Chapter 162 - The Echo of the Silenced Confession

​The festive murmur of the crowd, still euphoria-filled from celebrating the end of Aibek and Jake's duet routine, seemed to extinguish suddenly as the main lights of the Shibuya sports arena began to dim once again. The loudspeakers transformed the crowd into a hum of contained expectation. Aibek, still at the edge of the rink, breathed slowly while feeling the constant warmth of Jake's hand intertwined with his own. He carefully adjusted the medical bandage securing his right wrist, convinced that the exhibition event had reached its climax and that all that remained on the schedule was the final bow from all the skaters on the ice. However, the official announcer did not issue the final call for the skaters to enter the rink. Instead, a single amber spotlight—faint, dense, and deeply melancholic in tone—cut through the arena's darkness to illuminate the exact center of the frozen surface.