This is the story of Ayame, a young artistic gymnast who, due to a stroke of fate, can no longer practise her sport. In search of a new purpose in life, she comes to Sendai from her home town of Sapporo by chance to work in the house of a famous fig...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The pizza tasted delicious. They sat down at the kitchen counter because pizza wouldn't have been a good idea for the couch. They ate in silence for a while, lost in their thoughts.
"You had a bad accident at the games, didn't you?" Yuzuru interrupted the silence. She looked up from her last slice of pizza and put it back on the plate. "Yes, in Paris in 2024." "And that ended your gymnastics career?" Yuzuru asked directly and without beating around the bush. "It was a very serious accident..."
"Please forgive me, you don't have to talk about it!" Yuzuru tried to salvage the situation straight away. "No, no, it's all right. We both know from experience that injuries are part of top-class sport, just like training until you drop every day." "Yes, you're absolutely right. You kind of get used to it though, don't you?"
"True... but this accident was different. It wasn't an injury that you get and that heals again if you do the therapy properly and, above all, take the necessary rest... I could have died."
Yuzuru was horrified. He had had no idea that it had been so bad. Yes, he had had to endure many injuries himself, and yet he had always managed to get back to his old form. He didn't know what to say about it now...
"Do you have YouTube installed in your system?" Ayame suddenly asked. "Yes, of course. There's an infinite amount of good material there. I use it a lot." "Then come on, I'll show you!" and with that, she got up and went back to the couch to switch the flatscreen back on.
Yuzuru put the rest of his pizza back on the plate and followed her.
She sat back down on the couch and quickly, surfing around the web, she found the video. Like so many other things, this ghastly accident was of course immortalized on the internet and available forever. However, she had never watched it herself.
She started the short video. Yuzuru was still standing next to her and now saw how Ayame was preparing for her routine on the balance beam, the fear gymnastics equipment of many gymnasts, at the venue in Paris.
She looked beautiful and very powerful in her white and red leotard and her black hair tied up in a tight bun. The concentration on her face was abundantly clear. There was a medal at stake, and of course she knew it.
The routine began excellently. Everything was perfect, balance, strength, suppleness and flexibility. The technical level was more than sufficient for 1st place. And then suddenly, just before the end, the fall......
Yuzuru could hardly look at what happened. The images of the transmission were too horrible, but after a few seconds it was interrupted and cut to another camera. Then it was over.
Breathless silence.
Ayame hadn't looked, her gaze was directed downwards into her lap. She didn't need to see what had happened to her two years ago.
Now, when she wanted to show Yuzuru what had happened, this special person who had had to endure so much pain himself, everything suddenly came back to her in a matter of seconds.
She heard the sounds again. She felt it as she slipped, heard the popping of her tearing tendons and ligaments, felt the sharp pain and her fall to the ground as if it was happening all over again.
She hadn't expected it to overwhelm her like this. She had worked with her therapist for a long time to overcome this trauma. And although she didn't want to, she wanted to show strength to Yuzuru, who had won gold medals when injured, she now lifted her head, looked at him and then the tears came.
The whole time, Yuzuru had noticed that something was happening to Ayame. He had seen the accident and couldn't even begin to imagine what was going on inside her. And when she looked at him now and the tears were there, he didn't think twice.
He knelt on the floor in front of her and took her face in both hands.
"Ayame, I'm so very sorry!"
She burst into loud sobs and lowered her head onto his shoulder. Her whole body trembled and she cried. He put his arms around her and tried to comfort her as best as he could. He knew words wouldn't help much now, so he stroked her back a little and hoped for the best.
After a while, she lifted her head again and searched for a handkerchief, or so he assumed. He got up to fetch Winnie, who was watching everything on a little table next to the couch.
Yuzuru sat back down next to Ayame on the couch and offered her one of the tissues. She smiled weakly and simply said, "So this is the famous Pooh-san!", and took a tissue. Yuzuru returned the smile, but said nothing.
Instead, he waited until she had dried her tears a little. She sat next to him, small and slumped over. He simply took her in his arms again. He held her tightly, protectively, and stroked her back gently. He just wanted her to calm down a little and feel better.
All he could think about now was that they both had to bear the burden of her pain, albeit each in their own unique way.
