It was now 11:00 AM.
Practice went by painfully slow, Bellingham would be lying if he said he had his head in the game. He really wanted it to end.
The team's coach shouted, signaling they were done for today.
"Go show him what you're made of. He's not that scary. Only 6'4." Gio patted him on the back.
"I got this in the bag, no big deal." Bellingham said, confidently.
Gio gave Bellingham a thumbs up and they parted ways.
It was time to face the man himself again.
He swiftly made his was through the building, not letting anything distract him, only stopping by the locker room to take a shower.
He sloppily packed his stuff, probably leaving a few things behind (hopefully not his shoes), but he didn't care much right now. He had something else to worry about.
He burst throught the door. At this point, he's taken up a lot of time. He sprinted towards the exit. Turns out Haaland wasn't in a rush. He ended up waiting about 5 minutes for him to show up.
"I didn't think you'd be ready this quick. Sorry for the wait." Haaland apologised, again.
"It's good, I just arrived myself."
"In that case.."
"...I've got a place in mind. Are you ready to go?" Haaland continued.
At this point, he could take him to a back alley and stab him and Bellingham wouldn't care. He was ecstatic.
"Yeah, we can go now."
Haaland headed towards his car, Bellingham following close behind.
They got in the car.
"Switch through the stations, find a song you like. The place is a 30 minute drive from here." Haaland said, turning on his car.
"Lucky for you, I've got great taste in music. You won't be bored." He said, already mashing every button of the radio.
Haaland was intrigued. "I'll be the judge."
Bellingham was searching for a good 2 minutes or so, finally finding something .. interesting.
"Listen to this one. It will blow your mind." Bellingham said, bringing the volume up so high the car started vibrating.
"What is it?" Haaland turned his head to see what he turned on.
"Wait for the beat drop."
Michael White - Got You [NCS Release]
0:59
Haaland choked. "What the fuck is this?"
"Fire." Bellingham said, struggling to control his laughter.
"Change it! It is horrible." Haaland turned off the radio.
"Next one will be better, I promise. Trust."
He was not to be trusted. The radio only played bad NCS songs. Jude refused to change the station.
"This is traumatizing." Haaland was baffled.
"Next one's the last one, I promise. This one is special."
Haaland glared at him.
Razihel - Love U [NCS Release]
Bellingham knew this one by heart. He started throwing his hands in the air, feeling the God-awful beat.
"I will crash the car. This will be the last thing you listen to, I'm serious."
Bellingham kept singing to the lyricless song. Gibberish was his forte.
Luckily for Haaland, they were reaching their destination. No more DJ Bellingham.
Haaland parked his car near the entrance. They both put on masks and caps before exiting the car.
Bellingham stopped for a moment to look at the restaurant. "Kebab?"
"What else?"
They hurried over to the restaurant, it was pretty empty so they could sit wherever they wanted.
"Let's sit here. It's secluded enough." Haaland said, taking off his mask.
"Sounds good."
They orderer their food. They turned back to their conversation.
"Is anyone with you in Dortmund? Family?"
"My mum. My brother is in Birmingham, dad is with him there."
Haaland nodded. "Does your brother play football?"
Bellingham confirmed. "Birmingham, under 18s. He's not going anywhere yet."
"We hear from each other daily."
"I see. You got anyone else in Dortmund?" Haaland asked.
Bellingham scratched the back of his neck. "Aside from the team, no. Not really. I used to have a girlfriend but we broke up recently."
Haaland cringed. "Sorry to hear it."
"It's fine, we didn't last too long."
Bellingham didn't want to linger on this topic anymore, the break up was still somewhat fresh.
"What's your story?"
After a long pause, Haaland answered. "I'm just kind of here, really."
"Really? Nothing to it?" Bellingham didn't expect this answer. He thought there would be a greater story to this legend.
Haaland shrugged. "That's about it."
Bellingham wanted to ask Haaland something, but got distracted when he saw the waiter coming with two king sized meals.
"Is all of that just for us?" Bellingham was stunned.
"Yeah, small bite." Haaland grinned.
Bellingham was at a loss of words.
"Bon appetit." Erling was already digging in.
Jude was hungry, but not this hungry. Nevertheless, he joined his friend in this abundant brunch.
***
Halfway through, Bellingham gave up on eating. Haaland ended up finishing both his and Bellingham's meal.
"We can get something else if you're hungry." Haaland offered.
"You're mad." Bellingham was convinced that if he ate anything else, he would explode.
Haaland laughed. "I am only joking. We can leave or stay for a little longer, whatever you want."
"I think we're done here, we can leave."
Haaland agreed.
They headed back towards Haaland's car.
"Don't hold it against me if I vomit." Bellingham said, in a serious tone.
"I'll let you play music again, if that makes you feel any better." Haaland said after much hesitation.
Bellingham already felt miles better.
Once they were sat, Jude switched through the stations once more.
After some searching, a familiar song played.
"Aah, Jobe likes this song. Takes me back." Bellingham reminisced.
Haaland analyzed Bellingham's feautures for a moment. "You guys look alike. You could almost pass off as twins if he looked a little bit older."
Bellingham laughed. "It's not like we're brothers or anything."
"No, like seriously. He looks just like you."
"I've never gotten that before, really revolutionary." Bellingham was aggressively sarcastic.
"Almost as handsome as his brother, he is."
Bellingham gave him a side eye.
"Oh wow."
How do you respond to that? It was out of the blue. Getting compliments like these wasn't new to him, but it was weird hearing it from Haaland. He felt highly important getting such praise.
He continued switching the stations, with a goofy smile on his face that wasn't fading any time soon.