Whether Victor cared or not, he gave a haughty laugh and then, when the coach called from the bench, he moonwalked backwards to the bench and shouted at me.

“Keep watching till the end. We’ll definitely make a comeback!”

I stared blankly at his bouncing back. But I also mulled over what Victor had said.

That it’s fine as long as I’m not his girlfriend.

“What’s fine…?”

I was left alone in the front row of the stands, feeling absurd.

Does he even realize what he’s saying?

‘Is it because he’s an idiot and doesn’t know.’

…I wondered.

* * *

Time flew by and it was the 4th quarter, the end of the game. It was Rowing Ham’s attacking time.

Spring marked Victor more meticulously than before. They were determined to prevent passes or drop the ball to the ground to get a turnover.

The quarterback was especially a position that everyone attacked.

As the team leader who devised strategies and directly passed to lead the team, once he caught the ball, everyone chased after him like the main character who accidentally made noise in a zombie apocalypse.

They say injuries are also common.

When teams collided violently or fell holding the ball, I couldn’t help but worry. There wasn’t much time left in the game now.

According to the rules of maintaining the offensive position without being caught before falling 4 times, they had to gain more than 10 yards, so everyone ran gritting their teeth.

As the end of the game approached, everyone was more excited, fidgeting in their seats.

The current score was 36-38.

Spring had a 2-point lead.

“Run, run! We can make a comeback!”

Our team’s receivers swiftly ran around like rabbits, passing to each other.

However, Spring’s blocking was not easy either.

Just when it seemed like we were advancing forward, our team repeatedly fell back due to blocking.

“We’re not advancing but retreating. Aren’t we going to lose like this?”

Someone sitting in the front grumbled.

That’s how strong Spring’s defense was, putting us at a disadvantage. With little time left, it seemed they wanted to pressure us as much as possible to protect their score.

At that moment, the opposing defense team pounced on the running back trying to break through.

“Ah!”

In an instant, the running back fell holding the ball. It was between the center of the field and our team’s end zone.

There was still a long way to go, but he fell already.

The Spring team piled on top of the Rowing Ham running back, and our team that followed right after got tangled together, desperate to take the ball.

“No, there’s only a few seconds left!”

Michelle shouted in despair.

Then the running back, who was at the very bottom crushed by the defense team, managed to crawl out.

And just as he was about to be grabbed by the defense team again, he passed the ball to Victor, who was standing on the opposite side.

A whopping 30 yards, nearly 30m away.

Can he catch a ball thrown from that distance?

Moreover, it was an incomplete pass because it was thrown after being grabbed by the defense team.

The ball soared into the sky in a parabola.

Victor immediately jumped and caught the ball in his arms. Then, without looking back, he ran towards Spring’s end zone.

The defense team moved in droves to catch up to Victor right away. As many as three of them closely pursued him.

Meanwhile, the opposing team’s defense running from the Spring end zone tried to catch Victor, but Victor simply changed direction by twisting his body. The defender fell over.

And just as he was running again, the chasing defense team grabbed Victor’s legs and clung on.

Victor fell to the turf with a thud.

“Ah!”

But the place Victor fell was the opposing team’s end zone, painted black.

Victor waited for the call, hugely panting enough to be seen from afar, while holding the ball and lying down.

After a brief silence descended on the field, someone from our team’s stands abruptly stood up and shouted.

“Touchdown! Rowing Ham scores 6 points!”

“Woohoo!”

The dazed spectators belatedly stood up and cheered.

We had overturned the score difference and made a comeback by scoring 6 points with a touchdown.

It was thanks to Victor, who caught the incomplete ball that flew from 30 yards away and charged straight into the enemy’s end zone.

“Yeah!”

Victor and the other teammates leaped up and bumped chests.

The game ended with Rowing Ham’s victory. People chattered about the play that just happened and left the stadium one by one.

We stayed in the deserted stands to wait for Victor.

Then the manager I talked to earlier approached.

“The field is empty, so he says to come down. McQueen.”

“Ah, thanks.”

I went down the stairs informed, and the bright blue field unfolded right in front of me.

In the distance at the bench, the big guys were packing up their stuff, bickering.

“Queen.”

When I called, Victor, who was chatting with the kids far away, turned to look at us.

He took off his big helmet and poured bottled water on his head a few times. Then he shook his wet hair back and approached us. His face was red from the fierce game.

“You saw, right? I told you. I said we’d make a comeback.”

“I never said anything. I watched the game well.”

Victor laughed proudly, as if still savoring the game. Michelle immediately approached him.

“I enjoyed the game, McQueen. I’m thinking of putting today’s game on the front page of next week’s newspaper, how about it? If you have time, let’s take some photos and do a short interview too!”

“Photos? That’s good. Interview is good too. But before that, there’s something I have to do.”

Victor pushed Michelle aside, who had excitedly taken out her notepad, and came to me.

“I, who wrote a new history for Rowing Ham, will personally give you a tour of the stadium.”

“To me?”

“Then who else is there besides you.”

The place Victor took me to was the goalpost at the end of the end zone.

There was a yellow goalpost similar in height to a basketball hoop, and above it, a U-shaped pole stretched high into the sky.

When a touchdown is not feasible, kicking the ball into this U-shape is a field goal.

The huge goalpost with the yellow U-shape was even bigger and taller than it looked from afar. The goalpost seemed to be at least 6m.

‘The goalpost and the poles on both sides would be 12m.’

Then Victor grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms. My forehead tapped against his hard shoulder pads.

The distance with Victor had greatly decreased, but as expected, there was no smell of sweat or anything.

Is this also the power of a drama protagonist?

“What is it?”

“Hold on tight, squirrel. I’ll show you something good.”

Then, as if deeply lowering his body, he hugged my popliteal.

“Eek!”

I hurriedly curled up and clung to Victor’s shoulders.

Victor lifted me up by my popliteal and suddenly stood up, instantly climbing onto the goalpost.

“What are you doing all of a sudden!”

“If you’re up here, you can see the whole field at a glance, right?”

Victor put me down near the yellow poles on either side of the goalpost with a nonchalant face. No matter what, it was unnerving as it was a thin iron place.

I carefully sat astride the goalpost and tightly grasped the pole, and Victor sat next to me. Then he called Michelle.

“Bruce! Take a picture of us. And put it nicely on the front page of the article.”

“Okay.”

Bruce is Michelle’s last name.

And I was startled by Victor’s words.

“Why are you taking a picture with me for an article? I didn’t even play in the game.”

“So what. It could be a commemorative photo of the winner on the goalpost that goes on the front page.”

“Then why are you doing that with me… Do it with your girlfriend.”

“Ah, don’t back out and raise your thumb towards Bruce.”

I glanced sideways at Victor, flabbergasted.

And when I turned my gaze forward again, I saw Allen standing far behind Michelle.

“…?”

This time, Allen glared at me with a betrayed, chilly face.

Hey, why do you look so murderous again.

And so, like a koala stuck to a eucalyptus tree, I was able to come down from the goalpost only after hugging the pole and taking a picture with Victor.

I wanted to just go down regardless of the photo, but every time I tried to jump down, Victor amazingly scooped me up and sat me back on top of the goalpost.

Damn S-class agility.

In the end, the photo captured Victor’s face beaming with dimples deep enough to poke, and my face looking as fierce as a raging bear, ready to tear someone apart.

Victor seemed quite satisfied with the result.

“It came out well. Send this by email too.”

“Got it.”

Michelle, who had neatly scored an interview, gave a thumbs up. Right now, Michelle was in the spirit of doing anything Victor asked her to do.

Victor, wiping his sweat with a wet towel, said refreshingly,

“Shall we get going now? Squirrel, I’ll give you a ride, so let’s go together.”

“Well, thanks for that.”

Victor casually put his arm around my shoulder. Then he also told Michelle that he would specially give her a ride in the car. He said he brought a 4-seater this time or something.

Then Allen, who had approached at some point, took the arm off my shoulder.

“I’ll take Juno home, so don’t worry. Why don’t you give that newspaper kid a ride?”

“What?”

Victor turned to Allen with a frown.

“Who are you?”

“Allen Jade. I wanted to say hello for once, so this is good timing. Nice to meet you like this.”

Victor’s face quickly turned grim.

I alternately looked at the two with a puzzled face. Michelle chuckled like an old man as if she had noticed something.

“It’s hot, it’s hot.”

“What is.”

“You have no sense, no sense.”

“I don’t really know what it is, but can you stop repeating everything twice.”

I raised my hands to the two who started a pointless fight for no reason.

“Whoa, whoa, don’t do that and let’s go home quickly. I have to watch dramas with my mom at home. I have to do my piled up homework too. And tomorrow we have to go to school. Allen, you go back to New York too.”

“Yeah, your home is in New York, so how are you going to take her and go? Just get lost, will you?”

Victor spoke with a triumphant face. Then Allen smiled thinly.

“What’s the problem with that? Tomorrow is the weekend, so I can take Juno home and sleep at Juno’s house for a night before leaving.”

“What? Sleep over? This guy keeps pissing me off?”

The two glared at each other fiercely again. It felt like sparks were flying in the air from their gazes, like in cartoons.

I alternately looked at the two, frowning.

‘Why are they acting like that… I just want to take the bus back by myself.’

I guess running a sport for an hour drained my energy. As I let out a deep sigh.

Ding dong!

With a lively sound effect, a blue status window suddenly popped up in front of my eyes.