Disclaimer: I do not own YOI. Just this fanfic.
Hey, guys. From now on, if my chapters aren't being released weekly, then they'll probably be released every two weeks. This is the only way I could fit writing chapters that I'm actually proud of, and keeping things up at school. And if things get even more stressful, then chapters would probably be released monthly...
Last chapter seemed to go pretty well, I hope you guys are enjoying this story!
Let me know what you think in the REVIEWS! Oh and please FAVOURITE and FOLLOW if you haven't yet!
Ch. 9: Let the training begin (Before YOI)
One week later…
"Bring those arms down a bit more! Yeah, perfect! Now let's see that step sequence again!" Victor commanded.
Liv skated back to starting area of the step sequence and waited for awhile before beginning the first stroke. She kept her arms a little lower than before throughout the entire sequence but kept everything else exactly the same.
That's how Victor liked it.
They've been working on creating a good choreographic base for her 2014 season short program, but haven't found the one either of them wanted yet.
Heck, Liv hasn't even decided on what kind of song she wants to skate to! But she kept on promising that she'll find one that she likes before the end of June.
Right now, Victor has already made a mental list of the top songs he plans on making his programs to. It wasn't too difficult balancing time between his own training and coaching Liv.
As Liv nears the end of the step sequence, Victor shouts, "Transition into the triple flip!"
That surprised Liv, as she was prepared to end the sequence right after the final pivot. She forced more power on her final stroke before the pivot to build up speed so the transition would work out smoothly.
Finishing the pivot, Liv skates a few crossovers on a curve and glides on the forward inside edge that leads up to the flip. Completing the three-turn, she plants her right toe pick into the ice and launches into the air.
After completing three rotations, Liv lands the jump—on the side of her rear end. She catches an edge on her landing due to under rotation and falls.
Victor sighs and presses his hand against his forehead as he skates over to Liv. She gets back up to her feet.
"You're rushing again. Don't focus so much on getting the rotations as to the height! Let's just work on the flip."
Liv rubbed the area where she fell on. "I'm trying my best, it's just hard getting more height. I've always had a problem with that."
Victor stretched his arms over his head and grunted. "If only we had that harness here, like back at my rink? I could really help you work on your jump height."
Liv scoffed. "Yeah, but that's never going to happen."
She turns around and redoes the entrance to the triple flip, this time landing the jump. She continues from her landing edge and builds up speed for another triple flip. Victor nods as she lands that one too.
He thinks about what he just said about the harness while Liv worked on the consecutive jumping exercise.
"Maybe there is a way for you to use that harness…" He thought.
At the St. Petersburg Ice Rink.
Victor performed his fifth triple axel in a row, albeit being a little scratchy this landing. Yakov presses the stop recording button on the camera and calls Victor to come over.
They review the video capturing Victor's consecutive triple axels, playing it back in slow motion. Yakov paused it at the takeoff of the first triple axel.
"See? Your elbows are coming up too late for the takeoff. Your free leg should swing up at the same time you bring your arms up! Lets see it again!"
Victor groaned as he skates off from the boards. His legs were killing him! This is not a good way to spend a Friday afternoon!
He performed the triple axel again...and again...and again…
And then he finally popped it.
Yakov was furious.
Victor braced himself for the worst as he skated over to his coach. He had yet to land a triple axel that pleased Yakov. It was strange, really. The triple axel is supposed to be one of the most basic elements for him, but he's just not feeling it today.
But instead of the lecture Victor had expected, Yakov lets out a low sigh and said, "enough for today. You're tired, I'm tired. Lets see something else. Do a few power circles for me."
Nodding obediently, Victor did as he was told. What a relief! It was at times like these, that Victor truly liked Yakov.
He had always respected him as someone with more experience and an almost father-figure, but he rarely saw him as someone who he could be himself around naturally and just connect.
As he powered across the ice using crossovers, Victor catches sight of Yuri Plisetsky out of the corner of his eye, skating on the other side of the rink.
There weren't a lot of skaters around this afternoon, most of them are out doing resistance or flexibility training. The blond haired junior skater performed a beautiful flying broken leg sitspin. Victor smiled, he wondered how Yuri P. would do in his future competitions.
Practice was over thirty minutes later. The skaters cleared the ice as the Zamboni came from behind the large metal door. Victor stayed behind a little later to see one of the female coaches put away a mobile jumping harness in the storage room.
He then hurried up and changed out of his skates and packed up his belongings before returning to the ice rink once again. Making sure nobody was around to see him—other than the distracted Zamboni driver—Victor went inside the storage room and grabbed the harness from its shelf and ran out of the arena.
"I promise I'll return this as soon as I'm done!" He mentally reminded himself.
Later…
Liv sits on the bleachers by the rinkside, her fingers typing away across her laptop's keyboard, desperately trying to finish a report.
The doors to the arena flew open as Victor entered holding a large pole-like object. Liv nearly dropped her laptop when Victor came rushing in.
"Hey! Why aren't you on the ice yet?" Victor asked breathlessly.
"I just needed to finish this write-up, that's all. I'm trying not to fall behind so much right now. And—where did you get that?" She pointed at the object Victor was carrying in one hand.
"A little something I borrowed from my rink." He said enthusiatically. "Shall we begin?"
Liv eyed him suspiciously as she closed her laptop and put it away. "By 'borrowing' do you mean with permission? Or did you just take it?"
Victor waited for awhile before coming up with a reasonable answer—or at least he thought it was one.
"Nobody'll notice, really. We've got plenty of these things to go around!"
He puts down the pole and began changing into his skates. Liv moves her backpack down the bench a little before doing the same. They both step onto the ice.
A few minutes of warm up passes by and they begin working on jumps. This time, Victor didn't demonstrate much—due to his aching legs from all those disappointing triple axels! He let Liv perform a few double axels to identify her problems.
She lands her fifth double axel, wobbling a bit on the landing. Victor skates over and straps the harness of the large pole onto Liv's upper body.
"Have Angela used this before with you?" Victor asked as he helped tighten some straps.
"Yeah. It wasn't too bad. But...are you sure you know what you're doing?" Liv asked nervously as she finished putting in the last strap.
Victor was silent. "Do you want an honest answer or an answer you want to hear?"
Liv let out a nervous laugh. "Oh no…"
"Haha. I've used this on other skaters before, but they were intermediate level skaters and I was just substituting for one of their coaches. So we're just going to have to rely on trust here. You with me, Liv?"
"I'm trusting you with this…"
Victor tugged on the rope connecting the harness to the pole he's holding. "Of course, you'll trust me with this! I'm like, the most trustworthy person there is! You won't get injured under my tutelage!"
Liv begins skating backward crossovers to go into the double axel. Victor skates at a good speed next to her. She prepares the takeoff and steps onto the forward outside edge.
Just as she does that, Victor realizes that her technique of jumping was very different than the intermediate skaters he had used the harness on before. His eyes grew wide as he cries out, "WAIT!"
Too late. Liv already left the ice, and upon hearing him shout, opens up immediately midair and comes crashing down onto the ice.
Five minutes later…
Liv sat on the bleachers, holding an ice pack against her lower back. Victor stood nearby, holding more ice packs, and looking slightly guilty. Liv groaned as she removes her ice pack.
"'Won't get injured under your tutelage?' Hm?"
Victor nervously laughed. "Well, it could've been worse." He sighed. "Sorry, you're right. This is my fault."
Liv gently stood up and threw the used ice pack in the nearby trash can. Victor cautiously asked, "Still trust me?"
The arena breeze died down. It was so quiet, a leaf could be dropped and heard. Liv finally turned around and raised a single finger, symbolizing one more try.
They head back onto the ice and strapped on the harness, this time more tentatively. Liv began building up speed for the double axel once again and Victor kept a more careful eye on her movements as he held onto the pole with hold hands.
Liv goes from her preparation edge to her takeoff edge and bends deeply on her left knee.
As soon as she swings her free leg up and both skates left the ice, Victor hauled against the pole which caused the rope attached to Liv's harness to pull her up a few centimeters.
With the slightly increased elevation, Liv rotates at her normal speed whilst in the air. She lands the jump—after completing three and a quarter rotations—on two feet. Victor's jaw dropped.
Liv felt her own jaw drop as well as she regained her balance.
"Did you know what you just did?" Victor asked incredulously.
"I—I—"
"You almost landed a triple axel. A triple axel, Liv! Omigosh, if we can increase your height by the time the competitive season starts, you can incorporate the most difficult jump in ladies' figure skating!" Victor exclaimed excitedly.
Liv smiled at the thought of that. But then frowned as reality struck back at her.
"That's not going to happen. Let's just focus on my other triple jumps. But I have to admit, you're actually not too bad with this harness thing."
Victor's high hopes sank to rock bottom but quickly brightened once again after hearing her compliment. "But how come? Do you know how useful a triple axel would be? And by the way, thank you. I was pretty good with the harness, no?"
"Yeah. A clean triple axel would be useful under my belt." Liv fixed her leggings around the boots of her skates. "Can we work on the triple flip, maybe?"
Victor shrugged. "Why not?"
The rest of the afternoon was spent working on landing clean triple flip/triple toe combinations and adding variations to various other jumps such as the triple salchow and double loop at the end of a triple/double/double combination.
They finished practice with a cool down and prepared to leave the arena. Victor waited for Liv to grab all of her belongings before exiting. On the way out, he asked her.
"Liv, is domestic competition here tough for you?"
"No. Not tough. It's a freakin' bloodbath! Every sectionals and Nationals I've been to, the skaters all have this terrifyingly competitive aura about them. And sometimes, it gets more than that! Like it feels threatening! Maybe it's just me, and nobody else feels this. I bet you don't."
"Mmmm...sometimes I do. But I'd like to hear your point of view. Is it scary performing under those circumstances?"
"Hell, yeah! Another reason why people dislike me: I'm consistent under pressure. Just the way I am. I just...perform...that's it. I try and get myself lost in my own program so I would forget about the whole thing! And it works…"
Victor nodded. "Damn. Well, at least whenever you manage to get past all this domestic competition, the ISU judges can actually give you the scores you deserve!"
"Actually, ISU events aren't any better…" Liv muttered. "My scores are always so...uneven from the judges. Like some of them are giving pretty good scores, and then some are giving me scores that even Angela says are ridiculously low."
Victor was in disbelief. No matter where Liv went to, she always seemed to be given this kind of treatment. It ain't easy dealing with this, Victor can only imagine how awful it must be to receive scores that are not based on merit alone.
And the fact that Liv had gone through this for how many years? He did not know—but he knows that something can be done about it.
A few days later…
"Are you sure we have another harness?" One of the coaches at the St. Petersburg ice rink asked.
Yakov scratched his head as he looked inside the storage room too. "That's strange, I was for sure there was another one. Maybe age is catching up to me?"
Out on the ice by the boards, Victor nervously drank his water. He had yet to return the harness he borrowed. Currently, it is sitting in his closet at his apartment, waiting to be remembered to be taken along with every morning.
Yakov and the other coach stopped looking and returned to the ice. Yakov shook his head at Mila, whom he is currently giving lessons to. She shrugged her shoulders when he admitted that there were no more harnesses available currently.
Victor skated to the far end of the rink to work on his moves in private and away from the darting eyes of Yakov.
He works on transitions between a couple of his best jumps. It was much easier landing them without having anybody watching and judging his every move. Or at least he thought nobody was…
Victor sees Yuri. P starring in his direction after he lands a quadruple salchow/half loop/triple salchow. The junior skater looked away and turned red. Victor smiled upon seeing that.
"Like what you see?" He asked.
"Meh. Anyone could do that, with the right conditioning and technique. I guess it's alright." Yuri. P crossed his arms.
Victor raised a brow at the preteen's arrogance. "Oh? You're forgetting something."
He pointed to his own head. "You need to the right mindset too."
Victor turned around and skated away. Later that morning, Yakov began his lessons with Victor as well. This time, Victor's performance was better than what happened last time. Yakov actually smiled.
"Nice job, today. Much cleaner jumps. Work on your spins and field moves before the lunch break." Yakov said before leaving him be.
Victor embraced Yakov in a tight hug. "Thank you, Yakov! You're the best! I love you forever!"
Yakov pushed Victor off of him. "Keep saying that and I'll make you do laps on the ice!"
Victor immediately lets go and went off. Yakov sighed before skating over to Georgi waiting for his lessons on the other end of the rink.
At the local food corner
Victor sat with several of his rink mates at the large outdoor table. Lunch break was always the best time of the day in his opinion. Great time to socialize and enjoy life off the ice.
Some of the female skaters were mingling and whispering about stuff that Victor is curious to know. He places his lunch down and throws an arm around Georgi, who is sitting next to him.
"What's up lately? How are things with Anya? Mm?" Victor pressed.
"Oh! It's just so confusing! I know 100% my feelings for her, but she's always making me guess about how she feels towards me!" Georgi complained.
Another male skater, Max Noda, joins in. "If you ask me, I'd say it's because you're explicit with your feelings."
Georgi became defensive. "Is there anything wrong with showing the world our beautiful bond?"
"No, but there is a problem if you keep on posting those photos of you and her outside of the tea shop every second of the day," female skater, Annie Vasin replied.
"It's her favourite place! Where else do you suggest I take her?" Georgi demanded.
"How about your favourite place?" Constantine Cohen suggested. "I think she's sick of being spoiled all the goddamn time."
"Don't women usually like being spoiled?" Georgi asked.
Mila and Laurel Kopeykin giggled over at their table. Laurel brought a hand delicately to her cheek. "So sorry, dear Georgi. We women can be very difficult to guess sometimes."
Victor brought his shoulder up in a shrug. "So why would you even go for women? If they're so difficult?"
Max smirked. "Oh. So I'm assuming you swing the other way?"
Victor smirked back. "Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Who knows? Men can be just as difficult and confusing anyways."
Several of the skaters nearby looked up at Victor with wide eyes and stopped eating. Victor didn't mind. He liked keeping them guessing, though to be honest, he had always felt a strong attraction towards people of his own gender than the opposite gender. Max had always been an apple of his eye for a long time.
So why does Liv seem special amongst the people of the opposite gender?
Just as Liv popped up in his mind, Annie brought out a topic somewhat related to what Victor was thinking of.
"Have you guys heard about coach Angela Raskalov? Apparently, she has breast cancer!"
"Really? Omigosh, that's terrible!"
"She has a lot of students, what's going to happen to them?"
"Some of them are switching to other substitute coaches and some are taking the next season off," Annie explained.
"And one is being trained in secret by me." Thought Victor.
Yuri. P appeared around the corner, carrying his lunch with him. He looked slightly overwhelmed when he saw most the tables already filled.
Constantine waved him over to his empty table. "Hey, kiddo! Over here!"
Yuri. P sat down next to the older guy. Mila and Laurel quietly fawned over how adorable the preteen is. Constantine started a nice friendly conversation about how things are going here at the rink.
Yuri. P nodded, shook his head, and even smiled at some of the questions Constantine asked.
Victor got up to sit at the other empty seat at their table, right in front of Yuri P.
"So, how do you think of Yakov so far—"
DraLaRing!
Victor's phone came on with a text notification. "Hang on a minute."
Swiping across the message, Victor sees Liv's name and number tagged with the text. Curiosity filled him. What did she want this time?
The text displayed the preview of some kind of sheet music. Victor's face went pale after seeing the layout of the notes. Here...and there...some have so many lines they couldn't even render properly!
He nearly dropped his phone. It was a good thing he caught it, because the second later, another text was sent.
Liv: whoops. My bad. Wrong file. Hang on a minute
The dots came on screen as she prepared to send the correct message to him. Victor didn't notice Max sneaking up behind him and peeping over his shoulder.
"So who's that you're texting?" He asked. "O-via?" Max squinted his eyes as Victor immediately covered the screen.
He pushed Max's face out of the way playfully. "None of your business, peeping Tom."
"Seriously? I accidentally walk in on Mila changing once in the locker room and I'm forever plastered with that title?"
Mila gawked at him. "Once? Please, let's not get into that argument again. And just admit that you're in desperate need to get laid."
Laurel slapped her on the shoulder. "Mila! We have a little one here!" She gestured to Yuri. P, who seemed to be getting a little red.
Victor nodded in agreement as he received the sent file from Liv. It showed a preview of a written report. He clicked on it, opening up the link that took him to another app that allowed him to read documents.
Another text was sent.
Liv: this is my paper on mechanics of motion-capture and its impacts on today's society. Can you please read it over and tell me if I should fix anything? ;)
Victor skimmed over the first few pages of the report and desperately tried to understand it. To be honest, he was never a try-hard in his classes. So this report Liv made already looked perfect to him.
But she's probably going to want some feedback at least. He was about to send her a text saying that he'll read it over later when Max regained his position of peeping onto his phone.
"So is this a very good friend of yours?" He asked.
Victor attempted to push him back again, but Max caught his hand this time. "Why are you so sensitive about it? Aha! So it is a fangirl!"
Annie jumped into the conversation. "Ohh...getting a little desperate here, yourself? Eh, Victor?"
The phone was shoved into Max's face. "What kind of fangirl would send me her entire college class report for me to proofread? Hm?"
Constantine made a shocked face. "A stupid one, I'd say. You're the last person I'd trust with anything that has to do with school. How long has she known you for? 'Cause I'd doubt she'd do this if she knows about your educational life."
Victor took several deep breaths to clear things up. "First of all, I'll have you know that I graduated as in the top eight of the best students in the program! And second of all, it's not a fangirl, it's a friendgirl."
Georgi brought his hand down against the table. It silenced everyone present. He looked at Victor in the eye, with a gaze as fierce as if he could shoot laser beams from his pupils.
"Friendgirl? Do you have any idea how lucky you are that she isn't here right now? Do you?" Georgi asked.
Before Victor could answer, Georgi continued talking. "To say a girl is a friendgirl is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to any girl! How would you like it if Max called you a friendboy right now?"
Victor glanced at Max, who quickly waved his hands to show he does not want to be included in this topic. "Whoa, whoa, hold on there! I don't swing that way!"
Although Victor didn't show it, he felt a slight pang inside of him when Max said that he didn't 'swing that way,' with a tone of offensiveness. As if 'swinging that way' was wrong.
Victor tried to give a reasonable answer. "Georgi, I literally met her two months ago. Of course, I'd call her a friend. Actually, I'm more like a 'Good Samaritan' to her, when she needed help in her lowest moments."
"The Good Samaritan took the injured man home on a donkey, Victor. What are you doing for her?" Max asked.
Victor blinked. There is no way he's telling the truth. What if Yakov found out? He'd be all in his face telling him 'you're not qualified to coach!' Or 'you're only hindering yourself! What about your competitive life?' Or perhaps something more like 'you ain't coaching her just because. You're in it for the ulterior motives.'
"That's none of your business. Let's just clarify some things. Max, this is a friend—a rather new one. Annie, I'm not desperate for anything! And Georgi—for the love of God, stop trying to push your ideals onto other people! That's it! The end!"
With that, Victor dropped his cell phone on the table to silence any potential complaints.
Finally, Max mumbled. "Is she Vietnamese? I saw the last name, sounds Vietnamese. You should really ask her—"
Victor stuck his middle finger up in Max's face.
A week later…
It was a Tuesday morning, and Victor had a day off from practice today. He immediately scheduled with Liv to arrange a meeting at the arena early morning. They worked on Liv's jump height, but she kept on falling every time she tried to increase it.
It was getting to the point where Liv was about to lose it. Victor could see the annoyance steaming off of her and called it all for now.
They took a breather and Liv immediately went to her phone inside of her backpack. Victor grabbed his water bottle and looked over in her direction, just in time to see her face change from plain to wide-eyed shock.
Liv shoved her phone up in his face. A document with a short message and link attached to it was displayed on the screen. Victor was confused.
Liv tilted her head. "Do you know what this is?" She asked.
"Uhh….an email?"
"Yes. And look at the last paragraph of it." Liv scrolled down and zoomed in. The words 'Overall mark: 74%' was shown.
Victor didn't see her point. "So?"
"So!? I sent you that report for you to proofread it! And you said that there wasn't anything wrong! I thought you already got your college degree! Well, there goes my average!"
"Well, technically there wasn't anything wrong with your report...just maybe...your professor marks a little too hard?" Victor suggested. "And what kind of teacher emails the students their marks?"
"Mine," Liv answered. She sat down and buried her face in her hands. "This semester just keeps getting worse and worse."
Victor attempted to reach out to her shoulder but held back. She probably wouldn't want to be touched as of this moment. So he sat down beside her.
"What do you want that would make you happy again?" Victor asked.
"I don't know. I just want a...normal morning, I guess. I'm sorry if I'm being a burden to you."
Victor shook his head. "I want to help. Like I said back then when I proposed to be your coach. I'm here to help."
When Liv didn't answer immediately, Victor began undoing his skates and then packed up his bag before standing up. This time, Liv was the one who's confused.
"Wha—what are—"
"Come on, let's go. Pack up your stuff and come with me. Hurry up." Victor commanded.
Liv did as she was told, but was still unsure as to what Victor had in mind. Once she got all of her stuff, Victor led the way out of the arena and towards the parking lot.
They drove down to the waterfront area of the city, where Victor stopped at a morning coffee shop. He took Liv inside, who at this time, still had her entire backpack with her, due to fear of leaving her precious textbooks where they may get stolen.
Victor sat down at an empty booth by the window and Liv did the same, setting her bag down on the ground beneath the table. He took out a wallet.
"What do you want?"
"Oh no, it's alright, I can pay for myself."
"Didn't you say that you're already struggling financially? Don't make this hard on yourself, what do you want?"
Liv took a look at the menu at the top of the display board behind the cash registers.
"Uhh, cappuccino...medium. What about you?"
Victor stood up and went to the lineup. "I got myself covered. Don't sweat it. Just relax, ok?"
He returned a minute later with two drinks and a box of doughnuts. He placed Liv's drink down in front of her before taking a seat. She thanked him before warming her hands around the sides of the paper cup.
"You never been to these places before?" Victor asked curiously.
"Not really. I never really give myself the time of day to go out and sightsee, despite all of my friends and family telling me how nice of a city St. Petersburg is, and begging me to send them pictures!"
"Well, it's never too late to start now. What do you say? You got time before your class starts, right?"
Liv quickly checked her phone's schedule before nodding. "Right."
They finished resting up at the coffee shop and went back outside onto the streets. It was still partly early in the morning, there wasn't a lot of people on the streets, but there were a few cars already on the road and bikers down the side of their lane.
Liv wanted to save some doughnuts for later, so she stuffed a few into her paper bag for lunch as they walked about the streets. Victor walked a few centimeters in front, showing off the buildings they pass by.
"See that over there? That's a store where you can donate old clothes and books to."
"That's a department store for jewelry, my mother used to go there very often. Oh, and that over there, is the greatest all you can eat buffet I've been to. I—you have to go there one day."
Liv smiled as Victor pranced about, dragging her here and there and everywhere. They went to a new store that sold funny-looking hats and tried on some. Then to a pet store where Victor bought a new red dog-sized sweater.
They explored a whole lot of places Liv had never been to, before finally stopping in front of the large street that had the great view of the lake. It was almost time to leave, but Liv decides to spare a couple more minutes, to Victor's delight.
He stood at the front of the railing, separating the street from the waterbody. Looking out into the distance, he breathed in the cool morning breeze and sighed. It had been a long time since he felt this free as well.
Turning around, Victor saw Liv sitting down on the bench with a large paper pad on her lap. Her hands were busy maneuvering a pencil around, creating something on the paper. He walked up to her and peeked over.
A rough, but amazingly realistic, pencil sketch of the entire street from her point of view was displayed on her paper. Victor whistled. "How long have you been drawing for?"
"What do you mean? How long it took me to make this, or how long it had been since I started drawing?"
"The latter."
"Umm, for quite awhile actually. I started when I was really young. It felt really natural to me, my mom was an artist herself. She also loves to do photography and graphic design. My dad is an English professor and a creative writer. He also plays piano, trombone, and the cello! Yep, art runs in the family."
"But you're the first one to pursue something like skating." Victor pointed out.
"Yeah...I guess what got me into it, was how lyrical everything looked like on ice. It was...like painting with knife shoes!" Liv cringed. "I know, bad comparison."
Victor laughed. "Well, I'm glad that you pursued skating. Even though it brought you a lot of hardships. The ISU wouldn't have seen what skating used to be. It's a sport, I get it, but it's also an art. And not many people express it."
Liv added the final touches of shading to her sketch before closing the paper pad and putting away her utensils. She stuffed everything inside of her backpack and hoisted it onto her shoulders, still sitting on the bench.
"I'm glad too. It's been a bumpy ride down this skating path, but it was worth it. I learned so much from all my past experience, I went to new places, I met lots of people."
Victor leaned on his arms against the back of the bench, looking out to the waterbody.
"Liv...are you Vietnamese?"
"What!?" Liv exclaimed in shock.
"You're not?"
"No! I'm Cambodian! Can't you tell?"
Victor went pokerfaced. No, he could not tell. Cambodian? He has never seen a person of that race in his entire life, and even if he did, he's pretty sure that Liv looked nothing like that race. Or maybe he's just bad at guessing races.
Liv shrugged. "Well, now you know. Why ask so suddenly, though? Running out of conversation ideas?"
Victor didn't answer her question and instead posed his own. A question he's been wanting to ask for quite some time.
"Liv...what am I to you?"
That got Liv's head turning around. Her mouth slowly opened to say something, but Victor didn't see it.
"Am I a someone you would call a 'friend'...boy?'" Victor prepared for a slap in the face and a long rant about how 'insensitive' it is to be even suggest something like that.
But none of that happened. Instead, Liv stood up and faced Victor, who stood up as well. Her head firmly held and her eyes making direct contact with his.
She pursed her lips before answering. "You're the greatest thing that's happened to me here. Other than Angela, of course. But honestly, what you've done for me in the past two months has been more than I could take in. And not just skating, but life in general here. What you did for me today. I just—I...all I want to say is thank you."
Liv smiled brightly. "Thank you for turning around and taking a look back to help me back to my feet again. I know it sounds cheesy, but that's how I feel."
Victor felt a large smile gradually growing on his face. Joy filled up inside of him.
He stuffed his hands into his pockets and slowly let out a sigh.
"You're welcome, Liv. And also...I don't mind spending more time like this with you. Like, today. Let's spend more enjoyable times like this together."
"Sure. Why not." Liv agreed.
I'm SO SO SO SORRY if there's any grammar or spelling errors in here! (I'm really tired and I can't edit properly). If I find anything when reading this over, I'll try to fix it as soon as possible.
So in the meantime, please REVIEW, FAVOURITE, and FOLLOW! And share this with people who probably like YOI fanfic!
Thanks! :D