“When did your love begin?” (YOI fanfic, about 1750 words)
A short story for “Yuri on Ice”! Takes place shortly after the main series ends, when Victor and Yuri are in Japan and preparing to go to Russia for the next season. It’s pretty unusual for Victor and Yuri to talk to each other in such a blunt manner, but hey, I guess that’s what fanfiction is for.
Thank you very much for reading!
Yuri was swimming in a sea of cardboard. The floor of his bedroom, as well as some of the hallway connecting to his room, were covered with boxes emblazoned with the CedEx logo. Some boxes were full and taped shut already, some were lying open while only half-packed, and others were still empty, waiting for Yuri to place the pieces of his life into them.
Moving to a new home tended to make people realize just how much stuff they really owned. Even more so, if the move was to a whole other country, and planned to last at least a year. These days, Yuri was always bursting with excitement, thinking of how he’d soon move to Russia in preparation for the next competitive season. There, he would live and train with Victor. But before that, he needed to pack his things, and this tedious process was much less exciting.
He sighed and sat on the floor, just outside his bedroom’s open doorway. Time to take a break.
A familiar voice came from down the hall. “Wow, this brings back memories.” Yuri watched as Victor approached him with a leisurely walk. “Seeing all these boxes reminds me of when I was packing my own things last year, ready to travel to Japan to coach you.”
“Hello, Victor,” Yuri said.
“Hello, Yuri! Good afternoon! And why are you sitting on the floor? If you're there, then surely I must join you.” Victor sat on the floor as well, next to Yuri. Now they were on the same level, their backs leaning against the wall.
Yuri commented, “I still can’t believe you did that. Just packed up and left Russia to coach a guy you barely even knew.”
“It’s true. I took a big risk. But it paid off, in the end.” He flashed a smile that sent a Cupid’s arrow zinging through Yuri’s heart. “By the way, Yuri, that reminds me. There’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while.”
“Yes?”
“When exactly did you fall in love with me?”
Yuri tried not to, but he couldn’t help gaping at Victor. It was unusual for the two of them to discuss their feelings for each other in such a blunt manner. And what kind of question was that, anyway? His mind scrambled to form a reply.
But before he could say anything, it turned out that Victor was apparently not done talking. “You see, I thought you were in love with me during the banquet last year, which was why you danced with me. But then, when I flew all the way to Japan and came to your family’s resort, just like you asked, you . . . well, you know how you reacted. Let me tell you, I still haven’t recovered from suddenly being treated like a stranger by the same man who had begged me to visit him!”
Yuri’s face burned. He longed to give a dignified reply, but Victor was still not done talking.
“By now, I’ve more or less accepted that you only acted the way you did because you were very drunk that night. But that raises more questions. If you didn’t love me during the banquet . . . when did you start to love me? What I mean is . . . how long was my love for you one-sided?”
Victor bore an expectant expression. It was a bit too much. Yuri turned away from Victor’s gaze by looking down at his own knees. They could talk through music, through skating, through merely being in each other’s company, but speaking with plain words was somehow more challenging than all of these. Nevertheless, within a few moments, Yuri could feel a set of words rising within him, as if Victor’s questioning had drawn out his voice.
“That’s . . . that’s really funny, Victor, to hear you talk about your one-sided love. I may have been drunk, but I didn’t hug you, dance with you, and plead with you to be my coach, all out of nowhere. Even if I don’t remember a second of the banquet, I’m sure of this: I acted that way because I was already in love with you at that point. Victor, I have loved you since before you even knew I was on this Earth. I loved you ever since I was a twelve-year-old boy, watching my skating idol on TV. I loved you from the very first day I saw you.”
He looked up again. He thought Victor might be touched. He waited to hear a warm voice, or see a softer expression.
But Victor still seemed skeptical.
“Ugh, fine,” Yuri groaned. “I didn’t want to resort to this, but I guess I have no choice. If I want you to believe me, then here we go.”
He leapt to his feet and went to one of the half-packed boxes. Victor quickly followed him, going to his side. One shirt after another flew out of the box, as Yuri dug through the layers, searching for what he’d buried underneath.
And then, there it was. The poster stash. A stack of glossy images that had once adorned Yuri’s bedroom walls. They showed Victor skating, Victor posing with Makkachin, a young Victor with long hair and an older Victor with short hair . . .
Yuri stood by as Victor carefully flipped through them, taking a few minutes to ooh and aah over the pictures, and reminisce about sitting in front of the cameras to take them. “These really bring back memories!”
“Yeah. For me too. I remember how I got a lot of these posters.” Yuri rubbed the back of his neck. “I . . . I hope you understand that it’s a big act of trust for me to show you this. A year ago, I never would’ve even considered it.”
“Oh, Yuri. I truly appreciate that.” Victor sounded sincere. But not like he was experiencing a revelatory moment. “But actually, I already knew about these.”
It felt as though a stone dropped into Yuri’s stomach. “What?”
"I knew long ago that you had a stash of merchandise of me,” Victor explained. “Your sister told me. In fact, one time when you were out shopping, she tried to show me, but you'd already hidden them by that point and she couldn't find them. This is my first time seeing them, but I knew you had them."
Yuri tried to adjust to the idea that a secret he’d held close all this time was actually not one. “Well . . . w-well . . . okay. So you knew about them. And now that you’re actually seeing them, it proves my point, right? This shows that my feelings for you go way back. Far before we even met.”
Victor gave him an apologetic smile. He spoke gently: “I don’t think this proves you were in love. It only shows that you were a fan. And I already knew that. During your first GPF, I observed your moves on the ice and noticed my own influence there. I saw your skating and thought, ‘ah, he’s a fan of mine’. Very flattering, of course! But a fan’s admiration is not the same as true love.”
“Come on! By the time we met, I’d spent years following your every move on TV and magazines and –”
“I don't believe you can be in love with someone you never met or spent much time with, no matter how strongly you feel about their image in their social media posts.”
Yuri sighed heavily. “Fine. Then I guess it started sometime after you began coaching me.”
“So it’s true? You really did not love me when we danced together at the banquet?”
There was a pause. A long, long pause, during which Yuri’s brain connected several dots. And his frustration swiftly rose to a breaking point, seeming to freeze and burn him at the same time. He felt like going for a run while shouting into the sky, but instead – in a move that he thought was very commendable of himself – he managed to reply in a calm voice.
“Victor,” Yuri said. “You're not actually interested in the answer to your question, are you? You're just mad at me because I forgot the banquet.”
That man’s blank blue eyes looked so innocent. “What do you mean?”
“You asked me when I fell in love with you, but you’ve made it impossible for me to give a satisfactory answer. You say it’s impossible for it to have happened before the banquet, but if I say it happened after, you’re not happy with that either.”
Victor sighed.
Silence hung in the air.
And then he confessed, “Yes, I think you’re right. But can you blame me for being a little upset about it? That was a life-changing moment for me, and you don’t even remember it.”
“Sorry. But I can’t help it; I didn’t forget it on purpose.” Even after Victor had showed Yuri the slew of embarrassing photos on his phone, it hadn’t jogged Yuri’s memory.
Just like Victor, Yuri had a part of him that mourned his lost memory, of a night that had been life-changing for him, too. But he’d had plenty of time to reflect on it. And he’d made his peace with what he’d forgotten.
He said to Victor, “When I think back, I can’t remember any specific point in time when my feelings sprang into existence. I can only remember them growing. When I was a kid who watched you on TV, those feelings grew. When . . . when you coached me and helped me discover myself, the feelings grew. They were always growing, never beginning, because they were always already there.” Courage flashed through him. Quickly, before it could disappear, he leaned in and gave Victor a kiss on the cheek. “S-So there. It doesn’t actually matter when my love started. We don’t need to answer this question. It only matters that I love you now, and I always will.”
Victor stared at him intently.
“Are you convinced?” Yuri asked.
“Hmm . . . I think I need more convincing.”
“H-Hey! Don’t say that just because you want another kiss!”
Victor broke into laughter, his whole face seeming to light up as he did. Oh, Yuri was never going to get tired of that laugh. “All right, all right. I promise you, I am convinced. I’m not going to worry about the past anymore. Instead let’s look forward to our future together.”
Telsanté mtrl telsanté mtrl tassin-demi-lune telsanté est la plateforme téléphonique santé du groupe acm cic complémentaire santé il y a un remboursement du septembre 2016 de la cotisation pratiqués…
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Blockchain Brings Transparency to the Diamond Market, Encouraging Investment in the Precious Stones
Diamonds are undergoing a phenomenal shift in its perception of being considered as a mere object of rare beauty to a repository of financial power. The delay in this movement could be attributed to similar attempts which were made in the 80s. That, unfortunately, resulted in the depreciation of value, thereby fueling the apprehension of the diamond industry in viewing the precious stones as alternative forms of investment. The recent emergence of initiatives in the diamond industry, however, is indicative of the gems playing a bigger role in the investment market sooner than expected.
Consider the success of IDEX, for example. The international diamond exchange operates in important diamond hubs including Antwerp, Mumbai, Ramat Gan, and New York. The leading online trading platform has more than 7,000 professional traders active on its system regularly, and it features more than three-fourth of the supply chain inventory. IDEX prices and data is looked on as one of the industry standards.
The rising confidence of prominent organizations in the idea of diamond exchange is evident in Mediagrif Interactive Technologies buying out Polygon, which is a top active online trading network for qualified jewelry professionals. Polygon was established in 1984, and has since facilitated its members to explore unique trading opportunities.
August 2017 witnessed India Commodities Exchange (ICEX) launch a futures market of 1-carat round diamonds and followed it up with 0.5-carat and 0.30-carat futures contracts as well. The 1-carat diamonds had the following specifications - H color, VS2 clarity, and triple Excellent, devoid of black or dark inclusions. De Beers International Institute of Diamond Grading & Research (IIDGR) were made responsible for grading the diamonds, and Malca-Amit provided vaulting services. These contracts could be traded throughout the day on every workday.
ICEX delivered $129,000 worth of diamonds - 26.27 carats in weight - as a settlement at the closing of the first contract. However, the contract period itself saw a total of 5,382.08 carats valued at nearly $27 million. Although the percentage of delivery against the total traded quantity was a modest 0.53%, it indicated the potential of this market. It also revealed the convergence of the future and spot market prices.
Singapore-based SDiX is another example active in the market. It pioneered electronic exchange for trading investment-grade diamonds and lists collections of diamonds contained in sintered zirconia cases with a unique optical signature recognition system and serial number each which are valued between $100,000 and $200,000. This list is also referred to as the “Diamond Bullion”. The 1 or 2 carats of diamonds in the Diamond Bullion are issued by the Singapore Diamond Mint Company (SDM), and they possess DEF color, VVS1- VS1 clarity, and triple Excellent, with no fluorescence. The GIA certified diamonds are inscribed with IIDGR’s proprietary table inscription.
The diamonds that are chosen by ICEX in SDIX for investment strike a balance between rarity and availability. To be more precise, while VVS and VS quality diamonds are rare, they are also available enough in the market for its sale in the futures or trading markets to not have any significant impact on its prices.
CEDEX.com adds to the list of new initiatives that are using technology to conflate the diamond industry with new financial markets to create new financial offerings. It aims to build a transparent and secure marketplace to sell and invest in diamonds. The platform implements blockchain technology to determine the value of diamonds and rates its asking price which is then listed on an exchange. Investors have the options of putting their money in a single diamond, a share of a high-value stone, or shares in a collection of diamonds.
Another platform using the blockchain technology to trade in diamonds is Diamante Blockchain Consortium. It provides a unified marketplace for players in the diamond industry ranging from mining companies to manufacturers, certifiers, retailers, and end-consumers. These entities can interact with one another directly and promote trade in diamonds. Diamante Blockchain Consortium also has an exchange platform and a native digital asset, DIAM, which can be used for transactions as well as trade.
The idea that investment in diamonds is exclusive to the rich or millionaire investors is highly misplaced. One can attribute the hesitation people have towards investing in diamonds because of lack of proper research in the past led many to find out the “diamonds” they invested in were actually crystals of very less value. Investors thus need to do thorough background checks of the assets they are interested in.
This has become hassle-free with technological innovations like blockchain, which is basically a decentralized distributed ledger that stores every transaction taking place in a blockchain network. The records of these transactions are verified by a computer protocol called smart contracts and are permanently archived in the immutable ledger. These properties make it a crucial element that makes supply chain management transparent and reliable. On a blockchain platform, one can easily see where a diamond was mined, cut, polished, manufactured, its certification, and past prices. As a result, estimating the price of a diamond and how it will evolve in the future becomes easy for an investor. The liquidity of investment is also radically increased when cryptocurrency is used to trade.
Industry leaders have realized the way to increase investment in diamonds is by eradicating the doubts shrouding the diamond market. One of the most significant steps in that direction has been the adoption of blockchain.
Blockchain Diamond Exchange CEDEX Launches in Beta
Blockchain Diamond Exchange CEDEX Launches in Beta
TechFinancials, a fintech software provider has announced that its CEDEX blockchain diamond exchange is now live in beta. The platform, which boasts of being the first one of its kind, allows investors to trade diamonds as a financial asset class.
TechFinancials has been a major part of the launch, creating the blockchain, infrastructure and the smart contract on which CEDEX is built.
2018 is set to be an exciting year for anyone looking to expand or divesify their investment assets. With the rapid growth of cryptocurrencies around the world, the main challenge is deciding where to invest. CEDEX is set to answer that question when it launches its new and revolutionary Blockchain-based diamond exchange beginning with an ICO Token Pre-sale of its CEDEX Coin on the 16th March 2018. Due to unprecedented interest, the pre-sale amount of tokens has increased to 50%of the total. The aim of turning the existing diamond industry into the next asset class for investors will then be well underway Up to this point, diamond exchanges have functioned on a business to business (B2B) basis, leaving the public with little way to get involved. CEDEX aims to bring the traditional diamond industry into the world of innovative financial markets, thus enabling a transparent and safe way for the public to invest in diamonds as they would any other financial asset. In De Beers’s Diamond Insight Report carried out in 2016, they attribute 95% of global diamond trade to consumer retail. This outlines the present gap in the market for investment in diamonds that CEDEX is aiming to capitalize on.
The lack of financial investment in the diamond market up until this point can be attributed to a number of challenges that the revolutionary CEDEX Exchange will overcome. These challenges include: – Difficulties around the standardization of diamonds – The lack of liquidity within existing diamond trading methods open to the public. – Issues concerning transparency within the market. CEDEX will solve each of these issues thus successfully opening the diamond investment market to the public for the first time. CEDEX have partnered with IDEX, the worlds largest online diamond exchange. This partnership will further enhance the efficiency and reliability of determining the value of diamonds. Furthermore, IDEX’s existing user base of over 7000 diamond dealers will be encouraged to embrace CEDEX as a way of increasing their market reach. The proprietary technology behind CEDEX, which will overcome the existing issues around transparency in the market, is a self-learning algorithm called DEX. DEX is the machine learning algorithm which is the backbone of CEDEX. DEX has three primary functions: – Gem Composite Data. – The parallel composite which gives a precise indication of the rarity of the diamond category. – The Indices composite, giving traders market directions of the diamond industry, Each diamond that is listed on CEDEX will be categorized based on its Gemmological composition by the DEX proprietary technology. A combination of both the market indices and the GIA certification of each diamond is used to generate the most accurate diamond pricing available. Only GIA (Gemological Institute of America) certified diamonds are accepted for valuation. After online valuation, the diamond assets are physically verified against their GIA certificate and stored for safekeeping. At this point, the seller is issued a Diamond Token which can be listed on the exchange or sold directly to another user. Another important aspect of DEX is the ability to rank each diamond in its category in order of “Investment Potential”. In this way, even beginner traders can recognize lucrative trades. The liquidity of the CEDEX Exchange will be guaranteed through the funds raised with the launch of the CEDEX Coin. CEDEX have pledged 15% of the funds raised by the CEDEX Coin Token Sale to be allocated to working capital. An initial inventory will be purchased by CEDEX on their own exchange, enabling liquidity from Day 1. Finally, standardization will also be achieved through the implementation of the innovative DEX proprietary technology solution, which will create a unique benchmark value, rate and smart contract for every stone on the CEDEX Exchange.
THE CEDEX COIN
The CEDEX Coin will be an ERC-20 compatible token, assuring its legitimacy in the existing cryptocurrency market. It will be traded over the public Ethereum blockchain, allowing users to transform their assets into diamonds in the most efficient manner possible. The CEDEX Coin will power the CEDEX Exchange and is the only means of payment used over this platform. It will be listed on all major exchanges allowing for transferability between it, existing crypto and fiat currencies. Although CEDEX Coins can be stored in any wallet compatible with ERC-20, it is recommended that they are stored in an offline storage solution for optimal security. Up to 41% of the supply of CEDEX Coin will be pre-allocated to the CEDEX founders and team members before it becomes available for purchase. The company will hold 20%-25% of the CEDEX Coin supply for future development and marketing expansion. This holding will also be used for purchasing additional diamonds in order to expand the financial offering of the CEDEX project.
THE UPCOMING ICO
CEDEX Token Pre-sales will start on March16, 2018 at 19:00 GMT. During this Token Pre-sale, the CEDEX Coin will become available for use. The minimum purchase limit at launch will be set at 1 coin which will be valued at 1 Ethereum. It became apparent that demand for The CEDEX Coin at pre-sale would far surpass the 20% initially intended to be offered, so that amount has been increased to 50%. Users will be able to purchase CEDEX Coin using Ether, Bitcoin and fiat currencies according to the current rates in the market. In order to purchase tokens during the pre-sale, you will need to register at www.cedex.com. Techfinancials, a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange, is the primary owner (90%) of CEDEX. As such, the support, both in asset use and experience is of tantamount importance and a rarity in the I.C.O world This level of both credibility and accountability provides potential investors with sound peace of mind. With a solid plan and roadmap ahead, together with the support of Industry leaders like IDEX, CEDEX represents both an interesting investment opportunity in both diamonds and the CEDEX coin itself. - http://bit.ly/2DDgCJQ - Coinlus.com
