In Our Corner of the World || y.h.

twenty-six ; when you realise

Her heart was filled with excitement when she landed in Sendai. Her mind began planning the things that Yuzuru and her can do while she was here and while he wasn't practising. Picking up her phone, she called up her friend Umi, and surprisingly, she picked up during working hours.

"Hey, Umi!" She greeted, "It's been a while. How's work?"

"Misaki!" Umi shouted, "It's been so long! Uh, work is fine."

"Can I meet up with you later?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Her response was rather hesitant, but she took it eitherway. 

"Alright! See you later." She hung up and took a cab from the airport to her grandmother's house. It's been so long since she's been back, and each time she turns to a corner of a street, she comes back to the memory of her high school days, where things were less complicated, and people didn't have to interrupt her like they do now.

"Sendai sure is beautiful." She said.

"You should see it during Spring, miss. It's all kinds of beautiful during that time." Her taxi driver said, and she recalls back to when she first met Yuzuru. It was during the Spring. A smile creeped her lips and she agreed with the driver.

Once she arrived in front of her house, she paid the driver and walked through the front garden. Opening the door, she saw the house in the same condition as she left it. It made her feel relieved to be able to come back.

"I'm home." She said.

Cleaning up some things and dusting off some items that had been collecting them for over the months she had been gone, and afterwards, she walked out towards the married couple's home.

Kiyoko and Tadashi lived in the same neighbourhood as she does now. She decided to pay them a visit and walking along the sidewalk, she came across a small house that had flowers growing in the yard. Knocking on the door, she wasn't expecting the person that greeted her.

"Misa?!" 

"Umi." She said, sounding surprised and confused, "I thought you were at work. Why are you here?"

"Uh, I just took a day off actually. Shoya's here too." She said.

"That's great! The whole gang's here." She said, letting herself in and seeing Tadashi and Kiyoko on the sofa with Shoya sitting across them.

"I'm back." She said, and Kiyoko stood up in shock as she ran up to hug her friend.

"It's been so long! How are you?" She asked.

"I've been great! How's married life treating you?" Misaki asked.

"Better than I have ever been treated in my entire life." Kiyoko answered, a pure glow from her face.

"What are you back for, stranger?" Shoya greeted her with a hug and she said, "Actually, I'm back to see Yuzuru. Have you guys seen him yet? He's probably at the ice rink, so do you guys want to come with me to see him?"

The others looked at each other in an awkward way, and Kiyoko said, "Misaki, Yuzuru was taken to the hospital a few days ago and he hurt his ankle during practice."

"What?" Her face turned as pale as chalk, and she wondered why nobody had called to inform her, and why Yuzuru didn't call to inform her.

"Why didn't anybody tell me?" She asked.

"We thought you wouldn't want to worry. And Yuzuru said not to." Umi said, "He is at the rink, skating. But I don't understand why he would skate at this time when he's clearly in pain."

"But, Yuzuru and I-" She cut herself off before taking back her coat and putting it on, "I'm going to go to the rink. I'll see you guys later."

Running as fast her legs could take her, she wanted to go to him and see him in person. She needed to know that he was okay, and why he didn't want to tell her he was injured. She knew how much this time meant to him since his World Championships were coming up, but he couldn't possibly think of such a thing since he got hurt, could he?

Bursting through the doors of the ice rink, breathless, she noticed there was nobody there but Yuzuru and the staff. He heard the loud banging of the doors against the walls, and noticed the person walking in, but continued to have a conversation with a coach and completely ignoring Misaki's presence.

Misaki walked up to the side of the rink, looking at Yuzuru, eyes full of worry as she saw his figure looked completely fine, but then she also saw that he was ignoring her.

"Yuzu." She called for him, and he looked at her and got out of the ice rink. She was bewildered by his behavious, and chased after him.

"Yuzuru, are you alright?" She asked.

"Completely fine." He lied.

"Lies. You got injured a few days ago, didn't you?" She said, "Why are you avoiding me? Are you okay?"

He suddenly fell on his skates, and he felt the hurt in his ankle resurface. Misaki was afraid and helped him up, gently, but he pulled his arm away from her touch, and she was taken aback to the point that she wanted to cry.

"Why, what's wrong?" She asked.

"What are you doing here, Misa?" He asked, sounding callous, "Shouldn't you be somewhere at a grand opening or with some actor rather than spending your time with a workaholic who's never around for you?"

She was silent, and she felt like the tears were close to falling at this point.

"What do you mean? I want to be here, Yuzuru." She said, "Nobody made that choice for me except for me."

"As well as the choice that you were going to attend that opening in the arms of another man, huh?" He spat.

"I don't understand. What are you so angry about, Yuzuru?" She asked.

"Wake up, Misaki!" He shouted, "You were with someone else and he was somehow perfect for you. You seemed really happy and nobody was going to write bad things about that. You know, it hurt losing you once five years ago because I loved you so much, do you even love me? I don't want to go through that again, so I'm just going to end this here. We're done." 

She couldn't believe what she just heard. It was if her heart had been pulled out from her chest, shaken up, and ripped apart one by one, slowly. She walked into a complete mess, and walking out of it wasn't going to be easy if she didn't put up a fight.

"I came back for you." She said in a disappointed whisper, "I haven't seen Ayato for years and even so, even if he were to wait for me to accept him, I would have come back here for you the next day after the event. I wouldn't have given it a second thought."

Yuzuru fell silent, his angered expression softening, before Misaki's eyes fully released tears and she was somehow amused by this, "You think it's easy for me to escape things so swiftly like this? I didn't even choose anybody else, I came to you running. I ran to you. You could hold the world in your hands and win everything, but I hope you realise I'm not going to be there anymore, Hanyu Yuzuru."

She got up, and walked away from him, her heart feeling every single pain and anger in each step. Once she stepped out of the ice rink, Yuzuru felt a much more excruciating pain, and it wasn't in his ankle.

It was in his heart.