The next day, Higo found himself waiting outside the Veltins-Arena with his big sister. The trial was done, and since it was the weekend, some players whom Higo got closer to yesterday invited him to watch a real Bundesliga game.
Yeah, right now, Higo was going to watch Schalke’s main team playing, and it would be a lie if he said that he wasn’t curious here. Even though he tried to play it cool, his foot had been tapping the floor for so many times in the last couple of minutes, showing how uneasy he was right now.
"Your friends are still not here yet?" Ayaka asked, looking at her brother amusedly.
"No, and this is going to kill me..." Higo groaned, checking his watch once again. "Shall we go inside first? I mean, we have already had our own tickets from Fujita-san, right?"
Indeed, since the trial had already finished ahead of schedule, Fujita-san offered him to walk around the city at least until their departure day tomorrow. He also provided so many tickets to go to this city’s attractions to make sure he and Ayaka didn’t get bored, and the football game today was also one of them.
Fortunately, before Higo lost his patience, two men older than him finally appeared. The first one was local with long, blonde hair flowing past his broad shoulder, and the other one was a dark-skinned man with a Naruto jumper that looked like a sore thumb.
Those two were Fabian Reese and Randy Gyamenah, the two friends—at least, Higo believed so—that he made during the trial yesterday.
"Wait, you have been waiting here for a long time?" Fabian Reese asked in surprise.
"Of course, I have!" Higo huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "You said 4 in the evening, right?"
"Yeah, Four. I mean, what time is it now?" Fabian Reese sighed helplessly. "It is still 3:58, no need to get vexed over something like this. You need to learn how to be punctual, you know? Coming straight at the promised time, nothing more and nothing less."
Higo just felt the corner of his lips twitch a little, too speechless to say anything else here. How could it be his mistake somehow?
As for Randy Gyamenah, the Ghanaian striker was stunned at the sight of Ayaka for a second before he stuttered a little while introducing himself. "U-Um! K—Konnichiwa! The name is Randy! Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!" He introduced himself in the most awkward Japanese accent possible.
It was clear by now that the boy was an otaku through and through, and his knowledge about Japan should be coming from Anime he watched in the past. Not that Higo and Ayaka minded, though. In fact, after feeling amused for a second, those two shook their head quickly, not wanting to look like they were mocking Randy’s effort here.
"My name is Ayaka, and I am Ryukkun’s older sister. Please, take care of him in the future..." Ayaka bowed politely.
It seemed that this was the first time Randy got this dream treatment from a girl, and Higo swore he could see the man’s heart jumping out of the body just for a second. The Ghanaian striker clutched his heart for a second, whispering something not so low to Fabian Reese. "Fabian, I think I’m in love..."
Higo felt the corner of his lips twitching again when he overheard that, somehow muttering, "I sure have a goofball of a teammate, huh?"
Fortunately, Fabian Reese was just a normal German man with no peculiar behavior here. He introduced himself as Fabian, the team’s left winger, who was also 22 years old. Even though there was a hint of flirtatiousness in his tone, at least, the man was polite enough to keep his distance from Ayaka when Higo was there.
Right after this, they finally realized that they were in the middle of a crowd, so without hesitation, Fabian Reese pulled two jerseys out of nowhere and gave them to the siblings. "Come on! You need to change first! It will not be a complete experience if you haven’t supported Schalke without wearing the jersey!"
Well, they both accepted immediately, wearing the jersey straight away. Soon, they joined those two and walked to the VIP session, where they could see the whole stadium straight from their spot.
Higo had to admit, though, that for the first game to watch, he was completely impressed with the atmosphere. The loud noises were buzzing from all over the place, enough to pop his eardrums. Not only that, from his spot, he could also see the north stand where the ultras, the team’s hardcore fans, were standing.
They sang, they jumped, they cheered, they did everything to make sure that their presence could be felt by the players on the pitch. Hell, even when it was still the warm-up session, the noises kept buzzing, never getting stopped even for a single second.
"Awesome, right?" Fabian grinned widely at Higo’s awestruck expression. "This is just a normal game for us. If only you come for the Ruhr Derby against Dortmund, the atmosphere would be way more explosive than this."
Higo was completely dumbfounded. Even though he didn’t watch a lot of football growing up, he was still friends with Kumiko, and the boy basically knew what kind of atmosphere the game was back home. Compared to this, even the biggest fans in Japan sure seemed like a joke.
"Oh! The main players are out!" Soon enough, Randy’s voice snapped Higo from his own thought.
True enough, he could see the main team coming out of the tunnel. They all looked ready, and while their approach was quite casual, there was a hint of toughness in their eyes, as if they were ready to go to war.
Looking at the players on the pitch, both Randy and Fabian clenched their fists secretly; all the playfulness in their eyes earlier was gone.
"Next season..." Fabian muttered his vow, fire burning in his eyes. "Next season, I will never be here again, but I will be on the pitch, being watched by you lot in a crucial game like this. When that time comes, don’t forget to shout my name out loud, okay?"