them speaking about him. With a single glance, she could see everything he was thinking and his every expression only got more hilarious as he tried to figure it all out.

Moving in her direction, Aria had just enough time to tell her mother to shut up before he listened to anything.

"Everything okay?" He asked as soon as he was within ear width.

"Yeah"

"Just talking about you, young man." Her mother interrupted right away, earning an immediate glare that only made him laugh.

"I see... But feel free to ask anything directly if Aria lies."

"Excuse me!" She protested right away, only to have his arms wrap around her from behind and his lips kissing the skin on her cheek.

"I love you, silly"

Aria's cheeks were surely bright red from the moment she saw her father stare at them. It was way too hard to know what to expect from that man but there was no reason to be going for so much PDA in front of her parents if they could avoid it.

Somehow, it wasn't that hard to ignore those thoughts when his touch felt so nice and she quickly forgot about it. The most surprising part was that her father ended up just smiling.

Had it been someone else, Aria would've probably let it go right there but the truth was that with her father, this was very odd behaviour.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She snapped while staring at her dad. The whole approach was weird from the very beginning and she was really wondering what was going on.

"Me?" He asked with a smirk on his face, clearly satisfied about something that she didn't know about.

All the while Aria was fuming, not enjoying the way her dad seemed to be mocking her, Yuzu was just distractingly drawing circles in her waist, not even daring to speak a word.

"Of course, you! Every time I even implied having a boyfriend you always snapped and suddenly you're all fine with it?"

Her dad started laughing, surprising not only Aria but also her mom, whose brows were raised high as she, too, wondered what was going on.

"Well, honey, it's a matter of knowing when it's a beneficial thing for us as well... You see, having a Japanese boyfriend highly increases your chances of visiting us so I'm okay with it."

Yuzuru started laughing too, enjoying the whole thing a bit too much after all the nerves that had been consuming him before they arrived. It was a very logical way of seeing things, after all.

She rolled her eyes and shut up, no longer interested in this conversation at all.

Just as fate would tell it, she felt Yuzu's phone vibrating in his pocket, followed by a sorry look on his face when he noticed who was calling.

Julia.

"It's ok, you can take it"

He eyed her carefully, knowing that it was a sensitive topic despite everything. Yuzuru could have easily excused himself to take that call, but he wanted to reassure Aria more than anything.

So he took that call right by her side and god knows he couldn't have predicted how much of a mistake that would be.

"Hey" he said as he answered.

"Oh, so you can still answer me? I figured you would be too busy with your new toy."

Aria wasn't too entertained about the conversation from the very start and Yuzu had no idea how to deal with all of this mess.

"What do you want?"

"Oh...nothing that important... I just wanted to ask if your parents know that you're dating a whore."