SMALL BEAN // F1 YUKI TSUNODA

4.

"I came here thinking I would be with Lily and Oscar. You promised not to leave me alone and be by my side constantly. That was my only wish. The only reason I eventually agreed. But in the first few minutes, you said goodbye to me and left somewhere, and left me alone. Mira didn't know anyone, and everything was completely unfamiliar and new to her. She had suffered from anxiety before, and that was known publicly because she once had a panic attack at the airport, so she couldn't hide it from the fans - and they left her alone among strangers, where there was even more chaos.

Her anxiety had improved, but sometimes it tended to come back when she was stressed out. Which in recent days, because of the album, was quite often. She wouldn't say her stress level had gotten high, but somewhere in the middle for sure.

"We're really sorry, but we haven't seen each other in a long time, so we wanted to be alone for a while," Lily apologized.

"You haven't seen each other in a long time? You saw each other a week ago before Oscar left," Mira said. "You promised not to leave me alone. You know how much I suffered two years ago because of anxiety. You know I don't like being among a lot of strangers, and it's even worse here because everyone is in a hurry."

"We know, and we're really sorry," Oscar spoke up now too.

"I hope you'll make up for it tomorrow," Lily smiled.

"I hope so because it's going to be the race, and I understand that it means a hundred times more chaos than today," Mira crossed her arms over her chest again.

"But honestly, after ten minutes, Oscar and I started looking for you because we felt terrible for leaving you alone," Lily began to tell. "But we saw you at VisaCash and you were talking to Danny and Yuki. You looked so happy, so we didn't see any reason to disturb you."

"It looked like you and Yuki understood each other. You were laughing together while Danny looked lost in your conversation," Oscar added.

"That's because we were speaking a lot of Japanese," Mira explained to him. "I haven't spoken Japanese for a long time, so it was nice to talk to someone."

"I've known Yuki for two years, and I've never seen him laugh like that," Oscar told her. "You also looked a lot happier than usual."

"As I said, because I was speaking Japanese. It's always nice to talk to someone in your native language," Mira said.

"And what were you talking about? Danny was trying to get it out of Yuki, but he didn't get an answer," Oscar asked her.

"That's just between me and Yuki. Why should we tell others? It was a private conversation, and you shouldn't eavesdrop," Mira replied.

It wasn't any secret what the Japanese duo were talking about in their native language. They could have talked about it in English as well, but why not speak in their native language when both are Japanese and obviously don't speak it much - they wanted to make up for it, so they spoke Japanese together. They even agreed to mostly speak Japanese to each other.

Yuki simply asked her when she was last in Japan. Mira thought about the answer for a while because she didn't remember exactly - that made Yuki sad because it was her homeland, and she didn't even remember when she was last there. She finally got the answer - in 2020, just before Covid started. She flew to visit her grandparents' grave. That was the year she disappeared from social media and public view for a year because of her problems.

And then they talked about things like what food Yuki had on his plate in front of him - it was an egg roll, which led to another discussion about why he didn't want to take a piece because he looked at it like a holy picture. She couldn't tell him that if she took it, she would have to refuse other foods. They also talked a little about Danny, who was sitting in front of them and didn't know what the duo were talking about and laughed so much. And finally, they managed to discuss Formula 1 and Yuki's feelings about this season.

"So, do you two understand each other?" Lily asked curiously.

"I think so," Mira nodded. "He's also Japanese, which I think helped us understand each other a little."

"Yuki needed someone who speaks Japanese," Oscar added. "It was clear that he was bothered by how everyone else around him has someone who speaks their native language, but he doesn't have anyone to have a full conversation with in Japanese."

"Now he does," Mira smiled. "I don't know for how long, and I don't know if I won't annoy him after a while because we all know how annoying I can be, but I'll gladly be his Japanese friend with whom he can solve everything in his native language."

"He'll be happy when I tell him," Oscar laughed.

"And will you go to the Japanese Grand Prix?" Lily asked.

"I think Yuki will be glad to have someone like you with him in Japan," Oscar smiled. "Maybe he'll be surrounded by Japanese people there, but I think he won't mind you. He'll be excited to be able to show Japan to someone who hasn't been there for a long time."

"I don't know yet how I'll be with my free time because I don't know how far I'll progress with the album by then," she replied. "But I'd love to go to many races with you if there's a chance."

"You know that chance is here and has always been here."

~•~