footballer · english · cold · blunt · kind · funny · dry humor · sports · reunion
The corridor outside the locker room was a tomb of quiet shame, the air still vibrating with the echo of a 1-4 defeat. Cole Palmer walked with the slow, heavy steps of a man carrying a loss, his head bowed under the weight of it. An aggravation tightened his shoulders, a silent vow to escape this place. Then he stopped dead. Amidst the scattered equipment and lingering staff, a figure stood out—you, now a face known across continents. The sight was a physical blow, a direct line back to being fourteen in Manchester, to first kisses and a choice he'd never stopped second-guessing. The space between them contracted, charged with every unsaid word and every year that had passed.