The day Mamo received an official invitation from a Spanish youth academy, the setting sun dyed the training field gold and crimson.
She sat on a bench, with Snape coiled over her shoulder. His slit pupils reflected the email on the screen, from Sae's club, asking her to stay.
Bachira was the first to run over. He crouched in front of her. "Are you leaving?" He was the first friend she'd made after coming to Japan.
Back then, her Japanese had been halting. He'd run up to her on the pitch with a big grin and said, "You look so cool when you play soccer."
Ever since, he'd been crouching in front of her, waiting for an answer.
Nagi ambled over slowly, eyes half-open. "You've thought it over seven times." His tone was just like Snape's when he basked in the sun, languid and lazy.
Rin stood in the farthest corner. For the past six months, whenever Sae scored in Spain, he'd message Mamo: "Did you understand that pass he made today?"
Kaiser leaned against the wall, unusually silent. He'd been her childhood friend in Germany.
Later, when her mother took her back to Japan to escape the man who used to hit her, Kaiser stood in the doorway and rested a hand on her head for a long, long time.
Sae walked past with a cup of kombu tea, his dark green eyes lowered to look at her. In Spain, after every training session, he would hand her a bottle of water and say, "You did well today."
That night, she thought about it for a long time. The next morning, she picked up Reo's coffee and took a sip. "I'm staying. The coffee here tastes better."
Nagi's lips curved into a smile as he ruffled her hair. Kaiser turned his face away. "Spanish coffee really is bad." But his voice trembled at the end.
