ice monarchs ; y.h

Chapter 4

The next few days were very quiet. Yuzuru wasn't talking as much, probably thinking about whatever, and I was still thinking about Canada. I'm guessing Coach Nanami caught onto what was happening and I hear her sigh.

"Ok what the heck is going on between the both of you?" I see Yuzuru in the corner of my eye look at Coach.

I try to answer, but Yuzu beats me to it, "Can Mei come with me to Canada?" Coach Nanami was indeed shocked. I could see her eyebrows scrunch from where I was.

"What'd you mean come with you? Brian Orser asked for you, not Mei." OK ouch. Didn't need a 2nd degree burn from my own couch.

Yuzuru speaks up, while skating towards Coach, "I talked to him last night, he's perfectly fine with it." It was my turn to be shocked. I didn't think he was serious about me going with him. My palms started to sweat, the tension between them was getting scary.

"She's my student though. Why didn't you ask me first?" She crosses her arms looking directly at me, "Did you know he was going to ask me?" I look down at the ice, nodding.

"I don't see why she can't come with me. Mei is a good skater. She can get better training in Canada." I slowly started to skate towards them, before hearing Coach Nanami's arms drop to her side.

"Is my training not good enough? I know you're transferring for a better chance, but I'm doing perfectly fine training Mei." She had an exasperated look on her face. I skate up to them.

"Coach, your training is good enough, Yuzuru just doesn't want to tell you he wants me to come for his own personal reasons." I can feel Yuzuru glare from beside me. Coach looks at both of us, going up and down between our heights, before sighing again.

"Have you talked to your mom about it?" I shake my head no, but point to Yuzuru.

"He said he was going to do it." She pressed her lips into a flat line.

"I can't believe two of my students are leaving me." We look at her, hopeful. It's quiet for the next few seconds, before she speaks up again.

"I hope you two train hard over there. Never forget that I was your coach. I love you guys like you were my kids." She grabs the both of us, pulling us into a hug. It was funny because Yuzu had to bend down a little.

"We love you too." I felt something drop onto my shirt, and guessed that Coach was tearing up. We release the hug and smile at each other.

"Ok back to practice. I'll contact Brian myself and say thank you." She wipes her tears, and walks to her office.

We look at each other, and I can see the happiness in Yuzuru's eyes. I shake my head and skate back into the middle.

"You got lucky Hanyu. Now you have to deal with my mom." I hear him laugh and I start skating around the rink again.

Practice was over and I was sitting in the locker room. I take off my shirt and look at my wrapped shoulder. It felt like it was throbbing under the bandages, but I ignore it. A shoulder injury isn't going to stop me from skating. I take off the bandages to apply this weird cream my doctor gave me, and wrapped it again. I grab a new shirt out of my bag, before throwing on my hoodie again. I put my skates back into my bag, and grab my shoes. I hear someone walk into the locker room and it turns out to be a small girl, around age 4. She walks up to me and stares at me.

"Are you and Yuzuru-Kun actually leaving the country?" I was taken back from the question she asked... how'd she even know?

"I saw you and Coach Nanami talking about it earlier, why are you leaving?" Her cheeks puff up, and it takes every muscle in my body to stop me from pinching them.

"What's your name?"

"I am Hamako Takahasi! I am 4 years old and I want to be able to skate like you!" I smile at her bubbliness.

"Well Hamako-Chan, me and Yuzu-Kun are leaving to reach our goals. Do you have goals?" She nods her head, excited, and jumps up.

"I want to be able to win olympic gold! Onii-chan said it was an amazing feeling to be able to win anything, so I wanna go for the best." I giggle, hearing how excited she was.

"Well, you have to train with Coach Nanami to get better, right?" She nods, so I continue.

"That's why me and Yuzu-Kun are leaving. To win gold." I smile at her, and stand up.

"You should be practicing, let's get you back onto ice." I hold my hand out for her to grab, which she does, and we walk out of the locker room.

I see a guy standing right outside the locker room pacing.

"Oh thank you! I wasn't going to go in there because I thought there would be other girls. Thank you for bringing her out." He bows and grabs the little girl and thanks me again. Hamako waves at me again, and I wave back.

"Well that was cute." I turn around to see Yuzuru, smirking at me. I roll my eyes and walk past him.

"Let's go! You still have to tell my mom and brother about what's happening!" We walk out of the rink towards my house...

I unlock the front door and walk in, with a terrified Yuzuru behind me. I mean I would be terrified too. My mom is scary.

She's in the beauty business so she works with a lot of people to perfect her palettes, brushes, etc. She's pretty busy, but when she has time for me and Kei, we usually go to the mall.

"Mom? I'm home. Yuzuru is here." I take my shoes off, placing them by the front door. Yuzuru mimics me, and we walk in.

I hear her from her office, "Why is he here? Not that I'm complaining." I feel heat come up to my face. She was always like this. She likes to tease me a lot when it comes to boys, and Yuzuru was no different.

"He has something to tell you, are you ok to talk?" I hear her hum from where I was standing, and push Yuzu towards her office.

"You know where it is. I'll make you sushi. Good luck." His eyebrows scrunch together and he pushes his lips together. He finally gathers enough courage to walk to my mom's office.

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