As the bus traveled through the streets of London, Jin Hayes felt an increasing sense of familiarity with the surrounding roads. Yet, at the same time, there was a touch of strangeness.
"Jin, have you been here before?"
"Hey, Jin, is the weather in London always like this?"
"I heard the food here is terrible?"
The players on board, especially the younger ones, were mostly from Germany or Eastern European countries like Poland and Turkey. For many of them, it was their first time setting foot on the land across the English Channel.
As one of the world's largest metropolitan areas, London was a place many young players aspired to visit. But actually seeing the streets of London, the Borussia Dortmund players felt a bit underwhelmed—it didn't quite match the grand image they had built up.
"Actually, I only spent less than a month here in total, so I don't know it that well."
"Then tell us about Arsenal. What's the inside scoop? Any gossip?" Nuri Şahin leaned over with a mischievous grin on his face.
"There isn't really any gossip; I wasn't actually that close to them." When Jin Hayes trained at the Colney Base, despite showing off his outstanding skills, he was still a peripheral figure. His relationship with the Arsenal players was merely that of casual acquaintances.
The only ones he had significant contact with were likely Cesc Fàbregas, Tomáš Rosický, and a few others. He didn't have much of a relationship with Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, and the rest. The only person in the entire team he was truly familiar with was the manager, Arsène Wenger.
If talking about real friends, perhaps only Wenger would count.
"Sigh, I thought I'd get to hear some juicy gossip." Şahin was very disappointed.
"Then how do you rate this Arsenal side? Do we have a good chance tomorrow?" Jakub Błaszczykowski finally asked a serious question.
Jin Hayes carefully reflected on the performances during those training matches and the Arsenal games he had watched over the past year. "Of course. We don't need to fear them. If we play our game, we'll definitely be fine!"
Hearing Jin Hayes's words, the Dortmund squad couldn't help but regain some confidence. Their recent winning streak had been snapped, and with key players like Marco Reus, Patrick Owomoyela, and Neven Subotić out with injuries, the mentality of these Dortmund youngsters had swung from one extreme to another.
They had gone from blind arrogance to a lack of self-belief. Added to that was the fueling of the fire by the European media. After Dortmund's loss in the last round, an atmosphere of "Borussia Dortmund's decline" had been manufactured.
On the Kicker Forum, critics seized the opportunity. They used magnifying glasses to pick apart every detail of every Dortmund player, starting a wave of relentless bashing. It was as if none of the players were even human. The tide of public opinion spread like wildfire, inevitably causing the Dortmund youngsters to experience self‑doubt.
Jin Hayes had no solution for this; he wasn't a god and couldn't influence every teammate's emotions. He could only do his best to help everyone boost their confidence.
In reality, Dortmund wasn't as bad as the media made them out to be. They were leading the Bundesliga table by five points. They had reached the Champions League round of 16. They had reached the quarter‑finals of the cup. Advancing on three fronts, with a bright future on all of them.
Wasn't that enough?
It seemed that to truly turn everyone's mindset around and fill the team with confidence, there was only one way. And that was to defeat a universally recognised powerhouse. Unfortunately, the team standing in their way was none other than Wenger's Arsenal. Jin Hayes had no choice but to raise his sword and cut down the Gunners.
…
"How do I evaluate tomorrow's match? And how do I evaluate Dortmund's core player, Jin Hayes? Regarding this question—"
At the pre‑match press conference, Arsenal manager Wenger adjusted the frames on the bridge of his nose and smiled elegantly.
"I am very happy to see Jin—his increasingly brilliant performances over the last two seasons. He is one of the most talented players I have ever seen. But we, Arsenal, are not a team to be easily handled; we also have a group of exceptionally talented young players. I believe tomorrow will definitely be an exciting match. With the support of our fans, I am confident we will achieve victory."
Wenger's voice wasn't loud, but his English, spoken with a French accent, was firm and powerful. It was clear he wasn't just putting on a brave face for the media; he truly believed he could eliminate Dortmund.
When it was Jürgen Klopp's turn, his expression was much more relaxed. "Admittedly, the team has had some ups and downs recently, which are normal processes during a season.
No team can keep winning forever; winning streaks and such aren't that important.
What matters is how quickly you adjust after a failure and how you bring your best form to the next match. From our recent training form, Dortmund is ready to advance to the quarter‑finals. I thank Mr. Wenger for his appreciation of Jin Hayes. He will certainly bring everyone a surprise at the Emirates Stadium."
Klopp grinned widely as he said this. To use an inappropriate metaphor, there was a sudden sense of 'stealing someone's prize right in front of them.'
"Your player is great, but sorry, he's my player now."
…
North London, St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel.
Located next to King's Cross Station, just three kilometres from the Emirates Stadium, inside the Gothic‑style five‑star hotel, Jin Hayes and his teammates were relaxing in the swimming pool.
Tomorrow would be the big battle with Arsenal.
After the afternoon pitch inspection, Jin Hayes could feel the morale of his Dortmund teammates rising; they weren't afraid of this Premier League giant.
"Jin, if you score tomorrow, will you celebrate?"
"Should we design some celebration moves together? I always feel like your celebrations are a bit too childish."
"Damn, are your celebrations that trendy? Wait, I don't think I've ever seen you celebrate a goal."
"You bastard!!"
"Nuri, Jin is right."
"A bunch of scoundrels!!"
Błaszczykowski's follow‑up jab made Nuri Şahin feel like spitting blood. He indeed scored very few goals, and he couldn't blame that on Jin Hayes. This season, after Jin Hayes broke into the penalty area, he often sent back‑passes to set up shooting opportunities for Şahin.
Unfortunately, Şahin was always so eager to prove himself and put too much power into it, often blasting sure‑fire shots off target. As a brother, Jin Hayes had already done enough.
"Just you wait, just watch me score tomorrow!"
"Should we start a pool on who scores tomorrow, Jin or Nuri?"
"I'll put 10 euros on Jin."
"Me too, definitely Jin—"
"Count me in, 20 euros."
"Go away, go away. If everyone bets on Jin, how am I supposed to be the bookie? Forget it."
Mats Hummels shooed away the group of teammates looking for fun.
It was once again a world where only Şahin got hurt.
....
While everyone was fooling around, Jin Hayes had already climbed out of the pool and was leaning on a lounge chair, texting on his phone.
[Are you guys asleep?]
[Not yet, they're in the living room watching TV, I'm lying in bed.]
[Take a photo for me to see, something a bit bold.]
[Pervert!]
...
From the text, Jin Hayes couldn't tell Anna's tone; he didn't know if she was being playful or if she was actually a bit angry. After all, this was his first relationship, and she was far from the stereotype of a foreign high school student.
Anna was more like a traditional domestic high school girl, relatively conservative and reserved in this regard. Jin Hayes was a bit worried that this kind of joke might offend her. Having sacrificed his flirting skills for football, Jin Hayes was essentially someone who was clueless about romance.
He could easily make a girl angry in different situations.
Just as he was feeling anxious, his phone vibrated again. Jin Hayes almost fumbled it into the pool.
[Wait until you win this game, and I'll show you when you get back.]
With just that one sentence, Jin Hayes had already imagined many scenes, and he felt a surge of energy. He looked around and quickly crossed his legs before anyone noticed.
[We are victorious! Victory is certain!]
At the Heinrich home, the young girl threw down her phone and looked up at the ceiling. Suddenly, she flipped over, buried her face in the pillow, and started rolling around on the bed. "Ahhh—what on earth am I doing? Was that too forward?"
"Anna, do you want some fruit? Anna?"
Maria looked through the slightly ajar bedroom door and saw her daughter squirming like a worm, feeling completely baffled. Her younger daughter had been acting stranger and stranger lately.
…
Emirates Stadium.
Why didn't it feel that exciting?
Stepping off the bus in his Dortmund uniform suit, Jin Hayes looked very much like a boy band idol. He was wearing headphones, listening to music on the iPod Anna gave him. Jin Hayes even deliberately played the Champions League anthem to set the mood.
He thought the moment he looked up and saw the Emirates Stadium, his heart would race.
This was his childhood dream: to play in a Champions League knockout match at Arsenal's home ground.
But thinking carefully, his childhood dream should have been the now‑demolished Highbury Stadium. Now, the Highbury area had become a construction site, soon to be filled with rows of apartment buildings and commercial plazas.
To Jin Hayes, the Emirates Stadium before him was simply an away ground in the Champions League, without much special emotional attachment.
"Jin, let's go."
"Okay."
His teammates filed off the bus and into the stadium, about to prepare for the upcoming life‑and‑death knockout match. Jin Hayes focused his mind, lowered his head, and walked in, passing by the Arsenal crest.
This time, I will step onto this pitch as an enemy. I will personally end the team of my childhood dreams.