nevertheless || yuzuru hanyu

thirty-seven - the people we admire

"If you're not back here at 1 PM, we can't wait for you anymore. It's not fair to your teammates."

That was the message that Gabriella woke up to.

As the day began, she was again in preparation to see Yuzuru for his free skate. It's also the last day of his competition. She wanted so badly for him to win. She didn't know why for she wasn't the one competing, but in a sense, she just wanted to see him completely joyful.

In a way, seeing him succeed might spark some type of moving magic within her to pick herself up and start being more responsible.

She received lots of calls today. None of which she picked up. She still refused to let anyone know where she is.

She knew it was wrong and irresponsible, but that was the least of her worries right now.

It's funny because she always thought that she had pretty good self-control and that she wasn't the type of person that would just go MIA without letting anyone know. She was so sure of herself, but right now, that wasn't the case.

She was feeling better than yesterday, but still confused. Yuzuru skating his heart out on the ice knocked a bit of sense into her. It was nothing short of a reminder.

The way she saw Yuzuru enjoying his skate made her remember how much she enjoyed playing badminton.

In a sense, though she had only been gone for a day, she was starting to miss it.

She was coming from the hotel she booked to a bus stop that was going to take her to the arena when she saw a group of kids playing badminton at the side of an empty street.

They had fun as they ran around trying to rally their shuttle cock from one side to another. There was that spark in their eyes. It was youthful and fresh. They were carefree and they looked as though they had nothing much to worry about at that moment except for that game of badminton they were having.

Gabriella thought that they were pretty good. Their rallies would last for a while, and overall they had good technique and footwork.

It made her smile as they reminded her of how she found her love for badminton.

It was a very similar situation to this very moment. She was walking the streets of Seoul with her father, and as they were strolling around, she saw a group of teenagers with their rackets, having fun as they played the sport she once never knew.

She asked her father what the sport was and that was when he introduced her to badminton. At first, they would do it together every weekend, then Gabriella enjoyed it more than she thought she would so they allowed her to play on Wednesdays and Fridays too. That's when she got picked up by Coach Browne.

He saw something in her that made him want to train her and help her improve.

She has gone a long way since. She's a national athlete now, someone whom she thought she would never become.

She took a deep sigh as she kept walking towards the bus stop. She turned away from the children and so did the smile that was resting blankly on her face.

She waited for a while until a bus finally came to bring her to where she needed to go.

She immediately stepped in, wondering what feats she was going to witness as she watches another one of Yuzuru's programs.