Metanoia

7

There were a lot of things you were anticipating when you first came to this internship.

Like the ogling stares the men at work would give you, ones that always settled deep into your bones and chilled your body, as if they were a pride of lions eyeing the only gazelle in the savannah, licking their canines while waiting to pounce on her .

Or the crappy bathrooms you'd have to clean, since that was all silly, little you could handle, as if being a woman just meant that you were inherently dumber, weaker and more pathetic than a man. You were opted best for the menial tasks, because using your tiny, little brain would be too much for a woman like you.

But it was fine, right?

You had already told yourself that this was all part of the package deal when you first applied to these internships. You had already anticipated this all.

In a way, you could say that you had mentally prepared yourself for the absolute worst to come (excluding Anri's absence... that was a nightmare) and surely there was nothing that you weren't ready for.

This, however, was certainly not one of them.

Standing quietly in the field, with the setting sun bleeding out orange and red, spilling its light all over the darkening sky for the last time that day.

However, your gaze was stuck solely on the boy shooting ball after ball into the net. His team had long gone to rest for the day, and with how big of a day it was for them tomorrow, they needed all the rest they could get.

The entire training field was empty, save for one, single man.

Itoshi Rin.

The younger brother of Itoshi Sae, and the future ace of Japan's National Team.

The last time you had the fortune of meeting Itoshi Rin in your last life, he did not sport that calm of a look on his face. If anything, every time you had seen the younger Itoshi–either in a picture or in real life–he was always donning that mean mug on his face, even if he was simply resting.

In fact, you were almost convinced that with how he was always frowning, his facial muscles had probably gotten stuck that way.

But the Rin that was standing just a few feet across from you was far from his usual mean glares and annoyed scowls.

Rin's eyes were so wide and full of life right now, focusing on nothing but the ball under his foot, that it was difficult to think that this was the same man who had glared daggers at Sae when they played against each other in the last World Cup.

He was still just as quiet as you remembered him, though. But he didn't nearly have as intimidating of a presence as he did in the future.

You wondered what kind of misery he must have gone through for him to have changed so much.

Now that you thought about it, this was probably the second time you had actually interacted with the ravenette boy. The last time you had talked to him was during your last World Cup, and even that was a brief conversation.

Thanks to Noel Noa being next to you, he didn't insult you or spit curses at you as much as you had expected (it wasn't as if you would have actually put up with his rude attitude even if Noa wasn't there ) but that was about it.

Well, it didn't bother you that much. Despite it being your job, you were never the most keen on getting the younger Itoshi in Re Al in the first place. While yes, he was a good player, but his playstyle would have clashed dangerously with the rest of your team members.