My parents and I have an implicit understanding that I will only be allowed to skate until the moment I receive an acceptance letter from Harvard, Yale, or Princeton in my hands.
Once that happens I will be forced to turn in my skates and focus on my studies. They don't care too much what I major in so much as that I get into the best college possible. Only an education will help me survive in this world because I will never make it as a professional figure skater, and even if I somehow did, I would still not measure up to their standards.
They never tell me that though, not to my face at least, but it's easy enough to read between the lines.
I know from the way their smiles go flat when I come home with silver, bronze, or – God forbid – nothing at all.
I know from the way their eyes slide past me to seek out my older sister and her achievements, her straight A's, her perfect on paper life.
I know. I know. I know.
I am not good enough.
"If you weren't so lazy, you'd have gotten gold, Chun Yu" is one of my mother's favorite phrases, along with the shake of her head and the cluck of her tongue. As if the hours I already put in at the rink were nothing. As if I am only worth something if I have gold.
I am by no means amazing. I don't need my parents to tell me that to know it myself. In the ten years I have been skating, I have only ever made it to Junior level of competitions and doubt I will ever be quite up to par with those who've competed for years in the Senior division.
But I want to try.
This is my last chance to make something of myself because in just a few short months I will be entering my final year of high school.
I only have one more year to skate.
This will be my final season.
A/N: I know this was short, but it's only supposed to be an introduction. I want to see what kind of response I get before I decide to continue.
Recently I started thinking about how accepting Yuuri's parents were of him pursuing a career in figure skating and how odd that is. Asian parents, particularly Chinese ones, are notorious for pushing their kids to be 'number one' in everything and believe that pursuing academics is the only way to succeed in life. That's why I want to write a story that focuses on the child of parents who view any achievements in non-academics as unimportant compared to ones in the academics.
Let me know what you guys think.
On a side note, Chun (春) means spring and Yu (雨) means rain. Chun Yu in Japanese is also the name for cellophane noodles.