Chapter 9
After a whirlwind of cancellations, the silence that followed was painful and deafening for the fans. Demands on Keiji's instagram grew and, when he posted a picture of the sunrise in Sendai, he had to leave his phone in another room as comments flooded in. All of them were asking the same question: where's Yuzuru? Some asked what was happening with the tour, even after they'd got their refunds, and some were genuinely concerned about Yuzuru's safety. Letters flooded in at the club for him that Brian and Tracy piled up, ready for his return, but Yuzuru took the opportunity to hide in his family home for a little while, letting Keiji and Ryuju escape to go on some dates together. His parents didn't question his decision to end the tour early, and Saya would sit with him for some time in their garden. The siblings sat there and didn't exchange a word; Yuzuru broke the silence by messing around on his acoustic guitar. They could sit like that for hours, enjoying the comfort from the other's company, and Yuzuru felt so much calmer when he was around her. His parents enveloped him in a hug and, even with everything going on in the outside world, his little bubble of happiness and safety was protected and all he needed at that moment.
Very few people knew Yuzuru's phone number; the number of people who knew it was down in single figures. When the standard ringtone cut through the silence of his room at midnight, Yuzuru set down his guitar and picked it up. His heart jumped in his throat when he saw the name on the screen.
"H-hello?" He answered, heart racing as his palms grew more clammy. They hadn't spoken properly in months, so why was he calling now. Guilt twisted in his stomach and he couldn't help but think back to the Madrid show where someone had been missing.
"Yuzu," the nickname made his heart flutter faster, and, for one moment, he was transported back to the club and back to the moments of sweet cuddles and giggles as they wrote songs together, "have you seen what's happened online?"
"No?" Yuzuru sat down and opened up his laptop, login into his secret twitter account. He'd put a generic profile picture up, and had a generic username with a few numbers after it so that no one would ever guess it was really him. Although Brian said not to check social media, at times the curiosity got the better of his common sense, and he couldn't help himself.
This time, he wished he could have helped himself. He dropped his phone and it landed on his desk with a loud clatter. He could faintly hear Javier calling his name on the other end of the line, but his head was spinning and a ringing filled his ears.
@Inoue_Kentaro
Hanyu Yuzuru cancelled his tour in 2014 because of medical issues, he said. Hanyu Yuzuru was poisoned and spent weeks in hospital because of glue in his drink. This tour? Because he's a coward. Want to find the coward? Read the thread
@Inoue_Kentaro
Hanyu Yuzuru's home address in Canada: 48 St Clair Ave W Toronto ON M4V 2Z2
Hanyu Yuzuru's home address in Japan: 385-1300, Fukuzumimachi, Miyagino-ku Sendai-shi, Miyagi
Brown Jason's home address: 654 Elk Street, Highland Park, Il, 60035
@Inoue_Kentaro
Brown Jason's home address in Canada: 790 Borough Drive Toronto ON M1P 4W2
Medvedeva Evgenia's home address in Moscow: Severnyy Pos. 9-YA Lin. Ul. bld. 9, appt.71 Moskva Moskovskaya oblast
Medvedeva Evgenia's home address in Canada: 1936 Bay Street Toronto ON M5J 2R8
@Inoue_Kentaro
Tanaka Keiji's home address: 306-1034, Tamashima Tomi, Kurashiki-shi, Okayama, 713-8116
Hino Ryuju's home address: 205-1233, Otemachi Jieieibiru(6-kai), Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-6806
Orser Brian's home address: 3147 Adelaide Street Toronto ON M5H 1P6
@Inoue_Kentaro
Cha Jun Hwan's home address in Seoul: 1002-6, Siheung 1(il)-dong, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, 153-865
Cha Jun Hwan's home address in Canada: 2677 Yonge Street Toronto ON M4W 1J7
Wilson Tracy's home address: 1543 Yonge Street Toronto ON M4W 1J7
@Inoue_Kentaro
These are the people you can ask. If you have any questions, ask them. How do you know my information is reliable? Because I used to be his manager in Japan. That's why. My information is as reliable as it comes.
"-Zu! Yuzu! Yuzu can you even hear me? Yuzu, say something!"
It took several agonising moments for Yuzuru to come back to himself, and he didn't have enough control of himself to pick up the phone. Instead, he pressed to switch it to speaker phone, and, even in the midst of his world crumbling around him, Javier's voice acted like a rock that grounded him and made him feel more comfortable.
"What's going on?" Yuzuru managed to get out in a very light and weak voice. "Javi, what's happening?"
"Okay, Yuzu, I need you to listen to me and focus on me, okay? Don't you worry about the ones in Canada, okay? They're fine. I promise you they're fine. Jason and Zhenya are hiding together at Shoma's place in Toronto. Brian, his partner, Tracy, and her partner, they've all gone together to Brian's lake house. They're okay."
"Javi," Yuzuru drew back his bedroom curtain and grimaced at the small crowd of cars and photographers that had already started to gather at his house, "how the hell do I get my family out of this mess?"
"No, no, Yuzu, listen to me. Keep listening to me, okay? Just keep talking to me and it'll be alright. Keiji knows. Keiji is sorting something out for them. What you need to worry about is packing your things ready to go back to Toronto."
"But my house in Canada--"
"I contacted Jun and he said you can stay with him. He's hiding with his mother in Toronto still. Turns out he's pretty smart and they have a secret place for him that no one else knows about other than his family." Yuzuru could hear Javi's eyebrow raise in his voice. "And now you. Don't betray Jun's trust."
"Like I ever would," Yuzuru almost had a laugh in his voice. "My parents... Saya... Will they--?"
"Keiji's finding them a place in Japan. It's going to be okay, Yuzu. It's going to be okay."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
"I promise that years will not pass. I will rip the grey goodbyes out of the calendar. Happier days haven't come yet. I promise you I will forget my scars and give back what I have stolen from your two sad eyes. I promise you that soon we will move from failure and confusion to the street of silence. I promise you that we will become eternal. That's what it means roughly," Javier said with a light shrug. "I like Prometo. It's a very me song."
"It is a very you song," Yuzuru gave him a gentle smile and fiddled with his earring. "I like it."
"It's not like your style at all," Javier teased.
"But I like listening to it anyway. It's you, unfiltered and with no pretenses. I like that Javi."
"Promise you're not just saying that?"
"Promise."
"I trust you," Yuzuru said softly. "Pack my things?"
"Pack your things ready for Toronto. We'll make sure that no one ruins the house, okay? No one is allowed in. That's against the law. What they're doing now is a horrendous break of privacy anyway and we're tracking down Inoue Kentaro."
"Don't bother. He's a snake. He'll disappear when he wants to and only appears when he has a reason to." Yuzuru kept Javier on speaker phone while he threw a load of clothes into his case and packed up both his guitars, ready for a flight. "Wait a second. Javi? When am I going to Toronto exactly?"
"We'll have you on a flight as soon as possible. When you're packed, they'll stick you on the next available one. A secure car will meet you at the airport in Toronto, I promise."
The word promise kept bouncing around the room, and Javier agreed to stay on the line with him as he escaped the house under a hail of camera flashes and jumped into the car. Journalists shouted questions at him, demanding answers about his recent tour being cancelled and also his 2014 tour that was cancelled due to undisclosed medical reasons. Yuzuru hid, sliding down in his seat with a grimace as the driver took him away from the situation and towards the airport.
"You'll be alright," Javier promised him once again. "Seriously Yuzu. It's okay. You've got this. You're the strongest person I know, and you've got an amazing family behind you. You're going to get on that plane, and then you're going to meet me at the airport in Toronto, and I'm going to drive you to Jun's, okay?"
"Okay," Yuzuru whispered, trying to keep his tone light and hopeful even as his mind was swirling and his heart ached. "You'll update me on my family, right?"
"Yes. Don't worry about them Yuzu. Keiji is working on it, I swear."
Yuzu tried to relax. He tried to keep calm. His chest was tight, but not in an impending asthma attack kind of way. He sat there for the entire plane journey with his mask on and eyes hidden, trying to go as unnoticed as possible. The little girl in the seat next to him playing pokémon on her switch ignored him completely. The mother kept sending him weird looks, and her eyes lingered on his piercings and eyebrow slit like they made him a mass murderer or something, ready to snatch her baby away at a moment's notice even when they were on a plane together. The flight to Toronto was long enough for Yuzuru's nerves to amplify and his legs were shaking as he collected his bags and stepped out of the plane last. He followed behind everyone, and the guy checking his passport only quirked an eyebrow at the name before he let him through. He tried to keep himself hidden as he collected his things and stepped into the arrivals gate.
There he was, glowing with his tan from the Spanish sun, with his devastatingly beautiful doe-like brown eyes shining with happiness when they caught his own. His whole face seemed to sparkle with joy, and the crinkles by his eyes made butterflies flutter around in Yuzuru's tummy. The younger couldn't help but laugh a the sign; it both preserved his privacy as well as brought back the delightful memories of a shared in joke.
"Car for Yazanuri," Javier joked as Yuzuru gave him a tight hug and hid his face in his shoulder.
"Thank you for coming to get me Javi," he whispered as Javier shouldered his electric guitar for him and he took one of his cases too. "I couldn't do this without you."
"No worries," he gave him a gentle smile as he opened up the passenger side door for him. "I'll drive you to Jun's place. His mother is... Protective of him at the moment. More so than normal."
"I would be too," he said with a nod.
"Do you mind me asking what happened?" Javier asked him as he set off, driving them towards the night. "I saw the videos. It looked awful at Lotte, and then they made him do a show not long after? I'm glad that you had the chance to say no to the rest of your shows."
"It was awful," Yuzuru confessed into his pooh bear tissue box that he just couldn't bear to leave behind, even at twenty-four years old. "Terrifying. One moment we were singing together and then the next... The next some random guy had my friend in his arms and was trying to carry him away before anyone could stop him. And he called himself a fan?"
"It's a thing in South Korea," he said softly. "I heard about it a while ago, but I just thought it was them exaggerating. If people are really willing to try and kidnap an idol just so that they will always remember that fan..." Javier shook his head as he turned off the main road. "It's fucked up."
Yuzuru nodded, sinking lower into his seat. "Poor baby. It's even worse that they made him do a show so soon after it."
"No wonder he had a panic attack on stage and then fainted."
"That and he's been starving himself since at least September."
Javier glanced over at Yuzuru for a moment, sensitive eyes scanning Yuzuru's form for a moment.
"You've not been eating properly."
Yuzuru blinked at him and grimaced. "I have--"
"Don't lie to me. Please. I know you haven't. You've never looked like this before, not even when you came back from your weeks in hospital back in 2014. You look so pale, so withdrawn into yourself... Like a zombie almost. What's been going on?"
"I just had some emotional difficulties. Doesn't matter."
"If they're tearing you apart that badly, it matters," Javier said firmly. "Yuzu, I'm back now as a friend. A friend and a training manager basically. This is a very fun first job I have to say. But, in all seriousness, you can be honest with me and I'll listen to you because I care about you."
Yuzuru lowered his eyes and gave him a weak smile. "Thank you Javi. I-I promise you it's all fine."
Javier pulled up to a stop in a suburban neighbourhood that looked inconspicuous. "Tell me if there's something bothering you, okay? Call me. Text me. I'll always be here for you."
"Thanks Javi," Yuzu said softly and gave him a weak smile.
They climbed out of the car together and carried his bags up to the door. A Korean woman with caring eyes opened up the door for them and ushered them in, looking around frantically for any photographers who might have been lurking around. She led them into the guest room and prepared some food for the pair of them.
"Rest up," she said with kindness in her voice before she called further into the house in Korean. Emerging from his room in soft fluffy pyjamas and carrying a raccoon in his arms, Jun gave them both a very weak smile.
"You'll stay safe, right?" Javier asked as he gave Yuzuru one more hug.
"We will. I promise."
Yuzuru watched out of the guest room window as Javier's car turned around in the road and disappeared into the night, and he let the curtain fall with a heavy sigh, turning back to the room.