Chapter Text
“Are you ready for your act Ruka?”
“Sure am!”
“What’re you going to juggle today?”
(Her smile suddenly goes down. And a look of indecision is across her face.)
”Umm….”
“Ah! You’re up.”
(That look of indecision turns into fear, she just grabs a few juggling balls, about six. And walks over to the tent entrance, taking a deep breath and calming herself down. She appears more steady but that feeling of unease still resides.)
“Okay Yokoi…”
“Ladies and gentlemen, our opening act for the night… Yokoi Ruka!”
(She steps out, waving at the crowd. A few people look excited and wave back. The music starts up and she begins juggling, starting with the first ball. Then the next one, until all six were going around like a merry go round. A few kids in the audience were obviously enamored, but most parents on their phones. Yokoi wanted to believe that they were recording for later purposes, at least she hoped.)
(She begin letting the balls fall onto her lips and spit them out back into the circle she had created, a few drops of sweat watered down her face. After a while, her act came to an end.)
(She walked over to the troupe master, who was also her father. And asked one simple question.)
“Could I go home early?”
“Oh um.. sure. But… why?”
“I’m just… tired okay?”
“Alright. You can go.”
“Thanks dad.”
(She grabbed her things and walked out of the tent. Some people didn’t even notice her leaving. She got home, went upstairs, entered and closed the door to her room, and tried to get some sleep…)