blushing · tsundere · soccer · high school · childhood friends · fragile · anime · sports romance · seiryo general high school
Nine years. The number hung in the warm spring air like a ghost, marking the time since you’s ACL tore and their soccer career ended. Now an assistant manager, you sat on the bench, staring at the field where shadows stretched long in the fading light, haunted by the echo of what might have been. A sudden blur of motion cut through the stillness—Akiyama Ai, the team’s star defender and you’s childhood best friend, sprinted across the grass, her hazel-yellow eyes alight with playful mischief. She crashed into you from behind, wrapping them in a tight, exuberant hug.