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.
He showed it to her. He had opened his tablet and showes Ayame first the photo and then played the clip from Fantasy on Ice. She laughed! It had been in Makuhari in 2012. Yuzuru was 18, and Ayame could immediately see that his body had become much more muscular since then.
During a lively samba, which Yuzuru interpreted together with others in the show, they all went a little over the top. They were visibly carried away by the music and made a few very fun but also sexy scenes out of it.
By the end, Yuzuru had not only rolled up his pants and strutted around like a torrero, he had also taken off his shirt and thrown it on the ice. One of the female skaters had already playfully wagged her tail around him beforehand and now rushed after him, finally holding on to his bottom. They skated across the ice together as a tandem. He with his bare upper body, pulling her behind him. The audience went completely wild!
"Well, I think your performance is funny. And it's not too sexy either!" said Ayame when the video was over.
"Exactly! We really had fun with it and were fooling around. The audience loved it and we were in a really good mood! But since then, it's been circulating online as an isolated still photo..." Yuzuru looked a little contrite.
"There was absolutely nothing I could do about it, and at first I thought it was okay. But then they edited it, took it completely out of the scene, used sneakers instead of skates and tampered with it in other ways too. I suddenly looked like a skinny Arnold Schwarzenegger!"
"What???" Ayame laughed spontaneously, but saw that Yuzuru wasn't happy about it. "Sorry.... Do you have this picture somewhere?" she asked, still a little curious.
"You want to see that?" Yuzuru was outraged. And yet he opened the photo, which he had of course also saved in his archive.
"Well... it's not that bad!" said Ayame. "But of course I understand your indignation. This has absolutely nothing to do with you or what you actually did on the ice."
"So right! The stupid thing about the whole story was what happened afterwards... what can happen when something is taken out of context and got edited!" Yuzuru looked crestfallen.
"Sometimes they caught me changing my shirt quickly on the ice during training sessions! I sweat a lot and that's why I couldn't always get off the ice and into the dressing room... these pictures also circulate on the net. That's why I try to be careful what I do when cameras are around. So my mother is absolutely right about this whole issue, I have to be very careful with my new ideas!"
"Yes, please ask me if you're unsure," Ayame offered him now. "I think I've already developed a good sense of what works and what doesn't."
"Thank you, that would be nice if I could call you in as a consultant - and Yumi, of course!" They both laughed.
"You know what?" he suddenly began. "We're always talking about ice shows and you haven't seen any of my solo shows, properly, from start to finish. Would you like to?" he asked her, and Ayame couldn't help but notice the gleam in his eyes.
"Of course I want to! It's still raining and we can't really get out into the fresh air at the moment." They had wanted to go for a walk, but the rain was even heavier than the day before. "So we might as well stay here on the couch and watch your show."
"Oh, fine! Then I'll show you 'GIFT', 2023 at the Tokyo Dome." Yuzuru was already looking for the recording.
"I saw a bit of that back then," Ayame reflected. "That was the first ice show ever in the dome, wasn't it?"
"Yes, there were a good 35,000 spectators per performance."
"Oh, wow! How did that feel?"
Yuzuru lowered his head and closed his eyes. "Indescribable!"
There was silence for a moment.
"It does something to you..." he began. "They all came for me, from everywhere! They worked up a nerve in the ticket lottery to get a ticket. They had all waited for hours to get in, sometimes in the cold. We had set up catering and warming islands so that everyone could be well looked after. And then they all sat together in the dome, wearing their masks, every single one of them. I was able to give them all this gift and I felt their love and affection when I said goodbye to them at the end.", he paused for a moment.
„That was an incredible moment every time... I felt loved beyond measure... and at the same time always felt like the loneliest person in the whole world when it was over..."
Ayame said nothing, she could see how the whole subject was upsetting him. He had lived through this situation, which he had created himself, over and over again. And each time, this situation had made him realize that he had nothing else... only figure skating.
"I was born to skate... I once said that in an interview. I was always convinced of that. But now, for some time, I suddenly couldn't do it anymore! So what's left if I lose it?"
He looked at Ayame.
"I'll stay..." she simply replied.
"What would have happened if you hadn't come?"
"But I'm here! Everything else is not important..." Ayame looked him firmly in the eye.
There were so many things she still didn't know about him. But she knew that she wanted to stay by his side to understand him better and better. And never to let him return to his emptiness.
"Thank the gods for that!" was all Yuzuru said, leaning in and kissing her tenderly.
