yh | just a coincidence

04 | complicated

I turned in my sleep trying to ignore the vibrating device on my bedside table. I glanced at my alarm clock. Who in the world is calling at 7:30 AM. I turned over my phone and saw my tenant's phone number.

"Hello? This is Nora." I groggily picked up the phone.

"Good morning, it's Mrs. Hanyu. Sorry for calling so early, I wanted to call before my son woke up."

My heart caught up in my throat, "I-is something wrong?"

There was a pause.

"I heard you're his assistant now."

I quickly sat up, throwing my blankets to the side, "I swear, I didn't know your son trained there. I applied for the job before I even came back to Toronto."

"Relax, I'm not accusing you of anything." Mrs. Hanyu reassured me. "I was just curious since I saw you walking home with him a few days ago.

"Oh." I lied back down.

There was an awkward silence between us. I lied there thinking of what to say next.

Finally I said, "Can you do me a favor, Mrs. Hanyu?"

"Depends on what." She replied cautiously.

"I need you to keep this a secret, until I can tell him myself."

"Eh, why?"

"Because I want to solve this problem by myself in my own way."

- - - - - - - - - -

I closed my laptop and manila folders filled with paperwork for the upcoming competitions for Yuzu and Javi. I stretched my arms out. I couldn't believe how much paperwork had to be filled out for just one competitor. I watched the ice from the skate's edges fly into the air through the office's window.

"Tracy? Can you double check the paperwork?" I handed her the two manila folders with Yuzu's and Javi's names on them.

She opened them up and flipped through well over 50 pages of forms to fill out of both of them each. After a good ten minutes and her pen running across the pages a few times, she finally closed the folders and handed them back to me.

"They're good. Pretty good for your first time filling out these insane amount of forms! Just put these on Brian's desk and you can go out to the rink and see if he needs any help."

I nodded and placed the folders on his desk and exited the office into the rink. I shivered.

"Hey, Nora! Come over here! I need some help talking to Yuzu." Brian waved his hand at me and I set my bag down on the bench and ran to the side of the rink.

"He's doing his quads again. Can you tell him to follow the other skaters when they begin a group exercise to improve their stroking technique?" He almost seemed like the was pleading for Yuzu to do what he wanted him to do.

I sighed, I don't think Yuzu and I got off the right foot, but I didn't want to try and explain myself at this point since it was extremely awkward between us.

But I sucked it up, because it was part of my job and called for him.

"Yuzu, stop doing so many quads. You're going to tire yourself out. You haven't even started Orser's group training yet with the other skaters!"

He turned away and ignored me and eventually replied.

"Don't tell me what to do."

I frowned, "It's my job, you stupid beansprout!"

He skated over and glared at me, "Excuse you, you're the stupid beansprout." And he skated away.

Throughout practice, I helped Brian tell Yuzu what to fix and what to work on and all I got back in return was an upset face along with pouts. Either way, he was still following what I had told him to do.

"Good job everybody!" Brian clapped his hands and everybody got off the ice and put on their multi-colored skate guards.

Almost everyone had left, except for a few skaters and the coaches. I stayed behind to help close the rink up and afterwards, I took my bag and was about to leave.

"Nora, senorita! Wait up a second!" Javi panted behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder, taking in deep breaths.

I pushed his hand off my shoulder once he caught his breath. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah, actually I do." Javi lowered his voice, "Did you really go to Yuzu's house?"

I scowled. "Why do you care so much."

"Because he was complaining, and I don't want to have the wrong impression of you because of an assumption or language barrier misunderstanding."

I sighed, thinking through how I should reply.

"Okay, yes. I did go to his house."

Javi opened his mouth and I cut him off.

"But it's only because I own the house he lives in and his mom pays the rent to me."

Javi whispered, "Yuzu doesn't know?"

"Heck no, because I don't want special treatment from him."

"Would he really give you special treatment to you though? You're kind of his mom's boss, but even then he's kind of your boss."

I massaged my temples. "Yes I know, it's really complicated, but I don't want to deal with him not treating me like I'm so much better than what I really am just because I'm the boss of his mom technically." I opened the rink door. "Just let me settle this my own way. Please."

"Fine. But I honestly don't think you want him treating you like a piece of trash either."

Nam appeared behind Javi. "Are you really Yuzu's landlord."

I jumped back a little, "Holy crap, where did you come from Nam? Did you hear everything?" I bit my lip.

"Yeah, it's a super small and spicy world isn't it?" He grinned.

"Just promise me you two will stay quiet." I put my hands together and bowed my head. "Let me solve this by myself. I'll wait for the right moment."

- - - - - - - - - -

I knocked on the door of my old home and Mrs. Hanyu opened up the door with a big smile. She handed me an envelope. The rent. She was about to close the door and then I took the chance.

"Mrs. Hanyu, I'll be traveling to 2013 World Championship with Yuzuru next month."

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A/N: Sorry for being on hiatus for about two weeks! I've been super busy with my state competition and makeup work. On the bright side, I placed first at my state competition and I'm pretty much all caught up with my makeup work c: I wrote this really quickly so I'm really sorry for any grammatical + spelling errors! I hope you guys like this chapter and feel free to vote/comment~