Chapter 201 Sadness
The moon, a silver crescent, casted a soft glow upon the landscape, illuminating the world below in a spellbinding dance of light and shadow.
Under the moonlight, the once lively pitch was now as silent as a grave. And only the rustling sound of wind could be heard in the once lively pitch.
However the same couldn't be said to the two-storey building which was a little far from the pitch where Hiro and his teammates played a match some moments ago.
Bustling with the chatters and noise of utensils clashing against the furnitures, players were gathered in the cafeteria to have their dinner.
While some had already gotten their dinner, some were standing in the queue to get their dinner.
The food was being served according to the ranking of the players which meant the lower the number, the faster they could get their dinner.
While some were cheerful, some were depressed, some annoyed, some indignant and some indifferent.
In that spacious cafeteria, different emotions were clashing against each other just like different colours mixing together to form a marvelous painting.
"We won the game today and I even scored a goal today. I'm sure I'm gonna be rated highly in today's match. I just can't wait to wear jersey with improved number tomorrow." Excitedly spoke one of the player while flinging his chopsticks.
"Yeah we won the game today. So our rankings should change."
"But what happened to team 1? They had drawn the most fearsome team today."
"I heard that they lost the game."
"Well it's no surprise that they lost the game. Afterall they were up against U-23 team."
"So does that mean his ranking will fall down?"
Such were the talks going on between the players. Everybody were discussing about the earlier match.
Those who had won their match were pretty excited about the ranking announcement which was going to be held tomorrow morning.
However those who had lost the match had a dark face. As if dark clouds were looming over their head, their face looked pretty gloomy.
Sitting at the corner of the cafeteria, Hiro was looking quite lost. In a state of trance, Hiro was blankly staring at the food infront of him.
Although his eyes were looking at the food placed infront of him, his thoughts seemed like it was drifting somewhere else.
Same was the situation with Shun who was sitting infront of him. As if he was dead inside, there was no spark in his eyes and his eyes looked completely dull and lifeless.
Some part of his face looked swollen and quite a few blue and red marks could be seen on his handsome face.
Clearly he had suffered a lot in today's match. While the players infront didn't have to make use of all their body parts, he had to use every part of his body to make the saves.
Diving countless times to make countless saves, he had saved 18 important shots in today's match.
Grabbing onto his chopsticks, he was thinking about the earlier match.
Especially the moment when he conceded the goal in 90th minute which cost them the match.
Even that winning goal in the 90th minute, he conceded it purely because of his fatigue and exhaustion. Making countless saves in the match, he was so worn out that it was even a miracle that he was able to stand properly till the final whistle.
That tragic scene was replaying repeatedly inside his head to the point, he wasn't even able to react now.
After equalising the game in the 79th minute of the match with Hiro's third goal, they tightened their defence.
They were determined to draw the game at the least. And everything seemed like it was going well as well. However at the last minute of the match, Tatsuki scored an incredible goal and won the match for his team.
Slurp!! Slurp!!
Just then while thinking about the match, a slurping sound coming from beside them woke them up from their reverie.
Awakening from their reverie, those two looked towards the direction where the slurping sound was coming from.
Just as they turned their gaze towards the direction where the sound was coming from, they found Yutaka gulping the soup while making loud slurping noise.
Unaware about the gaze from the two people seated beside him, Yutaka continued to drink his soup, totally unbothered.
While putting down the bowl, as he accidentally turned towards the direction of Hiro, Yutaka finally noticed the gaze which were focused on him.
Meekly Yutaka then turned towards Shun.
Noticing their gazes, he realised how carefree he was being right now. Even though he was at a much worst situation than the two of them before in the match, currently he was acting so carefree.
As if the lost in the earlier match didn't bother him in the slightest, he was happily having his dinner while his friends were still depressed about the match.
He wasn't the type of player who would think about the lost he incurred for a long time. He was just the type of person who would just become sad for a while then forget about the loss and go on living his normal life.
He didn't give a shit about improving after incurring failure. And that was probably one of the reason why he wasn't being able to live upto his potential and also probably the main reason behind his weak mentality.
He was simply too carefree.
However Hiro and Shun were different. After incurring a loss, they weren't the type of player to forget their losses so easily.
Even until now, they were depressed about the loss. And even now, those two were analysing what went wrong.
They were the type of players who liked to learn from their failures. But they were also the type of players who hated losing more than anything else.
Even in Hiro's previous life when he was a nobody, he was the same. He hated losing more than anything else.
But that was also one of the reason which took his life. He took losses so personally that when he found out that he couldn't play anymore, he even forfeited his life.
Yeah his mentality was that of a loser. But his passion for football, it was all genuine. He loved football even more than his own life.
Now in this life after suffering such a defeat despite attaining the best possible talent, it was only natural for him to be upset.
Afterall he had given his all in today's match. He had tried so hard yet he lost the game with a score of 4:3.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢