Chapter 123 Planned Trip
The hotel room was surprisingly quiet, with only the sound of water splashing in the bathroom and the occasional rustling of steam, like a low prelude to this brief stay.
Yuzuru Hanyu sat at a desk by the window, still wearing the gray sweater he'd worn when he went out, the cuffs rolled up to his forearms, revealing his slender yet sturdy wrists. His hair was slightly damp from the mist, a single strand clinging unruly to his forehead. He was importing footage he'd shot that day from his camera, one by one, into his computer—a familiar MacBook Pro, its edges showing signs of wear. His fingertips touched the trackpad with a deft, focused movement.
He treated it as if it were a precious collection. He was extremely serious about every click, every progress bar pull, and every adjustment of light and shadow parameters. Occasionally, when he tapped the keyboard, his fingers exerted a little force, his knuckles slightly tensed, but there was a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.
A newly recorded clip popped up on the player in front of me: Le stood before a vermilion door, sunlight slanting down from the eaves. She wore a red hooded sweatshirt, the color complementing the door beautifully. She glanced around, as if searching for something, or waiting for something, her eyes filled with an unconcealable joy, as if she were seeing a childhood figure come to life for the first time. Suddenly, she broke into a broad smile, as if remembering something, and turned to wave at the camera.
Yuzuru Hanyu looked at this frame and couldn't help but laugh.
He remembered the scene in "Goblin" where Eun-tak first accidentally followed "Agassi" to Quebec. He had just rewatched the show with Le just last Christmas. To him, the tone of the show was clearly a tragic, weighty affair, woven with a sense of fate. Yet, Le remained obsessed with it, rewatching it every winter and constantly exclaiming, "Wow, this is so romantic!" and "How can he be so handsome?"
Helping the troupe organize vlog footage has become Yuzuru Hanyu's "hidden hobby." He always remembers the vlogging tasks the troupe requires, "quickly recording" them, never actively editing them. As a result, the footage piles up, and the debt piles up. He, on the other hand, relentlessly sorts, selects, and organizes each frame, even rehearsing the cover videos and background music for each trip countless times in his mind.
Although Le hasn't decided whether to share his Quebec trip, Hanyu feels the videos deserve to be seen by everyone. The girl's smile is dazzling, and her vibrant side is a Le most people haven't seen. The elegant and capable Le, in his outward appearance, also has this dazzling and vibrant side.
If... he hadn't learned some of the "truths" from the past today, he was sure that the happy scenes in his camera would have increased even more, and they would have been used in a specific, formal, private yet show-off occasion - for example, a pre-wedding review video.
He was almost there. He had planned to do it today... in Quebec...
His eyes fell on his backpack not far away, where there was a small velvet box hidden quietly.
"It's a pity it's not autumn now."
This afternoon, while walking through Montmorency Park, the filming location for "Goblin," Le sighed as he looked up at the bare branches. That was the tree-lined path Eun-tak had followed in pursuit of "Goblin." It should have been stained golden by fallen leaves, but now, only the spring breeze had just blown out new, pale green shoots. The ground was a patchwork of dead branches, dirt, and remnant snow, lacking the beauty and romance he'd imagined.
The temperature was still mild, around 12 or 13 degrees Celsius. Yuzuru Hanyu wore a gray sweater, his jacket long since removed and held in his hand. He hated the heat, and even though there was still a slight breeze, he refused to wrap himself up too thickly. Le, however, remained unfazed. He clasped his hands behind his back, looking around, expressing the feeling that it wasn't autumn, that there were no maple leaves.
Everything went just as he planned.
There are no maple leaves, so the two of us won’t grab the same maple leaf when walking together, but I still feel that we can be together for a lifetime.
This was the line he had rehearsed many times in his mind, and he kept rubbing the ring in his pocket...
But my heartbeat is getting faster and faster.
In fact, he had secretly planned this itinerary long before she agreed to accompany him to Toronto.
"Then we can stop by Quebec before you go to Boston. Haven't you always said you wanted to come for a pilgrimage?" He said it very naturally, as if everything was a matter of course.
In reality, there's no such thing as a "stopover" in geography. It takes two hours to fly from Toronto to Quebec, and another seven or eight hours to drive to Boston.
But because of what she said, "Oh, I really want to go to Quebec and see...", he made all the arrangements.
He thought he was calm enough, but when Le said, "It's a pity it's not autumn," he subconsciously held his breath.
"Even if it's not autumn, I can still meet the romantic Agassi..." People tend to talk nonsense when they are nervous. After saying this, looking at Le's strange eyes, Yuzuru Hanyu wanted to bite his tongue.
Le turned to look at him, with a hint of ridicule in his eyes.
"Even if it's autumn, I don't necessarily meet Agassi." She raised her eyebrows and smiled, shrugged slowly, and put on an expression of "I've seen through it all."
"Although I still like Goblin, I won't go looking for someone like Agassi to fall in love with me anymore, so you can rest assured." After saying that, she patted Yuzuru Hanyu's shoulder leisurely.
He frowned. "What do you mean? Have you...really looked for it before?"
"It's not really looking for it, it's just - I just ran into it. It's Ke..."
In the middle of her words, Le paused as if she suddenly realized something and secretly glanced at the expression on his face.
"Oh, that's not important." She quickly changed the subject, her voice light. "The important thing is that I don't want to look for Agassi anymore."
Yes, it doesn't matter anymore. Because Hanyu Yuzuru has already taken the important information to heart.
The guy named Kevin, a Korean, appeared in her life briefly during the most "Agassi-intoxicated" period of her life.
A thief who took advantage of the situation!
Yuzuru Hanyu cursed inwardly. The proposal scene he had carefully planned, which he had repeatedly confirmed would be romantic in order to impress Le, was now… tainted.
She shouldn't have come to a city that reminded her of her ex!
"Damn Agassi," Yuzuru Hanyu muttered, his fingers pounding away on the keyboard as he frantically scrolled through the images. He licked his teeth, his teeth clenched. Remembering Gabriella's teasing of Kevin's "unfortunate" name a few days ago, a surge of inexplicable anger welled up in him. He was fed up with this uninvited "Quebec ex"—he wished he could delete all the vlog footage right then and there.
Snap——
Just as the next video loaded, the sound of water in the bathroom stopped abruptly. He froze for a moment before realizing he'd pressed too hard, making the touchpad ring.
The door clicked open, and a puff of white mist slowly drifted out of the bathroom. Le walked out barefoot, toweling her hair. She was casually wrapped in a light gray bathrobe, a few drops of water hanging on her collarbone, and her hair was plastered to her neck, making her look like a cat that had just emerged from the lake.
She squinted her eyes and leaned over. After seeing Hanyu's movements clearly, she raised the corner of her lip and said, "Hey, what are you doing? Why do you look so hateful towards society?"
Yuzuru Hanyu said without even looking up: "I'm deleting it."
"What to delete?"
"Delete all the footage you recorded today." He gritted his teeth, as if he was competing with the red door and the word "Kevin" in the video.
Le burst out laughing and sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. While continuing to rub her hair with the towel, she glanced at him sideways: "What are you doing? This is Quebec. It's a rare visit, why would you delete it?"
"Didn't you say you wouldn't put it in the official vlog?" Hanyu Yuzuru said fiercely, his fingers rapidly moving between Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. "Then why should I keep it? To keep me sulking?"
"That's right." Le looked at him with sparkling eyes. "I said I wouldn't release it, but I want to keep it for myself. Didn't you edit it so well? And you filmed it so well, how could you bear to delete it?"
Yuzuru Hanyu snorted coldly: "It wasn't taken by Agassi, so why is there anything worth keeping?"
"What? You like Gong Yoo too?" Le blinked innocently and looked at him, leaving Yuzuru Hanyu speechless for a moment.
Seeing his expression, Le laughed so hard that he fell backwards. He reached for the computer and said, "Oh, okay, okay, I've already explained everything to you. It's all in the past. You know how long I've been dating you? It's less than a month, and you're..."
"Then I'll be angry even if it's just one day?" Yuzuru Hanyu muttered in a low voice.
"Time? What's wrong with time?" Le wasn't feigning innocence this time; she truly didn't know. She scratched her head and thought carefully. "Now that you mention it, it's true. You know all my past boyfriends, but you just have a problem with Kevin..."
"Don't think about it." Yuzuru Hanyu's ears turned red, and he quickly interrupted her as if he was afraid that she would remember something.
But before she could react, Le had already figured out a clue. She clapped her hands as if a flash of inspiration had struck her, and suddenly realized, "Could it be because you actually liked me back then?"
"Yes! I've liked you for a long time!" Yuzuru Hanyu finally stopped hiding it this time, confessing like a broken jar. "Not only did I like you, I even confessed to you back then! At a snack stand in Gangneung, South Korea! You even said at the time that you looked like a ghost..." As he spoke, he felt something was wrong, "It's really unlucky!!!"
His series of reactions made Le stand there for a few seconds. He blinked and waited for his brain to process the information before he spoke blankly.
"Did you really confess back then? I thought I was overthinking it..." Le said, reaching out to push his shoulder. "You looked so serious at the time, saying 'I want you to support my dream in return'. I thought I was overthinking it, but it turns out you really..."
Yuzuru Hanyu glared at her: "Then why did you agree to Kevin?"
"That's because... I don't... I don't know what you mean... Besides, we broke up very quickly. He started saying 'Let's walk together forever,' and I thought—it's over, this guy is no good." Le shrugged and stuck out his tongue. "Then we broke up decisively."
"Are you so resistant to 'a lifetime'?" Yuzuru Hanyu asked tentatively.
Le turned to look at him, blinked, and his tone suddenly softened: "Yes, I used to... but now I don't seem to be afraid anymore."
Yuzuru Hanyu's heart skipped a beat, but he pretended not to hear, but his ears turned slightly red.
She suddenly put a towel on his head and said, "Go take a shower. I have a long drive tomorrow."
Yuzuru Hanyu muttered in dissatisfaction, "I came all the way here just for you to go on a pilgrimage to see the ghosts," but he still got up obediently and went to the bathroom.
The moment the door closed, Le sat back down on the bed, pulled out her computer, and opened the planning document for the dance troupe exchange. Several PDFs were neatly arranged on the desktop, along with a few research and interview transcripts she'd taken the time to write during the day, waiting to be filed away.
She opened her email and began processing the documents she needed to submit the next day. The room fell silent, with only the gentle tapping of the keyboard lingering in the air, like a metronome in the night.
Not long after, the bathroom door opened again, and Yuzuru Hanyu emerged, drying his hair. He saw Le still hunched over his computer. He paused, sighing softly.
He knew that she wasn't too obsessed with the pilgrimage, at least not one that was worth her making a special trip during her busy work schedule. And she had been playing on his emotions all day, even trying to make him jealous, which was obvious. Now she quietly went back to work...
He turned around to find a hair dryer, then went to her and lifted up her still wet hair.
"What are you doing?" Le tilted his head.
"Let me help you blow dry your hair." He took away the cold wet towel on her shoulder and said in a low voice.
"Hey... I'm still processing the documents..."
"The documents can wait until your hair stops dripping wet."
The hairdryer hummed, and the spring night in Quebec outside the window was quiet and soft. Her hair was slightly damp, and Yuzuru Hanyu's fingertips passed through it, as if carefully mending a map of the future he intended to promise.
She didn't say anything else, but her fingers stopped on the keyboard, slowly dropped them, and then closed the computer.
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