Love Me Not

Chapter 5

“You’re late,” Yas said his arms folded from where he stood on the ice looking thoroughly too awake for the 6am it was. He had texted her after the announcement the day before positively demanding that Eve turn up for a training session that morning.

She had been ready to be there for 6 but had waited in her bedroom for a solid five minutes that she wasted flicking through her i********: feed. “What did you want me to be here for?” she asked still part asleep.

“We need to get a head start on our duet because it needs to be the best one at the tour,” Yas frowned. “Why are you not ready to skate.”

“I’ve got everything in my bag,” Eve stated shrugging the bag holding a change of clothes and a pair of skates back onto her shoulder. “But we need to decide on a concept and ideally music before we start to work on the dance okay. If we set off blind we will just waste loads of time” 

Yas stepped off the ice grabbing his guards that he had left by the side when he was skating and based off of the thin layer of sweat Eve could see now that he was closer he had been skating for some time even before she got there, “So what’s your idea.” 

“I’m not really sure maybe a musical theatre or anime inspired number could be fun—Tessa said that our theme was love considering that we’re the only boy-girl pair,” Eve said sitting down by the ice rink with a sigh. She had been incredulous when Tessa had told her the theme but had been unable to say anything considering that Scott had been standing there beside Tessa. 

Yas scoffed, “Music theatre or anime wouldn’t work—this should be a showpiece not a school kid production.” He walked over looking somewhat uncomfortable towards Eve before sitting down about a meter away on the same bench. “You need to think bigger if we want to have the pair routine.”

“What are you thinking then,” Eve asked glancing away from Yas slightly annoyed. “What’s your genius idea then”

“Opera,” Yas said. Eve looked at him confused and he elaborated. “Dido and Aeneas by Purcell it’s based of the Aeneid by Virgil.”

“What’s the plot of that,” Eve asked unfamiliar with the plot of that particular opera. As a figure skater it was important for her to listen to as much varied music as possible even though it meant she wasn’t able to listen to Exo as much as she’d like often. As a result she probably had one of the weirdest tastes in music that a teenager would have considering that she had playlist that ranged from renaissance choral music to twentieth century opera to concertos and symphony’s to rock and rock and then Mozart, Beethoven and Beetles. 

Yas leant forwards untying his laces on his skates and sliding them of his feet, “Well it’s about a boy and a girl who are bound to do great things as part of their birth right—she is a queen in her own right whilst his descendants will found the Roman Empire. However they meet and fall desperately in love when they meet in Carthage after Aeneas is ship wrecked and for a brief time they are happy. But then destiny calls and the gods send down a messenger in Mercury to make Aeneas leave Dido as with Dido he will never be able to achieve his destiny. The abandoned queen kills herself on Aeneas’s sword because she’s in love with him and can’t live without him.” Yas’s voice was cold almost emotionless but his eyes were fixed on Eve and she could see something in them almost like fire that he was keeping pent-up within himself.

“Death. That’s apt for me,” Eve joked trying to lighten the atmosphere. It was a weird story and she wasn’t quite sure about why Yas had come up with it though it did suit Yas’s eclectic taste. There was something beautiful about the story though and being so in love with someone that you’d kill yourself, which meant that, she couldn’t easily set the idea aside. “Is the music good?”

“Is the music good—it’s a baroque opera written by Purcell in England,” Yas said emphatically. Eve gave him a blank look. “Just listen to it,” Yas said pulling out his phone and his tangled headphones. He offered her an ear bud and with a few sure clicks on his phone she could hear a string quartet start to play.

…

“Hey guys,” Nathan said approaching the pair of them who were wrapped up in the music with their dark head pressed together. Eve started in response to Nathan’s voice, which yanked her out of the music, which had almost cast a spell over her. Realising only now how they had migrated towards each other whilst listening to the music until their shoulders and arms were pressed together, she jumped away from him along the bench as though his arm was scorching her and the ear bud went flying out of her eye. 

“What are you doing here,” Yas asked looking betrayed as he stared at both Eve and Nathan. 

Nathan shrugged, “Eve asked me to bring her a hot chocolate after I had eaten breakfast. How’s planning going?” 

Eve grabbed her hot chocolate from Nathan and inhaled the aroma from the drink, “Thanks Nathan I needed to get some chocolate into my body to wake myself up properly before my task master made me do some actual skating.” She glanced back at Yas who didn’t look amused by her joke and sipped her hot chocolate. It was piping hot and scalded her tongue but it was as good if not better than the one that Nathan had made for her the day before. “I think it’s going well,” she said cautiously not completely sure about what Yas would want her to say.

“Have you decided what you guys are doing?” Nathan asked sipping on the other hot chocolate that he had brought with him. “The boys and I are being a boy band at the moment.”

“That sounds like it’d be good,” Eve said cautiously. She was waiting for a response or anything from Yas but he wasn’t speaking but instead was deadly silent and Eve felt she was in the midst of the eye of a hurricane. “We’re doing Di—“ 

“You’ll find out later,” Yas finally interjected cutting Eve off abruptly and she finally glanced back at him with a look of anger. Why did he think that he could just shut her up like that? “We’re keeping it a secret until we’re ready to perform it and it is still in it’s infancy stages.”

Nathan shrugged, “Sure no worries. You guys are both amazing though so I can guarantee that it will end up being an amazing performance.” He glanced at Eve as though to check she was okay and she nodded almost imperceptibly touched by the concern that he was showing her. “I’ll catch you later Eve okay.”

“See you then,” Eve said drinking her hot chocolate whilst she watched Nathan leave. “What was that Yas?” Eve accused turning around to face Yas who was standing behind her unrepentant. “Why did you cut me off like that it’s really rude?”

“We still haven’t completely decided on what we want to do and it’ll be better if we can build up some anticipation around our performance,” Yas stated in his logical manner of speaking. 

Eve shook her head, “Even if you’re right which I highly disagree with then you still shouldn’t embarrass me in front of other people.”

“Embarrass you in front of Nathan?” 

“In front of any of my friends—I have a reputation to uphold and I have enough people talking s**t about me outside the little bubble that is this tour,” Eve explained to the older figure skater. “You’ve been really weird lately you know that you can tell me anything.”

“Nothing’s wrong Eve I promise,” Yas said but Eve wasn’t sure if she really believed him or not. “Can we just focus on training and not on beverages.” 

“Sure,” Eve said setting her empty mug down on the bench. “Give me a second to get ready okay. You can put the music on—Dido’s lament was our favourite right.” 

“Sure,” Yas agreed sliding his phone back out from his pocket where he had stashed it.

…

By the time Eve was ready—all she had to do was change her top, put her skates and tie her hair up—the music was already playing and she could feel the vibrations reaching her in the changing room. Setting down her heavy bag having tucked her trainers and top into it Eve left the changing room. 

If she had thought the music was loud when she was in the changing room she was positively deafened by the time she left. Yas had set up the music and was skating in the middle of the rink improvising to the music. As she watched he leapt into a stunning triple axel and Eve remembered how much his skating enraptured her even when she was mad at him. “Yas,” she called over but the music was too loud and he seemed to not be completely present with her and thus he didn’t respond. 

Sighing, Eve removed the guards from her skates and stepping out on to the ice she skated over to where Yas was skating in the centre of the rink. Her first few steps where cautious as she tested out her foot to see if it was still hurting as it was only a few days ago when she was skating with Nathan but it seemed to be okay so she picked up her speed as she accelerated towards the Japanese skater. 

The music they had chosen was beautiful and she couldn’t deny that Yas had good taste even if she’d chosen the precise aria they were going to skate to. The lilt of the soprano singer’s voice supplemented by the strings beneath her was intoxicating even though the tinny speakers and now she was on the ice Eve didn’t mind that it was so loud. She could feel herself wanting to move to the music and fit her movements to the melody but she told herself that could wait until she got Yas’s attention. “Yas,” she called again louder and this time the Japanese skater heard her and in a few fluid strokes he came to Eve’s side. 

“You’re ready,” Yas said giving her a quick once over and Eve squirmed slightly under his gaze. Pulling the remote out of his pocket he restarted the song and they both stood there on the ice listening to it for a few moments trying to think of what movement might work best before he paused the music.

“We could do something like this,” Eve said before skating away from Yas and demonstrating what she was thinking of careful in how she applied the pressure through her foot. “And then maybe come together one the vocals come in after 20 seconds,” she ventured hoping that it wasn’t a completely crazy idea.

Yas nodded, “That could work. Then we could join together after doing a jump and then do a spin together.” Eve felt a rush of pleasure that he didn’t think her idea was wholly stupid before realising what he said and she looked down feeling the rush of pleasure leave her. “What’s wrong?” He asked curiously. 

Eve sighed. Why was he so damn perceptive when it came to things like this and useless at other things? “I still can’t jump Yas. My foot isn’t completely better yet—I’m still of jumping for another few weeks.”

“You can do hydroblade still right?” Yas asked trying to work out what exactly Eve could do.

Eve forced a smile, “Yeah you taught me.” He gave her a look as though to tell her that was not what he was asking about and Eve smiled for real this time before adding, “My doctor didn’t say I couldn’t so we might as well give it a go. If we went by what I was explicitly allowed to do I’d have to stand in the middle and have you skate around me.”

“Perfect,” Yas said before detailing the rest of his plan that encapsulated the first 30-45 seconds and the first part of the song. It included her rather timid idea, which made Eve happy that it wasn’t completely ridiculous and several flourishes and extraneous details that Yas had added. The sheer amount of attention that he had clearly put into it wowed Eve and she couldn’t help but wonder at how he had been able to come up with something like that so fast. He had been out on the ice slightly before her and heard the music before that day but still Yas’s speed and imagination was impressive.

“You’re a bit of a genius,” Eve said appreciatively as she skated to her starting pose running through his ideas for the choreography in her head so she would know what she was supposed to be doing and would be able to live up to Yas’s expectations for the duet.

Yas laughed skating into position, “Only a bit?” He pressed the button on the remote to start the music and soon only the sound of the aria and their skates scratching against the ice could be heard filling the ice rink.