Foreign Ground (Yuzuru Hanyu)

14. It's As Simple As Jealousy

note* This is said in Greek

There was no air-conditioner in the house, only a small, but very talkative electric fan in the room Yuzuru was placed into.

Lilis' grandma had a big place, almost hotel-like, rooms stacked upon each other. As Yuzuru came to learn, she rented them for tourists. In the room next to his was a family of four, with two small children, laughing and running around with bare feet on ceramic tiles till late at night.

His room was somewhere at the top with a view of the sea. The first morning he was awoken by jet lag, even before dawn. He sat on the balcony and watched the sun peak behind the mountains. By the time it was in the middle of the sky, his small room was sizzling.

Yuzuru liked everything about Thessaloniki. From the scorching room, to Lilis' grandma and her habit of pulling Yuzuru by the ears every time she saw him. Even though he was never an adventurous eater, he enjoyed the local, homemade food; he liked the noise from the streets; he was amused by local television and even more in love with the music coming from various different parts of the city. Sometimes it was teenagers listening to soft indie guitar, other times it was obnoxious pop noises coming from cafe's and giros stands or even club music shaking the downtown, Yuzuru enjoyed all of it, it was so different, so refreshing; unlike anything he had ever experienced. He didn't understand the people here and neither did he try to. There was something nostalgic about communicating in simple hand gestures and nods, something which made him frustrated and anxious in the past, but now it came to him like a cool shower on a hot day.

The first day, Lilis was in a rush like he had never seen her. After she placed him in his room, she disappeared and left him to his own devices. All she said was: "No one knows you here, be a tourist, be a human being." and she was gone.

Now, Yuzuru was in love with almost everything about Thessaloniki apart from one minor but very huge obstacle with which Yuzuru had never really come across in his life before, at least not to this extent - jealousy.

As he was leaning over the balcony on the second day, he noticed something on the street bellow which he deeply disliked. He was observing the people passing by, which for some reason was the most amusing thing - seeing the pace with which they moved, clothes they wore, words they said - when suddenly Lilis appeared from the house, her hair in a messy bun on top of her head, his personal favorite, in shorts and a tank top which made Yuzuru gulp. Unexpectedly, without warning, she ran in a determined manner, bouncing up and down across the street until her fragile frame crashed into an unknown party.

Not only was the figure unknown, it was also extremely tall, excessively muscular and just a rude amount of tan. The guy wore an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt, his naked body embracing Lilis', his crude hands landing all over her waist, her back, her hands.

Yuzuru felt sick to his stomach. How dare he touch what was Yuzuru's to touch? If the balcony wasn't hot enough, Yuzuru's anger was sure to start a wild fire.

.............  ..........   .......

Lilis ran up the stairs wishing her grandma had money to build an elevator.

First she giggled a bit to herself before knocking on his door, not sure if she was out of breath from running up the stairs or due to excitement.

Out of impatience, after a few seconds, she pushed on the handle, discovering that the doors really were unlocked. She didn't imagine Yuzuru was the type to not lock up, but there it was.

"Breakfast's ready", she announced her arrival.

Opening the door, she took a look around. The bed wasn't made, she smiled at the dent from where he slept, remembering how soft he was in the night. The suitcase was opened by the bathroom door, his laptop sitting opened on the bed. It wasn't a messy room, but it was far from tidy.