"See! Pretty!"
Y/N proudly displayed his drink. He'd replaced the gin with soda water, and the champagne topping with Coca-cola, laying the drink out with hibiscus flowers, cranberries, and lemon slices. "Compared to you lot, this looks better, no?"
He hadn't spoken much to the team - even though that was the sole reason for their visit. Y/N had made a beeline for a table, looked up a recipe, and completely ignoring what the session leader had to say, decided to make his own drink.
Sae sat nearby, watching him with drawn eyes. "Sure."
"You don't think so?" With a flourish of his hands, Y/N showed it off to Sae, smiling brightly.
"It's alright." It was actually pretty good. For someone who couldn't even drink, the mocktail looked well made. Sae didn't know about the taste, though... "Have you tried it?"
"I wanna take a photo first."
"Then do it."
"Can I use your phone? I forgot mine."
Sae groaned. "Sure." He passed his phone across, and Y/N snapped a few pictures of the sushi. The teenager tossed the phone back, and immediately grabbed his drink. He raised the drink to his lips, draining a good quarter of it in one go. Sae just sighed. "Is it good?"
"Pretty good." Y/N passed him the glass. "Try."
Sae hesitated. He glanced down at the liquid, but Y/N's expectant eyes eventually convinced him to take a sip. Y/N grinned. "How is it?"
Boy, was it bad. Sae choked on the sheer sweetness, and the sort of cloying, slightly off-putting taste of cheap soda water. He had no idea what Y/N had done to it, but it tasted like he'd added an entire pot of sugar. The taste of cranberry and lemon were completely lost in the sugar.
"You..." Sae placed the glass on the table, looking around for some water. "You said pretty good?!" It was the first time Y/N had seen him show surprise.
He immediately began laughing, scooping up his drink to have more of it. "It is, isn't it!" Y/N happily drank more, just the sight making Sae's mouth taste sweet.
"It tastes like... like...."
"Like what?"
"Like you dumped straight sweetener into my mouth." One of the Japanese U-20 members hurried over, passing Sae a bottle of water. He was relatively short, with spiked up blonde hair and a bright smile on his face.
"I'm Neru Teppei." He quickly greeted Sae as the prodigy gulped down water. "Is it really that bad? It looked pretty, so I thought it would taste nice too. I mean, isn't that how things work? Maybe not, actually."
The man spoke fast, like an excitable puppy. Sae leant back against the wall, already fed up with socialising. "Maybe."
"Oh, cool!" Neru spoke even faster. "Would Y/N let me? I heard you say his name before, is that right? It does look pretty sweet, though. But I like sweet, so it'll be fine. Except, if you didn't like it, maybe it's not for me. But I guess we have different tastes anyway!"
Sae met Y/N's eyes, and gestured for him to give Neru the drink. He mouthed, silently communicating. Please shut him up.
Y/N did as he was asked, passing Neru the drink. The hyperactive man drank a little... then upturned the glass and drained the entire thing, finishing with a little burp. He grinned, and before Sae could excuse himself, began talking even faster.
Sae leant his head back against the wall, already wishing he wasn't here. I could be training right now... I could be on a run right now...
🥕🥕🥕
Most of the team had had a few drinks already, and as they were all responsible, clever adults, they all collectively decided to head to a restaurant, and have some dinner. And also drink much, much more.
It was a fancy restaurant, with them having taken a small room for them only. Everyone sat around a large round table, platters of food in front of them as they talked, laughed, and generally had a great time. Y/N sat with Sae on one side and Aiku on the other, making small talk with Aiku while Sae just listened.
They were the centre of the attention at the meal, with everyone wanting to talk to them. There were plenty of people to talk to, but people kept walking over to make conversation with Y/N.
"So, you're a striker?" Sendou Shuto, the U-20 striker, seemed interested. "I was told you're fast, though. And you look like a winger."
Y/N huffed. "What does a winger look like?"
"Like... Neru, sort of. Or Cho." He pointed out a few people around the table. "Not as strong or well built as a striker."
"I can score goals without being a meathead, thank you."
"But it's difficult, right?" Oblivious to the growing annoyance in Y/N's eyes, Sendou posed, showing off a bicep. He grinned. "You should do more training, lift more weights. Then you'll be able to score more goals! Take it from me, I know what I'm doing."
Y/N shared a look of disbelief with Sae. Sae rolled his eyes, before speaking up. "You don't know what you're doing, at all."
"W-what?!" Caught off guard, Sendou spluttered. "You can't talk, you're not even a striker! What do you know about scoring goals?"
Sae raised an eyebrow, cool, calm, and collected. "If Y/N focused on building muscle, he would lose out on his agility, fluidity, and speed. This would lower his effectiveness to get past defenders, and therefore result in many less goals. You talk like you're so good, but if Y/N followed your advice, he would be much, much worse."
Sendou flushed red with indigence. "Excuse me?! What right do you have- I'm just being helpful-"
"You're excused." Sae dully said. He leant back in his chair, and made a flapping motion with his hand. "Now get out of here."
Sendou seethed. Aiku wandered over, a casual smile as he tossed an arm around Sendou's shoulders. "Let's get you a drink, yeah? Don't start trouble with the little prodigies." He dragged Sendou off.
The other members of the team were more respectful, and nicer. Two guys introduced themselves as Hayate and Wakatsuki, both of them sporting huge shadows under their eyes and crazy, messy hair. They spoke mostly to Sae, talking about the upcoming game. Neither of them seemed to take it seriously.
"So, Sae picked you up to play with us?"
"Yep."
"You must be pretty good then, if Sae wanted you. I'll look forward to seeing you play... if Aiku lets it happen."
"He'd better. There's no way I'm not playing."
"We'll see."
One man, who was probably the only fully sober member of the team, approached Y/N after. He was the one who had ordered the dinner, and shook his hand as a greeting. "I'm Gen Fukaku, nice to meet you."
"You too." Y/N looked up at the serious, smart man.
"I just had one question. I won't keep you from your food."
"Ask away."
"How have you remained unknown for so long?" The man's sudden question caught Y/N completely off guard. This was supposed to be a casual meeting, and he was asking questions like that? "I did some research into you when I got wind you were joining us."
"Ah..." Y/N thought. He just hadn't joined many clubs, that was it. He'd played in a bunch of matches, but always gave fake names, and never returned to the same place more than once. "I guess I just haven't played much."
"Then how did you get invited to Bluelock?" Gen asked. "I thought it was only for three hundred people, out of the thousands of players in this country."
"Not all of them are strikers." Y/N pointed out. "And, they just probably found me..."
How had they found him?
Y/N's mouth went dry. How... had they found him? He'd realised it was odd when he'd first joined Bluelock, what felt like an age ago, but he hadn't given it much thought. How had they found out who he was?
He'd never told anyone his real name. He'd never registered himself in a soccer club. He wasn't on social media, unless Youtube counted. He wasn't the kind of person whose information was all online. In fact, he hadn't even registered in school with his real name. His parents had done it all for him, claiming it would 'be better if you had no links to us'.
Y/N knew what they meant. It would be better if people didn't know you existed.
He blinked. That doesn't matter. What matters is figuring out how they knew to invite me. Maybe a school friend figured out I was good at soccer? But I've never shown off to them. And if my parents made me register in school with a fake name, they'd have taken the care to give me a fake name everywhere else.
The only way the JFU could've known who I was...
"Hello? Are you alive?" Gen waved a hand in front of Y/N's face. "Spacing out there."
Y/N blinked again, and smiled. "Ah, sorry. Just... thinking. I probably just got lucky, they probably saw a match of mine somewhere."
"Alright. Thank you." The man walked off, and Y/N's head dropped. He stared at his hands, cradled in his lap. Both of them were shaking ever so slightly.
Because the only people who would've known to invite him were the ones in Ascension.
He should've expected it, when he'd met with Kuroi. But at the same time, he didn't want to believe it. Kuroi told Ego Jinpachi to invite him? How? When? And the most scary question to Y/N - Why?
They're probably just friends, right? Two psychopaths. He reasoned. Maybe it just came up in conversation, or maybe it was just Ego that invited me. Maybe he already knew about Ascension.
Then how did Kuroi know I was there?
Did he really... put me in Bluelock?
Why does he want me there?
How did he do it?
Y/N's hands shook even more. He grabbed onto his trousers to steady them, keeping his head low. Thankfully, nobody was paying much attention to him. He didn't notice Sae's mildly concerned look.
How is he everywhere?
Why is he still manipulating me, after years?
Why can't I escape him?
Y/N wished he had answers.