6 Works by lorenasaks
Listing Works
-
Tags
Summary
"Maki has always thought of his football as born from love. It's all he's ever known, all he's ever understood.
He has always known it, somehow, but he is a person that wants too much, even at times where it's not needed, where it's not allowed. He never really cared, never paid it any mind, because Nicholas never said anything. It's a thing that settles deep in Maki's chest, a baseline of contentment, flat and colorless : Nicholas knows. Maki wants too much, too much from him, but he doesn't care : he lets Maki take, he lets Maki do whatever he wants. Maki doesn't care that his love, if it is what it is, is unreturned : could it truly be called unreturned when Nicholas allows him so much?
It seems that for Nicholas, too, football is born from love."
— Maki is a young player still building his career when his coach, Nicholas, suddenly decides to move him down the pitch, changing his position and role. Maki is forced to navigate the change while dealing with his own complicated feelings for his coach and obsessive hunger for victory that's secretly eating away at him.
-
Tags
Summary
"To Jo, Taki was a sun that never stopped shining. The next logical conclusion, inevitably, was that Taki, who had never known the darkest skies of a moon-less night, couldn't possibly know about the dangerous and violent struggles that came with it : with the absence of stars, with the bottomless obscurity of it.
And because of that, Jo envied Taki : wanted to take and take and take from him, until he could finally understand the warmth that lay in the other boy's chest, until he could finally make him understand the chill that ran across his own ribs, until he could curl himself between a bone or two inside Taki, pushing aside the mushy texture of the other boy's heart for more space."
— Love is a complicated road toward knowing someone else, and Jo is navigating his own complicated feelings of humiliation, pain and adoration taking steps into his own ignorance to reach Taki's heart.
-
Tags
Summary
"Are you sure it should be me?"
Euijoo's hand instinctively goes to the back of Maki's neck, at the base of his scalp, and he just presses his palm there, a hot iron. He speaks after what has now become a while, neutral and kind : "Why shouldn't it be you?"
Maki's fingers are shaking against his thighs, down where he thinks Euijoo can't see it. The leader's eyes slowly trail back up to Maki's face : it looks like the youngest is barely holding it together. Maki finally lets out, shaky and broken : "Well, he's waiting for you, wouldn't he be disappointed if it's me that comes in?"OR : Nicholas is sick and unwell, Maki yearns for a contact and a space by the older man' side that he isn't sure he is allowed to ask for. Euijoo is a steady and loving warmth that helps bridge the uncertainties.
-
Tags
Summary
"And so it ended up being just Kei, Euijoo and Jo meeting in the vast hall of the Shibuya train station with their bag and suitcase on a cold, fuzzy tuesday morning. [...]
Jo had thought back to the night he had accepted, had sent the message, a simple "I would love to come". He had agreed, for many reasons, for the peace that came with the sea, for the inexplicable loneliness of summer, but also because he was curious, eternally, about who Taki was."OR : The cliché of summer and getting swallowed by devotion, but make it JoTaki.
-
Tags
Summary
The van is stopped at the last street corner before the Olympic village when Jo squeezes Taki’s hand once to get the younger's attention. He whispers :“I wish you'd become my sky”
And Taki simply looks back at him and smiles, benevolent, not asking any more explanations.
-
Tags
Summary
"And I guess what I want to say is... The leader might be the one everyone looks at when there is a decision to make, but in that moment, the leader is looking back at the sub-leader."
Euijoo's voice goes a little quieter : "As the sub-leader, you're the person I'm trying to impress the most, you understand? Because I want you to be the one to tell me, straight-up, when I'm not good enough. When I'm failing, as a leader, and when I'm failing you."A reflection on leading, between Euijoo and Fuma.
Bonus chapter :
"To Taki, Euijoo was home, and there was no place more comforting than with him, where it's all warm and accepting, soothing and soft. [...]
And Taki fell asleep with a smile, knowing there will always be one person in the world that would make the effort to understand him simply because they loved him, simply because to them, it was worth it."