Hana

Dream

I feel the chill in the rink and see a girl, perhaps 7 or 8 years old, gliding through other skaters on the ice with intractable speed. She has a excited curve on the tail of her mouth. Her speed grabs my attention and I try to look closer to see who she is, but I can only a blank face without eyes, nose, or eyebrows. She is so familiar to me yet I feel so distant from her at the same time. Her figure continues to fly across the rink back and forth with happiness; my eyes follow everywhere she goes, somehow expecting a jump somewhere. The girl accelerates even more when some skaters leave the rink for lunch. It seems like she doesn't want to stop. And after several laps, she cuts right to the center of the rink and turns her back to the direction she's going at. Her left foot nails down the floor and up in the air she goes, two rotations, and then lands with a wobbly landing. The mouth of the girl does not break into a smile but a "meh" mouth. I guess she is similar to Yuzu, trying to aim perfection every time. There are some clapping behind the borders but they are weak and short. She does not give up and starts to speed up again when the clapping ceased. Acceleration helps her to create the momentum to jump into the air with such a small figure and rotate. Her face is determined and serious. However, I somehow feel that she is not skating with joy anymore, maybe I'm wrong. I look around the rink and I see her coach. The coach has a tough and masculine brow on his forehead and Stephen-Douglas-like unhappy mouth. I avert my eyesight from him instantly when we met each other's. I think I have an instinctive reaction to avoid contact with him. I know that I don't like him.
I focus on the girl again. Even if the rink is quite filled with tourists and other skaters, the girl flies through the the crowd and is ready for a jump. She nails into the ground again and fly across the ice. This time, she got it perfectly. I raise my hand and clap incessantly. She skates back to the barriers where her coach is standing behind. The coach gives her a nod and commands her to continue.
The tourists nearly fill all of the rink. I look at the rink and think that there's no possibility that a skater would win a competition with such practice quality. Some of the skaters leave from frustration, but she is still on the ice. She keep practicing her skating skills and step sequence, since she can't jump anymore in the crowd.Her eyes winces whenever she makes a turn in her steps and that's when I noticed that she has sprang her ankle earlier; yet, she is still practicing and not getting treatment. I look at the coach if he has noticed her injury, but he looks back at me and stared back at me as if saying "it's none of your business" to me. I quickly turn my head away again.
The girl skates to her coach and he points at the ice a several times and gives her advices. The girls nods several times and she starts to accelerate again. I am shocked by the coach's order to tell her to jump in this kind of crowd! "No!" I shout in my mind, feeling an ominous feeling. It can be very dangerous! She slides through the crowd and making her own trials to accelerate. When both the girl and I feel like the speed is enough for a jump, a little boy falls down on her route for a jump. My fists tightens from nervousness and my eyes widen. The girl avoids the boy, and then I hold my breath and close my eyes with a noisy shriek echoing in my head.
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I open my eyes and gasp for air. I'm not in the rink but in my usual bedroom. My pajamas are soaked with my sweat and my blanket is wrinkled in my fists. I can't catch my breathe even after I water myself a glass of water beside my bed. My hands go through my messy hair to soothe my feelings. I manage to come out of the bed, open the window, and let some cold Toronto air penetrates through my dizzy brain. Having this kind of dream while Yuzu is away for competition is somehow weird, I thought. I let my brain to stay blank as I stare at the tree outside of my window. I pick up the last red leaf, which was on the twig,  that drifts peacefully in the air to the rim of the window.  The vibrant color reminds me of Yuzu. His passion for skating and my passion for him match this red perfectly. My heart pounds heavily as I think of him. It's not like I doubt his ability to win the competition, but I'm very nervous about Yuzu. I can somehow imagine but I can never know how much pressure his shoulders are carrying. Everyone is watching if he worths the Olympic title or not. The image of his eyes before he leaves flashes inside my head, and his dark circles beneath his eyes bring a bad feeling to my heart. He seems so tired and stressed.

A knock on the door breaks my meditation. I answer the knock but I am too lazy to turn around to face the person. The door shrieks when the person opens the door. Mom scolds me for opening the window while wearing very less. She even notices that I'm sweating, and she quickly closed the window, warning me that I can get a cold. Mom turns genial again when she sees me putting on an extra jacket and says that she have made breakfast for me before I leave for China. Mom's breakfast! My favorite! I hide my doubts and worries behind my smile and skip downstairs while I follow Mom to the kitchen to get my scrambled herb eggs, grilled cheese with homemade toast, and the most delicious potato cream soup!  I satisfied myself with the best breakfast in the world, while feeling a hint of pain in my head. Maybe Mom's right about catching a cold.
"Dad will send you to the airport at 9:00 a.m." Mom says as she looks at me munching my breakfast.
"Alright." I say and put another spoon if that fragrant potato soup into my mouth.
"Remember to double check your passport before leaving." She reminds
Here comes Mom's over-protection and worries, but I know that she just wants me to be happy for my trip.
"Of course." I answer her. "Oh yeah, Mom, where's the headache medicine? I kinda had a bad sleep last night."
"I have already put some into your bag. I also put some other medicine in it as well. You know, China, you gotta watch out what you eat. And I know that you always have frequent headache during the winter, not to mention having awful nightmares and bad sleeps." Mom winks at me as if she is reading my mind, or more like memorizing my mind.
"You know me better than I know myself!" I exclaim.
"Of course, you're my daughter, Darling." She smiles gently at me with an immense warmth that makes me stop eating my breakfast and go to hug her.
"Thank you, Mom, for letting me go." I rest my chin on her shoulder.
"Dad and I will do anything as long as you're happy." She speaks to my ears.
"I'm really happy." I answer.
"I can see that."  She breaks out hug and stares into my eyes. "I can see how much joy Yuzu is bringing to you that you weren't able to enjoy while you're young."
I frown and process Mom's words in mind for a while.
"What do you mean?" I ask. I hear my voice is trailing off at the end of the question as I see silver tears on Mom's cheek.
"What's wrong?" I look at her with my brows wrinkle together. Mom closes her eyes and sniffs hardly. Her wet eyes seem to tell me that there's something wrong with me and that she is regretting what had happened to me.
"Mom, is there anything wrong with me?" I ask again.
Mom sniffs and wipes her tears away. "No, no, you're absolutely fine. I'm just a bit teary that my girl is so deeply in love with a boy. You know, it feels like you're getting married." She squeezes out a natural smile. Although I feel like she's holding something back, I don't want to break the mood right now, especially when I'm going to China very soon.
"Mom, it's not like I'll never come back." I giggle in order to make she laughs as well. "And besides, Yuzu didn't want to date me right now." I shrug.
"I think he's right." Mom says. "Give him some time. He's an athlete, and the most special one. Also, you're still young as well." Mom pauses a while, knowing that this might frustrate me a bit. "Look at me." She tells me. Her concentrate and considerate eyes tell me to be strong immediately without speaking. "That's why you have to fight and go for your love now." She pats at my cheek.
"Thank you, Mom."
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Hello everybody~~ I haven't been able to update earlier because I have SAT the nearly 3 weeks ago and some other tests in school just made me unable to spend some time to sit down and write. I know that this is quite a short chapter, but I will come back with another chapter within one week. I promise!!!! Sorry for letting you all wait and I hope you all still love this story.  As always, love Yuzu!!

P.S CONGRATULATIONS TO YUZU FOR BREAKING 6 WORLD RECORDS WITHIN 2 WEEKS!!! 😍😘⛸🎉