[EC Hellfire on Ice~Viktor Nikiforov EX]

{Guys, Hellfire was about Frollo's lust for Esmeralda. Since Viktor skated to this, he must be in love with someone}

{He must have a really bad boner to have skated to Hellfire.}

{Wtf. I came here for laughs and I find people wondering who's Nikiforov's next fling.}

{Excuse me? This is a masterpiece and you think it's a joke?}

{Well CLEARLY Nikiforov wouldn't skate Hellfire as a love confession. You know what happened to Frollo? Esmeralda rejected him because he was a creep in general.}

{That's because Frollo was never as handsome as Viktor, you uncultured pig!}

{Looks don't excuse the fact that Frollo tried to rape Esmeralda!}

{No he doesn't!}

{Read the book, uncultured swine!}

{*sigh* can I just watch a video of Viktor without getting caught up in a fan war?}

{Whoever he's got the hots for is a lucky girl}

{It could be a guy}

{Repeat after me: skating to a love song does NOT equal a love confession}

{Repeat after me: Hellfire is NOT a love song}

{Who wants to bet that Chris dared him to skate this?}

Phichit barely held his laughter behind a wide grin as the music played. The thunderous notes of Hellfire, despite the lack of vocals that normally accompanied the orchestra, instilled fear in most of its listeners. In Yūri, it filled her with nostalgic fascination as Viktor slid across the ice on his knees with his face tilted towards the ceiling. As he slowed down the closer he got to the center, his hand extended like he was reaching for the sky before clenching into a fist with the final note.

"I can't believe he skated to Hellfire," Yūri murmured.

"Want me to play it again?" Even if he hadn't asked, Yūri knew that Phichit would replay the video. Whether it was to Yūri's astonishment or for his own enjoyment, she had no idea. (Maybe it was a mix of the two.)

Viktor stood alone on the ice, the spotlight on him being the only source of illumination in the dark arena. Then more lights stained the ice a pale blue as Viktor skated slowly. Like this, she could almost envision him as Frollo—a much younger and more handsome Frollo—ruminating as he paced before the fireplace, conflicted by his duty to God and his newfound feelings.

He spun across the ice, arm raised like a dancer's would in fourth position. The same arm lowered as his hand clutched at his heart like he'd been pierced. Then Viktor crossed his arms over his chest as if holding someone close to him.

The ice turned a faint orange shade as Viktor prepared to execute his signature quad flip. The second he landed, the orange hue deepened as the monks' began to chant. Viktor looked frantic, brandishing a hand opposite of where he faced like he was trying to remove some fault of his. (He had none, as far as Yūri knew.)

Yūri knew the song well enough. She'd heard it countless times, knew who the song was meant for, and knew the emotion that went into its delivery. Watching her idol skate to this, capturing Frollo's insane desire of Esmeralda perfectly was something else entirely. No matter what he skated to, he was beautiful. This…this was the first time his skating sparked terror in her.

She was sure that Phichit was humming along as Viktor whirled around, a mirror of Frollo in his rage. He gestured towards himself, like he was offering Esmeralda a choice. Phichit couldn't hold back his laughter anymore as Viktor used the same hand to grab his costume and pull at it, effectively tearing the front in two.

As Viktor skated slowly from the center of the rink, looking remorseful, he raised his head as though he were looking for divine forgiveness. He turned on his skate and glided forward, picking up enough speed that he could slide on his knees with his body parallel to the ice. One hand reached for the ceiling, the other slowing him down until he reached the center. Light stained the ice red as Viktor clenched his outstretched hand into a fist.

"Wow," was all Yūri could say as the video ended with applause.

"The comments are even better," Phichit wheezed, passing his phone to her. The Thai skater burst into another round of laughter that caused him to drop his phone, prompting Yūri to catch it as her friend fell off the bench.

Many people, like Yūri, couldn't believe that Viktor had actually skated to Hellfire. Some were amazed that Hellfire was actually pulled off. Others took the time to speculate that Viktor's peculiar choice of music meant that he was in love with somebody. "Hellfire isn't a love song," Yūri noted with a frown.

Phichit regained his breath enough to reach out to Yūri for his phone. "No," he agreed. "But if Frollo had looked anywhere near as good as Viktor, you think he would have had any problems getting Esmeralda?"

"Esmeralda hated Frollo because he was cruel to Quasimodo."

"I don't know, Yūri." Phichit wiggled his eyebrows in mischief. "If Viktor had been Frollo in your acting class, I bet you would have dropped Phoebus like a hot sweet potato," he teased.

"Phichit!" Yūri cried, face burning as Phichit doubled over at his own joke.

"Guys!" Yūri looked up as Venus skated to a halt at the rink boards. "Coach said break time's over."

"Already?"

"The Four Continents Championship is coming up. What do you expect?"

Yūri made a noise of agreement as she took off her skate guards. Like any coach, Celestino wanted to see his students do well. He also wanted to see them make it on to the podium.

For Venus, that meant solving her issues with Giles. Going by how quiet the rink was this morning, Yūri guessed that her friend had handled the matter like she promised.

For Phichit, it meant earning the first medal at an international figure skating championship for Thailand.

And for Yūri…that meant learning the Triple Axel-Triple Lutz combo like Celestino wanted. The first step to achieving that was to correct the foot she landed on.

The Four Continents was in two weeks. If it was in one, Yūri could have passed off the fluttering feeling in her chest as the pressure of competition.

So why was her heart pounding like crazy?!

Spread eagle into Triple Axel—Yūri landed her first jump easily and kicked her toe pick at the ice. Not only did she pop her triple into a single, she fell hard. Yūri hissed as she curled in on herself, though it would do nothing to ease the pain.

"Yūri!" The Japanese skater looked up to find Venus at her side, her hand extended for Yūri to grab so she could get up. Black spots danced in her eyes like falling ashes and as she tried to blink them away, Venus was gone. Viktor stood before her in his Hellfire costume.

Yūri blinked numbly as Viktor knelt down, wearing that smile that seduced women left and right. "Yūri…" he crooned, his voice oddly higher-pitched than it should have been. "Yūri!" This time, Yūri could recognize her friend's loud voice and remembered where she was. Yūri closed her eyes, focusing on her friend's voice as she grabbed a hand and blindly pulled herself up. "You okay?" She opened her eyes, relaxing when she saw Venus in front of her looking concerned.

"I—I'll be fine," Yūri stammered. She shook her head as she skated away. Yūri didn't remember hitting her head against the ice. It didn't hurt either. The black spots in her vision were gone and so was that hallucination of Viktor.

Yūri patted her cheeks, though it did little to cool her burning skin. She exhaled as she built up speed for her jump combo again. Unfortunately she was going too fast now and Yūri inwardly blamed her boyfriend for her speed problem. Ever since his bet with Phichit, Yuri was so fast in her programs that she sometimes had to improvise her choreography whenever she was ahead of the music. It was amazing how the judges never caught on.

At least her Triple Axel went off without a hitch, but Yūri knew that she over-rotated the second jump before she landed. What made it worse was that she made it a toe loop again.

She heard Phichit holler from his place on the ice. "That was amazing, Yūri!"

"It was a toe loop," Yūri pointed out, unable to understand what made Phichit cheer as though she landed the quad axel. "And I over-rotated."

Phichit skated towards her until he was close enough that Yūri could see the excitement on his face. "You really don't know what you did? You just landed a quad toe loop and you didn't even know?"

"I-I did?"

The Thai skater shook his head. "I'm gonna get my phone," he said. "Just try that jump combo again until I tell you to stop."

"Okay." They skated away from each other, with Yūri remaining on the ice while Phichit retrieved his phone.

"Ciao Ciao! Can you come watch?"

Yūri decided to count the rotations in her head as she went into her Axel. One…two…three…at the half mark, she landed on the outside edge of her other foot.

She kicked her toe pick into the ice for the Lutz jump. One…two…three…

"There you are!" The volume of Venus' bellow was enough to distract Yūri and make her flub her landing. She thought she heard Phichit groan, but the sound of her rink mates' raised voices joined by Celestino's efforts to calm them made her think she imagined it. "What's your excuse this time?!"

Yūri supposed it did seem too peaceful at the rink for once. She thought that Giles and Venus had finally settled their differences. Unfortunately, the temporary absence of conflict was due to the fact that Giles had apparently slept in.

"I swear you landed a quad toe loop today, Yūri!" Phichit insisted as Yūri set up the laptop. "And you would have landed the second quad if Venus hadn't yelled."

Yūri hummed in response. When practice was over, Phichit had showed her the video he had taken. True to his word, Yūri had rotated four times before she decked her landing at the moment Venus yelled at Giles.

Even though there was proof that she could do a quad, could she actually land it in competition? Yūri didn't always land her jumps, not like Sara and Mila did. She had been the only female skater at the Sochi Grand Prix to have the triple Axel and they still placed ahead of her. Yūri figured that was why Celestino was so intent on her learning the triple Axel-Loop-triple Loop combo.

The two stared at the laptop screen, waiting until the image of the Chinese short track speed skater appeared with a hand over his eyes as though he were in deep thought. "He Long?" Yūri said worriedly.

He Long removed his hand, looking tired. "Hey."

"Was practice that bad today, Long?" Phichit asked.

"No."

"So you didn't get injured again?"

"No."

"You're still going to the World Cup, aren't you?"

"Yes, Phichit, I am."

"Then what's wrong?" Yūri tried this time.

He Long sighed as he brought a knee up to his chest. "…My mother came to visit me in Shenyang," he said.

The Thai skater tilted his head. "Isn't that a good thing?"

"She brought my little sister with her."

"Is she there with you?" Yūri asked excitedly.

"So what's the problem?" Phichit wondered at the same time.

One of He Long's eyebrows twitched. "The problem? The problem? The problem is that everyone at the rink thought the kid was mine!"

"How old is your sister?"

"She's—" He Long paused to count on his fingers before he finally replied with, "—five months old."

Phichit gaped at He Long through the screen. Even Yūri fell silent as she remembered that He Long was twenty-one, due to turn twenty-two in three months. He Long was older than his little sister by two decades. No wonder his rink mates thought his sister was his daughter. The birth couldn't have been easy on his mother, either. "And…how old is your mother?" Yūri asked tentatively.

"She's forty."

Yūri's eyebrows rose up to her hairline at the same time Phichit screamed, "Your mother had you when she was seventeen?!"

"Eighteen," the Chinese man corrected, reaching a hand up to rub his ear.

"And she got to keep the baby? The government didn't force her to abort?"

"We got rid of the one-child policy last year, Phichit. Everyone's allowed to have two kids now."

"So is your stepfather okay with having a daughter?" Yūri questioned.

Her boyfriend fell silent as he tilted his head in consideration, like he was trying to come up with an answer. "He's not mad," he decided. "I mean, she's his child so he loves her."

Even without being said aloud, Yūri knew that He Long's stepfather had been hoping for a son of his own. And given his mother's age, the chances of trying again for a son were near nonexistent now. "Is she there with you?" she asked again.

"Yeah," he said. "She and my mother are staying with me." He Long rose from his chair. "Do you want to see her?"

"Yes," was the immediate answer from the figure skaters.

"I'll be right back." He Long left the screen, leaving a vacant background of his room as they waited for him to return. They heard small whimpers and soft hushes as out of view, He Long said, "Mian, mianhae, Yang-ee," which Yūri could understand as, "Sorry, sorry." Yang, she assumed, was the baby's name.

He Long sat down in front of the screen, this time with a baby girl in his arms. "Aww! She's so cute!" Phichit cooed at the screen. "Nihao!"

"Ni ni," the baby babbled as she reached towards the screen with her tiny hands.

"Guys, this is Hui Yang," He Long introduced, holding one of his sister's wrists to make her wave to them. His voice turned more gentle as he addressed his sister. "These are my friends. The nutcase on the left is Phichit—"

"Hey!" The aforementioned nutcase protested.

"—and this is my girlfriend, Yūri," he finished.

"Uwi," Hui Yang mumbled. "Eebo."

"Yes, she is," He Long agreed as though his baby sister's speech was comprehensible. "She's trying to say that you're pretty," he said to Yūri with a smile.

"Aww." Yūri tried to ignore the light burning in her cheeks from being complimented—as close as it was—by a baby. "Who named her?"

"My grandmother did," her boyfriend replied. "She named both of us. I'm 'river dragon', my sister is 'bright ocean'. Not bad, huh?"

"Is she also watching your sister most of the time?"

"Yes."

Yūri smiled as she made a small wave with her hand. "Hui Yang, an-nyeong!"

Hui Yang gave her a gummy smile as she reached for the screen again. "Ah-o!"

"Say, can you tell me why I keep hearing about Hellfire on social media?" He Long asked while his sister reached for something out of sight.

Phichit erupted in laughter as he fell out of sight of the laptop. Yūri, on the other hand, felt her face burn up as she remembered the video of Viktor's exhibition. "It happened at our European Championships. Viktor skated to Hellfire for his exhibition," Yūri explained as another howl left Phichit's mouth.

He Long looked incredulous as he reached for his phone and typed something in, occasionally "aided" by Hui Yang as she curiously touched her brother's phone. "You're kidding," he finally said, looking up from his phone and putting it away. "A world-class figure skater pulled off Hellfire and it went viral?"

"Has it?" she wondered.

"And they think that Nikiforov is in love with somebody."

"It's just wild guesses," Yūri insisted. "There's no way Viktor would skate this if he was in love with somebody." So she said, but Yūri had no idea if she was trying to convince her boyfriend or herself. Earlier, she decided that she wouldn't tell He Long that she had hallucinated during practice so that he wouldn't worry. He also didn't need to know that her mind had conjured Viktor in his Hellfire costume, kneeling before her like he was asking her to come to him.

Which was crazy, because in what world would Viktor Nikiforov—the untouchable king of the ice—want anything to do with her? If that were true, then Viktor skating to Hellfire meant that he had to have watched clips of her acting final on Phichit's Instagram. But Yūri was sure that even then he wouldn't skate Hellfire for her. She wasn't beautiful or seductive and she was certainly no Esmeralda.

He Long gave her an odd look that Yūri often couldn't make sense of. It was a look that made her wonder if he could see everything in her mind. "...I wouldn't say he's in love," he began in a low voice. "I think he's more obsessed than in love."

Phichit sat up, no longer overwhelmed by laughter. "You really think so, Long?"

"Think?" He Long's expression was one of disbelief, as though he were offended that Phichit had found something to doubt. "I know he is. I'd bet my savings on it."

Yūri heard the next words even before they left Phichit's mouth. "We're talking yuan, He Long?"

He Long smacked a palm to his face, clearly unimpressed. "Phichit," he muttered darkly, "I can still alter your costumes for next season and you wouldn't be able to do a thing."

Phichit smiled, but it wasn't the cheery smile that Yūri was used to finding on her friend. This smile was clearly forced, like he was trying not to murder her boyfriend if he even changed one detail of the costumes he commissioned. "Try it and I'll never pay you another yuan—"

"And if you try to finish that, say good-bye to the only designer who'll ever give you a decent rate."

"You charge me more than Yūri, you high society wannabe fashion snob!" Yūri felt guilty because her costumes usually were less than what He Long normally charged other skaters since she was dating him and He Long insisted on "spoiling" her.

Recognizing the sneer on He Long's face, one that Yūri would see when He Long knew that victory was his, she tried to reason with the two as best as she could. "He Long, please don't—"

"Well one of us needs to have standards, and with your mediocre makeup skills—"

"Long!" Yūri tried her best to sound admonishing, but she knew the damage was done. She swore that steam was pouring out from Phichit's ears, much like a character's in a cartoon or anime.

"You're lucky you're in China or I'd stab you with my eyeliner, jerk!" Phichit tried to hiss as quietly as he could so that he wouldn't disturb the oblivious baby with He Long.

"Ju jugu," Hui Yang mumbled. "Pikiti."

"...you're lucky your sister's there too, Lucky Bastard," the Thai skater added in a huff. The short track speed skater let out a short laugh in response.

"No bad words in front of the baby," the Japanese skater warned. "Aren't you flying out to Germany soon?" Yūri added to her boyfriend.

"We fly out today," He Long confirmed. "Our flight's in a few hours and my mother's going to see me off before her flight."

"...You know you might not be an overall winner after missing Shanghai," Phichit pointed out.

He Long cocked his head. "I earned enough points at the other three events. I can get bronze at least."

"Just remember not to pull a Sjinkie Knegt if you don't."

The name of the Dutch short track speed skater was enough to make He Long crack up. "Same goes for you when you don't make the podium, Phichit."

"I WILL make that podium, snob!"

"Yūri." He Long appeared to reach for her but stopped, like he remembered that they couldn't physically touch. "Make me proud at the Four Continents, please?"

Yūri swallowed nervously. Last year, she had taken gold at the Four Continents for the first time in her senior career. Naturally, all eyes were going to be on her to defend her title. A weight seemed to grow on her shoulders with the knowledge that she was going into the Four Continents with high hopes from everyone. "...I'll try."

He Long smiled. "Please do." And with that, the video chat ended. The figure skaters were left to stare at the bright screen of the laptop.

Yūri couldn't help but feel jealous over the fact that He Long's mother had made the effort to visit him. Thanks to their studies and their sports, she and He Long weren't able to see their families often. But with the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup, He Long was able to visit his family every December. Yūri, on the other hand, had only been able to see her family when she was invited to the NHK Trophy this season. That was the only time they'd been able to leave the inn to come see her. Barring that event, she hadn't seen her family in five years.

There were reasons that they couldn't see each other often, which Yūri understood completely. Plane tickets were expensive and the onsen's revenue could only get them so far. Her parents knew some English for when an occasional tourist came to stay with them, but it wasn't enough for them to navigate America with ease. And Yūri was sorry for that. She had chosen to come to America, even though it meant that visits would be rare on both sides and her family never got to see her grow into an adult.

As Yūri made to close the laptop, a pair of arms draped their weight over her from behind. The Japanese skater couldn't fight back the recoil when she felt the arms around her. "What were you doing?" Giles' mouth was uncomfortably close that his words on her ear made Yūri shudder.

"Let go of me, Giles," Yūri pleaded, trying not to make her disgust known.

"I don't want to," the male pair skater whined.

As Yūri moved to throw off his arms, they were forcibly peeled from her. She turned around in time to see Venus shove Giles away. "She didn't ask for an excuse, creep," her roommate barked.

Yūri could have smelled the fight from a mile away. "Venus—"

"Giles, don't you dare—" Phichit tried to warn.

"What the hell is your problem, Venus?"

Venus scoffed as though she couldn't believe Giles had the audacity to ask that. "My problem? I'm not the unstable fuckboy who can't grasp the idea of personal space. And you know what?" She stabbed her finger at Giles' chest. "You have the exact same problem when we're doing our spins!"

"Don't try to pin this on me!" By now, Yūri and Phichit moved to separate their roommates away from each other. Both resisted their efforts, though Venus went more easily with Yūri.

"Then whose fault is it that I almost got my face cut open today?!"

At this rate, Yūri could only hope that the next few weeks would pass smoothly for the pair skaters.

On the first day of the Four Continents, Yūri waited in the stands with Phichit as they watched for their rink mates. Yūri had taken fifth place during the short program in her bracket and pairs' was scheduled just after. Phichit would skate in the evening tomorrow.

The announcer said something in the host country's language, followed by the translation. "On the ice, representing the United States of America—Venus Jones and Giles Badcock."

Phichit couldn't hide his sputter when he heard Giles' surname. Two years on and the mention of Giles' last name still split Phichit's sides. To those unfamiliar with the more crude aspects of the English language, there would have been no reaction. But the stadium had enough English speakers that there were some scattered chuckles mingled with applause. From where she sat, Giles had an annoyed look set against a red face.

Yūri looked around for Celestino, finding him gripping the rink boards. There was no doubt that he was expecting the pair skaters to behave themselves.

And they did, or at least Yūri thought so. As the music played, the two kept a tranquil mask in place, giving off the illusion that there had never been any conflict between them. But that mask came at the price of looking lifeless during their program.

Giles managed to catch Venus from their triple twist lift. While he set her back on the ice, he pushed her out enough that she fell on the ice. The monitors captured the surprise and frustration on Venus' face as she got back up.

Phichit groaned. "They were doing so well."

During their side-by-side camel spins, Yūri winced as Giles' left blade came close to Venus' nose. They weren't just too close, they were spinning out of sync. It was obvious to tell that Venus was leading the choreography. She looked more lively than Giles, who only seemed to put in the bare amount of effort into the program.

"I can't watch," Phichit moaned, burying his face in his hands. "Yūri, tell me when it's over."

Others probably would have been quick to assume the intense expressions on the pair skaters' faces were those of concentration. But Yūri could easily recognize the anger in Venus' narrowed eyes, practically commanding Giles to pick up the pace. Only Giles didn't, even as they went into their side-by-side triple Lutz. Yūri grimaced as the male pair skater under-rotated the jump.

"Phichit." Yūri swallowed as the pair skaters entered an out of sync combination spin. "It's over."

"Please don't lie, Yūri. The music is still on."

Yūri had never been so relieved to see the end of the program. Even if they were her rink mates, that was the worst she had ever seen them skate in two years.

Yūri waved and bowed to the audience as she ended her program, just barely making out the sight of gifts and flowers being thrown on the ice. It bewildered her that people even went out of their way to get something for her. Among the deafening applause, she could make out Phichit hollering at the top of his lungs.

As she skated towards the kiss and cry, she bent down and picked up a bouquet that the flower children missed. There was hardly anything special about the roses, though the script on the small card inside the wrapped bouquet caught her eye.

BE MINE

Just two words written in choppy block letters. A meaningless message from someone who probably didn't know she was already taken.

That didn't stop her from setting the bouquet far away from herself as she waited for her score.

[4CC Yuri Katsuki FS]

{My baby won again!}

{My favorite song from my all time favorite kdrama and she nails it}

{She's Japanese. The program would be better if a korean skater did it}

{Who? Your wannabe Yuna? That dead girl?}

{Dude, Wannabe would butcher this song. She made Hairspray look boring and I haven't even watched it}

{How is that even possible?}

{Guys, if you look at 5:05, Yuri looks a bit scared}

{omg you're right}

Things didn't calm down when they returned to Detroit. Emboldened by their results at the Four Continents, Celestino kept them busy so that they would be in shape for the Worlds. Phichit had earned bronze in his division, Yūri was surprised that she had managed to defend her title, and Celestino seemed content with the pair skaters' placement in ninth.

That was a lie. Deep down, Yūri knew that Celestino wasn't happy at all. That was why he held Giles and Venus back while everyone else went home. More than once, Yūri had returned alone to the apartment she shared with Venus.

The newfound solitude only aggravated Yūri's fears as the World Championships drew closer. Last year, she had taken bronze at the Nationals but the JSF had assigned her only to the Four Continents. This year she had finally placed high enough that she would go to the World Championships as well.

It wasn't just that the Worlds was in Japan this year that made her apprehensive. This was the second international competition she was in where Viktor Nikiforov was skating as well.

It was a dream and a nightmare come true. She barely held herself together when Mila dragged her towards Viktor and her other rink mate, Yuri, in Sochi. She probably looked way too eager to get away from him. How was Yūri going to handle the World Championships knowing that Viktor was there?

Her inner turmoil revealed itself through her skating. Day after day, she bit back her frustration as she missed her jumps. At one point, she recognized one of her rink mates telling her to take a break but she couldn't remember who it was. She couldn't take a break yet. She needed to prove that she could skate on the same ice as Viktor, and falling wasn't going to do it.

When she returned to her apartment that night, she fully expected to be greeted by darkness. Yūri was not prepared to see Venus sitting at the table with a grim expression and an envelope in front of herself. A pot on the stove was steaming, meaning that Celestino had let the pair skaters go early enough that Venus could prepare dinner.

"Venus?" Yūri asked nervously.

The dark-skinned skater looked up from the envelope and brightened. "There you are, Yūri."

"Is everything all right?" Yūri hoped that the envelope didn't contain any bad news, like Venus' tuition bill or a letter from the USFSA.

"Yup." Venus waved her over to the table. "Come here, I want to give you something."

Yūri blinked in confusion as her friend held out the envelope to her. She took it and opened it with hesitation, blinking again when she found several tickets. Three plane tickets were held together by a paper clip, a round trip destined for Seoul. Two more were for a return to Detroit. Yūri was about to ask about the destination until she found the final ticket. "The Short Track World Championships?" Yūri read, looking at Venus in shock.

"I figured you missed your Shanghai Dragon, so I got you tickets to see him," Venus replied nonchalantly as she scooped their dinner into two bowls. "Don't worry about the cost," she added just as Yūri opened her mouth. "That's on my head, not yours."

"But why would you get this for me?" Yūri cried. It wasn't that she didn't want to see He Long, but now of all times? "We have our own World Championships to worry about! I can't just leave—"

"Yūri!" Venus turned around, clearly annoyed that Yūri was protesting her gift. The Japanese skater bowed her head in apology. "Look, you've been working your ass off ever since the Four Continents. You probably never noticed, but every time I watched you skate, you were on the point of a meltdown. I'm sending you to take a break and Celestino can't do a thing when you've already got the tickets."

Yūri swallowed. "...okay."

Her roommate smiled. "Let's eat."

Dinner was awkward. When Yūri wasn't eating, she was either glancing at the envelope or at Venus. The biracial pair skater was staring at her phone, scrolling up occasionally before remembering to eat.

"So…how are things with Giles?"

Venus had a scowl on her face and Yūri took that as her cue to shut up and eat. "Yūri." The Japanese skater looked up slowly, timid brown eyes meeting a more serious pair. "I'm not going to the World Championships."

"What?" Yūri's first thought was that one of the pair skaters had been injured. "Are you okay?"

Venus looked miffed. "I didn't say I can't go, girl. I said I'm not going."

"What about Giles?"

"What about him?" came the uncaring response.

"The World Championships, your standings—! Giles will be angry!"

"Badcock's tantrums are the least of my worries, Yūri," Venus said coolly.

"But—I thought you said you were going to handle him," Yūri said weakly. "You said you knew how."

Venus set her spoon down, folding her arms so that her elbows rested on the table. "…Does it seem like I'm running away to you?"

"Y—" She didn't know how to answer that. To Yūri, Venus was loud, headstrong, and fearless. She was everything that Yūri wasn't and more. She never backed down from anything and now her invincible friend was giving up on her partner? There was something wrong with this picture. "Sort of…" she admitted.

"Yūri." Her head was tilted up until she met Venus' eyes. "I know you. I know you hate to give up, and you cry when you have to. You probably don't know how other people can swallow it. But there's nothing wrong with letting go. It just shows that you know what's best for yourself."

"Giles and I aren't cut out for each other anymore, girl," Venus continued, letting go of the sides of Yūri's head. "We need new partners, we'll lose our standing—and I'm fine with that." Venus breathed in as she put on a steely expression. "Because I will not finish the season with him for something as shallow as a spot on the podium."

"Shallow?" Yūri repeated.

"And I don't want you to end up like that, Yūri." Venus grabbed Yūri's hand and slapped it over the envelope. "I don't know if you'll stay with Yuan forever. I do know that you'll try to fight for whatever you've got with him. But the minute something goes wrong and you can't find a good reason to stay anymore, I want you to get out. Got it?"

Sjinkie Knegt is a real-life Dutch short track speed skater. He's best known for throwing a double-barrel finger salute to Viktor Ahn when the Russian skater beat him to the finish line.

We'll be looking through the eyes of the Ice Tiger of Russia in the next chapter.

Eventually I'll reveal the music Yūri has for the season, but for now they're under wraps!

Also:

Mian, mianhae: Earlier, He Long was saying 'sorry' to Hui Yang in Korean

An-nyeong: Also Korean, it's a short informal way of saying hello