Hana

I Do Want to Come and See You

The ice is right next to me but it seems like I can't feel the excitement of the skaters jumping and polishing their skills. I really know nothing about skating. I know little about my school and how things roll in the western society. I feel like an ignorant little girl who just follows everything everyone is doing.

While I space out in the coldness of the glass, I see a black figure skating by the window and stopped his blade just when he disappears at the periphery of my eyesight. Without a doubt, he must be Yuzu. He skated back to the front of my eyesight. Because the chair that I'm sitting on is very low, I have to raise my head up in an angle more than 45 degrees to see the face of him. Looking at him through my lashes, his face has all the expression of surprise and excitement. Instead of letting me to stand up from my chair, Yuzu kneels down to be equal in height with me. I wave my hand at him and grin at him; since I know that he can't hear me through the glass, I don't talk. Yuzu's eyebrows are high above his eyes and his eyes are bright with energy. He tries to talk to me but, as I imagined, I can't hear a sound of his voice. As he speaks, I read his lips and try to decipher his message. We're like playing a detective game while I'm Sherlock Holmes and he's the mystery I'm try to solve. When he finishes his sentence and see me without a reaction, he seems to notice that I can't hear a thing, so he tried to use his hands to deliver his message.
He points at me with his index finger and does a "come here" motion. I think that in that moment, my face is probably having a bewildered expression. I confirm with him by slowly speaking"me, inside?" to him and pointing at myself then pointing in the rink. Yuzu nods with assurance.

For about 30 seconds, I think I'm wondering if I should go in or not. By staying here is a maximum limit for me to being in a place that I should be staying at. If I enter the rink, I wander if I'll cross the line of an observer in the club. But I cannot reject Yuzu's invitation and, plus, he can't come out since he's wearing his skates. Seems like I have no choice. I say okay to Yuzu who's behind the glass, and grab my bag and walk to the door in Yuzu's right.

The air in the rink is colder and dryer then that of in the club, and my legs shake a little while I push the door into the rink. I can see a couple skaters and coaches on the side either warming up or just observing. I try not to make myself too obvious to notice by other skaters so I walk no further than the first column on the side.
The ice is on my right when I enter and Yuzu skates to the edge of the ice.
"You're here!" Yuzu rests his hand on the column while sounding like a boy who sees his Christmas gift under the tree. I don't know why but many times that I feel like Yuzu is still a boy like me who can get excited about things that are really simple. "I thought you said you don't want to come in." He says.
"Yeah," I bit my bottom lip, afraid that he won't be happy that I'm here. "Well, Nam asked me to come, so...." I explain. I can't find words or phrases to add behind that "so", letting the sentence to trails off without a clear conclusion.
"I see." He nods.
"Well, if I'm bothering you, I can just go home. I'm just here to kinda, you know, look around." I try to explain the purpose.
"It's fine!" Yuzu adds one with a eager voice. "You can stay here. You won't bother me at all." He smiles at me gently.
Slowly, I answer him a "okay" with a subtle blush on my face. The worries in my heart that he will dislike my action if coming here disappears like a gust of wind. Good bye, worries!

I look at Yuzu and see him being pretty relaxed.
"Yuzu, you're not having training sessions?" I ask.
"Not yet, I'm warming up. Training session will start in 20 minutes, I have to be ready before that."
"You're as on time as you always are." I look at him in his eyes. "Very well."
Yuzu shifts his eye sight to his right to break out eye contact. I know that expression is when he's shy and a little happy.
"So you're training with Nam as well?" I ask again, trying to bring up another topic.
"Yes. You came with him?"
"Yep. We met each other after school."
"Oh yeah, how's first day of school?" Yuzu asks.
"Tiring and confusing. But I survived the first day. Plus, I met Nam at last, which is a relieve, and then he persuaded me to come to have a look." I explain.
"Persuade?" Yuzu frowns. "So you didn't want to come?"
"Yeah, I originally thought that I will disturb your practices, right? You know what I'm talking about."
"Yes of course. We argued over that last time in the restaurant." Yuzu says. "But I still can't believe that you didn't want to come in to see me training." He murmurs and looks down at his skates.
"Of course I want to see you train!" I defend my fangirl feelings. "But I just don't want to be considered as an outsider or something." I take a step closer to him. Being closer to him adds some speed to my pumping heart, but I want him to know that it's not that I don't want to, but that I shouldn't.
"I see." He answers with his gentle manners. "So you're holding back yourself to come and see me, but in fact you really want to come inside." He says with his mean and sadistic voice that sometimes I can't resist admit that he's right.
"Well...." I reply weakly.
"Am I right?" He questions me again but this time he comes closer to me, his skates touching me foot, to make me blush fully. I think I might explode with this distance with the steaming Yuzu after warming up. His scent wrapped me all around me without even touching me, suffocating me.
"Yes... You're right..." I answer him with my head hiding in the curtains of my hair. And while I blush like a red blooming rose, I can hear Yuzu's cheerful and satisfying giggles.
"Yuzu~!" I protest shyly. "Don't make fun of me!" I have air in my mouth to pretend that I have some power.
"Haha, sorry, Meg, but seeing you like that kinds of makes me happier, knowing that you do want to see me." And this time it's not just a gentle smile, but a wide, full smile that makes his eyes disappear in the folds of his eyelids.
"バカ(Baka) Yuzu." I murmur in my heart and smile to him as well.

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I'm terribly sorry for not updating for this long! I really have to rethink the story in my head so that's why it kinda take me some time to finish this chapter... I really like all of your comments and likes! They motivate me a lot for me to keep working and let me know that there are people who really enjoys reading my stories. Anyway, a million thanks and hugs for people who have been following Hana~ I'll work harder!

:D