For the past five hours you were waiting at the hospital while Ryoko went through emergency surgery. You were worried sick and didn't feel like you could eat or drink or go home, all you could do was wait for her to come out. Soon the doctor came out of the emergency room, and he was bombarded by her manager. "How is Ryoko is she alright?" the doctor sighed "Shiraishi Ryoko will be alright, it was nothing serious and no critical injuries, unfortunately she does have a few broken ribs and a fractured leg." Manager screamed "How is that not critical? Do you know what happens to dancers that have leg injuries? She won't ever dance again!" Doctor tried to calm her down "Ryoko should be fine to do whatever she wishes in 6-8 weeks. I understand for that long of a time for a dancer to not be training her body is a hard thing, but bear with me and I promise she will heal completely. Stay here and you'll be able to see Shiraishi-san in a couple hours." Manager placed her hand over her head "What a headache I have!" she looked over at you "And you, how much do you want?" "I'm sorry?" She took out her checkbook "How much money do you want for taking Ryoko to the hospital and keeping your mouth shut about the whole thing to the media?" you pushed her checkbook away "No money compensation please, I'm not that kind of person and I only want to see Ryoko get better." she looked you up and down "Alright, I believe you. You stay here while I go get myself a drink, my head hurts from all the crap Ryoko puts me through." She stormed off in a hurry.
Even when the doctor allowed you to see Ryoko, you didn't dare. You were afraid of what you might find when you looked into her eyes, anger or regret or maybe sadness and pain. You sighed dreading this feeling in your heart, the feeling that you were the one that didn't protect her
you were the one that let her get hurt, you were the one that let your precious Coppelia break.
While you were deep in thought, Manager came back from her break. "How is Ryoko's condition?" she asked anxiously "I haven't gone up and checked on her yet." she pulled you to your feet "Well what the hell are you waiting for?" All the way in the elevator and down the hall Manager made phone calls and her voice was echoed through the hallway of Ryoko's room. "Well go in already! I'm on the phone! You see if Ryoko is okay, can't you tell I'm busy?" she pushed you into the room. It was dark and there was no sound from inside, so you assumed Ryoko was asleep, you were about to close the door. Suddenly there was a small squeak from inside the room, a squeak almost inaudible, but you definately heard it. Peering once more inside the room you saw Ryoko was sitting up in bed, she had her knees drawn to her face and her hands were placed over her mouth and her eyes were wet with tears. Though her cries were muffled, you could hear them clearly. You walked into the room and closed the door behind you, and you sat on the edge of Ryoko's bed. Slowly you put your arms around her and pulled her into your chest and patted her on the head. Manager's voice could be heard clearly through the doors "Cancel Ryoko's auditions tomorrow, cancel the whole schedule for the next two months! Find yourself another Giselle, I'm tellling you, Ryoko can't dance and she won't dance! I don't know whats going to happen to her, but I do know that ballerinas who have leg injuries usually don't recover from things like this!" Manager's voice trailed away as she walked down the hallway. Ryoko removed her hand over her mouth and gripped your shirt, sobbing. You patted her on the head "Everything is going to be alright, you're going to be fine. You'll be able to dance again, be patient and focus on healing. You're okay now, and nothing bad will happen, I promise. I'll be here for you all the time and everything is okay now. You can cry all you want, I'm here so things will be okay." She stopped crying and she fell asleep in your arms. You tucked her in bed and placed a kiss on her cheek, you turned to leave. There on the table side, something yellow caught your eye. It was your lucky gripe tape. You picked it up, and turned it around in your hand to examine it "For being lucky tape, you're not very lucky at all."
Early the next morning, you picked up the newspaper, and sure enough the top story for entertainment was Ryoko Shiraishi dropping out of the role of Giselle in the famous ballet. Critics were saying how disappointed many will be that Ryoko had turned down such an opportunity and many more were saying it was her one shot at the big leagues and that she would never get a chance like this again. If Ryoko saw this news she would be devastated, quickly getting dressed, you rushed to the hospital to try to stop the paper. When you got to her room and slid the door open sneakily, you found Ryoko awake in her bed, the newspaper laid out. "You ran here didn't you? You're too late, the news runs fast doesn't it?" you grabbed the newspaper and crumpled it up "Don't read that trash and don't believe a word that they say. You're going to get better soon and I'll be here for you the entire way." She grabbed your hand and squeezed it tight "Thank you for that." By the afternoon, Ryoko fell asleep and you went to tennis practice. Everyone on the team heard about the accident and sent you back to her with gifts of flowers, teddy bears, and fruit. Back at the hospital, you could hardly find room to place everything the team sent because everyone from Ryoko's ballet company and her family sent her get well presents as well, but she wasn't awake to see how much love people sent her, you sat and watched her for a while then decided to head home for the night.
Around midnight, news erupted about Ryoko's leg fracture and the car accident. Critics wrote about her career ending, headlines came out about how a star had just faded from the world of ballet. The next morning news came about the new dancer who had gotten the role of Giselle. You went to see Ryoko every morning and tried to shield her from the news outside her hospital room, but she always read the paper and checked the web anyways. She would always be looking at pictures of the ballet and say to you "Look Syusuke, shes a good dancer and the people love her, I don't think I would have made a better Giselle even if I had tried. I'm glad that the production is going so well, I am excited to see it."
Then she would smile and stare at the paper with that distant longing look. Ryoko recovered fast because of her fighting mentality, she couldn't stay still for long and she began to walk a week after her surgery. She never complained about the pain even when her face was drenched with sweat from the effort she always insisted it was just walking. After a couple more weeks had passed, her ribs had healed completely and Ryoko could walk even without crutches, but because of tennis, you couldn't accompany her as much anymore and she was more distant from you. Your visits with her grew shorter and shorter as she told you she was always tired and wanted some time to think by herself. You always let her be, but one night you had forgotten something in her room and when you went back for it you found Ryoko was crying to herself. She always cried a little bit when you left because she never wanted you to worry about her pain and her sadness.
Even though she never wanted you to hear her, you always stood outside her door and listened to her, unable to comfort her in anyway.