The only positive thing Sophie could find in the first week of the new year was that her leg was getting better and better every day. But her schedule was now so busy with all the things she postponed over the Christmas break that she wished she lived in the future and could clone herself to manage it all.
At least her assistant seemed to be getting back on track with his responsibilities and most of all Akira did like it in his new school, constantly blabbering about all the kids he befriended. She did wonder though after the first weekend of homeschooling him in History and English if it's not too much for him. Because not even all the blabbering could hide that he seemed quite tired anytime she picked him up from school, his usual spark missing in his eyes.
She was just about to reconsider her decision about the new schedule when he landed the triple Toe Loop the following Monday and seeing the joy in his eyes she chose to leave it in his and Yuzuru's hands for a while longer.
At least one worry that she could tick off her list was that even the children in Canada were into Pokemons. It was a big thing in Japan but she doubted it would be the same here but when she asked her son, he confirmed that several kids in his class are into it too and even started to take some of his less-valued card binders with him to school for trading.
Yuzuru seemed equally busy and though the thought of him finally telling her everything was constantly on her mind she didn't bring up the topic in their short conversations, leaving it to one of the weekends when things settle down.
She expected Yuzuru to have the same approach since he was the one trying to constantly avoid the talk so when on Wednesday he asked her for a moment of her time, she could not hide her eager expectations.
The kid's class was just wrapping up, the Wednesday ones being just the novice without the class of the little ones, the other half of the rink being used for the public, and walk-ins who just wanted to give skating a try.
They were all now clearing the ice and Yuzuru pulled her aside not to get bumped into by the various adults who were leaving annoyed that even ten-year-olds skate better than them.
"Could we talk for a moment, please?" he asked and kept looking around.
"Sure," she immediately nodded and he led the way to one of the further meeting rooms.
Sophie appreciated that this one was much larger than the one he pulled her into before and when they got in, he asked her to sit down with a serious expression.
"You sure you wanna do it here, Yuzu?" she asked as she took her seat next to him, "I thought you could come over next weekend or so----"
"Do what?"
"Tell me about ... you know...."
"Oh," he gave her a weak smile and shook his head, "it's not that, Sophie-chan. But I am not surprised you can't get it out of your head."
"Oh," she let out in disappointment and nodded to prompt him to start talking.
"Well, the thing is," he said, "the Japanese media is again preparing some interviews with me to know my plans for the new year and the Olympic season of my skaters."
She frowned hearing the mention of Japanese media but nodded for him to continue.
"And I guess it's not a surprise they found out I took a novice under my wings," he elaborated but quickly added, "They have no idea, yet, about you or Aki's dad and they would simply like to interview him."
"Shit," she said and leaned back into her chair, "well, they will find out sooner or later. I just hoped it would be the latter option."
"Yeah," he leaned back as well and watched her carefully, "I am surprised myself how quickly the news spread since TCC didn't do any announcement and nobody usually follows novices."
"So, what do you think?" she asked and watched as his eyes widened in surprise, "What should we do?"
Sophie already counted with this scenario, but remembering how much Yuzuru cared that she asked him about his advice before, she decided to let him have this one as well.
"Well," he said with a soft smile, "I think that if I decline to let them have the interview they would start digging into it more and come up with their own twisted stories. Also, there is still a chance they won't figure it out just yet since Watanabe is such a common last name. And last but not least, I assume Aki would freak out with happiness to give an interview, no?"
She smiled and nodded, "you are right in all of your points."
Yuzuru grinned from ear to ear and until his next session they stayed in the meeting room, discussing all the details and plans on how the interview would go, already setting a date for next week when the media would interview his pre-Olympic skaters as well.
And when the practice was over, they met up in the room again, this time with Akira as well.
"Well, Aki," Sophie started, "we have something to tell you. Something that will make you very happy, but-" she made a pause and looked him deep in the eyes, "once you calm down, please sit back down and I will need to discuss with you some less exciting things about it."
He eagerly nodded and she noticed that his eyes for a split second glanced at her ring finger.
"I will get straight to the point," Yuzuru took over, "I have some interviews planned for next week with Japanese media and they expressed their desire to make an interview with you as well since you are my only novice and---"
"WHAT??!!" he exclaimed and looked at Sophie who nodded in confirmation, "OH MY GOD!! OH MY GOD!!"
Akira shot up and started pace across the room, back and forth, waving with his hands, "That is AMAZING!! That will help me so much in my acting career!! To start being on TV so early!! And it will help me so much in scho----, it's awesome!!" he ran up to Yuzuru who was gleefully grinning, wrapping him in a hug and then to Sophie who sported rather a weary expression and gave her a hug as well.
Once he let go of her and went to do victory laps around the table and Yuzuru leaned to her with a questioning look.
"An acting career?" he whispered and she sighed with a smile.
"Yeah, well, he plans to be an actor after winning the next three or four Olympics," she said, watching Akira jumping on the spot now, "he believes that you should have used your fame at the time of your third winning to get some movie deals but that he won't do the same mistake."
Yuzuru laughed out loud and Akira made several more jumps on the spot before Sophie asked him to sit down again and he did calm down to listen to the other half.
"Aki," she said softly and leaned forward in the chair, "you know that the Japanese media are not usually on our side---"
"But they never heard from me! I will---"
"You will not," she interrupted, "you will be there in the room with Yuzu, but I will not show my face in there just in the off chance they would recognize me. Also, do not mention me at all, not my first name, or that your mum is from Spain, okay?"
"But---"
"No, but," she said sternly, "it's either 'yes mum' or no interview."
"Yes, mum," he muttered and she saw he does take it seriously.
"You will talk strictly only about figure skating and training at TCC. No mention about where you live, where you go to school, just nothing personal."
"Yes, mum."
"We will go through the details on the weekend, okay?"
"Yes, mum."
He then excused himself to call to Yuki while it was still an acceptable hour in Japan and once they were alone, Sophie turned back to Yuzuru.
"So, I was wondering...." she started cautiously, "would you like to maybe stay over next weekend? Just in case they do write something nasty, I am sure Aki would be happy to have you around."
"And I guess," he said, giving her a weary smile, "you would also like to use that weekend to...---"
"Of course," she grinned, "it would be then already three weeks since your promise on New Year...."
"Okay."
He said simply and Sophie gaped at him for a second, "Okay?! It will finally---"
"Sophie," he said quietly, "I said okay. But please stop with the excitement---"
"I can't control it, Yuzu!"
He sighed and got up, ruffling her hair and pushing her head down as he was leaving, "I will bring popcorn then. Next Saturday morning, okay?"
"Okay," she hurried with her answer just as he was walking through the door, "and I will buy things for the Sukiyaki."
______________________
On Friday, Sophie finally felt that she is catching up with all of her tasks and so she dared to take a longer break when the novice and kid's class was just about to start so she could watch them again.
Yuzuru began to give jump assignments to his students but all she could think about was that in a week, she will finally get him talking. To know the full story. Her mind again drifted to all the crazy theories she had, all of them clearing Yuzuru from being the bad guy who left his wife over not being able to have kids though all of them being very far-stretched.
Nevertheless, she did hope from the bottom of her heart he will have a version that will indeed clear his name in her eyes.
She saw that he skated from the novices to the class of the little kids and when she looked around, she realized that Tracy is not there.
Sophie made her way to the rink and after flagging Yuzuru down, he skated to her with a positively terrified look.
"You alone?" she asked but his facial expression was already confirming it.
"Yeah," he said, running his hand through his hair, "Tracy called that her car broke down. She won't be able to get here before the class ends."
"Oh," she let out and eyed the little kids falling on their butts over his shoulder, "good luck then."
She gave him a wide grin and before he could respond, she turned around and left.
A few minutes later, she was back with skates on her feet that she borrowed from the public ones and joined him on the ice, chuckling when he realized what's going on and his face lit up.
Her leg was in no shape to do anything complex, but since one of her forwards' strokes equaled five strokes of the kids, she would spend most of the class standing still anyway.
And so she took over, teaching the little ones how to keep their balance while doing basic forward strokes without the need of clenching the low bars they had there instead of a barrier.
She carefully watched each of them yet still noticed the side glances from Yuzuru and once more she could not fight it and wonder how much of what Tamiko told her was true.
Was he really originally interested in her only because she already had a kid of her own? Was that the main reason he wanted to be friends? In some twisted hope that he could fast-track the process and just get her pregnant, thinking that she would be so careless and not be responsible enough just like with Akio?
Just the idea of it was sickening and the more Yuzuru stared at her with that dreamy expression of watching her with the children, the more she wished she could speed up time to finally get to the bottom of it all.
Because leaving his wife for not having kids was absolutely terrible, yet trying to get another woman into bed just to at least get the kid if he did not have the wife was even worse.
The session was over and Yuzuru skated to her when she was taking off her skates, gleeful smile plastered all over his face.
"Thank you so much, Sophie!" he exclaimed, and she was sure he would have hugged her if she wasn't sitting.
"It was fun, actually," she said and gave him an equally wide smile though her mind was still elsewhere, "it was no problem."
"Is there anything I can do for you in return?" he asked and hearing that, a mischievous twinkle glistened in her eyes.
"Well," she said thoughtfully, "it's Friday, so Aki got plenty of homework for the weekend. But since we do the homeschooling on Saturdays it would be nice if...somebody....would do the homework with him already tonight and we would have a free Sunday."
She raised her head from her skates and to her surprise, Yuzuru was still smiling.
"Sure," he said, "my car is anyway at the shop to get winter tires, so I can go with you. I will ask the technicians to drop it in your garages."
Sophie rubbed her hands, excited to use the free time for a long bath and they went to pack their things and into the car.
They dumped all of their things on the front seat next to her and Akira with Yuzuru sat in the back where Akira immediately took out his phone, plugging in headphones and watching Yuzuru's interviews, learning how to dodge personal questions.
"You really don't have to do it, Yuzu," Sophie said after a while, "I can do the homework with him tomorrow or on Sunday."
"No, no, no," he answered, quickly shaking his head, "I really don't mind, Sophie-chan. And I would not be able to sleep without somehow repaying you."
"We are friends," she said with a smile, "you don't have to repay me for anything."
"Hmm," he hummed and she glanced into the mirror to catch his satisfactory smile as he sat right behind her, "you did really great with the kids, by the way."
Her shoulders fell and she directed her eyes back on the road.
"Thanks."
"Have you ever," he said with caution in his voice, "thought of having another kid?"
"No," she replied right away, keeping her focus on the turn she was just taking, "I don't want another kid."
She said hopefully resolutely enough, but since Yuzuru sat behind her, she knew he would not be able to see into her face anyway and analyze her.
She expected him to say something to it but when even after several seconds no sound came from behind her, she glanced into the rear-view mirror again.
The glance was brief and she regretted it right away because the expression he was sporting was nothing short of unsettling.
His jaw was tense, his arms crossed on his chest, and his dark eyes were as hard and cold as the ice he spent his life on.
Fuck you, Hanyu! Don't tell me that this part of Tamiko's theory was true as well!!
She screamed in her head and drove down into the underground garages, getting out of the car and out of the tense atmosphere inside as soon as she parked.
They didn't say another word all the way up to the apartment and when they finally got in, she asked Akira to stop with those interviews and bring his homework.
Sophie went straight to the bathroom, taking a deep breath as soon as the door closed behind her and clenching her hands around the marble sink. Her stomach was turning and she splashed some cold water on her face to calm down.
You made it so far by being patient and giving him the benefit of the doubt, just hold on one more week.
One more week.
She kept repeating the 'one week' as a mantra in her head until she managed to shake the feeling off, focusing on all the great things he did for her, his kindness, and the caring personality he showed her on so many occasions.
And so when she emerged from the bathroom, she managed to smile at him without faking it, ignoring his cold look.
Though there was not much reason to smile afterwards anyway, when she saw Akira in the living room, flipping the sofa cushions and clearly looking for something.
"What's going on, Aki?!" she said and came over.
He paused and looked up at her but before he answered he hung his head, "Um....my Platinum Blissey, I can't find her."
"A what?"
"A Pokemon card," he quietly added.
Sophie gasped, chills running down her spine and she closed her eyes, hoping that it's all just a really bad deja vu.
"Fuck!" she exclaimed and started to flip the cushions herself, sending him to his room to search through every corner to find it.
"Um," Yuzuru said and came closer to her, "it's not a big deal, I can buy it online---"
"It is a big deal!" she growled and pushed the sofa away, looking underneath, "I told him thousand times to guard those closely, to have them organized and---"
"He has them organized, Sophie," he said calmly and put his hand on her shoulder, "it's just a card."
"It's not!" she exclaimed and pushed his hand away, "do you know how it looks like?"
"Yeah, it's---"
"Okay," she said quickly, "keep looking everywhere, please. I need to make a phone call."
And with that, she took out her phone and went to her bedroom, her hands shaking and heart beating faster than after running a marathon.
____________________
Akira sat on his bed and looked at the disaster he did to his room after rummaging through all of his things. His chin was trembling and his head shot up when he heard a weak knock on the door.
"Hey," Yuzuru said when he entered, "you okay, Aki?"
He nodded and wiped the one silent tear that made it out, "did you speak with mum? Are we moving?"
"Why would you be moving?" he asked softly and sat down next to him, "and no, I didn't speak with her. She is making a phone call in her bedroom."
"So we are moving," he said and hung his head rubbing his forehead in an attempt to recall what was the last time he saw the card and where could he put it. He always kept it in the binder. Taking it out for trading only. But now he had nobody to trade with anyway.
"What does the card has to do with moving?" Yuzuru asked again and Akira fell on the bed, pulling in the nearest pillow and hugging it tightly.
"I don't know," he mumbled, "but last time I lost a Pokemon card, my mum said the house is too large just for the two of us, losing things everywhere and we moved. But I loved the house. It was the one where we lived with dad and it had a large garden. And I don't wanna move from here either. It's so close to the rink...."
He felt Yuzuru's hand on his back, gently stroking him but not saying anything for a long while.
"I am sure, it was just some misunderstanding," he said eventually and got up, "I will go to check on your mum, okay?"
Akira nodded into the pillow and listened to his footsteps disappearing in the hallway, worrying if their new place will be also not only far away from the rink but also from his friend.
____________________
"Sophie?" she heard Yuzuru's voice from the other side of the door but didn't manage to answer through her sobs.
Seemed the sounds of crying were enough of an invitation for him and he entered the room and squatted down to her as she sat against the wall, hugging her knees.
"What's going on, Sophie-chan," he said gently, stroking her hair.
She wiped some of the tears away and sniffled once more when she looked up at him, the hardness of his eyes gone and replaced with concern.
"It's complicated," she mumbled and tried to concentrate on her breathing when she got up and went to her nightstand for the tissue box.
"Please tell me," he pleaded and she looked up at the ceiling, trying to hold off the rest of the tears. It mostly worked and she passed him by, going on the terrace and grabbing her winter jacket along the way.
She turned on the heat lamps and watched the orange glow immediately attract moths and all the insects that were taking care of her flowers.
Yuzuru joined her on the outdoor sofa a minute later, once more putting his hand over her shoulder which she shook off.
He put his hands between his knees to fight the cold and she ran hers over her thighs in an attempt to warm up before the heat lamps take their effect.
"After Akio passed away," she said and took a deep breath, "my face and address were all over the magazines. So you can imagine what kind of unwanted attention it brought into my life. I literally had to push through masses of reporters while carrying Aki to the car and back home. Wherever we went. Eventually, it started to get better after I sold the company but I was stupid enough not to move elsewhere," she said and kept hypnotizing one of the moths that was slowly killing itself against the heat of the lamp with the attraction to the light stronger than its survival instincts.
"I just loved the house too much to give that up as well," she added after a while.
"You had a stalker, didn't you?" Yuzuru said and leaned into the sofa, to her relief not trying to hug her anymore, "that's why you are constantly so worried about Aki, right?"
"Yeah," she said with a bitter laugh, "I had plenty of threatening letters from various people and various stalkers. Police ignoring all of them. Apparently, unwanted mail is not enough---"
"To start an investigation," he finished her sentence and she looked at him with her eyebrow raised, "I got plenty of those too."
She nodded, not surprised to hear that, and carried on, "and so I ignored it, hoping that the letters and stalking will stop and die out just like the media chase did. Which they eventually did. Except for one."
She made a pause and watched the moth hitting the lamp for one last time before falling in a deadly spiral onto the low table.
"I first noticed him in one of the parks where I took Aki into," she continued, "I didn't pay him much attention at first, but he started to get closer to me there with each visit until he sat on the bench right next to me and I freaked out, took Aki and left."
Sophie stood up and picked up the dead moth, carrying it to the edge of the terrace and letting it slide from her hand, watching it slowly fall down all those floors until she eventually could not see it anymore in the dark.
Yuzuru leaned against the wall as well and after a while, she continued again.
"At that time, I didn't know he was one of the ones who were sending me some of the letters until he mentioned our meeting in the park in one of them. He got into his head that now that I am single, he is the right guy for me. Always signing the letters as Mr. Right, in English, even though he is Japanese. And when I sorted out the letters that were just from him and read them chronologically, knowing now they are from one person, it gave me an impression that he must have been stalking me way before Akio died. And his death was the final triggering moment that let him cross the boundaries from being just an 'observer'."
Yuzuru rested his arms over the wall and bent over, resting his head on his hands and staring at the opposite building, "what did he do?"
"Well, the admiring letters turned into threats. It kind of pissed him off that I stopped going into the park. He started to get quite adamant about Aki being the cause of us not being able to be together. He first suggested that he would be gracious enough to let him go to some boarding school or whatnot, but after some time he wrote he will take care of it himself," she took a few deep breaths, trying to stop her hands from trembling, "in that letter he included one of Aki's Pokemon cards. We were missing that card for several days. Aki was throwing fits on a daily basis that he could not find it, swearing that he didn't take that one with him to school....the guy made it into our house when we were not there. Into our home."
She ran her hand through her hair and joined Yuzuru in staring mindlessly at the opposite building as she got to the worst part of the story.
"I immediately started to up the security, but already the next day I received another letter with Aki's school and training schedule. I never drove faster in my life. As soon as we got home, I locked all the doors and called the police. Again. They promised to look into it, but apparently, still, no crime was done. I could not fall asleep. The security guy I hired was supposed to come only the next day. I was tossing around in the bed and then I heard somebody shift next to my bed and froze. I cracked my eyes open and saw his legs."
Sophie always considered herself to be a good storyteller, focusing on the important parts, not going into unnecessary details yet still being able to paint a good picture of a given scene. Yet at that moment, she was lost for words, unable to find the right ones that would describe the utter horror she felt that night. Seeing the guy she was so afraid of right in her home, in her bedroom, standing silently next to her bed. And not knowing if her son is okay.
She looked up at the night sky, rocking on her feet from her toes to her heels and back again until she quickly shook her hand and her gaze fell back on the opposite building. She zipped her jacket all the way up and buried her chin in its warmth, sticking her hands into the pockets.
"After two hours of talking, yelling, crying, and fighting I managed to pacify him and got out of him his real name. He left with a promise of a date and police had finally something to charge him with. It was only a break-in, for which he would get barely a few months in prison or maybe just probation," she cleared her throat and quietly added, "so since I already had plenty of money, I took care of it myself."
"What did you do?!" Yuzuru exclaimed and shot her a terrified look, making her snap out of the moment. He was so quiet the whole time, seemingly distant and paying her no attention that she almost forgot she is telling the story to him.
"I had some drugs planted in his flat," she said simply, "so he got also charged with illegal substance possession."
"Ohh," he let out with clear relief in his voice and again turned his gaze away from her.
"So yeah," she said, "that is my paranoia. Dangerous people getting too close to me and Aki."
Sophie looked down on the street and immediately spotted a person who stood alone on the pavement, staring right up at her. She blinked rapidly and when she looked down again, the whole street, every single passer-by, was staring right at her. Knowing how she looks like, where she lives, and out there to get her.
"And now my nightmare is becoming real again," she mumbled and rubbed her eyes, all the random people on the street simply walking by as they should, her paranoid imagination giving her a break.
"It might still be just a lost card that fell out of the binder, no?"
"I don't know," she replied and looked at him, "I called my team to find out where the guy is. He is supposed to be still in prison at least for two more years."
She watched him as he simply nodded in acknowledgment of what she was saying but it seemed his overall interest was not there.
Sophie frowned, rewinding her memory to their whole moment on the terrace, realizing that he paid her very little attention throughout the whole story. He didn't look at her with his analyzing look like he always did anytime she was revealing something personal to him. He didn't ask that many questions to elaborate, to get into details, to say more.
He simply listened, seeming distant and not looking back at her.
Ever since the car ride actually.
His expression softening for a moment only when he found her crying in the bedroom.
But that was it.
She opened her mouth to ask what's going on, when he turned to her, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
"I better go, Sophie," he said, "it's getting late. My car is already here and I guess Aki's mindset is not right now on any homework."
"Yeah," she said slowly, still watching him carefully, "sure, Yuzu."
"Good night."
He turned around and went to the hallway for his shoes yet Sophie stayed on the terrace, transfixed as if somebody just splashed a bucket of cold water over her.
Because that simply could not be it. That he would stop being her friend after finding out that she does not want another kid. She almost regretted tricking him like this but if those were his true colors now, maybe it was for the best she has done it.
Sophie snapped out of the moment only once she heard the main door close and left the terrace, stopping in the living room and struggling to process everything that was happening. Yuzuru's sudden coldness only temporarily distracting her from Mr. Right's potential return.
She looked around in another desperate attempt to spot the card when she noticed Yuzuru's mp4 player and the earphones she got him for Christmas on the TV table.
Quickly grabbing it, she ran out into the hallway and down the stairs, taking them by two, but making sure she always lands on her left leg.
Not seeing him anywhere, she strode to the spot where his car should have been parked and froze in her tracks when she saw he is still there.
Sitting behind the wheel, his forearms rested on it and his shoulders shaking.
Huh?
Why on earth was he crying? She made a tentative step towards his car but paused once more.
Looking down on the earphones in her hand, she tried to once more summon the positive feelings she had for him but recalling the cold look he gave her, the distant 'good night', not waiting for her to respond and just leaving, without saying goodbye to Akira.
Are you once more ditching a woman who won't fulfill your desire of having your own child?
She thought and squeezed the mp4 player in her hand. She gave him one last look, seeing that he is still sobbing, and turned around, going back to her flat.
"MUM!" Akira shouted the second she opened the door to their flat, "I found it! I found the card!!"
He ran up to her, waving with a platinum card in his hand. Sophie leaned against the closed door and slid down, relief washing all over her as she took the card from him.
"Beautifly," she mumbled, reading the name of the Pokemon that looked like a butterfly, "thank God."
"It was under the rug, under the TV table," he hurried with explanation, "it must have fallen out of the binder when I was taking it to school and got kicked under the rug."
"Oh, Aki," she sighed with a soft smile and pulled him into a tight hug.
She already had Mike, the security guy, booked to come over that night and stay with them for a few days but even though finding the card set her mind to ease a little, she didn't cancel the security. Not until she would get a confirmation that the guy is still in prison.
She did her best to push the thought of Yuzuru out of her head, but when she climbed to Akira's bed, with Mike sleeping in the guest room, the thoughts flooded her again and she spent a better part of the night with her arms wrapped around her son and her eyes fixed on the dark curtains, mind replaying the moment in the car over and over again.
The look in her friend's eyes telling her that they may not be friends anymore.
__________________________
A/N: I have a really strange, nudging feeling that I wanted to include some super important sentence in this chapter, but can't recall it anymore!! Arrghh, that's what happens when I think the chapters through away from my laptop :/
Anyway, maybe it's already there and if not, and I do recall it later on, I will add it.
In regards to Sophie's stalking, I got greatly inspired by the stalking case of the British singer Lily Ellen.
She made an interview about her experience with one particular stalker who was first obsessed with her before breaking into her home and planning to kill her. And police doing nothing to protect her.
First video here is a short 6 min summary of it and the one after is the full interview.
I of course recommend the full one, but for those with a shorter attention span (like me :D ) the 6 min should cover it well enough.
The 6min version:
The full version:
And this one is a mini docu on stalking in Japan being an increasingly bigger and bigger issue.
Same as the Lily Allen one, I watched this one years ago, but they kind of got stuck with me and subsequently (and subconsciously I guess) also made me come up with this fic story years later.
For me, the main point of this fic is that I would like to show that having fame and money also comes with a price that none of the 'celebrities' deserve.
Both for being chased by the paparazzi and stalked by ill-minded people just as Sophie was.