“She has the worst cravings, I swear. It doesn’t help that her metabolism works much faster than mine or Raleigh’s, and that she can literally eat anyone under the table. I miss her stupid face.”

Jesse nods when I look at him.

“It’s been really great seeing her again,” I say. “So, thank you for taking care of her when Raleigh and I couldn’t. She’s hard to talk to sometimes, hard to get her to stop joking and listen and tell us what’s wrong, but you guys…you guys are really good together, you know?” I nod to myself, keep musing out loud.

“It wasn’t easy,” Jesse says, leaning forward so his elbows are planted on his knees, looking uncomfortable.

“Oh, I don’t doubt that. Maddie’s not hard to love, she’s just a giant pain in the ass until she realizes herself that you’re a person she’s let into her heart. She’s always been very…intense about soccer. Like it was a zero-sum game if it wasn’t in her life. So, that’s all to say that I’m happy that you’re together, and that if you don’t treat her right, I’ll find a way to make you pay. Got it?” I say, through clenched teeth, and Jesse looks at me, eyebrows raised high over the rim of his sunglasses, nodding slowly at me.

“Good. Then we’re going to be good friends, too. Also, be nice to my boyfriend. He’s just starstruck.”

“Yes, of course. I know what that’s like.”

“You do?” I ask, and Jesse tells me a story of meeting one of his soccer idols when he was a teenager, and he practically lost his mind meeting the pride of the English nation (is what he tells me), and it’s cute and adorable, and I marvel all over again that Maddie thought this guy was a dick when she first met him.

“Here we go.” Ayden’s voice jolts me out of the conversation, and he quickly takes his seat beside me, handing Jesse some food even though I’ve already taken care of him in that way. “Sorry about that. I didn’t think you’d be sitting with us.”

“Everyone keeps telling me that,” Jesse says, dazzling both Ayden and me with his photo-shoot-ready smile. Maddie didn’t really stand a chance when this guy turned on the charm, not a single chance in hell.

“Hey, guys!”

We turn to look towards the aisle and there stands Raleigh, huffing and puffing and holding up her own Asian street food (she probably misses Seoul like crazy, I’m guessing), and a beer, smiling wide. “This place is huge. But I’m not really understanding the whole outdoor thing. Does the ceiling close up when it rains or snows?” She points up the ceiling.

“That was my question, too,” I say. I lean over to Ayden to whisper to him. “Do you want to sit next to Jesse or not? I want you to be comfortable.”

Ayden nods sheepishly. “I’m embarrassing myself, honestly.”

“He’s just a person, like everybody else. He just happens to be really good at soccer. That’s it.”

Ayden nods. “Yeah, I’ll take my seat back. Thank you for being sweet about this.” He kisses my forehead, then my nose, and then my mouth, and then we’re switching seats and I’m sitting next to a squealing Raleigh, her legs bouncing as she takes her seat, looking around at everyone and everything. It’s a lot, all at once. A lot.

“I’ve never been this excited to watch a soccer game before,” she says, puffing her chest out so I can see the away version of Maddie’s jersey on her chest, twisting around to show me the CHASE written along the back with her number. “Can you believe I’m wearing this, and that we know her? Shit, Aria, this is her dream come true.”

“Yeah, it is. The game should be starting in a few minutes, too. It took you forever to get here.”

“Yeah, I know. I had a hard time with the Tube, of all things. Oh, I have to take a selfie,” she says, placing her food on her lap and her beer by her feet, and then pulls out her phone out of her tiny cross-body purse. “Here, come close,” she says, pulling me right up next to her that my ribs get bruised against the arm of the chair, but it’s fine. I’ve only got less than forty-eight hours of this and I’m soaking up as much physical affection as I can get.

We press our cheeks practically together and smile for the camera, our faces looking more goofy than cute, but maybe that’s the whole point.

“Let me just send this off, there we go.” She smiles down at her phone, waits a few more seconds until the screen goes dark, and then sighs.

“You miss him, huh?” I ask. Some people are meant for long-distance relationships—I am not one of them. Still, though, I know it has to be hard, especially when Jaeyong is as famous as he is, and the fandom can be a scary place.

“Every single day. But it’s fine, totally fine. I’m going to see him tomorrow at the concert, even if I have to share him with thousands upon thousands of people. At least we’ll be breathing the same air,” she laughs, but her face looks brittle, so I try my best to cheer her up.

It’s not long after that when Maddie’s game starts, and her team walks out on the field after the referee does his coin toss and sides are chosen, and the possession of the ball goes to the opposing team, a resounding boo echoing all across the stadium.

The referee whistles, indicating the start of play, and Maddie streaks down our side, playing left winger, the ball going deep into the opposing team’s half, the crowd going wild as a golden opportunity is handed to one of Southgate’s offensive players (she has bright red hair that I can see from all the way over here), but the ball bounces off the field funny and then harmlessly bounces passed the goal line, but not before hitting off an opposing team member.

“What? What just happened? Everything’s happening so fast,” Raleigh says, groaning. “It’s a corner kick, right? Did I get that right?”

I pat at her shoulder, looking over to make sure Ayden and Jesse are getting along (spoiler alert: they are), and stand up, still holding onto my food while Maddie walks the field, catching her breath before the ball is given over to her, and she starts lining up a shot at the corner.

There’s a lot of yelling that you usually don’t hear when you’re watching a game on TV even though you can totally tell that people are getting yelled at. Maddie waves her hand around, as if directing traffic, and more and more of her teams come rushing forward, timing it to the split second where Maddie’s foot makes contact with the ball, making it sail into the goalie’s penalty box, and this time the ball hits the top goal post and Southgate FC gets nothing out of it except a goal kick.

“Shit, my heart’s beating so fast,” I grumble, taking my seat, watching the goalie kick the ball all the way down to the other half of the field as play resumes, all of us craning our necks to see down the field. Both Raleigh and I start eating our food, laughing, and talking while watching the game. Ayden’s getting really into it, standing more often than not. Jesse’s being the loudest in our group, and I don’t think it’s going to take Sherlock Holmes himself to figure out who exactly is sitting with Maddie’s friends.

When Maddie scores in the second half of the game, she jogs over to our section of stands, hand covering her eyes until she falls under the shadow while she gets jumped on by the rest of her team mates, hugging her, ruffling her hair and ponytail, but she’s still looking at us, and our small group are all on our feet, shouting at the top of our lungs, arms raised in the air as if we were the ones who did the whole goal-scoring thing.

Maddie spots us, waving both her arms in the air, grin wider than I’ve ever seen it, laughing at us, pointing to us as we point back at her.

When the game ends, we wait around for Maddie, and it’s so weird seeing one of my best friends handing out autographs and high-fives, especially when she looks so uncomfortable doing it.

We go back to Jesse’s place for the night, just to spend a couple of more hours together before we’re all meeting up for the concert tomorrow.

“Seriously, Maddie, you’re so good—the best,” I gush, moving my hands in a way that I hope makes some kind of sense with the depths of my admiration for her. I’ve never been good at sports a single day in my life, and here Maddie is, playing it professionally in London, England of all freaking places. It boggles my mind and also makes my head hurt at the same time.

Maddie blushes, running a hand through her wet hair and sighing as she lounges on the couch, Jesse massaging her feet and legs, which has her wincing in some spots, then going boneless at others.

Ayden’s gotten over being starstruck over Jesse and is talking to him about Southgate’s chances for the league championships, even though the season hasn’t even officially started yet.

“I’m so excited for tomorrow,” I say, even though it brings us one step closer to leaving each other behind. “Can’t wait to go to my first K-pop concert, man.” I slap at Raleigh’s thigh. “Hey, can we take some more pictures together?”

“I’ll have you know,” Maddie groans, swinging her legs off of Jesse’s lap and scooting closer to Raleigh and me on this oversize couch. “That I’m moving for you right now because I love you and you,” she says, sighing when she just allows herself to lean against me, her cheek pressed to the top of my head.

“I want to remember this,” I say. “Indulge me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go. Selfie modes engaged, Raleigh, Aria. Here we go.”