Aoi breathed heavily, exhaustion was clear on his face.
Even so, there was a huge smile on his face.
He had finally shown emotion, and his white teeth were finally exposed.
It was worth celebrating the hat trick indeed, compared to his first goal – although it was only a match between the players of the club, scoring a hat trick still had to be commemorated.
If even Oka and Kaga failed to achieve a hat trick, then it only conveyed how difficult it was to achieve.
However, he accomplished it, and even if he tried to suppress his emotions, it was just too overwhelming.
Even his body trembled in excitement.
Feeling the hug of Oka, he felt warm.
He was still gasping for breath, but, for some unknown reason, the effort was rewarding; the disgusting sweats tickling all over his body was worth it.
He clenched his fist tightly, still in a daze, and then suddenly felt a continuous impact assaulting his body.
When his eyes regained clarity, he saw players wearing blue vests hugging him, as well, almost causing him to lose balance.
That includes the right midfielder and the curly right eyebrow.
They have such a massive smile on their face.
Due to how crowded it appeared, he felt it was difficult to breathe.
However, he did not even try to push them away.
Even if he felt uncomfortable by their sweats sticking towards him, he did not even seem to mind.
He shook his head, and his unmasked face - grinning from ear to ear - slowly vanished, but there was still a relieved expression depicted from it.
He watched many clips about similar celebrations, but watching and experiencing it was a completely different thing.
He seemed to not mind everything but only focused on the fact he was celebrating… because of his achievement.
He felt his ego had been boosted.
Of course, he still tried not to let it go over his head, or else it would be his downfall in the future.
Aoi shook his head, quickly forgetting those unnecessary thoughts as he accidentally noticed the goalkeeper kicking the ball out of frustration.
He felt slightly guilty, but that was the way it was.
Nevertheless, he never regretted looking down at him since he felt like performing it indeed, wanting to show he conquered and would continue to be a conqueror.
He wanted them to know that no one would be able to stop him.
He was unstoppable, invincible, and undefeatable.
Starting now, he refused to be defeated… and even if he would be, then he would have just to fight them again and conquer them.
His desire was far-fetched, but he would have to make it happen.
The best goalkeeper? He would just look down at them once they tried to stop his goal but failed.
The best defender? As if they would be able to stop him from running past them.
The best striker? Would they be able to score more goals than him?
Such ego slowly formed in his mind and heart, receiving five Ego Points from the system.
Lost in thought, Aoi suddenly had the desire to look at someone his heart wanted him to do.
His eyes quickly darted to the right side and saw Izumi standing, watching him while her eyes almost became teary.
He did not understand why she was crying, but when he saw the smile on her face, he felt relieved.
If there was a person who felt prouder than him, it would be Izumi.
After all, Aoi had a slight idea of Izumi's understanding of himself.
Aoi would not be able to beat Izumi into it.
However, if he recalled correctly, in the past, Aoi used to act like he was not interested in everything.
It was like his life was bleak.
No one would be able to grasp that only gaming would make him feel more alive.
Now, out of the blue, Aoi was grinning from ear to ear as he achieved something worth celebrating and admiring.
Izumi should be seeing another version of Aoi, who was showing how happy he was and would continue to be as long as he found joy in football.
In fact, what Aoi failed to realize was… Izumi was beyond delighted to see him enjoying the football.
Izumi had always been observing Aoi.
From the usual indifferent expression whenever he interacted with others, even to herself, who used to ignore others' invitations as only Oka would be able to convince him, even so, Oka would rarely receive a nod from Aoi or the normal apathetic Aoi to any activities… Izumi witnessed it.
Now… Aoi was all smiles, witnessing him changing… who would not feel proud than that?
Izumi was so happy she felt like crying already.
If possible, Izumi would have long run towards him and hugged him.
However, she knew she had to hold back and should be content for now, watching him on the sideline.
She could not interrupt him.
"Oh? Who is appearing so proud of his boyfriend? Am I dreaming?"
"Someone is crying because of her boyfriend's achievements. I'm so jealous~"
Her friends teased her.
Izumi felt bashful, lowering her head slightly, but never ever tried to leave her gaze on Aoi.
"Oh~ Look how cute she is!" Her friend guffawed.
However, Izumi remained standing, trying her best to ignore their mischievous remarks.
Suddenly, she caught something in her blurry vision that caused her to be shaken.
Aoi struggled to leave his teammates' embrace, not even responding to their praise and questions, as he ignored them, running towards Izumi.
Izumi was frozen in shock, her mind turned blank.
Before she knew it, Aoi embraced her tightly, feeling the hot breath of his nose on her neck.
He was exhausted obviously, but he did not even mind wasting more stamina just to hug her.
Izumi took some time to process what was happening, even ignoring her friends' giggling, as she slowly returned Aoi's hug.
Suddenly, as she was enjoying her embrace with him, she heard him saying, "Thank you."
Aoi thanked her, and it was the first time she received an expression of gratitude from Aoi, even though she used to help him a lot.
She could finally respond to what she badly wanted to say.
She smiled.
"You're Welcome."