Chapter 25: Longing and Possessiveness

The moment the morning sun filtered in through the slits in the curtains, it instantly filled the small guest bedroom. Feeling the light invade her, Le slowly opened her eyes. Glancing at the still-sleeping figure beside her, she carefully removed the hand that was embracing her. She quietly stood up, grabbed the clothes draped at the foot of the bed, put them on neatly, and went barefoot to the bathroom to wash up.

The embrace was empty, and Yuzuru Hanyu turned over, continuing his dream. In his dream, he saw sunny Tampere, the bustling and fun Angry Bird theme park, thrilling roller coasters, a romantic Ferris wheel, and Le holding his hand. There were no cameras pointed at them, no strangers approaching to say hello, no one interrupting their date. They laughed and played freely in the park, hugging and kissing in the sunset.

The light of the setting sun did not dim, but instead became increasingly stronger, dazzling his eyes.

He rubbed his eyes, the ceiling illuminated by the morning light slowly bringing him back to reality. He reached out to touch, but only felt the empty bed. He turned his head and buried his face in the pillow, which still lingered with the scent of Le's hair. The door was gently pushed open, and he glanced sideways, then opened his arms towards the door.

Le hadn't realized Hanyu Yuzuru was already awake. He quietly pushed open the door and saw a silly boy with a sleepy smile on his face, lying on the bed with his arms outstretched to him. If he didn't move, he seemed determined to keep his arms raised like that. Feeling helpless, he sighed softly and leaned over to kiss his forehead.

"Why are you awake?"

Yuzuru Hanyu didn't answer her immediately. He just folded his arms and let her lie back in his arms. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and said in a sticky voice, "Sleep a little longer."

Le didn't object, adjusting her position to nestle more comfortably in his embrace. She knew he hadn't slept well last night. Several times during the night, while drifting off to sleep, she could feel his soft lips caressing her eyes and nose, and then his gentle voice soothing her to sleep. So, she had indeed slept well.

"Don't move."

The warning, with its lazy, nasal tone, only sounded like a spoiled child and had no deterrent effect on Le. She nuzzled into his arms again, finding the most comfortable position, hugged his back, and closed her eyes.

The scent of shampoo that had lingered in his nose last night, mingled with a hint of refreshing mint tea, slightly dispelling some of Hanyu Yuzuru's sleepiness. The hand holding Le moved imperceptibly to her waist, massaging it gently.

"Are you...feeling unwell somewhere?" he murmured.

"Huh? No." Le looked up from his arms, puzzled. Before he could figure out where this strange question came from, the restless hand on his waist explained everything.

The happiness of taking a nap probably doesn’t necessarily require you to be asleep.

Today, Le had a profound realization: plans can't keep pace with change. Yesterday, thinking she had a date back from Disneyland, she'd packed some underwear and quickly used the bathroom to shower. The spontaneous nature of her actions made her marvel at her own cleverness. Now, she could only resign herself to unpacking Yuzuru Hanyu's suitcase.

If she had known this, she would never have worn this low-cut square-neck top.

The strawberry cake he'd been so lonely watching over last night was finally served. Yuzuru Hanyu sat at the table, clutching a shopping bag, his hands mysteriously fiddling with something inside. Hearing the door open, he pulled his hands away like a child caught doing something naughty, and a snapping sound echoed from the bag.

"What are you doing?"

"No, no." Yuzuru Hanyu quietly moved the shopping bag to the empty chair next to him, and was stunned the moment he looked up at Le.

Le was wearing one of his black T-shirts, her arms appearing even slimmer in the cuffs that draped over her shoulders. She tucked a corner of the shirt into the waistband of her jeans, highlighting her exquisitely high waistline. The fact that Le was a natural clothes hanger shouldn't have surprised Yuzuru Hanyu, but that T-shirt looked incredibly familiar.

Those are his clothes.

His gaze was fixed on her, watching her pull out the chair opposite her. Her long hair was casually tied back, a few strands of hair falling, and the loose black collar made her neck look even more slender and fair. Before sitting down, she leaned over and dragged the chair a little. Through the collar, he could see along her bare neck to her collarbone, dotted with red marks.

Feeling Hanyu Yuzuru's gaze, Le touched his face curiously.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?"

"No, it's very beautiful." He smiled brightly, "The clothes are also very beautiful~"

"Well, didn't you say you didn't like the top I wore yesterday? Then I can only wear yours." She blushed and made an excuse for herself.

"You look better dressed than me, but it's just missing something." He stood up and walked around behind Le, "Don't move."

Just now, he leaned over and groped around too obviously, and the corner of the dark blue velvet box hidden behind his back was exposed. But he looked so smug and mysterious that Le couldn't bear to expose him, so he sat still and cooperated.

The golden feathers flashed past her eyes and landed on Le's chest. She couldn't hear the sound of the buckle snapping on. She kept her head slightly lowered to expose her neck for his movements until Yuzuru Hanyu's arm came up from her shoulders and hugged her.

"Happy birthday." He whispered in my ear.

"Thank you," Le said, lowering her head to touch the pendant on her chest. Without a mirror, she could only glimpse the outline. The texture of the pattern felt by her fingertips further confirmed her belief that it was in the shape of a feather, a fitting style for Yuzuru Hanyu.

I picked up my phone and wanted to take a look, but he stopped me with his hand.

"You can watch it later by yourself. Let's blow out the candles first~" He said, kissed her cheek, and walked back to his seat with a grin.

"Okay~" She put down her phone obediently and noticed the paper bag on the chair next to him. "Then, what is that? Is it my gift too?"

“It can’t really be considered a gift… Actually…” Yuzuru Hanyu scratched the back of his head, and sheepishly took out a small off-white shoulder bag from a paper bag, placed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Le. “This is a compensation for you…”

Looking at him doubtfully made him even more nervous, and he spoke more frequently.

"It's the shoulder bag you left in Canada last time. I accidentally broke it when I was putting it away. I tried to repair it several times, but it didn't work. I wanted to buy an identical one, but I didn't know where to find one. So I asked my sister to pick one out for me that was about the same size. Oh, no, I chose the look myself, but I asked my sister to recommend the brand, and she also helped me buy it from the store."

Le took the bag and looked at it without saying a word, listening to Yuzuru Hanyu talk about how he chose the bag, how he asked his sister for help to buy it, and how she happened to be in Tokyo, so he could get it at her sister's house.

The less she spoke, the more guilty she made the person who spoke feel.

"I didn't break it on purpose... You know how careless I am with things sometimes. Look how badly my phone is." He held the phone out to Le. A corner was indeed chipped, and a thin crack ran down the screen. It was true that he hadn't been careful enough, especially since that fight. Every time he opened Le's LINE message and saw her say "disposable," he couldn't help but throw the phone away. The chip was a product of that time. Of course, he didn't dare say it.

When I turned the bag over, I heard a hard object bumping against it. I unscrewed the buckle with a click and found a small magatama hidden inside, hanging from the zipper of the inner pocket.

"You had the amulet I asked for you a few years ago in your bag. You were so careless. How could you keep that kind of amulet for so long? This time I'll give you a magatama so you can wear it forever~" He leaned over the table to explain the origin of the magatama to Le, then suddenly remembered something and hurriedly explained, "Ah... I didn't mean to look through your bag. I took out everything because I didn't want to damage anything while I was repairing it."

"Did you throw away the bag from before?"

"No, no!" He waved his hands quickly. "I came back in a hurry... Pusang is looking after it at home in Canada! I will still find a way to fix it! So... when we had the argument before, I..."

Before he could even utter an apology, a smear of cream was suddenly smeared on his nose. Le propped himself up on the table with one hand and dabbed the cream on Yuzuru Hanyu's face with the other. He laughed out loud at the cream on the tip of his nose and his stunned expression. His apology was interrupted, and before the candles were even lit, the cream cake had already been sacrificed between two childish people.

-----

With the opening of the Tokyo Olympics, Le also embarked on a journey back to Beijing. After finishing his 24-hour recording session, Yuzuru Hanyu also returned to the reversal of his day and night schedule for season preparations. Summer passed into early winter, and the two returned to their previous state of contact through the screen, but some things were different.

The longing and possessiveness have become different.

To adjust his routine and condition for the NHK competition, Yuzuru Hanyu began shifting his training schedule to the daytime. After completing his training, he sat on a bench by the rink, panting and cleaning his skates while mentally reviewing his jumps. The pain in his right ankle and knee hadn't subsided, so he scooped some ice packs from a nearby ice bucket and began applying them to his bag. The cool sensation quickly dissipated the swelling and heat, allowing him to breathe deeply.

There was a sudden noise at the ice rink entrance behind him, presumably signaling the start of the next operating period. Although the ice pack wasn't finished yet, Hanyu moved it aside and swiftly began pulling on his socks to make room.

"good afternoon."

The familiar voice made Yuzuru Hanyu slow down his movements and turn around. Chiba Baiyin, wearing a black tracksuit with pink trims and carrying a large sports bag, stood behind him and greeted him. She still had her hair in a ponytail like she had as a child, but it was combed even sleeker than before.

"It's Baiyin~ Do you have the whole place to yourself or are you training with someone?" He asked as he took back the ice pack he had just moved away and applied it to his ankle which was still a little painful.

"My teammates and coach will be here in about 20 minutes. I'll come early to warm up." Baiyin put her bag away, pulled out a bag of candy, opened one, and popped it into her mouth. She liked to eat a candy before going on the ice, and then another one after getting off: one to encourage herself, and one to reward herself.

Before putting the candy away, she thought for a moment and handed the candy to Yuzuru Hanyu.

Fruit candies of various flavors appeared from the translucent packaging bag. Yuzuru Hanyu looked at the bag of candies in front of him and smiled.

"Baiyin is still the same as when she was little. Do you still love candy so much even after becoming an athlete?" He picked a strawberry-flavored candy from the candy bag, held it up and thanked her.

"I eat very little." Baiyin said vaguely while holding a candy in her mouth.

Yuzuru Hanyu moved aside, making room for Baiyin to sit down, and the two of them began chatting casually. While Yuzuru Hanyu was doing most of the talking, Chiba Baiyin simply sat by and listened, occasionally responding. She had lost the boisterous energy of her childhood and was much quieter. As Yuzuru Hanyu regaled her with interesting stories about Tohoku High School, emphasizing that if she achieved success in skating, the school's figure skating club would surely become even more powerful, she simply lowered her head to star at her phone, occasionally flicking on the screen.

The group photo on the lit screen caught Yuzuru Hanyu's attention.

"Hey~ Baiyin got a boyfriend?"

Baiyin quickly turned off the screen and hurriedly shook her hands, saying, "No, no, this isn't it. It's a ballet dancer I really like. I happened to run into her at Disneyland not long ago, so we took a picture together."

Seeing her panic, Yuzuru Hanyu became playful and kept teasing the young girl who had just reached her teens.

"Oh, really not! This actor has a girlfriend! It was his girlfriend who took the photo for us at Disneyland that day. She was so nice, gentle and pretty." Baiyin said. Afraid that Yuzuru Hanyu wouldn't believe her, she started flipping through her phone album. "Really? I was in a teacup with them that day, and I even captured it when I was filming the Beauty and the Beast video! Let me show you!"

She found the video and brought it in front of Yuzuru Hanyu.

Yuzuru Hanyu doesn't recognize the guy with the straight back in the video, but he's incredibly familiar with the girl next to him who turns her head and glances at the camera from the side! Isn't that music?

"Is the girl you are talking about the girlfriend of the guy you like?" Yuzuru Hanyu asked, suppressing his anger.

"Yeah, they seem to be a good match. The girl looks like she's also a ballet dancer, she has a great temperament, but I don't know who she is. I couldn't find her in the cast list of K Troupe."

Baiyin lowered her head to fiddle with her phone, and then heard Yuzuru Hanyu's shocked remarks.

“That’s my girlfriend!!!”

Beijing

Le's project team had a rare day off, and Guan Yue had planned to go out for dinner that evening. But it was 45 minutes past the agreed time, and Le's door was still shut. Guan Yue sat numbly in the living room, waiting for Happy Candy Crush to recover. She had no desire to knock. Ever since Le returned from Japan, whenever they encountered this kind of situation, there was basically only one outcome: an argument.

After waiting for about 20 minutes, Le finally came out of the room, holding his coat and looking unhappy.

"Let's go. I need to eat more. I'm starving."

Guan Yue reached out and unplugged her charging phone, then followed Le out the door. She was going to have to listen to another couple's quarrel story during dinner today, which felt a bit unfair. Should she try to get Yuzuru Hanyu to pay for it, Guan Yue thought.

It was already nine o'clock in the evening, and the Old Beijing Hotpot Restaurant outside the community had become much quieter. Two girls sat opposite each other in front of a boiling pot of clear soup, waiting for their dishes to be served, chatting across the hot steam and white smoke wafting from the copper pot.

"Tell me, what happened between you and your champion?"

Le had been deliberately avoiding the topic, yet his hesitant manner was truly unbearable. Guan Yue rolled her eyes and resigned herself to bringing up the topic herself. Sure enough, Le, with a look that said, "You asked that!", opened up the conversation.

"How could there be such a person? He asked the question himself, and then he wasn't happy with the answer!"

"What did he ask?"

"He asked me how many boyfriends I had."

puff--

Guan Yue couldn't hold back her saliva and splashed her hand.

"How did you answer?"

"I answered truthfully. Thank you," the waiter interrupted Le as they were serving the food. She set the plate and eagerly shoveled the meat into the pot, stirring it with long bamboo chopsticks. The bright red mutton tumbled in the boiling water, quickly fading to a faint pink.

"We've known each other for so long, there's nothing to be ashamed of. But I told him a number, and he didn't believe it, so I can only count it again for him."

What a guy! Guan Yue exclaimed in her heart, what a guy!

Today, Hele ended the video call on a bad note again. To be honest, it was probably Baiyin's words and a new trending topic on Twitter that were to blame.

#CoupleChallenge: Do you dare to know how many partners your partner has had?

Yuzuru Hanyu knew Le had a past relationship. He had always considered himself not narrow-minded and hadn't paid much attention to it. But Baiyin's words today had made him pay much attention to the topic. After much deliberation, he finally spoke to the video.

"People nowadays are so boring. Can this be considered a challenge?" he said deliberately.

"What's wrong?" Guo Ranle followed his words and gave him the chance to continue.

"I saw a really stupid challenge on Twitter." He waved his phone towards the camera, squinting his eyes as if he hadn't seen it clearly. "It asked if you dared to know how many times your partner had been with someone. Why wouldn't you dare know that?"

Having brought the conversation to this point, Yuzuru Hanyu continued his calculations, "As I recall, you've had two or three boyfriends, right?"

"That's about right." Le raised his eyes and thought about it, shrugged his shoulders and continued to lower his head to count the warehouse in Dongsenli.

"What do you mean almost?"

The two exchanged a few words, gradually becoming anxious. When Le put down his Switch and began counting his boyfriends on his fingers, starting from his first love, Yuzuru Hanyu began to understand the reason for this challenge.

"Then there's Kevin, and then there's now. Look, isn't this..."

"I've already counted them." He interrupted Le with a cold face, "You don't have to say it."

"Are you angry? What's there to be angry about?"

Yes, he asked it himself, and Le was answering honestly. Why should he be angry? Thinking of this, Hanyu calmed himself down. He hadn't gotten to the point yet, so he couldn't get angry yet.

"Have you ever had a Japanese boyfriend? That is, a Japanese man."

In the video, Yue Mingxian glanced up at him, his eyes seemingly replying with the word "you." Hanyu Yuzuru was furious, then realized his words were ambiguous, and added, "I was talking about my ex-boyfriend!"

"Not yet," Le replied with a shrug.

"What do you mean not yet?"

Now it's time to start getting angry.

Ever since the two have been together, Yuzuru Hanyu has discovered that love is magical. Even though he and Le have known each other for ten years, he still discovers many characteristics that he didn't realize before, such as Le's natural girlfriend attributes that can make people angry without even realizing it.

Of course, there were also plenty of cute and surprising moments. For example, Le Zai would unconsciously act coquettishly when waking up early, her voice soft and sweet, so adorable. Or, for example, Le Zai would instantly complain while watching a TV series. He had never realized how many comments she had in her head when they watched movies together. And her hands were surprisingly tender, soft when intertwined. Although she had a low body fat percentage and was thin like him, she felt soft when hugged. Her lips were also soft. She would close her eyes when kissing, and her long eyelashes fluttered slightly, making him feel itchy.

Did her ex-boyfriend also know all this?

Ahhh! This is so annoying! Who on earth initiated this ridiculous challenge?

Yuzuru Hanyu threw himself into the bed. Pusang at the head of the bed fell off the pillow and hit the back of his head, but he didn't care. He just lay face down in the quilt, losing his dream.

Ding Dong——

It was the sound of his cell phone that particularly caught his attention. He reluctantly got up from the bed.

Raku: This place downstairs in our neighborhood is absolutely delicious! The lamb isn't smelly at all, and the sesame sauce is amazing! It's not crowded, so I'll definitely bring you over if I get a chance! [Picture]]

The photo shows a steaming hot pot with some dishes placed next to it. In the mist rising from the hot pot is a smiling face of a person who is very satisfied with the meal. This photo should have been taken by Guan Yue.

[Raku: But the shop smells a bit smoky. How about bringing a pot over to my house and cooking it for you? Thinking.jpg]

Just when I was about to reply that he might not be interested in mutton, Le’s next message came.

[Raku: Don't say you're not interested. This is already on my to-do list. If you don't like it, just watch me eat it!]

A to-do list is an invisible checklist that appears when two people start a long-distance relationship. It's filled with things they've verbally promised, secretly planned, and want to do together when they see each other again. It's never written down, but it's there, and both of them know it.

[Yuzu: OK! 】

Yuzuru Hanyu suddenly felt that there was nothing to be upset about. After all, all future plans would only involve him, and his ex-boyfriend had no part in them!

He rolled over in bed and suddenly sat up in shock.

By the way, I haven’t asked what the name of the guy Baiyin admires is!