Chapter Twenty-One

As autumn deepens and the temperature drops day by day, Yukimura's life becomes increasingly busy.

He began a work-study schedule, becoming a frequent flyer between the UK and Japan—completion of his studies in the Department of Finance at the University of Tokyo, high-intensity tennis training and tournaments, and various commercial shoots and event invitations, his schedule was packed.

Yuzuru Hanyu was far from idle. As her fame grew, she received numerous collaboration offers and urgently needed manpower to help her handle affairs, so she established her own studio.

Meanwhile, the academic pressure in the Chinese department remained unabated, with professors demanding high standards and a schedule piled high with papers and classwork. Both were working diligently in their respective fields, their careers growing rapidly, and the time they could spend together was constantly being squeezed.

Finally, Yuzuru Hanyu got a vacation and had some rare free time, so she immediately finalized her plan to visit Yukimura on set. When she dialed the number, her tone was as cheerful as a light bird: "Hey, Oichi, I'm planning to come see you tomorrow."

An eerie silence fell on the other end of the phone. There was no familiar, gentle response, only a faint rustling sound. After a few seconds, an unfamiliar female voice came through in stiff, deliberately raised English, with a hint of inexplicable scrutiny: "Who are you to him?"

Yuzuru's heart skipped a beat, and her fingers unconsciously tightened their grip on her phone. She had never heard Yukimura mention having female staff members around her, and what's more, the other party's tone lacked any professionalism, instead revealing an unnatural wariness.

She suppressed her doubts and calmly replied in fluent English, "He's not here. I'll message him later."

As soon as he hung up the phone and the screen went dark, Yuzuru frowned.

Yukimura's private phone number was not made public, and apart from his relatives, friends, and colleagues, almost no one knew who the woman who answered the phone was.

On the other side, Yukimura, who had just finished intense training, wiped the sweat from his forehead with a towel and walked into the storage room.

Sweat soaked through his training clothes, clinging to his smooth back. He casually draped a towel over his shoulder, picked up his phone to see if Yuzuru had sent any messages or if there were any study assignments in the group chat.

Opening the call log, a familiar number was clearly visible, and the call had taken place just half an hour earlier—but he was on the court swinging his racket at the time and hadn't touched his phone at all.

Who touched his things? Yukimura's brows furrowed instantly, the fatigue from training fading from his purple eyes, replaced by a cold glint. He immediately dialed Yuzuru's number back, his fingers tightening slightly with suppressed anger.

"Ah Yu, what's the matter that you called?" He spoke first the moment the call connected, his tone carrying a barely perceptible seriousness. He then added, "I didn't answer the phone just now. Do you know who it was?"

Yuzuru recounted the whole story about the strange woman's voice, even mimicking her tone, and finally sighed, "Her attitude was so strange, she didn't seem like a staff member."

Yukimura fell silent on the other end of the phone, and the atmosphere around him instantly became tense. Only he and his manager had the keys to the private lockers, and his phone was always kept in the bag inside the locker. Whoever could get the phone and answer the call must have broken into the lounge without permission and even rummaged through his belongings.

Yukimura's face instantly darkened, his purple eyes filled with coldness.

After hanging up with Yuzuru, he immediately dialed his manager's number, his tone serious and unwavering: "Someone broke into my dressing room, ransacked my locker, and even answered my personal phone call. Contact the club immediately, retrieve the surveillance footage, and we must find out the truth."

The manager immediately realized the seriousness of the matter – the artist's private space and privacy had been violated, especially since Yukimura, as a top athlete, had previously experienced harassment from extreme fans, and the slightest carelessness could lead to even more dangerous consequences.

He immediately contacted the club's security department and retrieved nearly an hour's worth of surveillance footage from the lounge and storage room area.

The truth quickly came to light. Surveillance footage showed that half an hour earlier, a young woman wearing a baseball cap and a mask followed cleaning staff into the athletes'-only floor.

She clearly knew the club's layout inside and out, heading straight for Yukimura's lounge. Behind all this was the fact that she had met one of the club's security personnel through a social media platform.

By frequently giving gifts and flattering the other party, he lowered their guard, revealing not only the passage time for the athletes' rest area and the route for the cleaning work, but also the approximate location of Yukimura's lockers, all to show off his "connections" in front of him.

After sneaking into the rest room, the woman first looked around the room, her fingers greedily brushing against the training manual that Yukimura had placed on the table, and even picked up the water glass he had used and brought it close to her nose, with a look of infatuation on her face.

Then, she found the backpack in the locker and, when no one was looking, tried to unlock it with a thin wire she had prepared beforehand. Perhaps by luck, she actually opened the locker door and found Yukimura's cell phone in the backpack.

Just then, Yuzuru's phone rang. The ringtone startled her, but it also piqued her curiosity.

She stared at the screen, hesitated for a few seconds, and then pressed the answer button, wanting to test the other party's identity in English, and even wanting to indirectly declare her "sovereignty".

After hanging up the phone, she probably wanted to look for Yukimura's private information on her phone, but the phone was password protected and she couldn't unlock it. She kept trying to unlock the phone until she heard footsteps in the corridor. Then she hurriedly put the phone back and fled the scene.

The suspect was quickly located by the club's security and the police were notified. Faced with the surveillance evidence, she had no way to deny it, and could only repeatedly say, "I like Yukimura so much" and "I just want to be closer to him."

However, this kind of behavior, which uses the guise of liking someone to infringe on their privacy and trespass on their private space, has long gone beyond the boundaries of idol worship and has become a despicable form of harassment.

After learning the whole story, Yuzuru's voice on the phone was filled with undisguised worry and lingering fear: "That was terrifying! You must be careful!"

Yukimura, who had just finished giving a statement to the police on the other end of the phone, softened upon hearing her tearful words of advice, and his tone became much gentler: "I know, I'll be more careful from now on. I'm sorry to have worried you."

After experiencing such an unexpected event, Yuzuru sighed with some emotion.

When the news notification popped up on his phone screen, Yuzuru had just finished organizing the registration information for his studio. As his fingertips swiped across the descriptions of extreme fans besieging artists and breaking into their residences, a chill ran down his spine.

Just then, Yukimura called again, and she immediately poured out all her worries, her voice still full of lingering fear: "You must be careful, and take more people with you when you go out."

Yukimura's voice on the other end of the phone was reassuringly warm: "Yu, the club has increased security, don't worry."

They had originally planned to visit him at his training base over the weekend, but after this incident, Yukimura was worried about her traveling alone and repeatedly told her that it would be safer for her to stay at the school or studio.

When he had some free time in the evening, Yuzuru called Mina. As soon as he mentioned the news, he couldn't help but sigh: "Extreme fans are terrifying. They can actually do such crazy things."

“Yes, Guoguang has encountered something similar before,” Mina’s voice came through the receiver, tinged with helplessness. “There were even sasaeng fans who secretly followed us to the apartment entrance, which scared the team so much that they had to increase security afterwards.”

"Using the guise of liking someone to do extreme things is not liking at all!" Mina said, getting angrier and angrier, her voice rising several notches. "True liking is about respect and protection, not about recklessly disturbing other people's lives."

Yuzuru nodded repeatedly, deeply agreeing: "No matter what, you still need to protect yourself. You should too, be careful when you go out."

"I know, Yuzuru, I won't run around alone," Mina said with a smile, trying to reassure her. "Kunimitsu is even more cautious than me now. He plans his route in advance for every place he goes, as if he wants to keep me by his side."

After chatting for a few minutes, Mina changed the subject: "How have you been lately? Are your thesis and studio plans going smoothly?"

"I've been a bit busy. My thesis was just finalized, and the studio was just set up. Things should get easier once things are sorted out," Yuzuru rubbed his temples, his tone filled with anticipation. "How about you? How was your honeymoon? Looking at the photos you posted on your WeChat Moments, Iceland is absolutely gorgeous!"

Mentioning their honeymoon, Mui Ne's voice instantly lit up with excitement, and she spoke much faster: "It was amazing! We were incredibly lucky to see the Northern Lights in Iceland! The green ribbons of light floating in the sky were like a dream! We also watched the sunrise and sunset at the beach; the seawater was as blue as a jewel, and later we even tried scuba diving—it was my first time diving!"

“The water down there is so blue and clear, you can see so many colorful little fish, but those deep trenches are pitch black, you can’t see the bottom at a glance, it’s terrifying just thinking about it,” Mina said, then suddenly lowered her voice and revealed, “You know what? Guoguang was too scared to go down! He was hesitant at first, so I jumped down first to show him, and then he gritted his teeth and followed. In the end, he kept his eyes closed the whole time, and clung to my hand tightly. I had to keep pulling him to swim!”

Yuzuru couldn't help but laugh out loud, covering his mouth and teasing, "You've ruined the image of Tezuka-kun in my heart. I never thought he was afraid of diving."

The two chatted for another half hour, from interesting anecdotes about their travels to trivial matters of daily life, before reluctantly hanging up the phone. After putting down his phone, Yuzuru gazed at the darkening sky outside the window and suddenly felt a surge of curiosity. He tapped his fingers on the screen and sent a message to Yukimura: "I haven't noticed anything you're afraid of all these years."

A few seconds later, Yukimura replied, consisting of only three question marks: "???"

Yuzuru couldn't help but smile, and added, "Is there anything you're afraid of? Like insects, frogs, or things like chickens or geese? Do you have any minor weaknesses?"

This time, Yukimura replied quickly: "I was afraid of you asking such a question so unexpectedly. Has something happened?"

Yuzuru looked at the screen and replied with a string of ellipses: "..."

Undeterred, she sent another message, her tone slightly coquettish: "Please satisfy my curiosity, dear Oichi~"

After the message was sent successfully, Yuzuru held her phone and waited for a while before seeing Yukimura's reply. It was just a simple sentence, but it made her heart skip a beat: "Yes, I'm afraid of losing you."

These seven simple words, devoid of flowery language, are like a pebble thrown into a lake, creating ripples that spread outwards. Yuzuru's fingertips paused on the screen, his heart trembled, his nose tingled slightly, and his eyes welled up with tears.