Well, Higo’s fear was proven to be unnecessary. In the next few days, the training session went quite normally, and those who gave him side-eyes started to decrease little by little. A week after his first time joining the training session, only three or four players still maintained their hostility against Higo, and yet, they never dared to act in front of the coaching team.
Higo himself also started to forget about this matter, especially when he was able to integrate into the team well enough. While he was still closer to Fabian and Randy, the other players were also willing to stop and chat with him, showing that the boy was gradually accepted by the others.
It was already the second week in July, and the team also started to prepare for the new season. The new season would begin at the beginning of August, and before that, they still had two more pre-season games to warm them up. However, before that, the team gained another member, one that Higo was quite familiar with.
"This is Koki Morita, the World Cup U-20’s silver boot winner and the top assister in that tournament." Frohling introduced the boy to the team. "He will be working for the team for the first two months before being put on the first team, so take care of him, okay?"
Higo’s eyes beamed brightly as the friend he was waiting for finally arrived. Yeah, it was none other than Morita, the national team’s best player, who finally joined. Although the boy had already known about this, when he saw the person finally standing in front of him, he couldn’t help but feel excited.
’Shit! With him here, we are going to crush any competition outside!’
Morita also noticed Higo’s gaze, and the boy didn’t forget to wave at him secretly. Even though he didn’t show it, Higo knew that Morita should be quite nervous right now, what with him having just joined a foreign team for the first time in his life. Just like Higo, Morita was also relieved to see a familiar face in this foreign environment.
However, not everyone was excited to have Morita on the team. No, if anything, the hostility against him was stronger than when Higo joined the team for the first time. After all, the coach said that the boy would join the main team after two months, and this was enough to ignite jealousy among the players there.
It also didn’t help that, unlike Higo, Morita came here with broken and heavily accented English, and the boy didn’t know a single shit about German. This gave a bad impression to his teammates, which made things difficult for the boy to adapt.
’Yeah, fortunately, I followed Kumiko-chan’s instruction, or it would be me who got that scrutiny.’ Higo let out a relieved sigh.
Still, he was worried too much, because unlike him, Morita spoke the language everyone in the pitch knew the best, the football one. He didn’t need to try to impress the others outside, but the moment he was playing in the midfield, his ability was enough to put everyone in awe.
"Shit! Press him further! Don’t let him get away again!"
"Mike, what the fuck are you doing?!"
"Why would you blame me?! It is all Jonas’s fault!"
"Hey, you get fooled again by that Japan boy! Be careful!"
BAM!
It was another 5v5 training, and Morita had just sent a decisive assist to let his teammates score easily. Even if the boy had only played for 2 minutes, he had already provided a goal and an assist for his teammates. Not only that, but every time he touched the ball, it was as if he would turn it into gold, sending the most dangerous threat toward the opposite side.
Just in one session, he had already conquered the whole team, and no matter how unconvinced some of the guys were, they knew that Morita was several levels higher than any normal players here.
"Damn, Morita-san, you sure know how to impress here!" Higo couldn’t help but laugh after the training was over.
"No big deal, no big deal..." Morita tried to stay humble and downplay his achievement. However, it was clear by the smug smile on his face that he was happy with the result. "Anyway, I signed here to join the first team, and they just put me here to let me adapt to the intensity here. If I failed to show my dominance in the second team, I wouldn’t deserve to be in the first team at all."
Higo nodded along and could understand the boy’s situation a little bit better. He himself didn’t feel envious here, because the boy knew that in the first team, Alexander Nubel had just gained a strong foothold, so it was impossible for Higo to sneak in. It was better to stay in the second team for a while, accumulating experience to help him improve further.
’I am not in a rush, anyway. No need to think too far for now.’ He thought to himself.
It was the end of the training session, and everyone was back at home already, leaving both Morita and Higo alone in the training ground. Soon enough, they also left, walking back to their own residence. Coincidentally enough, Morita’s flat was just a few blocks away from Higo’s, at least three minutes walking from his spot, so they decided to go together for now.
"Still, once I can survive and thrive in the first team, I will have to buy a car on my own," Morita told Higo his plan. "It would be more convenient to use a car rather than just walking around like this. I mean, if your reputation grows further, you will find a lot of fans in the street, right?"
Higo nodded as well, remembering his experience facing the annoying neighbors back home. "Well, yeah, but I don’t think I need to worry about that for now. The first team is still far away from me, you know?"
"Yeah, but with your ability, you will be there sooner or later, right?" Morita stopped, offering a fist bump with a big grin on his face. "Go to the first team quickly, Higo! Let’s dominate the Bundesliga! With me!"