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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A movie was playing in front of Ayame's eyes!
Her thoughts went so crazy that she completely lost her composure within a few moments!
What did Satomi want with Yuzuru in the changing room? Was she going to dress him herself? That was far too intimate, even if they had known each other for a long time! Why didn't she leave that to one of her male employees? And anyway, why had she kissed and touched him, when she greeted him and taken his hand now? And why had Yuzuru gone to see Satomi in Tōkyō alone back then?
Ayame nervously slid back and forth on her couch. She suddenly realized that she was jealous! Not a little, no, furiously jealous! Even when Satomi had greeted Yuzuru so intimately, she had had this feeling, the feeling that she didn't want to share him, that he was hers.
And now her imagination was running wild!
She looked around the studio and suddenly realized that there were only women here, mostly young, sometimes very pretty women, walking back and forth with measuring tapes around their necks, sewing cushions on their wrists, with fabrics and all kinds of sewing utensils.
But she also saw them standing together giggling, they weren't working at all! They were all waiting for the beautiful star, the divine ice prince, her Yuzu! What did they all want from him?!
Ayame was getting carried away with the situation. No other woman was allowed to get too close to him!
Her jealousy got the better of her and she was about to get up to see what they were doing in the changing room when Satomi came out. She brushed a strand of hair from her face and Ayame's eyes widened! What had they been doing in there?
Satomi came right up to her and Ayame had to control herself not to glare at her and confront her!
"Ebihara-san, Yuzuru told me to inform you about the next steps."
"Oh... yes please, sit with me." Feeling caught off guard, Ayame tried to calm down a bit and made room for Satomi on the couch.
"Well, I showed him all the costumes briefly, we took them to the changing room beforehand to save time. Two of my employees are now helping him to put them on one by one and..."
"Who's helping him with that?" Ayame interrupted rather gruffly. Satomi looked at her in surprise.
"Well... some of the costumes are very complex and can't be put on without help. The two ladies are very well trained and know exactly what to do, and..."
"Oh, I'm quite sure they know what they're doing!" Ayame jumped up. "I want to make sure he's comfortable and I want to get to know them first before they do anything to him!"
Satomi frowned. "Ebihara-san... this is a completely normal process. Even for Yuzuru! He knows this procedure, he's tried on dozens of costumes and they all behave professionally. There's no danger of... well... any... immorality, if that's what you think!"
Satomi had now stood up as well, it seemed that she had assessed the situation correctly.
Ayame, on the other hand, was no longer in control of the situation in her blind jealousy. She simply left the designer standing there and stormed off in the direction of the changing room.
"Ebihara-san, please... it's really all right!" Satomi quickly went after her, but was too late.
Ayame had already torn aside the curtain of the bunk and was looking wildly into the faces of Yuzuru, who was standing there in his sports shorts, and the two dressers who were about to start putting the first costume on him.
Yuzuru was the first to regain his composure.
"Ebihara-san? Are you all right?"
"Yuzuru... a word!" said Ayame in a trembling voice, her body shaking too, Yuzuru could see it clearly. Something was wrong with her and he now asked the two ladies to leave her alone for a moment. They politely did as he had asked and left the changing room.
When they were alone, he looked at Ayame and spoke in a hushed voice.
"Aya, what's wrong with you? You look terrible!"
He was worried, he had never seen her so upset.
"Did they touch you?" mumbled Ayame.
"What do you mean?" Yuzuru was very surprised by her question. "Of course they have to touch me, they put the costume on me, I can't do it alone."
"Is that all?"
"Ayame!" he exclaimed, immediately remembering that many ears around them would probably be listening on what was going on in here.
"Aya, what do you think?" he finally said in a whisper. "This is a professional fitting, with staff just doing their job. Even for me, it's just part of my job. So what do you think we're doing here?"
Yuzuru was upset, but tried to keep his voice down as much as possible.
Ayame saw his eyes sparkle. His gaze was now very stern, the initial concern completely gone from that look.
"I... I... don't know either..." she stuttered, suddenly realizing how stupid she was acting. "I... I'm sorry, Yuzu... I..."
He frowned. "It's probably best if you leave us now. We'll talk about it later! I have to work now!"
With that, he pushed her aside a little, stepped to the curtain and opened it. "Please... go," he showed her the way out.
"Please, ladies, come in. Everything is just fine. We can continue now," he gave the dressers his brightest smile and invited them in with a wave of his arm. He didn't give Ayame another glance...
Ayame stood there transfixed. For a moment, she could no longer feel her legs. Her thoughts were racing. What had she done? She saw that everyone in the room was staring at her, while the two dressers had hurried past her back into the cabin. She wished the floor would open up and swallow her...
When she had composed herself a little, she went to Satomi, bowed deeply to her and apologized.
"Please forgive me, Itō-san! I'm having a difficult day today and..."
"It's all right, Ebihara-san," Satomi said, "but I think you should follow Yuzuru's instructions and leave us now."
