Chapter 19 Birthday and Little Bear
The late summer heat didn't last long, just like Guan Yue's passion for gossip, and her attention was quickly diverted. After all, the fact that someone was pursuing Le wasn't a shocking discovery. If Le was single, he wouldn't have kept it a secret from her.
But this time Guan Yue waited for a long time, and autumn was almost over, but she didn't hear Le talk about any emotional developments.
"Haven't you been in a relationship recently?" Guan Yue finally couldn't help but think of this and asked during dinner.
"Do you think I'm free?"
Le ate his meal seriously without even looking up, not looking like he was just giving her a once-over. Guan Yue shrugged. Maybe he was always holding his phone because of the project. After all, he was supposed to be on call all the time.
When her phone alarm rang, Guan Yue put down her chopsticks and turned on the TV. After tuning in, she returned to the table and continued eating. The unique ambient sounds and commentary of live sports broadcasts reached her ears, and Le curiously looked over.
"Figure skating competition? What kind of competition?"
"The Grand Prix, Chongqing." Guan Yue answered nonchalantly while eating. "Even though Haniu is not participating, we can still watch our Jin Tiantian~"
How could this be considered watching? Guan Yue was clearly sitting in a position where she could see the TV directly, but she barely raised her head. She looked so uninterested, it didn't look like she was really going to watch it. Le was a little amused.
"But seriously, it's good that Haniu isn't participating. I was really worried about him."
"Um."
Listening to Guan Yue talking about his concern as a fan for Yuzuru Hanyu, an asthma patient, Le couldn't help but think of the day when he asked him about his decision to participate in the competition.
She had the same concerns.
Le had learned from a colleague that Chongqing would host the 2020 Grand Prix of Figure Skating in China. If the COC were to hold the event, it meant that Grand Prix events would be held in various regions. The current uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, especially with the situation abroad seemingly completely under control, suddenly made Le nervous. So, that evening, when he received a video call from Yuzuru Hanyu, the person in the video had barely finished waving a greeting when Le launched into a barrage of questions.
"Did you know the Grand Prix was coming up? Are you going to participate? Has the race been decided? Are you going back to Canada? Can your coach come?"
The person in the video blinked, obviously stunned by the barrage of questions, but he soon realized something and laughed.
"With so many questions, which one do you want me to answer first?"
"Can I... not participate in the Grand Prix?" Le asked cautiously. After all, the last time he tried to interfere with his competitive decision, it ended so unpleasantly. The person in the video didn't answer immediately. She lowered her head and snapped her fingers, thinking for a moment, then added, "I heard that people with asthma can easily develop severe symptoms if they get COVID-19, which is quite dangerous..."
Le lowered his head and didn't see the increasingly obvious smile in Yuzuru Hanyu's eyes in the video. Suddenly, as if a good idea came to him, he said, "If you must participate, choose China! They're taking epidemic prevention measures quite seriously right now, and I heard it's confirmed that the games will be played behind closed doors. Don't let Aunt Yumi go with you then. I'll go to Chongqing to compete with you, so Aunt Yumi can feel more at ease."
As she spoke, she raised her head and looked at the screen, and finally noticed the guy with squinting eyes and smiling in the camera.
"You've already made up your mind, haven't you?"
"Hmm. Let me answer your question. Can I not participate in the Grand Prix? Of course. Did you know it was going to be held? Yes. Will you participate? No, I've already written the announcement and sent it to the Skating Association. Have you decided on a race stop? No, so I don't need to choose a race stop. Will you go back to Canada? No. Will the coach come? Probably not."
Hanyu Yuzuru narrowed his eyes and answered Le's questions one by one. Finally, he added with a chuckle, "I'm so happy. So Le is so worried about me?"
Before he could finish his words, the video was cut off with a snap, leaving Yuzuru Hanyu frozen in front of the iPad with a smile still on his face.
【Yuzu: Why did you hang up my video? 】
【Raku: Because I already know the answer. 】
Yuzu: I already posted the announcement, but Le didn't even read the news. Isn't that my fault?
Thinking back to this, Le poked at the rice in his bowl. He'd already made up his mind, yet he was still watching her carefully choose her words and ask him questions like she was joking. It made him angry just thinking about it.
Yuzu: Listen to my new music cut!
【Raku: No time. 】
Yuzuru Hanyu in Japan received the reply and was somewhat confused.
Is things not going well for the project team again today?
-----
Sendai in December
At 1 a.m., the gurgling sound of suitcase wheels rubbing against the ground broke the silence of the winter night. The ice rink manager heard the sound, sat up from his half-reclining chair, folded the blanket draped over him and put it aside, then went to open the door with the key in his pocket.
Sendai was already cold in December, and the chill was even worse in the early morning. The rink manager stood at the gate, hands in his pockets, watching a dark figure, dragging a suitcase, come around the corner. Under the orange streetlights, the figure's shadow was stretched out. He walked quickly, his breath and the warmth from the neck of his tracksuit surrounding him. As he approached, he saw the manager waiting for him at the gate. He didn't stop, but nodded in greeting.
This guy is really good-looking, no wonder he is so popular, the administrator thought to himself and nodded in response to Hanyu's greeting.
"Good evening, Mr. Kimura. I'm really sorry to trouble you again."
Kimura waved his hand to indicate that it was no trouble, turned around to help Hanyu open the door, and used a flashlight to help him turn on the power switch.
Hanyu had been training alone at the rink, day and night, for six months. Initially, Kimura wouldn't wait for him. But one night, after an argument with his wife, he went to sleep in the rink's office and happened to see Hanyu training.
The empty ice rink was filled with the sound of his skates sliding across the ice and the sound of him jumping and landing. Watching him practice his jumps over and over again, he felt terrified every time he fell heavily on the ice.
I don’t know how painful it was for him when he fell that day. Kimura saw that after practicing, Hanyu held up his injured leg and cleaned the court. Finally, he stood there and looked around until he was sure that nothing was missing, then he nodded with satisfaction and left.
Since then, he and several colleagues have discussed rotating shifts for Hanyu. Kimura didn't think much of the idea when he made it, simply wanting to support the athlete who was giving her all. Unexpectedly, his colleagues responded enthusiastically, and with everyone sharing the shift, the workload became less onerous.
After turning on all the lights for Yuzuru Hanyu and plugging in his speakers, Kimura prepared to return to his office to catch up on some sleep. After taking a few steps, he suddenly remembered something and turned to the young man who had just stepped onto the ice, shouting, "Happy birthday, Hanyu! Keep it up!"
Blessings and cheers echoed in the ice rink. Yuzuru Hanyu was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted, showing his infectious smile, bowed to thank Kimura, and turned around to devote himself to today's practice.
Perhaps it was because of that "cheer up" cheer, but Yuzuru Hanyu's training went very smoothly today. He had no problems with the music for both new programs, and his jump practice was very successful. Although he still didn't land the quadruple axel, his other jumps were all good, and even the quadruple left didn't throw a tantrum today. This put Yuzuru in a very good mood.
After an hour of training, Hanyu, who usually eats little and gets hungry quickly, felt a little hungry and sat down on a bench near the rink to rest. He leaned over and fished out a small brown bear leg from the suitcase. He then yanked the bear and the snack bag out of the suitcase.
The jelly in the snack bag quickly comforted his hungry stomach. Yuzuru Hanyu held the jelly in his mouth and fiddled with the bear's slender hands and feet.
Birthday...
Everyone thinks Yuzuru Hanyu is a man of great ritual, but he doesn't really care about his birthday. Perhaps it's because December is often a busy month for figure skating competitions, leaving him with no say in how he celebrates his birthday. Or perhaps it's because there are always people who remember his birthday for him: family, fans, and reporters.
Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu never lacks people celebrating his birthday.
So he got a lot of birthday presents, including this little bear he was playing with.
This little bear was given to him by Le on his 23rd birthday.
The winter of 2017 marked Yuzuru Hanyu's longest absence from the ice. His leg injury recovery was good according to his attending physician, but it was far slower than he had hoped. Although he had developed some new training methods to reduce the impact on his foot, his attending physician repeatedly urged him to limit his daily training volume to ensure a proper recovery.
The attending physician was strict, and Kikuchi and Raku were also on the same page, which made Yuzuru Hanyu even more anxious. So when Kikuchi announced the end of training, Hanyu lost his temper.
He knew that everyone was doing this for his own good, so he couldn't take his anger out on everyone. He could only vent it on the things around him.
So when Le arrived at the hospital from the group, he saw Hanyu sitting by the bed, raking his belongings out of his suitcase and throwing them onto the bed. Le exchanged a glance with Grandpa Kikuchi, and understanding, he went over to squat next to Hanyu's suitcase and helped him rummage through it. "What are you looking for?"
Seeing her rummaging through the suitcase with a towel pinched between her thumb and index finger, Hanyu said speechlessly, "If you dislike the mess in my suitcase, just say so."
"Ah! We've been discovered!"
“…”
"Huh? Where's the little bear on your snack bag?" Le picked up his snack bag. There should have been a little bear that had been with Hanyu for many years on it, but now there was only a lonely black drawstring bag left.
"It got stuck on the zipper of the suitcase yesterday, and then it was torn..." Speaking of this, Yuzuru Hanyu became even more unhappy. Something that has been with him for many years is suddenly gone, which always makes him feel insecure.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, on his birthday, Le gave him an almost identical teddy bear.
"I made it according to the color and shape you remembered, so it's probably about right. You see, I also reinforced the hands and feet, so it won't be prone to the accident last time~" Le took the bear out of the gift box he had opened to show him the improvements he had made, "Look, the bear is back too, you can rest assured~"
Looking at the little bear in his hand, Hanyu felt a more indescribable emotion in his heart than when he got it that year. In short, he felt warm in his heart.
Kimura woke up in his office at the sound of his alarm. Hanyu was almost done with practice, so he went to help clean up the rink. He found Hanyu sitting alone on a bench, laughing and talking to a doll in his hand. The deserted rink made Hanyu's mumbling clear.
"I feel relieved~ Bear-chan, thank you for staying with me~"
-----------
This was a rare birthday for Yuzuru Hanyu, who spent the holiday at home. His father returned home early from school and even went to the supermarket to buy premium Wagyu beef to make sukiyaki for Yumi's mother. Saaya came home with her husband and Yuzuru's favorite strawberry shortcake. In this cold winter, the family gathered around the kotatsu, enjoying sukiyaki and chatting, enjoying this rare moment of joy.
However, today's protagonist is constantly checking his phone. He picks it up when a message arrives, then replies with a look of disappointment before putting it aside. After several consecutive disappointments, he even slams his phone face down on the table in a fit of anger. But after a while, he'll pick it up again when he hears a sound.
As the family birthday party drew to a close, Hanyu's father and brother-in-law, having had a few drinks, dozed off under the warmth of a kotatsu. Yumi's mother suggested that Saaya and her son-in-law stay the night and leave the next day. Seeing her husband's condition, she agreed. After helping her mother settle her husband and father, Saaya, remembering the birthday boy's absent-mindedness, knocked on her brother's door.
"What are you doing?" Seeing her brother staring blankly at his snack bag, Sa Ling was a little surprised. "Although Mom just told me you're planning to gain muscle recently, you just had Sukiyaki, cake, and a lot of mandarin oranges. Can you still eat more?"
"I'm not hungry..."
"I don't think you're hungry either," Sha Ling walked over, picked up the little bear hanging next to the snack bag, and took a look. "This is the birthday present Xiaole gave you that year, right?"
"Hmm..." absentmindedly.
"Have you two reconciled?"
"Hmm..." listlessly.
December 7th is Yuzuru Hanyu’s birthday, and it was also a suffocating Monday.
Weekly progress meetings, project coordination meetings, milestone acceptance meetings, and solution review meetings… After a full day, Le felt like he was about to become the chairman. When the last meeting was announced, Le tried to stand up from his chair and found his tailbone ached from sitting.
She remembered what Director Meng said: Only after joining the project team did she realize that most of the things she did had nothing to do with art.
After a year of persistence, she began to feel more and more like a social animal. If it weren't for the ballet classes every weekend, she would have almost forgotten that she was once a ballet dancer. She also almost forgot that although she had given up performing on stage, she still wanted to portray the stage.
Of course, she had completely forgotten what day December 7th was.
Although she had a vague feeling it was an important date when the date came up several times during meetings, the overwhelming meeting content quickly interrupted her thoughts. It wasn't until she dragged her exhausted body home and habitually logged into Bilibili, where the news feed on the homepage, that she realized it was Yuzuru Hanyu's birthday.
Quickly take out your cell phone.
Saaya's conversation with her brother faltered as he absentmindedly hummed in response. Just as she was about to leave, Hanyu Yuzuru's phone lit up with the sound of a message. He didn't want to read anymore. He'd already seen messages from Oda, Murakami, Tanaka, Keiji, and Tatsuki. If this was someone like a scoundrel, he might want to throw his phone away.
"Don't you want to take a look? You've been waiting for a long time, right?" Saaya was standing close and had already seen the special attention mark on the new message prompt. She thought it must be the message Yuzuru was waiting for.
After thinking about it, I picked up my phone and looked at it.
[Raku: Happy Birthday! 】
It was just a short sentence, without saying much, but the expression on Yuzuru Hanyu's face from cloudy to sunny was really wonderful, so wonderful that Saaya regretted not taking a picture with her mobile phone.
Who says Hanyu doesn't care about his birthday? He clearly does.
Yuzu: It's so late! It's already 10:00 AM Japan time, and my birthday is only two hours away.
The message came back without any emojis or interjections. The polite Hanyu didn't even say thank you.
Is he unhappy?
But why should he be unhappy? ! !
Le suddenly felt angry and threw her phone on the bed, leaving it there and going to the bathroom to remove her makeup. She didn't notice another message popping up on the screen that was still on.
Yuzu: I’ve been waiting for so long…┭┮﹏┭┮
Ten minutes had passed since the first message was sent...no response, save for two gray icons next to the message bubble indicating it had been read. After rolling around twice more in bed, Yuzuru Hanyu, losing patience, sat up, quickly smoothed his messy hair, and reached for his iPad to send a FaceTime invitation.
"LeLe! Your phone is ringing! Is it a phone or an iPad? Anyway, it's ringing!" Guan Yue shouted to LeLe who was washing her face in the bathroom to remind her that the ringing in the room had already sounded like a symphony.
Looking up from the splashing water, I grabbed two face towels, wiped the water off my face, and ran to the room in my slippers. I checked the source of the information carefully. It wasn't the team leader's desperate call. Phew~ Fortunately...
but!
He shook his wet hands and tapped the screen hard to connect the video.
"Hanyu! Is your birthday a big deal? Do you know how busy we mortals are?! Can I just wash my face?"
The birthday boy, sitting cross-legged on the bed, was a bit stunned by the sudden outburst of temper. Before he could even jump for joy at the video call, he was bombarded with insults. Then, stunned, he realized the wet face in the video had disappeared. With a beep, the screen went black, and the call was disconnected.
After sorting out the situation, Hanyu was also angry. He had only sent two messages and made one video call today, so why was he being scolded?
Just as I was feeling sulky, a WeChat message came on my phone from Guan Yue.
Over the past six months, Guan Yue has gone from being Hanyu's Jump Jump rival to becoming a friendly Animal Crossing islander. Of course, competitions have always existed, such as fish rarity contests and fossil collection completion contests, with clear results taking place every few days. Although Guan Yue never knew her competitor was Yuzuru Hanyu.
[The Moon Can't Be Confined: I've Collected Them All! [Screenshot]] Guan Yue is showing off a fossil exhibit she just collected.
[YZ: Guan Yue-san, what are you enjoying doing?]
[The Moon Can't Be Confined: She just got home, but she might be working overtime right now. It seems like she was called repeatedly by her team leader.]
I see… The clever athlete Hanyu quickly calmed down.
The video call ringtone rang and I hung up.
It rang again. It hung up again.
The call rang again. Le clicked his tongue and answered it.
She had just hung up because she didn't want to get angry with the birthday boy. He hadn't done anything wrong, but she couldn't help herself and simply ended the video call. Was he still going to keep calling just to get scolded? But when the video call went through, Yuzuru Hanyu's smiling face calmed her anger.
"Can I make a birthday request?" The man smiled innocently, "Le Ye, come play Animal Crossing with us. It's very relaxing."
“What a hassle.”
"I'll teach you, it's no trouble~"
"oh……"
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