An Unwavering Love (A Yuri Plisetsky Fanfiction)

Chapter 21: Little Do You Know

[The Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore—1 hour before]

"Yurio? Are you okay? Yurio? Yurio?!"

Yuri was staring straight down on the floor. His breathing was ragged and his ears were ringing. He couldn't make sense of his surroundings as he tried to grasp the truth Ethan Khoo has just revealed.

Ayumi wasn't Ethan's girlfriend. She never cheated on me. They were faking it. She was helping a friend. She was just being the overly selfless person she's always been...

Damn. What is that idiot doing, being a hero for that pathetic asshole and his girlfriend?! Didn't she think about how I would feel? And that kiss... why the hell would she allow that? Why would she lie about this the night we broke up? Why didn't she just tell me?

There were too many questions in his mind.

"Thank you very much for the support you've shown us tonight." Ethan beamed, recovering from a romantic moment with his now-fiancé. "But I'd like to show appreciation once again to the girl who stood by us when no one else did. She's an amazing friend, and we're sorry for everything this secret put her through. Thank you so much Ayumi, we—"

He paused. His eyes roamed around, slowly widening in panic. "Yumi?... Yumi?"

That got everyone's attention, especially the skaters. They looked at the spot where Amanda previously stood—the spot where Ayumi was supposed to be. It was empty.

Ethan and Amanda looked at each other in horror. Suddenly they bolted to the door, hands clasped together. "YUMI!"

Yuri was still in a daze. Yuuri, Viktor and Otabek roughly shook his shoulders, trying to bring him back to earth.

"Yurio!!! Come on, we have to go!!!"

He finally snapped out of it, and they all rushed out of the ballroom. They ran until they reached the main lobby. Ethan was there with his girlfriend, and he was shouting rapid-fire instructions to the staff.

"Find her, do you understand?! Check the surveillance cameras if you must, I don't give a crap! I need to know when Ayumi Matsumoto left and who she's with!"

Asshole! After all you've done, how could you act like you care about her!?! Yuri couldn't control himself anymore and lunged at Ethan, shoving him to the wall and tightly holding his collar.

"You. Son. Of. A. Bitch!!!" he yelled, his voice rising at every word. Ethan looked at him with disgust and pried his hand off. "Damn! Get off me, pathetic scumbag!"

They got close to punching each other but were held back by Yuuri, Viktor, Otabek and Amanda. Yuri tried to break free from their grasp, but they wouldn't budge.

"How dare you involve Ayumi in your bullshit! You knew she had too big of a heart to refuse and fucking took advantage of it, didn't you!?! You made her lie to keep your dirty little secret!!!"

The guy in question snarled, Amanda trying to rein him in. "Are you kidding me? Of all the people who could possibly judge me, you're the only one who has no right! Don't pretend like you don't have a hand to play in all of this, you hypocrite!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" he barked. "As far as I know, you were the one who dragged her into this! She fooled everyone, even me, to help you! You KISSED her just to keep up your act! Do you have any idea how that affected her? She was attacked on the ice because of you!"

"I know that!" Ethan retorted. "But that kiss was not my fault! She was the one who told me to do it!"

Yuri froze in shock, and he continued. "That kiss was her idea! She wanted us to break the news as scandalously as possible! You know why? Because of you! Everything she's done these past few weeks was for no one but you!"

"...What?"

"You're a coward, you know that?" Ethan told him. "If you're going to mouth off your relationship problems with your friend, then have the balls to say it to her face! She heard EVERYTHING, Yuri, and she wanted to put you out of your misery! She just wanted you to be happy again! So yeah, she told me to kiss her! Yumi said she needed to be blamed for your break-up to save your career! She lied and took every blow from you and your deranged fans, all to protect you!"

They were confounded to hear the truth from Ethan. Viktor, Yuuri and Otabek's hold on Yuri fell, their expressions empty. He couldn't speak. His body shuddered. She did all of that, for me?

Ayu...

He found his own collar in Ethan's firm grasp. "Yumi may have made a big mistake, but she was only thinking about what's best for you. She loves you, you know that? And you tore that apart. I heard you that night. A slut? Really? Did you really think she'd hurt you like that if she had a choice? You say that you love her, but you acted like you don't know her well enough. You doubted her feelings for you and lashed with your directionless anger. How pathetic."

Yuri stumbled when he finally let go of his shirt. "Shit... No, shit..."

He held his head in his hands, the gravity of the situation pinning him down. Ayumi offered herself as a scapegoat to save him from the hurtful comments of the upper class—comments he made too big a deal of. He did not give her a chance to explain that day in the hallway, and she heard his ranting to Otabek not long after. She stood silently as he called her the worst possible thing in the universe. She did not defend herself when his fans wounded her with rocks. All for him.

No, Ayu, no...

"Stop it!" Amanda shrieked. "We have bigger problems right now! Yumi's gone, and she could be anywhere! Think for a second! She isn't stupid enough to go get herself into trouble, is she? Even if she is, she couldn't have gotten far! Singapore isn't that big!"

No one said anything. Ethan was deep in thought, and a look of realization came to his face. He pulled out his phone and faced Amanda, "No, babe. After all this, there's only one place she could be."

They all looked at him dubiously as he waited for whoever he was calling. Amanda closed her eyes in anguish. She probably figured out what her fiancé was talking about.

"Hey, it's Ethan. I need information on the next flight departing from Changi Airport to JFK tonight. Send it to me now, hurry."

What?! Yuri's head whipped at those words. Flight?! JFK? What did that mean? What's going on?

"JFK? Why would Yumi go to New York?" Viktor asked behind him.

New York!?!

"She got accepted to that high school exchange program at Columbia. God, didn't she tell you? I mean, obviously she wouldn't have told Yuri about it because of their fight, but I didn't think she'd exclude her friends, too."

"Eh? Since when?" Yuuri blurted.

"She got the decision letter about three weeks ago, I think. The term starts in a month, so she needed to get there to settle in. I knew she had to go soon, but I never imagined it'd be now."

Yuri felt like his world was collapsing. Ayumi was about to leave him behind, again, and never did it feel as dreadful as it did at that moment.

"Damn, no! I need to stop her! She can't get on that plane!"

He screamed in agony, and the rest stared at him with pity. Ethan came forward and held his shoulder.

"I still hate your guts, but I know this was my fault too. I'm going to help. Now get it together, Yuri. You don't have much time."