On Tuesday morning, the main hall of the Grand Palace Hotel in Tokyo was packed to the brim with reporters, cameramen, and foreign correspondents from the specialized winter sports press. The flashbulbs of the cameras formed a barrier of flashing white lights in front of the head table, where the microphones of the main television networks sat lined up with their golden logos.
Aibek and Jake entered the hall wearing the formal suits of their respective delegations: the brunette in an impeccably tailored navy blue suit that stylized his slender figure, and the castaño in an oxford gray blazer that accentuated the width of his athletic shoulders. They walked with an ease that caught the attention of the corridor analysts; there was no longer the competitive distance or the tense silence that federations usually imposed between rivals of the final flight. They sat side by side, sharing a small smile before the press chief of the Japanese federation kicked off the Q&A session.
