To Dream or Not to Dream

Childhood Friends

Toronto Canada

Isabella was currently head down, forehead pressed to a cold wooden table at the Cricket Club

Mostly everyone had left for the day, but she was still here, alone. She had just finished her practice, and she certainly did not hear what she had wanted from the coaches.

She groaned.

Lifting her head up a few inches, she then let it drop, purposefully banging her head on the solid wood with a thud.

In a little over a week, Isabella would be competing in her first competition since she was a child. She had been having pretty strenuous training sessions with her coaches, but it felt like no matter how much effort she put into her routine, she could not please them.

Isabella's forehead met the wooden table for the nth time thinking back to their words.

'There is no emotion.'

'What are you feeling Isabella?'

'Portray what you feel inside to the audience.'

As much as she had tried to change her facial expressions and change her body posture like they suggested, she was coming up blank. They had even likened her to a drone skating on the ice.

And honestly, she kind of felt like a drone after running through her program for the twentieth time.

Her program was set from a technical standpoint. The music was romantic and compelling.  The story was the portrayal of a woman finding and losing love, nothing too out of the ordinary.  It shouldn't have been difficult for her to portray...but then again, what did Isabella know about the intricacies of love? The only romance she had in her life was staying up late to watch Korean Dramas.

Isabella had dated when she was in high school and college, but it was never serious.

She had never been in love and wasn't even certain real love existed. Infatuation, sure... but to remain IN love with someone for a long period of time? She doubted that. Maybe it happened in the dramas that she watched, but not in real life.

Isabella reflected on the past relationships she had. Images of past boyfriends passed through her mind and she momentarily wondered how they were doing. Were they happy? Were they in a new relationship, perhaps married? Had they forgotten her as quickly as she had forgotten them?

An image of a certain young man popped into her mind without warning.

In the past few weeks Isabella had spent a lot of time with Yuzuru during their off time. He had become an unlikely friend.  Their interactions were limited to the TCC, but there was rarely a free moment there without him in it.  She was really enjoying getting to know him.

He was sillier and quirkier than she would have imagined. Yet, he was so focused and direct.  It was like he saw the world through the eyes of a child, but with the wisdom of an adult. Her first impression had been that he was rude and only cared about skating, but he was certainly proving her wrong.  

Or maybe, she just brought out a more carefree side to him.

Either way, she enjoyed Yuzuru Hanyu's company.  She could talk with him indefinitely about the pointless things that her family and friends had never been entertained by.

Skating, food, music, Japan, anime, manga, cuddling with inanimate objects...were all topics of mutual conversation. Isabella had even discovered that they both enjoyed science. Well, Yuzuru enjoyed science when he could relate it to skating.

He made her heart feel light.

Isabella groaned, picking her head up from the table for the last time before letting it drop with another thud.