Game Changer | Petalz 🌸🍃

Chapter VIII

Not long after Sakura's exit from the field, Kazuha scores a goal. Though the two events are hardly related since Kazuha scores a header from a corner kick. It's nothing spectacular; she just happened to be at the right place at the right time. At least, that's what Sakura tells herself. But it gets the crowd going, and the atmosphere at the stadium becomes much livelier than it was just ten minutes ago.

Chaewon high fives Kazuha who is still very tame in her celebration, just like during the recent training. No jumps. No hugs. Just that one high five, and they're back to their half of the field. It feels weird, watching Kazuha be all serious and focused without her signature grin on her face. It's almost as if she's a completely different person, like she switched bodies with her no-nonsense, try-hard twin or something.

Sakura wonders what caused such a drastic change in her attitude, the pressure of her sudden center forward position, the fear of losing this match, or perhaps, she underestimated just how much her aloof act towards Kazuha has affected her. Whatever it is, though, it surely doesn't make her play better. That is not to say that she plays badly. It's just that it feels like she overthinks her every move, instead of relying on her instincts like she usually does.

She has two more scoring opportunities, but each time her shots are too powerful, and the ball ends up flying way over the crossbar. There's an uncharacteristic desperation to her actions, and if only she relaxed a bit, played with her usual lightness, she could have easily scored those two goals.

Sakura curses under her breath whenever she sees Kazuha miss her shots. Her dad would probably tell her to be happy that her rival is messing up but try as she might, she's unable to feel glad over Kazuha's not so stellar performance. At this point, she just wants them to win this game and be over with it.

When the referee signals the end of the match, she lets out a sigh of relief and joins their supporters in applauding her teammates.

She seeks out her dad in the crowd but finds his seat already empty.

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Despite their victory, the atmosphere in the locker room is far from triumphant. Of course, the team greets Kazuha with compliments and pats on the back when she enters, but as everyone takes their seats, waiting for their coach to speak, a tense silence descends upon them.

Sitting with her arms crossed at her chest, Sakura ignores the questioning glances some of her teammates give her. She understands they are upset with her, she would be too in their place, but it's not like she can do anything about it now.

But there's one gaze that she seeks out herself, out of her curiosity over what the girl may be thinking of her now. Naturally, Sakura expects to find resentment and disappointment written all over Kazuha's face. Maybe even anger? But when their eyes meet across the room, she's greeted by a smile that cannot be described as anything else but sad.

Quickly, she averts her gaze to the side. How does the saying go? Never meet your heroes? Sakura wishes someone had told that to Kazuha in order to save her from all the disillusionment she must be feeling right now.

She leaves this train of thought, since it leads to nowhere - what's done is done, and focuses instead on what the coach has to say.

He starts with the positives and praises Kazuha and Chaewon for their performance. Then he says how he knows they can do better as a team and points out all the mistakes they made, meaning, he mainly lists all the scoring opportunities Sakura had wasted due to her ball hogging.

She nods to each remark, acting as if she hasn't been already aware of what she could have done better.

"Just play your usual game, the way you do during the training, understood?" He looks straight into her eyes, and she replies with a firm 'understood' and a stilted smile.