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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Five more minutes...
Ayame stood at the velvet curtain that covered the entrance to the ice. She heard the quiet murmur of the audience outside, who had long since taken their seats and were eagerly awaiting the start of the show. The air was literally vibrating in anticipation and you could really feel the excitement.
Ayame pushed the curtain aside a little. She could make out a few of the faces sitting in the front rows in the entrance light. They looked calm and impatient at the same time. They all wanted to finally see him again after missing him for more than ten months in public and especially on the ice!
Ayame let the curtain slide back again and turned around.
Yuzuru was sitting on the chair in front of the backstage changing room. He was checking the laces of his skates one last time and then took off the guards. He stood up.
The dressers checked the fit of his costume one last time, everything was perfect.
Kentō-san, the stage manager, signaled to him with his fingers that it would start in three minutes and Yuzuru just nodded. There was no stopping it now.
The atmosphere on the backstage was tense to the breaking point!
Ayame knew that he would be standing right next to her at the curtain, only to take the ice shortly afterwards in a brilliant opening act.
The first number was very pure, with only lights and a few projections on the monitors. His costume was black, gray, a little white, partly translucent, long, torn strips of heavy-looking fabric everywhere, which would wrap around him again and again when he spinned.
It made him look vulnerable, weak - and trapped. And that was exactly what Yuzuru wanted to achieve.
The choreography would show him symbolically losing the ground beneath his feet, and the music he had chosen for it was sombre and heavy. He had insisted on interpreting the decay in which he had been trapped right at the beginning.
The choreography was beautiful and terrible at the same time. Shae-Lynn had done a great job. She was now sitting out there in the audience - just like everyone else - and would witness what her long-time companion had to tell them all.
Kentō-san had just taken his place on the right side of the curtain and nodded affirmatively to Ayame when Yuzuru approached the two of them. With calm, purposeful steps and great focus, he walked across the protective mats.
Ayame didn't expect him to pay any attention to her now, mere seconds before his entrance. She was standing here now, completely his assistant, simply to fulfill her task and open her half of the curtain for him, Kentō-san the other. Everything was ready.
Yuzuru was there. He was focused. His gaze dark, inward, completely gathered. Outside, the music started. Dark, atmospheric sounds. He waited for his cue. Ayame leaned forward to grasp the curtain with his hand, Kentō-san opposite did the same.
Then Yuzuru unexpectedly turned to her, put his left hand around her neck and pulled her close. He kissed her on the mouth, powerfully and intensely, then looked at her with a still dark gaze and said only
"For you!".
Surprised and with slightly parted lips, Ayame pulled aside the curtain and Yuzuru stepped up. The roaring cheers that followed shortly afterwards were indescribable!
***
No one said anything directly to Ayame, but everyone had seen it, she was sure of it. Especially Kentō-san, who had been standing right next to her when Yuzuru had kissed her.
She thought about it... everything he had said to her in the gym before the performance started made sense now. And also that he had issued an absolute ban on cell phones and cameras backstage while the show was running. As always, he wanted to take precautions, she had thought, in case something went wrong. So that nothing could get out.
Had he planned that kiss at the curtain? She wouldn't put it past him!
He knew that everyone would be looking at him just before his entrance. So he had chosen the exact moment when he could be sure that as many people as possible would notice...
Ayame was well aware of how many of the stage crew around her were whispering behind closed doors and putting their heads together. Even if this was the most secretive team imaginable, they were all at least surprised. Just like Ayame herself!
She couldn't do anything else now, she couldn't talk to him about it. She had to trust Yuzuru completely now, just as she had assured him a few minutes ago. He certainly wouldn't do anything in a situation like this without weighing it up carefully first.
Ayame pulled herself together, looking over at Kentō-san, who had just nodded approvingly at her from his side of the curtain and then returned to his stage manager's desk to oversee the performance.
Perhaps he had suspected something earlier and didn't seem particularly surprised now. After all, he had already seen Ayame and Yuzuru in a very intimate embrace in the gym and had perhaps drawn his own conclusions.
Ayame also left her post to take her place in front of the large monitor that allowed the team to follow Yuzuru's performance.
And no longer paid attention to any reactions from the others.
