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"C'mon Mei! You can do so much better than that, run it again." I heard the very familiar voice of my coach, Abe Nanami, lecturing me to re-run my short again. I sigh and get ready to start again.
I get into formation and once I hear the music start up, I begin. I start with a triple loop. I was quite surprised when I first landed it, I think I was 13, but to be totally honest I do not remember. I continue my program, doing a triple toe loop, then a double toe loop. I almost fall over while landing, but I upright myself and move on.
.
.
.
On my second jump sequence, I lose my balance and fall over. I lay on the ice, feeling defeated..
"Mei. Are you ok?" I slightly nod and hoist myself up. I'm feeling exhausted. Although I'm feeling fatigued because of my classes earlier today, I'm glad I came to the rink. The exhilaration from the jumps, and learning how fast I could go is one of the best feelings in the world. It's not like I'm going to quit either, sure there are times, but figure skating is something I've known forever. It's basically the only thing keeping me from being bored everyday.
I skate back to the center, waiting for Coach Abe to start the song again. She starts the music and I feel my body automatically falling into beat with the song.
"Nanami-Sensei!!!" Ah.. the gold medalists has come back...
"Yuzuru! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at home!" I see the two of them hug from the corner of my eye as I continue skating..
"I got bored, and I didn't want to do my homework, can't I just stay here?" This is a recurring thing. When Yuzuru had days off, he would do all the homework he needed to catch up on. Most of the time, he didn't want to do it, and it makes him come here.
I try to do my double axel, but I fall and slide on the floor. I lay, breathing heavily, ice cold on my back; wondering what I'm going to do with all the bruises forming my back.
"Mei, you can take a break. I need to go to the restroom." I hear coach tell me as she walks away. I continue to lay there for another minute, before I heard Yuzuru.
"Mei-Chan, I see you still can't get your double axel," he sneers.
I roll my eyes and stand up. "Why are you here... shouldn't you be shining your medal? or doing homework?" He deadpanned stare at me, and retaliates.
"Hey! Skating and school are two different things!"
"True, but if you can't keep your grades up, Nanami-Sensei will definitely have your head and you won't be able to win another gold medal." I get up to start the music again, but yuzu grabs my wrist.
"Do you hate me?" I laugh a bit and shake my head.
"I have no idea where you got that from. I'm just joking around with you Yuzu-San." He makes a funny noise, and lets go of my wrist.
"Then stop making fun of me!" What a big baby.
"You make fun of me first!"
"I'm just pointing things out you didn't do!"
"I already know I can't do them! It's just mean when you point them out!" I hear a door open, and the both of us turn our head towards the noise.
"I swear, you guys argue on a daily basis. I'm so used to it. Mei, you can stop with your short program, just practice your double axel, triple lutz, and your jump sequence. Yuzuru, practice your triples and axels if you decide to stay here. If I catch you both arguing again, I'll make you do extra laps on Saturday." The both of us shut up.
Yuzuru huffs and walks towards the men's locker room and I continue practicing.
He comes out sooner or later with his skates and skate guards on. He's always been on the tall side, so I had to strain my neck to look at him. I've probably been friends with Yuzu since he was 7. I started skating here around that time, and I was pretty approachable, since I was 5 and nice. We became friends and we've stuck with each other for awhile.
"Yuzuru-San!" 7 years old.
"Oi! Yuzu-San!" 9 years old.
"Yuzu-Saaannnnn! Help me with this." 10 years old
"Mei-Chaannn! Can you help me with this?" I was 11. At this point, he started calling me with the honorifics 'chan' last year.
"Yuzu-Kun. Let's go to the convenience store." We started this tradition of getting food at the convenience store when I was 13.
"Oi! Mei-Chan. Stop falling." He helps me get up after I fall, failing to do my triple sal.
"Hanyu Yuzuru! GIVE ME MY PHONE BACK!!!"
"Help me." He shakes his head no.
"I'll help you with your homework." I see his lips purse, like he's actually thinking about it.
"I'll buy you food from the convenience store by our house." He finally smiles and turns towards me.
"Ok Mei-Chan. I'll help you, but you have to promise to ACTUALLY help me and feed me, ok?" I nod my head and we start practicing.
I could feel the cold surround us. I was so used to it, that sometimes I even took my long sleeves off...
It was nice keeping Yuzuru around for so long. Remembering all the memories we had together. When we went to different competitions and hid from Coach Nanami to be funny, or when he'd scare me in my hotel room when we had to go to different countries. We've never really left each other...except for 2nd grade. We don't speak about 2nd grade.
He skated alongside me and we would jump at the same time. This always calmed me. It felt relieving that someone would help me up right away when I fell. Sometimes we ended up falling on each other laughing. Times with Yuzuru were always... different.
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