And There Was Only One (Yuzuru Hanyu)

II There Was One Onigiri Left

By the end of the first week, Miwa had realized that he preferred evening sessions. She liked it better that way anyway, but he could've said that in the very beginning. Had he said it earlier, she wouldn't have had to deal with drinking coffee at 6 pm, before leaving to go work, she would've slept until 5, had she known.

The first week she only received calls or e-mails from the rink owner about the time for the session, he would contact the zamboni driver as well. Somewhere in the middle of the week the owner let her know he had passed her phone number along and Miwa had only assumed she would be getting e-mails from Hanyu's manager or something along those lines, but was surprised to wake up to a text reading:

Hello, this is Hanyu Yuzuru's number. I got your number from Sato-sensei*. I'll come to the rink at 3 pm today. Thank you very much!

Miwa's palms had sweated reading the text, because such interactions triggered her anxiety. He hadn't introduce himself in person, but did so over text. She was at a loss how to respond.

She typed a woodenly formal reply and blushed about it, only hoping he was too busy to read it. Him never asking for it, she never gave her name, which was probably rude, but it wasn't like it mattered to him much.

From that day onward, Miwa took care of the rink and Hanyu's sessions all by herself, only calling the owner to ask him things that had to do with administration, the accountant having left Sendai due to the situation. Now, she even did things like that.

That Sunday, a week after she'd met Hanyu, (if that's what she could call that encounter) and a day after their first conversation, she'd arrived at 7 pm, keys and coffee in hand.

It was chilly and she tried to hold her coat together at her throat.

The guy that operated the zamboni was waiting for her at the door already.

"I'm sorry for being late." she mumbled a greeting.

He smiled, waving his hand. If she remembered correctly, he was her eldest brother's high-school classmate, he smiled charmingly at her and his eyes often wondered around her body. Miwa laughed politely at his jokes and went about her business, hoping that he'll stick only to watching.

That night, like every day, while the guy repaired the ice, Miwa turned the lights and the air-con on and went about sanitizing everything. Even though it was only the three of them, and Hanyu was the only one touching the gym equipment, the changing room or the bathroom, it was her job to sanitize it anyway. Finally, she did that in the female bathroom and around her little reception-booth. She organized the water bottles and snacks, even though the zamboni guy was really the only one taking them. Hanyu didn't seem to notice them. He didn't seem to notice many things really. He was in and out and that was about it, yesterday's interaction being the only step out. The first day and all the days after that, he came in strutting, expensive earphones in, expansive back-pack swinging on his stiff shoulders, a worn-out silver suitcase following him along. His white mask prevented her from observing him fully, but she assumed the rest of him was as expressionless as his eyes were. Focused only on the doors in front of him, he barely made eye-contact when he would nod politely in her direction.

He annoyed her. That was it. His energetic stride, the lightness of his body and the aura he carried, it all stung her somewhere in her pride, and that probably reflected in the sharp greetings she offered back at him.

She wanted nothing from him, yet he inevitably drew her in. For all the intensity his body exuded, his eye-contact was mild and inviting. She noticed he was very good at it, something Miwa admired about people, because it was something she had to teach herself to do, something she had to remind herself to do. His look on her was steady, gaze holding hers, never jumping about her face or leaving to look around, just resting on her eyes. For how intimidating all of what he represented was, Miwa found his gaze to be quite comforting.