Chapter 76: Hanyu
Ding Dong——
After ringing the doorbell, while waiting for the door to open, Airi Miyase stood in front of the door under the guidance of Tomoo Hasegawa, and lowered her head to check again that the documents in her bag were complete.
Today is Airi Miyase's fifth day on this project, and it's also her first time accompanying the partner's contact person to deliver materials to her boss's apartment. She's a temporary employee at ANA, whose primary job is organizing large-scale exhibitions and events. This project was recently signed.
What's unique about this project is that the confidentiality agreement was given more importance than the contract. After all, the new owner is the renowned figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, so it's understandable that they prioritize confidentiality.
The door lock clicked open, and Miyase perked up and put on a professional smile. But the person who opened the door wasn't Hasegawa's boss, nor was it Hanyu Yumi, whom he occasionally ran into at the company. Instead, it was a young woman.
"Good morning, Hasegawa-san," the young girl greeted Hasegawa skillfully, then turned to look at Miyase, "You must be Miss Miyase, please come in." She smiled, opened the door, and led the two of them to sit on the sofa in the living room.
Miyase sat down and glanced around the apartment discreetly. The room was filled with an even number of items of the same style and different colors, and the furnishings clearly indicated that this was an apartment where a young couple lived together.
The clever Miyase quickly determined that the girl who had just opened the door for him was most likely Yuzuru Hanyu's girlfriend.
It turns out that I have mastered the secret that has attracted the most attention from the nation!
Sure enough, the confidentiality agreement for this job is very important!
Miyase suddenly felt a special sense of mission in his work.
"Please sit down for a while. I'll go call Yuzuru over." The beautiful glass of water gently landed on the coffee table. In order to make it easier to talk to the guests, the girl raised her hand to tuck the long hair near her face behind her ear, and nodded to Miyase with a smile.
Polite and considerate, yet with a hint of distance.
As expected of Mr. Hanyu's girlfriend, she has the same temperament as him. Like a fairy... My client's girlfriend is a fairy! Miyase couldn't help but think as she picked up the glass of water.
While Hanyu was checking documents, his girlfriend quietly sat on the dining table, working on her computer. While Hanyu was carefully looking through the documents, Miyase sat upright on the sofa, his eyes unable to suppress his curiosity as he glanced in his girlfriend's direction.
She stared at her computer screen, headphones on, fingers occasionally swiping across the touchscreen, occasionally looking down to scribble on a piece of paper. The elegant posture I'd noticed the moment she entered the room remained largely unchanged even as she worked at her desk. Her hair, however, was simply tied back, a few strands escaping the pins and cascading over her shoulders, adding a touch of laziness to her look.
Today is Monday and she didn't go out to work. She must be a freelancer.
"Miyazase-san, could the TV station send us these video clips in advance? I want to familiarize myself with them first." Yuzuru Hanyu took out a few pages from a stack of information, placed them on the coffee table, and pushed them in front of Miyase.
The other party is slacking off.
"Miyazase-san?"
Yuzuru Hanyu bent his fingers and tapped the coffee table with his knuckles, which woke up Miyase who was daydreaming.
"Oh! Okay, I'll contact the TV station right away and email it to you." Miyase quickly put several pages of documents into his briefcase. "Would you like to practice each of these questions?"
"I'll prepare it myself. Thank you for your hard work."
I packed up the documents and prepared to go back to the office.
Before leaving, Miyase gritted his teeth and turned to look at the client's boss and his girlfriend who had escorted him to the door.
"I will definitely keep it a secret, Hanyu-san, please rest assured!"
He bowed deeply to express his determination and extended a hand in front of Miyase.
"Thank you, Ms. Miyase. I think we'll see each other more often in the future. I'm Le, please give me your guidance."
The two shook hands and made an agreement, but that didn't reassure Hasegawa much. After seeing Miyase off, he quickly found a coffee shop, pulled up the confidentiality agreement from his computer, and carefully read it over. The agreement drafted by Sirius's professional teachers was naturally flawless, but since it was something the boss had repeatedly emphasized, it was better to confirm it.
Hasegawa's anxiety went unnoticed by the two protagonists. They were each busy inside, watching Digimon on TV, a show they'd already seen countless times. Both were too busy with their work to actually watch. Ever since Yuzuru Hanyu confirmed his career change, the amount of work and preparations to do had intensified. Tomorrow's press conference was like the starting gun; all preparations had to be put into motion right away.
But now, he was nervous enough.
"From now on I will become a professional athlete and will no longer compete with other players as a competitor. From now on I will... while... Oops!" Slapping his thigh in frustration, Yuzuru Hanyu reached out to pick up the manuscript he had thrown aside, recited it silently twice, and threw it aside again.
This was the eighth time he'd practiced it. The rest of the process was smooth, but the job change announcement would always fail at one point or another, no matter how many times he practiced it.
Le came out of the bathroom, drying his hair, and saw Yuzuru Hanyu sitting on the sofa practicing for the ninth time.
His straight back silently revealed his nervousness. He rested his hands on his thighs and kept picking at the texture of his pajamas.
By the time Le dried his hair, Yuzuru Hanyu was already leaning back on the sofa, with the manuscript on his face, having lost his dream.
This was the twelfth time he had eaten the snails, and he was about to vomit.
"Stop reading to the air and tell it to me." Le lifted the manuscript from his face.
It was a handwritten manuscript. His handwriting was always neat, but this one was covered in ink blobs and annotations. The words "professional athlete" were heavily underlined. Le silently took a deep breath and carefully set the manuscript aside.
"No need to read the script. Just tell me what you have in mind, just treat me as your audience."
"Thank you all for coming here today and watching the live broadcast. I want to express my gratitude to the fans who have always supported me, as well as the media friends and photographers who came here today. They have always given me so much support. With such support, I am truly blessed to be able to complete my figure skating career as Yuzuru Hanyu."
Le looked him in the eyes and nodded slightly, signaling him to continue.
"Although I'm still very immature, I've decided that I will continue skating as a professional athlete."
He paused for a moment and took a deep breath.
"From now on, I will become a professional athlete and will no longer compete with other skaters as a competitor. However, I will continue to accept myself and fight against my weaknesses and past self, and continue to skate. This includes the challenge of the quadruple jump..."
He looked into Le's eyes and spoke softly and firmly, word by word, the words he had written on the paper. Her nose and eyes gradually turned red, perhaps due to the night light.
The only sound in the empty room was his voice, soft and gentle, neither hurried nor slow.
"I will continue to strive to reach higher heights. As a professional athlete, I will cherish the sport of figure skating and work hard to pursue Yuzuru Hanyu's ideals. I ask for your continued support as I continue to challenge myself to the end. Thank you very much."
As soon as the last word was pronounced, the sound of applause replaced the sound of his speech and took over the task of filling the room.
Le clapped for him vigorously.
He reached out to wipe the tears from her face, not caring about his own eyes which were already wet and sore.
Snap——
His cheeks were patted by Le's hands, and she rubbed the corners of his eyes with her thumbs.
"Hanyu, please don't cry. Your eyes will be swollen and it will be difficult to look good on stage tomorrow. You won't be able to see your eyes."
"Um."
"Hanyu."
"Um?"
"Hanyu."
"exist."
Le sniffed, sat up straight, tried to look professional, and cleared his throat.
"Representing Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu.\"
She suddenly said these familiar words in English, which made Hanyu Yuzuru stunned. Before he could react, Le's next words made him understand what she wanted to do.
"Japanista, Yuzuru Hanyu.\"
"The athlete from Japan, Yuzuru Hanyu."
"Yuzuru Hanyu, Japan."
Le stared intently into Hanyu's eyes, repeating his name over and over again in the language she knew, imitating the announcer's pronunciation. Just as her language pool was about to run dry, Hanyu stood up from the sofa, took a deep breath, and calmly opened his arms. His determined gaze remained the same as it had on the field before, and he bowed deeply as Le watched.
There is only one audience member, but it seems like there is more than one audience member.
The tears that had just been held back began to flow again. I had never cried so much before. Le silently complained to himself, wiped his face, jumped off the sofa, and stood in front of Yuzuru Hanyu. He adjusted his pajamas and clenched his right fist, pretending to hold a microphone. "Excuse me, Hanyu, you're going to win a new title tomorrow. How do you feel right now?"
She handed the "microphone" to him.
"To be honest, I'm a little scared." He smiled bitterly. "What if people don't understand my determination and are disappointed in me?"
"You're just too nervous," Le said, hands on his hips, acting old-fashioned. "Didn't we agree to be your own Yuzuru Hanyu and protect your own heart? If you don't understand, then don't understand."
"Well, I'm just too nervous. Let me answer your question again. I'm just very nervous right now." He chuckled and replied, "I'm so nervous that I feel like my tongue will be stiff on stage tomorrow. Miss Suginohara, do you have any good suggestions?"
"Are you asking me this, Mr. Hanyu, the battle-hardened master?" Le raised his eyebrows.
"After all, the methods you mentioned before were very effective."
"Hmm? What method am I talking about?"
"Have you forgotten that terrible short program in Helsinki in 2017?" He reached out and scratched her nose.
He finished fifth in the short program at the World Championships in Helsinki that year, so nervous he couldn't even eat. Everyone was trying to get him to relax; Grandpa Kikuchi even considered giving him some injections to loosen up his muscles. Only Le was different.
"Nervousness leads to a great performance," she told him.
When you're nervous, your heartbeat quickens, your palms get a little sweaty, and your stomach tightens. Isn't the excitement of wanting to perform similar? Isn't that the perfect opportunity?
That night, the two of them smiled at each other among a group of anxious people, as if they had found a secret that only they understood.
"But I was talking about a performance at that time... If the press conference was in that state, it would be a disaster, right?" Le scratched his head and pulled Yuzuru Hanyu back to sit on the sofa.
That’s right…
Yuzuru Hanyu lowered his head, pouted, and said helplessly, "What should I do? I don't know how to relieve this tension now."
Seeing his embarrassment, Le hesitated for a few seconds before speaking: "How about... I go with you tomorrow? Although it may not make you less nervous."
He suddenly looked up at Le, his eyes full of questions like "Are you sure?"
"Why are you looking at me like that..."
"If we get caught on camera, I'll make our relationship public. Is that okay with Le?"
"If we get caught on camera, there's nothing we can do." Le frowned and tilted his head, answering without hesitation.
As soon as she finished speaking, Yuzuru Hanyu pulled her into his arms and kissed her hair.
Leaning against his chest, listening to his slightly rapid heartbeat, she realized what she had said. Her face suddenly burned, and she nuzzled into his arms again, hiding her face. But she didn't hide for a few seconds before he pulled her up, holding her face in his hands to prevent her from escaping.
"You said it, you can't go back on your word!" Without waiting for her to answer, he pulled her into a hug. "Nai Le, come with me, but I'll still hide you. After all, I'm the star of tomorrow's show, and I can't let you steal my limelight."
Yuzuru Hanyu smiled triumphantly, his eyes became slits, and the corners of his mouth almost reached his ears.
"Still nervous?"
Le leaned against his chest and spoke slowly, a question that stunned the complacent guy. He loosened his arms, looked at the man in front of him who was smiling but pretending to be serious, and suddenly laughed so hard that he lay back on the sofa, holding his belly, "You are worthy of it!"
This tense night, with all the crying and laughing, I'm afraid I won't be able to go to bed early.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com