Game Changer | Petalz 🌸🍃

Chapter IX

Let's win the World Cup together.

"Is that even possible?" Sakura mutters to herself, lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling.

The Blue Lock manga she has been reading, now lies abandoned beside her. She found it impossible to follow the action packed panels when all she's thinking about is the promise she made to Kazuha yesterday, and how she is supposed to keep it. Or is it even worth keeping? Has she made another reckless decision? Only this time, she couldn't blame it on Yunjin.

It's not unheard of that both starting strikers on the national squad come from the same club, but it's also not something common. Or easy to achieve, for that matter. Not only she and Kazuha have to play exceptionally well as individual players, but more importantly, they have to prove that together they make an unmatched combination, that making them play beside someone else is an objectively worse decision to make.

And yet, somehow, perhaps thanks to her overactive imagination, Sakura can picture her and Kazuha as an unstoppable duo that defenders across all teams fear to face. Sure, yesterday's awful game was a far cry from such a scenario, but when she began analyzing it and comparing it to their match with Juventus, she realized something that should have been obvious to her all along, namely, that she and Kazuha play the best when they play together.

Because Sakura plays with her head, analyzes the situation on the field and knows exactly what to do with the ball to create scoring opportunities which other players would have never even thought of. Meanwhile, Kazuha plays with her heart; she trusts her instincts, never hesitates and readily adapts to whatever plan Sakura devises. And yesterday, it was as though they switched bodies - Sakura got carried away by her emotions while Kazuha kept overthinking her every move.

Like their coach had said, they have to start playing the way they do during their training scrimmages. When Sakura passes the ball without even checking if Kazuha is there to take it, because she simply knows she will be. It's like she trusts Kazuha to always be where she needs her to be, and Kazuha is always there, without fail.

A slight blush creeps onto her cheeks at that last thought.

"Ahh," she groans, throwing arms over her face. "Since when I've become so corny?"

Since you made a pinky promise with Kazuha to win a World Cup with her? Once again she groans, embarrassed.

She has no idea what possessed her to wrap their pinkies together. It was ridiculous and childish and yet... it felt like the only sensible thing to do.

Also, Kazuha hasn't exactly made it easy for her to say no. She has mastered the sad puppy look to perfection (no wonder, considering she has been practicing it since she was three), and Sakura is not in fact as cold-hearted as some of her friends make her out to be. She wouldn't have stand another week, or God knows how long, of Kazuha looking at her like she took away her ball and left her crying on the pavement. She still feels like an asshole for treating the girl the way she did for the past week, and that's despite being granted her forgiveness.

But regardless of why she did it, the result stood the same; the promise she gave her dad has now gained a disclaimer written at the bottom of it in fine print so that he would never notice it. Because if he ever found out, he would laugh in her face, saying something along the lines of 'you're naive if you think both of you can end up on the starting eleven', and it would have been their last conversation, most likely. But for the first time in her life, she feels like he would have been wrong.

She has never really been one to argue with him or question his methods. With over 80 appearances in the national team and 39 goals scored, he was her absolute authority when it came to soccer. And yet, for whatever reason, he seemed blind to how well she and Kazuha work together and insisted she treated the girl like she was her biggest obstacle on her way to winning the World Cup title. However, as shown by the recent results, that wasn't his best advice. If Sakura hadn't played so selfishly, like he had wanted her to, that game would have probably had a much better outcome than a measly 1:0 victory.