Ugh. Why was her head hurting so much? She rolled over in bed, only to bump into something warm. 

Oh dear god, please tell me that's Hiro and not someone else because I can not deal with getting rid of someone right now --

"Relax, babe, it's me." Winnie let out a long sigh when she heard the familar voice. "Thank god," She croaked, "I really didn't want to have to answer 'how was last night?' right now, because last night is still partying on in my head and not in a good way." 

A low chuckle came from the warmth, "I keep telling you that those vodka mixed drinks are your enemy. You should stick with rum or tequila, you're much better off with those." 

Winnie moaned. "Don't patronize me, make me feel better with coffee and aspirin instead." 

"Fine, fine, you whiny baby," She could feel him get up from her bed and hear him rummage around, "I don't know why I keep you around as my best friend, i could find someone who really held their liquor so I didn't have to nurse them the morning after, you know?" 

"I keep hearing patronizing noises and yet I have no coffee and pain killers!" Winnie complained, making her best friend laugh and leave to actually do as he was asked. When he was gone, she slowly opened her eyes, not daring to sit up yet for fear of being sick. Once she was grounded, she sat up, the scent of coffee getting stronger. 

A few minutes later, Hiro came in with two cups of coffee and a few aspirin for her, settling in on the bed as she swallowed the pills and took a long sip of her coffee. "God that's good." 

Hiro snorted, shaking his curls out of his face. "Of course it's good, I never buy anything but your family's coffee for fear you'll burn my house down." Winnie shrugged, inhaling the scent and letting herself decompress as she sobered up. 

"So you didn't take anyone home? Surprising, I thought we went to a gay club last night." Winnie remembered, looking over at her friend. He rolled his eyes, "I was out of everyone's league. Not everyone needs to go home with someone from a club every single time they go out, unlike someone." He made a pointed look at her before taking a sip from his own cup. 

If Winnie didn't value coffee so much, she would've hit Hiro for his statement. Also, it was kind of true. She wasn't exactly the picture of chastity. 

Hiro's fingers snapped in front of her face, bringing her attention back to the current time. "Babe, now i know something's up. What's going on?" 

"Whaaaaaaaat?" Winnie tried to play it off, taking another sip. However, she was a liar, it went against every fiber of her being and with being her best friend (and honestly, someone who has eyes) Hiro saw right through it. He always did.

"Babe," He looked at her, "You went straight for the vodka drinks and didn't flirt with anyone." When she opened to protest, he cut her off, "There's always something wrong with you don't glance at tequila or a cute piece of . You even ignored the cute gender ambiguous person that was trying to chat you up all night!" 

"Damn, did I?" Winnie tried to change the subject, but again, Hiro saw right through it. This is what happens when you've been friends since toddler days. 

She sighed, looking into her half-empty coffee mug. She should tell him. 

"I signed up for a dating site and when I went to Seoul I was actually meeting for my in-person interview and I was very explicit and thorough with the matchmaker about what I wanted in a match and --" 

As she paused for a breath, Hiro didn't even miss a beat, "You really want to please your parents, huh? But come on, your mom and dad would be the least worried if you waited more to get hitched or settle down."

"You'd be right if they weren't so aware of my... usual habits when it comes to finding a partner." Winnie admitted, "They don't care that I'm ually active, they'd just rather it be... more exclusive. As much as I love and trust them, I don't think they'd do well in sending me on blind dates or to match making parties here in Haleiwa or even in Honolulu."

Hiro whistled, "That is... true. But okay," He got back to the point, "So you signed up, probably over-shared to this person as you do but got your point across. What's the problem here?" 

 "i... got matched." Winnie reached for her phone as Hiro started to gush. "Oh my god, already? With who??? What are they like? What do they do? Most importantly, are they cute???" 

"It's some soccer player named Luhan." She held up her phone as Hiro snatched it and looked through her match's profile and pictures. 

He stopped on one photo, "Uhm, I'm screaming, he's so cute babe. Where is he? When do you meet him?" 

"You know I'm still sobering up. And your screaming? Not helping." Winnie shot at him, only to avoid being smacked by his pillow as she protected her coffee mug.

"Anyways, I wouldn't know, but his profile says he lives in Manchester." 

"Like the UK?" Hiro asked, "That's great! You can meet up with Aili then and catch up while getting a hot date!" He paused, "And what do you mean you don't know?" 

"He hasn't messaged me back." She explained, drinking more and finishing off her mug. "More please." She handed the cup to Hiro. "You're so spoiled oh my god, fine." He rolled his eyes, getting up to get her another refill, returning soon after. 

"Okay, now did you message him more than an incomprehensible string of emojis because only I can read that and you know it." He asked, handing her the now full and steaming cup of coffee. 

Winnie was silent, avoiding eye contact and Hiro just groaned. "Oh my god, you are so bad at this. Message him actual words!! In English!!" 

"But what if he's weeeeeird?" Winnie whined, jutting her bottom lip out at him.  

Hiro's words were practically dripping sass as he spoke, "Listen, if you were as specific and thorough as you claim you were, of course he's going to be weird but he's also going to be really, really hot." He took her phone again, finding a picture and zooming in on it before showing it to her. "And soccer players have really nice and cute butts. I know you like theeeem and look at this one! It's waiting for you! Message him! Get that cute piece of !" 

"Oh my god, if you shut up about his I'll do it!" She grabbed her phone, going to her messages to draft a perfect 'readable' hello with Hiro's help. 

Hiro pressed the send button when he was satisifed, "Good. Now let's watch some bad Mainland soap operas. We have the whole weekend to waste away!" 


'Wasting weekends' or wasting time in general was something that certainly wasn't in Luhan's vocabulary. Pre-spring training was starting up, and he was up everyday and spent most hours working out, practicing, and playing scrimages with other clubs in England before the season officially started. He was usually one of the forward positions, but today the manager was experimenting and strengthening their weak positions, so Luhan found himself as the center-back for this practice match.

Luhan loved a challenge, and met it with confidence and determination, but that's not to say that he wasn't a weak center-back. He knew it, he just got so bored by the keeper, he wanted to be in the middle of the action, after all. He darted left as one of his teammates, Mata, came in for a shot at the goal. Despite De Gea being the goal keeper on his team, he wasn't about to let Mata take a shot without a fight. 

He silently cursed, muttering to himself in Mandarin as Mata got past him, chasing him to try and steal the ball back, only to fail once more as Mata took the shot. Luckily De Gea caught it with ease, only to be stopped from throwing it back into play by the assistant manager. 

"Mr. Mourinho needs to leave, so everyone can leave to do individual training or keep practicing. He wanted to give you the option." Before any of them could ask questions, Faria scurried off and disappeared from the field. 

Some immediately pulled their shirts off and headed towards the shower room, while others lingered around and started doing casual tricks or kicking the ball around. While Luhan was debating on whether or not to do gym work or to ask for someone to play, an arm slung itself around his neck. He looked over to see Marcus Rashford, seven years his junior but a hell of a forward and one of his closest friends on the team.

"How 'bout you and me take the afternoon off and get some lunch?" Marcus grinned at Luhan, "We can hit the gym later. What do you say?"

Luhan couldn't help but smile and agree. It wasn't wasting time, after all, he did say they'd hit the gym after, and Luhan could probably rope him into a few rounds of free kicks after.


The two hit the showers, and before Luhan got dressed, he checked his phone, only to frown at the lack of response that he wanted.

"Oh god, don't tell me you're waiting on her again." Marcus moaned, catching De Gea's attention. 

"Oh no, not Emalee again." David shook his head, patting Luhan's shoulder. "What about that match site we recommended? I thought you said you signed up and even got an interview with the CEO and founder of the company!" 

Luhan didn't look away from his phone, seeing that Emalee just responded, "I did get matched. She's too far away." 

"Mate, how far is too far away? Across the pond? Back home in Beijing?" Marcus asked, skeptical of what Luhan considered 'too far away'. 

He pressed send on his reply to Emalee, now giving his teammates and friends his full attention. "She lives in Hawaii. You know I can't fly well, and she's some heiress to a company. I doubt she'd fly here." 

Marcus grabbed his phone, finding his match's profile and scoffing. "Liar. One, she's beautiful! Two, it says here that she loves to travel and doesn't mind flying. And three, what does being an hieress have to do with anything? So she's well off, what's the big deal?"

"She's probably some stuck up snob," Luhan kept making excuses. Personally, he was sure there was nothing wrong with this girl and she was perfectly nice, but he just wasn't interested in long distance when he was sure he had the perfect girl here in Manchester. 

"And Emalee isn't?" De Gea shot back. "Not to be mean, my friend, but she's not exactly a Mother Teresa. Or even an Emma Watson. She's more like... Kim Kardashian." That got a laugh out of several people, but Luhan just scowled. 

"I don't know why you guys don't like her -- she's a really great person!" 

Marcus rolled his eyes, "From what you see through your rose colored lens. Your loyalty is admirable, but come on man. We just don't want you to get hurt again." 

Luhan couldn't argue with that. Emalee had turned him down almost a year prior to this, yet they remained friends and every so often Luhan was given hope that she might have changed her mind. He was willing to wait for her, but his friends and team considered the blunt and quick rejection as a sign of needing to move on. "I'm the same age and older than some of you and yet, I feel like I'm constantly being lectured by my parents." 

Marcus grinned at him, "Hey, it's only your second season. You are a baby to a lot of people on the team." Once again, Luhan couldn't argue with that. 

"Message this Winnie girl. This site is how I met Irish. I wouldn't have told you about it if it didn't work." Marcus gently told him, "And the worse thing? You gain a new friend who's long distance." 

Luhan pulled his shirt over his head, "Fine, but you're buying my pint at lunch for this." 

"As long as i get proof that you did it, I'll buy you two." 

"Deal!" 

Lunch with Marcus was nice, even a few of their fellow players joined them for a couple of pints and drinks. Afterwards, the group went their seperate ways, with Marcus taking Luhan back to his flat before heading to his that was just down the way. 

"Bye Lu! See you tomorrow! And don't forget -- you owe me proof!" And with that, his car was down the street and turning into his complex's parking garage. Luhan waved as he drove, and punched in his code to enter his building. He took the stairs up because of course, Marcus made sure that he 'forgot' about training or hitting the gym. 

Getting into his loft, he sighed as he dropped his bags. "Zhu, Tom? Cats? Are you here or did you finally manage to escape?" He called, hearing the bell from Tom's collar from up where his bed was. Now that he knew where at least one of his cats were located, he turned his attention to something he realized at the pub. Luhan had packed his phone in one of his bags and he needed it.

"Not my phone, not my phone, not my -- Oh! My phone!" He pulled out the device from under a shinguard, plopping himself on the floor and looking through his notifications. Emalee had messaged him back, saying she was busy this week but was definitely looking forward to seeing him during spring training press sessions and to maybe have lunch with him after, one from Gao asking about potential visits and missing him, and another from... 

"Winnie?" He raised his eyebrows in surprise. So his 'Match from Heaven' decided to message him first. Interesting. 

He opened the message to read it. There were actually two messages, one that was a bunch of emojis (which was slightly amusing and childish but he'd excuse it) and the other contained this message:

 Hey, this is Winnie 'Aukai! We matched on Heaven's website. I know it must be late due to the time difference but I at least wanted to reach out. I hope we can get to know each other.

It was a simple, uninforming message about who this Winnie girl was, and he couldn't decide if he was intrigued or bored by it. So he considered it. She did do her homework to know the time difference so she at least shows commitment. And her confidence to message first was definitely something Luhan could admire. 

So he did what he promised to do. 

Hi, I'm Luhan. I'm about to begin spring training, so I'll have odd hours and might not respond quickly. But I'd like to get to know you as well. 

With that Luhan got ready for bed, finding himself checking to see if this Winnie person actually would message back. It was kind of dumb, but Luhan had decided he was intrigued by her and like Marcus said, she could be a new friend.

As Luhan settled into bed, he got a notification, and saw that it was Winnie again. "Isn't it early over there?" He did the math in his head. "Oh. it's 1 pm. Nevermind then." 

Actually, I'm going to be visiting a friend who goes to uni of manchester in a few weeks. If I let you know the dates, would you be willing to meet up? 

Oh. Well. Luhan shook his head as he re-read the message over twice. "...Nope. Marcus can deal with this in the morning." 

Author's Note