The importance of Victor never having mentioned the banquet
Since Victor always acted under the assumption that Yuri remembered that that night, the fact that he never mentions it is quite important.
First of all, Victor isn’t stupid. By talking to Yuri and the people close to him he must have realized very early on that Yuri’s character at the banquet wasn’t normal for him, but a result of too much drinking. And Yuri is very anxious and easily embarrassed, so Victor likely assumed he wasn’t talking about the party because he was mortified.
So what does that mean:
a) That Victor respected Yuri’s feelings enough to never bring it up to make fun of him;
b) That Victor never tried to use the party as a tool or argument for his coaching
How easy would it have been for him to, whenever Yuri claimed he wasn’t confident enough, dismiss it and go “you were fine at the party, do that” “you were confident then, drink some”. When Yuri got shy over Victor’s flirting, Victor never snapped at him and tried to complain or claim he had led him on.
He never held Yuri’s ‘shame’ against him, never tried to create a shortcut for giving him help and confidence through reminding him of what he’d already done. He never used it as a weapon, not even when he wanted to berate him.
When Yuri was unsure, Victor said it was his job to change that. And he tried (and succeeded) to help Yuri through believing in himself without holding his past mistakes over his head.
The banquet had been very important for Victor, but not so much Yuri, and Victor never tried to push his own desires of talking about it onto Yuri
From the very start, Victor had been much more gentle with Yuri’s feelings than it seemed.
(edit: added to the compilation)
