Finally, the day of the match arrived.
Putting on his favorite jersey, he arrived at the venue alongside his parents. The stadium was buzzing with the cheers of the excited fans and the air around the stadium was electric with excitent.
As they approached the venue, Kota's excitent grew. The crowd was a sea of team colors, with people of all ages sporting jerseys of their favorite players.
But he was the only one dressed in a youth jersey. However, it didn't make much difference since both the jerseys for the senior team and the youth team were almost identical.
And if not for the sponsor part, one could hardly differentiate those two.
"Mom, can we visit the rchandise store first?" Kota asked, pointing eagerly at a stall selling the club's gear.
Though he already had Hiro's jersey, still he wanted to get his hands on those of the senior team instead of the youth team.
His mother smiled warmly and nodded, "Sure, let's go."
Since it was a ho ga, the stadium was fairly crowded, though not as packed as during derby matches. Still, there were plenty of people around, creating a lively atmosphere.
Squeezing his way, he arrived at the stall. Excitent flashed past his eyes as he reached the rchandise stall. He then began searching for Hiro's jersey, but as he rummaged through the piles, his excitent turned into disappointnt.
Unable to find what he was looking for, he approached the shopkeeper, a rather old man with kempt hair, who was busy attending to other fans.
"Sir, I can't find any jersey with Hiro's na on it," Kota said, his voice tinged with frustration and disappointnt.
The shopkeeper looked at him, a bit surprised. "Hiro? You an Takahashi Hiro?"
Kota nodded enthusiastically.
The shopkeeper sighed and spoke while shaking his head. "Little guy, he plays for the youth team, and we don't sell youth team rchandise here."
No sooner had he finished his sentence, than Kota blurted out, "But he's playing today!"
He knew that Hiro was playing today with certainty. He had even received a ticket personally from Hiro. So, how could he tell that he wasn't going to play today? No matter what, he wasn't going to take no for an answer.
As he blurted out a murmur spread through the nearby crowd.
"What's that little kid talking about?" soone asked.
"Takahashi Hiro is making his debut in today's match?" another echoed, sounding intrigued.
"But I didn't hear any announcent," a fan nearby said, frowning in confusion.
Kota's words stirred a buzz of gossip. Though many recognized Hiro's na, few had heard of his debut. The excitent in the crowd grew as they began to discuss Hiro's unexpected debut, speculating about his performance.
Even though it was a word coming out of a kid's mouth, they were intrigued to hear that Hiro was making his debut. Well, why wouldn't they be intrigued? After all, he was the wunderkind they all wanted to see in the pro league, so eagerly.
For a while, his statent generated quite a lot of stir. But after a while, they all laughed it off as they thought of it as nothing but a kid's fantasy. Even with Kota's seriousness, they couldn't take his word seriously.
"Just like you, we too wanted to see his debut. But it's not gonna happen today kid," one of the fans spoke as he denied Kota's claims.
Then another chid in, "Yeah, the club would have made the announcent, if he were to debut"
And soon everybody discarded his claims as a joke.
Furrowing his brows, Kota tried to defend himself as he started throwing a tantrum, "He's going to play today"
But still, no one took him seriously. Instead, many of them laughed at him and ridiculed him. While many replied considerately as they tried to soothe him.
'Is Hiro really not playing today? But, I've personally read his letter. So, it shouldn't be the case. Then it ans that his debut was kept secret' Kota's mother tried to figure out the situation.
She knew the truth. Yet, she chose not to argue with those who laughed at her son. It wasn't worth arguing with them. So, she turned to her son.
Looking at him with eyes full of support, she tried to console him, "Kota, don't be sad. They just don't know about it because unlike us Hiro hadn't personally sent them the tickets. They'll know about it once they see him"
Her words had a magical effect on him as they imdiately made him feel better.
They then made their way to their seats. The stadium's energy was palpable even when the players were yet to make their appearance. While making their way to their seats, many gave them a strange look.
While so gossiped and laughed about him behind his back, "Look it's that strange kid who said that Hiro was debuting today"
No matter where you go, you'll always find so toxic people. And it wasn't any different in the stadium either. There were quite a few toxic people present in the stands.
But his mother didn't allow their negativity to get on him.
And finally, after walking for a while, they arrived at their seat. It was quite near to the pitch. And the view from there was one of the best in the entire field.
Looking at the pitch in front, his heart pounded with excitent. It wasn't his first ti watching a football match in a stadium. Yet, he couldn't stop feeling excited about this match.
Then after a while, starting players erged out of the tunnel. Kota excitedly looked at the players erging out of the tunnel, his eyes desperately searching for Hiro.
But, he couldn't find him in the starting lineup.
This greatly disappointed him. And many people even ridiculed him for his earlier confident claims. Frowning, he turned to his mother, "Mom, Is he really not playing?"
Speechless, his mother hesitated to reply. More like she had no words to reply to. What was she going to tell him? She didn't want to disappoint him. But, she had to at least console him. After all, he was her son and she couldn't leave him like that.
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