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...
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Ayame had outdone herself. What she had put together for the picnic was simply delicious. They had made themselves comfortable on the picnic blanket, the bento boxes placed within easy reach between them. Everyone had grabbed a water bottle. It looked fabulous.
"Why are you so good at cooking?" Yuzuru wanted to know. "I mean, it's all little things, but each one is simply amazing." He took a tuna maki and devoured it in one bite.
Ayame laughed. She loved it when he liked her food like that. "I don't know," she replied to his question. "I always thought food was our main fuel. So it must be the absolute best there is so that I could do the best I was capable of! And I started to study nutrition more intensively."
"Oh... yes! You've mastered it perfectly now," Yuzuru nodded eagerly and took a piece of asparagus wrapped in lean bacon. "You are so, so right! And I'm the beneficiary now!" And the next bite was gone.
They ate with relish and talked about this and that, little things that popped into their heads. There was a lightness between them.
The view of the lake was breathtakingly beautiful. Because of the heat, some of the trees were already changing color a little, it looked almost autumnal, even though it was still the middle of summer.
"July has always been a difficult month for me..." Yuzuru suddenly began. "On the one hand, I finally had something like a vacation, no ice shows, no competitions, and the sponsors took pity on me and there weren't so many photo shoots or days of shooting commercials. So I had time to do nothing, or at least less..." he looked over at the lake, lost in thought.
"But I always had to force myself... to do nothing! My mother was often desperate with me because of that..."
"What made you do that, I mean, why couldn't you just take a real vacation, go somewhere?" Ayame wanted to know.
"I was always on the road during competition season. I have no idea how many air miles or hours on the Shinkansen I racked up in total... so I didn't want to travel somewhere again during the vacations where I wouldn't have been able to relax without being recognized anyway."
Yuzuru pondered for a moment. "I was once in this beautiful onsen. You know the one from the Miyazaki movie... 'Spirited away'? What's the name of the bathhouse again?"
"Dōgo Onsen Honkan?" Ayame knew exactly which traditional bathhouse he meant.
"Yes, that's it!" Yuzuru was thrilled that she knew right away. "I love that movie, I even used music from it for one of my programs... 'A Summer's Day'... Anyway, I was there once, and... it was a nightmare!" his gaze darkened.
Ayame suspected what might have happened. "Would you like to tell me?"
"Yes..." he began. "Right at the beginning, when I checked in - and I was still glad to have made it to reception unnoticed!... - although I was wearing a mask and my disguise, I was recognized by a group of young women. They seemed a little tipsy and were probably a little disinhibited as a result." Yuzuru sighed.
