"Yo, Yamane! How are you doing?!" Kawabe barged into the hospital room where Miki Yamane stayed quite rudely, not even paying attention to the men around. "Has the result come out already?" He asked, his tone full of concern.
It was after the game was over, and after they were done with all the formalities, the players didn’t go back immediately, but went straight to the hospital where Miki Yamane was sent earlier. They were all so worried right now, as the team was in a real crisis in the defensive line. Even though Kawabe didn’t show it, the boy also felt quite nervous, praying inwardly that nothing went wrong with his friend.
Instead of getting an immediate answer, though, the boy got a hard slap on the back from his childhood friend.
"Mind your voice, please. This is a hospital, not your backyard." Sakura Aizawa let out a deep, tired sigh. Then, she grabbed the boy’s hair, pulling it hard to force him to bow. "Sorry, Sensei, his rudeness is always uncontrollable." She bowed as well to the head coach there.
"Ouch! What the hell, Woman! Let go of me!" Kawabe struggled to dodge the girl.
The players just felt the corner of their lips twitching madly, with some feeling so envious of the boy. ’How can such an insensitive brat like him bag a beauty like Aizawa-san?! A childhood sweetheart relationship is so fucking unfair!’ They cried inwardly.
Kageyama-sensei and Ogai-sensei, who sat next to Miki Yamane’s crib, just laughed at their antics. Based on their casual expression, though, the players couldn’t help but feel hopeful right now.
"So, how is it, Miki?" Ito asked, still not having taken off his head protector.
To everyone’s relief, the boy smiled brightly, which was a good sign in this situation. "Everything is okay. That tackle hit my shinpad, and it reduced the impact for me. My fall was also controllable, and my luck is still great. In the end, besides looking scary, nothing bad really happens, and I will be able to play in the final."
The good news sent a wave of relief upon everyone.
"Damn, Yamane-san, you scared us to death!" Naoya let out a relieved sigh while also taking a seat next to the crib. "You don’t know, but Kumiko-san didn’t even let us greet the supporters! She apologized to them directly and said that we wanted to check on you first, you know?"
Miki Yamane was surprised for a moment, and his gaze turned to the girl who took over the game today. Not just him, but Ogai-sensei and Kageyama-sensei also reacted the same. The girl flustered for a moment, but she just said, "What? It is normal to be concerned about our friend, right?"
The full back’s gaze softened instantly as he nodded, "Yeah, thank you for the concern, Shishida-san."
The atmosphere was quite weird at that moment, with an awkward silence descending on the room. In the end, Morita couldn’t bear it anymore, and the vice-captain decided to report the game result today. "We won against France 3-0, and next Saturday, we will play in the final of the World Cup U-20. Any idea who we are going to face?"
The boys straightened their backs immediately, and somehow, instead of turning to Kageyama-sensei, who was the real head coach, their gaze went to Kumiko, wondering whether she had an idea or not. Well, this was quite an understandable reaction, as Kumiko had just led the team into a convincing win against one of the best teams in the world right now.
Still, Kumiko herself looked quite helpless right now. She glanced at Kageyama-sensei for a moment, trying to confirm whether it was okay for her to take over. Fortunately, the man didn’t mind about it at all.
"Well, the next semifinal will be played tomorrow between Italy and Ukraine, so there will be a chance that we have a rematch against our group leader."
This brought the boys’ memories back to the very first day of the tournament, when they were still nervous at the thought of facing such a big country like Italy. At that time, they played quite passively, going into a cocoon mode after scoring the goal. They managed to do well even against some of the referee’s controversial decisions, only to get a draw after Kobayashi’s mistake in the last minute.
Now, though, they were not the same team anymore. Gone was their inferiority complex, getting replaced by one thing that Kumiko instilled before the game today.
They were a strong team.
It also helped that they had just humiliated France, the biggest country in football right now, so the mere thought of facing Italy in the final couldn’t scare them anymore. If anything, now, they couldn’t wait any longer, wanting to repay the favor in the first game tenfold.
"So, we are going to face our group leader, huh?" Kawabe asked, cracking his knuckles casually. Well, this little gesture was what made him look fiercer, enough to make the other boys back down in fear. "This is going to be interesting... Without the referee’s help, I wonder what they can do in the final later..."
"Yeah, and I still owe that bastard, Sebastiano Esposito, for dribbling past me. At least, I have to send a big tackle to him." Naoya grinned maliciously, as if he was ready to fight.
The rest were also in the same state, starting to think of every moment in the game against Italy in the past and how they would change it in the next game. Somehow, they all were so pumped up out of nowhere, making Kumiko, who watched it, have a big sweat drop on her face.
"Um... Sorry to burst your bubble, but you might be disappointed here." She said, breaking the awkward silence there.
"Eh?" Some of the boys blinked in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
"Uh... I don’t want you to waste your time thinking too much about Team Italy, because if my guess is right, they wouldn’t be able to get through the semifinal. No, what you have to prepare is Ukraine, because they are a clearly stronger team in this tournament."