Of Angels and Phantoms

Chapter 15- Opening Up

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"So...what do you want to know?"

"Anything. Your birthday, your favourite colour, your favourite food..." I rambled on, asking anything that popped up in my head. June rolled her eyes, but let out a small giggle.

"Those are some deep questions," She chuckled, leaning back onto my pillow. "I was born in June, duh. Sometimes I wish I was born in May or something."

"Why?"

"May Matsumoto. April Matsumoto. It's better than getting called Matsujun anyday," she sighed, shaking her head. "June 14, 1994. I was born on that day, in Vancouver."

"You're from Vancouver?"

"Yeah, I was born there, lived there till I was 9 or 10..." She thought for a while before continuing. "Then...my parents brought me back to Japan."

"Eh? You lived in Japan before?"

"Yeah, for about a year. My parents had to return to Japan for some...family business issues." She paused for a while. "It was one of the worst times of my life, to be honest. I was alone, in a foreign country. I looked exactly like my classmates, but I couldn't speak a single word of Japanese. And my name...I was bullied a lot."

"They bullied you? For your name?" I frowned, feeling indignant for her.

"Elementary school kids, what did you expect? And for a 'Japanese' that couldn't speak Japanese, the teachers didn't like me very much too," she continued. "My only saving grace was skating, but no coaches would take me in."

"What? Why?"

"I mean...I'm weird. I was even weirder back then. I wasn't trained professionally in Vancouver, so my techniques were pretty messed up.  It was too much trouble for them to retrain me, I guess..." She sighed deeply, and looked up. "Is this getting a little too depressing?"

"No, continue. I want to know more."

"You're insistent, aren't you?" June chuckled, hugging the pillow. "Hm...and yeah. So I took up piano instead while I was in Japan."

"Where did you live in Japan?"

"Tokyo."

"Ah, city kid."

"Shush. Yeah anyway...I wanted to go back to Canada really badly, but my parents were tied down with work. So we worked something out; I couldn't go back to Vancouver but I could move to Toronto, since a relative living there was willing to take me in."

"So that's how you landed there."

June paused for a while before continuing. "And even then, I couldn't find a coach that was willing to re-teach me everything... Until I met Coach." Her face brightened up, revealing a broad smile. "I was 11 when he took me under his wing."

"That's..." I counted in my head, mumbling. "7 years?"

June nodded. "Coach's like a dad to me. I wouldn't have achieved anything without his guidance and strictness..."

"Don't shortchange yourself. Coach must've recognised your potential too!" I replied, gripping onto the chair as my body leaned forward. "You were once a world champion, too..."

"Yeah. Junior world champion of 2009. That was like, the peak of my career?" June smiled thinly, shaking her head. "Look at me now. It's impossible to tell, right?"

"If it's you, I think you can do it."

"Eh?"

"I'm sure you can get back up, onto the stage. Onto the podium."