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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Yuzuru was simply slumped on the floor where he had been standing. He crouched there, his whole body trembling, when he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder.
"Yuzu?" Ayame's voice brought him back to real time.
"Aya!" he turned to her, looking at her. She could see that he had been crying, again...
"Yuzu..." she lowered herself to his knees. "What's the matter? I... I heard you... fighting? Can that be?"
He didn't say anything at first. Then he turned and suddenly clung to her. "Aya... I..." He started crying again.
"Shh, shh... calm down, my heart." She cradled him in her arms, terrified, he was like a scared little child. "Tell me when you're ready."
"First... all the tension... about the possible pregnancy... in the middle of my worst crisis," he sobbed, "and now... a huge fight with my mother! ... I really can't take any more!!" he cried out. She held him and tried to calm him down as best as she could.
After a while, Yuzuru calmed down a bit and he finally told her everything, every detail that his mother had thrown at him. Ayame listened attentively.
"Yuzu," she finally said when he had finished, looking him firmly in the eye. "The only thing that matters to me now, from everything you just told me, is this," she paused. "You love me."
Yuzuru looked at her in astonishment. "But, my mother insulted you, insinuated terrible things about you. Don't you care about all that?"
"Yes, I do, but... I like your mother and I think she's just scared for you and wants to protect you. I can understand that after everything that's already happened to you. You'll sort it out later. I'm convinced of that!" continued Ayame. "But the only thing that's important to me is our love."
Yuzuru looked at her in amazement. The maturity of this young woman surprised him time and time again. She hadn't reacted upset or even angry, even though his mother had made the worst claims about her that had been anything but kind.
"Aya, are you... are you a being of the gods?"
Ayame laughed. "No, Yuzu, I'm certainly not. I could ask you the same thing, though..."
"Aya, I want you to know..., none of this changes anything about us, ok?"
"I know that, my heart, I know that! Don't worry about it!"
She had him in her arms again and was stroking him. He looked very heated and was now sweating profusely.
"I want you to take a bath now and try to calm down a bit. You want to go out on the ice tonight. Do you think you can do that?"
He hadn't even thought about that. "It's from 7 p.m., with an open end, there was no other way..."
"I know, but that's actually a good thing now, it gives you enough time to relax, get some sleep and eat. I'll run your bath first, okay?"
Yuzuru just nodded.
"Can you get up? Are you alright?" Ayame was the first to rise and looked down at him, offering him her hand.
"Yes, I think so! The shaking has stopped."
The situation reminded Ayame of how she herself had been in such a state of shock recently when she had shown Yuzuru the video of her accident. She knew what it felt like when emotions suddenly paralyzed the body.
"Alright, I'll help you like you helped me a few days ago. Do you remember?"
"Yes! Of course... I didn't think we'd swap roles so quickly...!"
"Me neither. All right, let's see if we can get you on your feet." He took her hand. It went well.
"Oh Aya, thank you..." he fell into her arms, starting to sob again. "Why does life have to be so complicated again?" he was angry. "It's only just got better!"
"We'll never know for sure why life gives us these tasks. But life is obviously there to solve problems! And that's what we do, together! Come on now, the bath!"
She now carefully pushed him in front of her, over to his bedroom, simply set him down on the bed and went into the bathroom to prepare the bath.
Yuzuru let himself sink back onto the bed, groaned and closed his eyes.
He was tired of it, tired of having to put up with these emotions. Tired of always having to please everyone and everything. Tired of so many external circumstances constantly determining his life. He felt anger and rage welling up inside him and became afraid of himself.
He knew what he could be like when anger erupted. He had just experienced it again. His mother, who had done so much for him... and yet he had been convinced that she deserved to feel his anger at that moment...
When Ayame came back and saw him lying there, eyes narrowed, mouth agape, fists clenched and trembling again, completely tense, she was worried. Should she call Yumi and ask what to do now? But Yumi was too involved... Ayame suddenly wasn't sure how to deal with him.
Then he suddenly spoke to her. "Aya?"
"Yes... Yuzu?"
"I'm... very... very angry!"
"At your mother?"
"At life! It won't let me find happiness and satisfaction, not in the long run! And I hate myself for not having a better handle on it!" his voice shook. "I... I don't know if I'm good company right now, Aya. I... I can't guarantee anything! There's this anger, this rage and... this pain..."
Ayame thought for a moment. She had stopped in the middle of the room, not approaching him for the moment.
"What do you need now?" she finally asked him.
"Will you... will you please leave me alone for a while?"
"Oh... of course! If you think that's best now? I'll turn off the water quickly..."
"You don't have to!" he said in a firm tone. "I'll take care of it myself!"
He sounded different, strange. The gentleness had disappeared from his voice. Ayame sensed that there was no point in trying to pressure him now.
"Fine, I'll go, just call me if you need anything, okay?"
"Yes. I will."
He didn't look at her, his eyes still closed as Ayame left the room and quietly slided the door shut behind him.
