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SOME DAYS LATER, he discovered watching the Olympic skaters do all their tricks in person excited him. He found himself laughing at Shidou's vicious commentary and throwing flowers next to Mei-Ling the moment his favorite performance finished. He had bought the type of flowers he liked most; expensive purple tulips like the ones his mom used to get for him.
In reality, most skaters donated the gifts they got unless they were flowers or notes, and it had been a long time since Reo ever got a rain just for him. But as he saw the young sweepers picking up all the stuff, he found he quite missed it; putting on a show. Nevermind the score, at least the public would love it and Reo would have something to be proud of.
Unfortunately, happiness couldn't last all day. After getting dinner and taking a shower, Reo took off into the night, telling both his companions that he would go for a walk. Of course, they didn't ask further, but even if they had Reo wasn't sure he could've answered honestly.
Because even if meeting up with Nagi shouldn't be embarrassing, it felt like crawling back to the person he had promised himself to leave behind. And just like he imagined, once he had drawn the line between them, Seishiro was no longer interested in having him in his life. The moment Reo stopped trying, stopped insisting and pushing and contacting him, he stopped existing for Seishiro, too. Their relationship was over that easily.
Seishiro didn't come.
Perhaps he was punishing him like Reo said in the letter. Maybe he would wait until the last day to show up, or maybe he would never appear because the truth was that he had other things that he considered more worthy of his time. But although it hurt, like tons of tiny cracks spreading across his heart, Reo accepted it because getting over Seishiro was a process, and not as simple as a decision.
Even these feelings of humiliation and rejection would help him move on eventually.
After an hour of waiting, he went back to the hotel and opened the door softly to not wake the others up. Surprisingly, at the sound of the knob turning, Shidou stood. The skater pulled the door open and stepped outside, causing Reo to step back in confusion.
"Why are you awake?"
"Man, I was worried you wouldn't come back. You scared me," he said, closing the door behind him so the noise wouldn't travel inside. "I had to lie to Mei and tell her you were meeting up with a tinder date or she would've freaked out. Why were you out for so long?"
"It was only a few hours," he stated, a bit taken back at the effect his absence had.
Shidou seemed to calm down after that. So far, he hadn't called him out like an angry father, but he did seem a little worried.
