An Unexpected Love (A Yuri Plisetsky Fanfiction)

Chapter 13: Qualifying

It was 7 p.m. in Saint Petersburg, and Yakov's students were gathered around a table in one of the rink's many spare practice rooms. Two laptops were placed on top of the table, and they were all looking at one of them with anticipated eyes.

The other laptop showed the face of a heavy-eyed teenage girl on screen. She was wearing a disheveled white button-down and had stacks of papers around her. With a sigh, Ayumi Matsumoto looked away from the camera and proceeded to read the document she held in her hands.

It has only been a week since she left Russia and already the workload for her has increased dramatically. Every day she had information to read, people to meet, and meetings to attend. School has also started for her, making the situation worse. She wasn't complaining—she was used to it anyway.

Ayumi has been in constant contact with Yuri since she got back to Taiwan. Despite the everything they had to do and the five-hour time difference, they somehow still managed to call each other on video chat. She also sent him quick snapshots of places she passed by on her car (like Taipei 101) and the excessive cups of coffee she had to drink so far.

Yuri looked at the pictures in awe, but the coffee has him a bit concerned. He could tell how stressed out the girl was even though she often refused to show it. Apparently, there was an upcoming press release of a new product line for the company in the following week, and it would be the first time Ayumi made a public speech. The pressure for her to do well was on. She spent the past few days becoming well-versed in everything she needed to know, hence the lack of sleep. She needed to assert herself as the next leader of the Matsumoto Corporation. She refused to be underestimated due to her age.

That did not stop her, however, from joining her Russian friends in anticipation as they waited for the Grand Prix assignments to be released.

"Is it up on your end yet?" Ayumi asked, eyes on the document she was reading.

Yuri looked at the screen and sighed. "Not yet."

Viktor also turned his attention to the girl who was at that moment sipping a cup of Starbucks coffee. "Yumi, I think you should relax a little bit and focus on us for a while. You've been so worked up over the past few days. Isn't that the third cup of coffee you've downed so far today?"

"Correction, Vitya: it's the fourth," she said with a tired smile. "The press release is in a few days. I'll just get it over with and get some form of sleep then."

Viktor and Yuri looked at her with scolding eyes. Yuri had a deeper scowl on his face. "Oi, get some sleep you idiot. You're pushing yourself too hard. You're only fourteen for crying out loud."

Ayumi did not comment, but Yuri knew his words fell on deaf ears. She was a stubborn one.

"It's up!" Georgi suddenly shouted. Everyone's attention turned to the other laptop, and even Ayumi's ears perked in anticipation. Finally.

They looked at the assignments for the senior division first—it was always something to watch out for. After all, skaters were wary of having Viktor in the lineup in any of their qualifying events.

Yuri curled his hands into fists as he waited for the three to assess their events. Soon they would move to the junior division. He hoped, for the sake of his sanity, that he had at least one event with the same assignment as his best friend.

Mila suddenly called out after a while. "Yuri, Yumi, time to find out yours."

The assignments for the junior division were separate from that of the seniors. They did not participate in any of the major events like Skate America or the Rostelecom Cup. Instead, they were assigned to two events set up by the ISU, which could literally be anywhere. If luck were on their side, though, they would all meet at Sochi in December, where both the seniors' and the juniors' finals will be held.