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.
She had realized what a huge step it must be for him after such a long time. He had always been on the ice, since he was four years old. The current interruption was the first that he hadn't had to take due to a physical injury. It was his soul that had been injured...
It seemed only natural that he would want someone to accompany him. But it wasn't his mother, his father or anyone else from his trusted circle. He had chosen her. And that felt so good.
After lunch, Yuzuru had retired to his room to get some more rest. They had agreed that they would leave for the ice rink at 4:30 p.m.
After she had finished tidying up the kitchen, Ayame went back to the utility room to put everything in order that she hadn't managed to do before...
There her eyes fell on Yuzuru's blue T-shirt... it was still lying on top in the laundry basket where she left it... She took it in her hands once more, almost carefully, and sniffed it again.
My God, that smell... she suddenly had butterflies in her stomach. Why had she done that again?
She dropped the T-shirt and went to her room, completely confused.
***
It wasn't far to the ice rink. A few minutes by car. Yuzuru had advised her to take warm clothes with her despite the heat still prevailing outside.
"It's... well, freezing at the rink," he said with a laugh. "If you don't keep moving, you could catch a cold. You can change in my changing room," he offered her. "You have your own changing room? .... ah, of course, it's your training base," she answered herself.
He had trained there for years and years. And she knew from Sakura that he had always donated money so that renovations and improvements could be made to the entire facility.
"They offered to set up the room for me. It's very practical and am grateful for it, because I can also leave my things there and don't always have to transport everything back and forth. It's definitely become my base again since I came back from Canada, and even more so since I turned pro."
They entered the building, it was obviously still busy because there was a lot of hustle and bustle. A group of vacation children came running towards them just as they were walking through the foyer. They had obviously finished their skating lesson for the day and were still very excited.
Only now did Ayame notice that Yuzuru wasn't wearing any of his usual disguise, in which she had barely recognized him at the station. No baggy clothes, no baseball cap, no sunglasses. He only wore a breathing mask. He was still careful when he went to places with lots of people. But now he took his mask off after the children had walked past them.
"No disguise here?" Ayame asked him. "The Sendai rules apply here" "The what? Sendai rules? What's that?"
He laughed. "The people of Sendai have made it an unwritten law to leave me alone when I'm in town. Everyone abides by it. And there's only been one exception in all these years..." his gaze darkened for a brief moment. Ayame didn't ask, she guessed what he meant.
"Anyway, it's much easier for me to know that I don't have to hide. Please understand me correctly: I LOVE my fans! I'd be nothing without them... but it's not always easy when you can't even set foot in a hotel lobby without being surrounded by crowds."
"Hm, I can understand that. You can never be private, there's always a cell phone camera pointed at you. And you can admire yourself on YouTube the same day! You always have to think about what you do and say... it's exhausting!"
"Exactly! I'll say a quick hello to Moriuchi-san, he's the good soul and caretaker here. I'll be right back with you. Take a look around, there's the ice rink." He pointed in that direction.
Ayame did so. She walked slowly in the direction Yuzuru had pointed her. She could hear voices from afar and the typical scratching and scraping of blades on the ice. And then she saw the people suddenly rushing past her.
She felt the cold air and put on the jacket and scarf she had brought with her. Yuzuru hadn't warned her for nothing.
She went to the boards and saw that there were about a dozen people on the ice. All of them were disciplined and kept to the skating direction indicated along the boards. There was space in the middle for those who were a little more advanced and wanted to practise jumps or pirouettes. There was a harmonious atmosphere and everyone seemed to be having fun.
"Do you like it?" Yuzuru's voice, now so familiar, asked him. She turned around and realized at that moment that this was the first time they had been together in a place outside his house.
"Yes, it seems very harmonious the way everyone is skating around here." "And I see you've already put on your jacket!" Yuzuru grinned. "Of course I have! Thanks to your tip, I won't freeze to death," she laughed and rolled her eyes. "Come on, I'll show you my wardrobe and you can dress even warmer if you like." "Agreed!"
***
His name was written on the door, in kanji and in Latin.
"So everyone can read it, including international trainers or guests who come here," Yuzuru explained and opened it with his key card. "It also opens the main entrance if I come here late at night and no one else is around."
"Which hopefully won't happen too often in the future!" Ayame instructed him. His new rhythm was doing him good, and training too late would not be a good idea right now. "Of course!" Yuzuru bowed to her.
"I'll leave you alone so you can finish changing in peace. I'm already in my training clothes and am going to warm up in the studio." He routinely took a few things out of his rolling suitcase. Towel, water bottle, cell phone and, of course, his earphones, and put everything in a separate cloth bag, which he shouldered.
"Warming up will only take about half an hour, I don't want to do too much intensive training on ice today, I need to see how I feel after such a long time..."
"Very clever!" Ayame agreed.
"You could watch what people are doing on the ice for a while, or you could go to the small cafeteria and have a hot drink? It's up to you," Yuzuru suggested.
"Thanks, I'm sure I'll find my way around!" she nodded at him. "See you later then," he waved to her and left the room.
***
Ayame was alone. She looked around.
The room was small and functional. It had no windows and the light was not too bright. There was a small couch in one corner and a folded-up massage table in the other. She stroked it with her hand.
A clothes rack, two chairs, a desk and a small dressing table with a mirror, a cup with make-up brushes. She took one out of the container and sniffed it. It smelled of powder and make-up... but also as if it hadn't been used for a long time.
She continued to look around.
The shower, which had been integrated into the room, was conspicuous. Of course, it made sense that he could shower here alone and undisturbed.
It could have been someone's dressing room. Only a few framed pictures on the wall above the desk revealed whose dressing room it was. Yuzuru was in every single one of them, next to probably colleagues from the skater scene, coaches, friends... only a few faces looked familiar to her, but she didn't know exactly who all these people were.
Well, it was time for her to put on her warm overpants and get ready so that she wouldn't miss Yuzuru when he took his "first step" onto the ice.
