Chapter 64 Missed
In the morning, Tohara Hejiu awoke reluctantly, blinded by the morning light outside the window. His neck was a little stiff from sleeping on the sofa all night. He'd drunk too much the previous night, and now it felt like his brain and skull were each thinking independently, colliding with each other, causing him to feel dizzy and ache. He adjusted his sleeping position, sliding off the armrest where he'd rested the night before, laying his head flat to rest his neck. This movement caused a pussang tucked beside his shoulder to fall directly onto his face.
A smiling bear face reminded him that he was still in Yuzuru Hanyu's apartment.
Memories of last night slowly came back to him, but he didn't have the heart to regret his drunken behavior. He Jiu stared at the ceiling, the bitterness from the dream filling his chest, making it difficult to calm down.
He dreamed about his childhood again.
This journey started when I first saw Le in the ballet studio at the age of 7.
That year, he noticed a new face the moment he entered the classroom. A timid little girl was quietly moving around in a corner of the classroom. When the teacher introduced her name, she seemed a little slow to react and looked a bit unskilled. However, when she danced, she was very agile and confident, which made him unable to help but keep his eyes on her.
"Here you go." He followed his mother's instructions and shared the snacks in his hand with Le who was sitting at the door changing his shoes.
Her eyes widened, as if she was a little uncomfortable with this sudden friendliness. This reaction made He Jiu suddenly feel awkward. Just as he was about to withdraw his hand, she took the snack.
"Thank you!" She smiled sweetly, a smile she hadn't shown all day. She put the snacks in her bag, stood up, and strapped it on. The dance bag she carried across her shoulders, stacked on top of her schoolbag, weighed her down. She turned and bowed goodbye to the teacher, then bowed to Hejiu's mother in thanks. Then, she turned back and waved to him, happily running off.
Later, he learned that Le's mother was very busy and could only send her to the classroom, leaving her to walk home on her own. The snacks that day were actually prepared by Le's mother, a gift for him to ask his mother to take care of him.
Le always went home alone after class, and as a boy, how could he admit defeat? So, he refused his mother's company and walked home with Le, becoming close friends. On the way home, there was a small, old shop selling seasonal drinks and snacks, which was the biggest obstacle for the two greedy kids on their way to saving money.
In the summer they would share popsicles, but they could never break the sticks evenly, so they would often argue over who had the bigger half.
In winter, they would share a roasted sweet potato. The shopkeeper would pick out a large one for each of them, break it evenly into two pieces, and give each of them half. They would blow on it in their hands and eat it all the way home.
I thought this kind of relationship would continue forever, they would advance together, and then partner up to dance a duet.
"Why are you the only one here today? I'll pick a small sweet potato for you." asked the old man in the shop.
"Thank you, Grandpa, but I still want this big one." He pointed to the big sweet potato in the window, took it, and ate it all the way. He didn't finish it even when it got cold.
Le immigrated to Finland with his mother, and they might never see each other again. The roasted sweet potatoes that day didn't taste sweet at all, and even had a bitter taste.
But life is like a roller coaster. Just when he and Jiu thought they would never meet again, they frequently ran into each other at various international ballet training camps and continued to be classmates in various master classes. Each long period of separation made him accumulate a lot of expectations, and every time they met again, Le was always a little different.
She no longer cried out in pain in her pointe shoes, and there was no need for him to run as fast as he could to grab an ice pack.
The currency for labor spent on shoe lacing has changed from ice cream snacks to whole-wheat bread or diet soda.
He missed too many of her changes, but fortunately, the only constant was that every time they practiced their duet dance, she would always jump in front of He Jiu like a little rabbit, smiling and saying, "I'm here." He Jiu didn't understand why she felt like a little rabbit, perhaps because his heart was also like a little rabbit at that time.
He thought, "Wait a little longer, until they are all grown up, they can join the same dance troupe or apply to the same school, and then he won't miss out on anything." But he was naive after all.
In the winter when they were 14 years old, He Jiu received a message from Finland at midnight in the early morning of Japan.
She is in love.
The lively and cheerful text told Hejiu about a romantic encounter on an open-air ice rink, which made him experience jealousy for the first time. Fortunately, the romance was too short, so short that he still laughed at her, thinking that she was not dating her first love, but a skating coach.
"You broke up again? How long have you been together this time?" He always teased me every time we met.
"Two weeks? But I really can't go to his game. I have classes." Le replied while moving around. "What are you talking about? You're the one who keeps making cookies every day. You're going to get fat!"
"Are you jealous? You can do it for me too."
Le rolled his eyes at him and he shut up.
Such conversations recurred in the dance studio, backstage at charity performances, and at international ballet competitions, becoming almost a fixture between the two of them. They continued bickering like this until the eve of turning 16.
Hejiu's mother often says that Moscow was a blessing for them, as both children won awards at the international competition. Le won gold in the women's division, while Hejiu placed third in the men's division and also received a scholarship. Hejiu, however, disagrees, as Le chose to go to the United States at that time, rather than going with him.
That was really the turning point in her life.
The memory of the troupe's performance in America recurred in Hejiu's dreams. Because of the heartache, the color of that memory lingered in his mind for a long time, always vivid in his dreams. The night after the rain, the damp air of the streets, the dim streetlights, the noisy and bustling restaurant, and Le's glum face, all etched themselves deeply in his memory.
He Jiu could never forget the moment she poked at the vegetable leaves on the plate and looked at the hamburger in his hand. That look made him feel that it would be too cruel for him to remain indifferent, so he turned the hamburger he had taken a bite of and handed it to her. She hesitated for a long time, but finally took it and took a small bite. It was a small hamburger restaurant with only one bathroom in the store, the kind that was unisex. He Jiu stood at the door of the bathroom and heard the sound of vomiting from inside. He felt as if his chest was being stepped on and he couldn't breathe.
She must have had a bad time.
"Aren't you afraid of being blown away by the wind if you keep losing weight?" On the way back to the hotel, we walked in the park. He Jiu grabbed her waist and lifted her up without saying anything to prove his point. "Change troupe, come to my side. The male dancers in this troupe are useless."
"I'll think about it." She agreed.
After that, He Jiu waited for a week, only for her to happily announce that she had won the role of Giselle in Group C.
If she had listened to me at that time, all those bad things wouldn't have happened later.
He Jiu put his arm over his sore eyes and thought silently. He was drunk yesterday, and today he should only feel a little dizzy from the hangover, but here he couldn't help but recall the past and the dream.
Later, Le eventually left the group, but she didn't join Emperor Entertainment Group. She retreated to her own safe place, quietly. Jiu and I met her in Helsinki. When we went to IKEA to buy things for her dorm room, she eagerly requested a hot dog. When squeezing the sauce, she squeezed the pump twice, a rare occurrence.
Before I woke up today, the last scene in my dream was her satisfied expression when she was eating a hot dog that day.
His chest felt so uncomfortable he didn't know who to blame. He punched the back of the sofa, his fist sinking into it, only to be powerfully bounced back by the sponge.
Ding Dong——
The doorbell's ringing was like a fine needle, pricking a hungover man's nerves. He Jiu sat up, clutching his head, and glanced at the door, wondering if he should open it. But the man seemed unyielding, pressing the door repeatedly, the ding-dong ding-dong noise truly jarring.
Just as he was about to get up, the person outside the door seemed to have given up, and the doorbell finally stopped ringing. But before it was quiet for a few minutes, the bedroom door opened with a click, and the sound of slippers clacking on the floor was so loud that He Jiu covered his head and sighed.
"Ah, you're awake." Although he said these words out of concern for the guest, Yuzuru Hanyu did not stop. He passed the sofa and went straight to the entrance.
Morimoto Kosuke had been waiting outside the door for a long time. After unlocking the door, he rushed in without any hesitation.
"Is Le-chan up? I want to ask about someone..." He skipped the basic pleasantries and got straight to the point. Seeing Hanyu's frown, he realized his abruptness and added, "Oh, congratulations on moving in together! Oh, and did you know Le-chan's work was selected? I heard about it at dinner last night."
He took off his shoes while muttering, not caring whether anyone handed them to him or not, and just walked into the house in his socks.
He didn't stop talking until he noticed someone else on the sofa. Xiaojie narrowed his eyes and thought carefully, then slammed his fist on his palm, remembering who this familiar person was.
"Why is he here?" Xiaojie was confused for a moment. He moved closer to Yuzuru Hanyu and covered his face with his hands. "Isn't this that so-and-so? That sailor! The tactless childhood sweetheart you mentioned?"
"We're here to celebrate the news you heard at the dinner party." He quickly covered Xiaojie's mouth and whispered a warning in his ear, gritting his teeth, "Stop talking nonsense."
Letting go of Kosuke, Yuzuru Hanyu regained his friendly face, handed Morimoto Kosuke a pair of slippers, and invited him into the house.
"The music hasn't started yet, sit here for a while."
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