Focus

I looked at mine surrounding, the girls have started cheering for me. "Win it handsome!"

That's what they called me. 'Handsome.' I smiled. I always knew I was a handsome boy, not that I cared though.

It was time for the final battle. She, Rina held her breath as she asked me, "Are you Ready?"

I was also holding my breath. This was a battle that needed my hundred percent. I knew that if I lost today, I'll face some sort of ego breakdown. I didn't want that to happen. I am the greatest egoist ever. If my ego want me to be God, I'll be a God. No one can stop me.

"Hehehe.."

I laughed like a maniac. I had lost it. Seeing that I was laughing and not giving any response, Rina smiled. Her smile soon turned into a crazy smirk as she declared, "Start!"

It was game on. 2-2. One more, and one of us will win.

Rin showed her amazing fighting spirit. Her eyes were glued on the football. She had decided to fight with her everything. I could feel it. She had evolved in this match. Her feet were moving lightning fast. The ball was following her feet with same speed.

I also had no moment to spare. Because the nearer she came to me, the more danger I could feel from her. I had to defend the goal from her. Snatching the possession was secondary.

I went head on against her. She had taken the ball to be her property. Wherever her feet moved, her ball moved there. It was a lightning fast movement, very hard to track. However I couldn't let a weakness such as hesitation or confusion appear. My sense of danger screamed at me. I reached a conclusion..I shouldn't focus on her feet so I had decided to focus on the ball.

I tried using my lefty to kick the ball that was rapidly spinning under the brilliant dribbling by Rina. I just needed to lightly hit the ball to take it away from her possesion but at the same time I was also conscious about my feets. What if she nutmegged me?

Being nutmegged by a girl would be a first for me. I had to be careful. My career was on the line.

Rina tried to get her feet under my feet, but the moment she was about to succeed, I reattached my two legs to each other giving no scope to getting nutmegged. The ball hit the leg and bounced back which Rina caught hold of, again. She seemed annoyed about failing to nutmeg me. I was so close to getting nutmegged. It could be seen that droplets of sweets had accumulated on my forehead.

It was the time to attack. I had enough of being a defender, even if it was 1v1. I was a striker and my ultimate goal was to be the greatest striker! What's the deal with the current goal near me. I must take the ball into my possession and smash the goal in front of me, I said to myself.

I looked at the goal two-three yards away and then looked at Rina who had caught hold of Ball and was again dribbling towards the goal behind me. This time, she tried to avoid me. I could feel it. She had known by now that I was a tough defender and not so easy to be nutmegged. I became proud when I thought about it.

'No, no..I had to get hold of myself. I can't let her go past me and score a goal. Her line of sight must have me so that I can stop her.' My instinct as a Defender has been sharpened a lot. I was a good striker, I always knew that. However, playing 1v1 with Barou for 5 to 6 years has shaped me into a good defender as well.

I covered her area. She tried to avoid me but I was fast. She was starting to get frustrated. No matter how good her skills with the ball was, she could neither get rid of me, nor could she nutmeg me. I was inwardly laughing at her misfortune. Her frustration was quite visible through her face.

I tried to enrage her so that she could do a small mistake which I would take advantage of. I said to her, "What's taking so much time of you, you are just playing with ball!"

As expected, her face turned into one filled with anger. She felt provoked as she said, "Worry about yourself, genius!" She had acknowledged me as a genius, not that I cared.

She dashed towards me, the pink and the calm aura of her had turned into red and bloodthirsty one. I could feel it. She wanted the goal and she could go to any length to make it. She kicked the ball. The ball made an arc in air. However before the ball could go past me, I did something against the rule. I jumped towards the right with my whole body and used my right hand's finger to divert the motion made by the ball. My right hand's middle finger had barely hit the ball and it was bounced off. The goal was saved.

The other girls who were cheering for me and called me handsome before, suddenly changed into bunch of wild tigress.

"That's foul."

"That's cheating."

"It should be Rina's goal! Bastard cheater!"

Even Rina looked angry, she sneered at me with her cold eyes, "I didn't expect you to be a cheater or dirty trickster. Looks like, I may have misunderstood you!"

To these antics of her and her friends, I smiled. They were right, even I would do the same if I were in their position. However they were wrong about one thing.

I said to her, "You're right, I made a foul and cheated. But as you see, there are no goalkeepers among us. So I chose to be one. But that's against the rule of 1v1 so I should get yellow card, right?"

"In a national or international game, if a teammate can block a goal using his arms, palms or any body part of his hands , then he would do that with no hesitation. However it's not like he would get a straight red card. Soccer is a game of foot, I know that." I explained. As I was saying these words, I was observing Rina's face. My words seemed to work on her. I had successfully brainwashed her, I thought to myself.

She had understood what I meant to say. I wasn't wrong. From a perspective, I was right. I would get away from this foul with just a yellow card as it wasn't a serious foul to warrant a red card.

"You're right. I'm sorry for my outburst. Let's restart the game." She said, as if she had been enlightened. I saw the other cheerleaders. They all also seemed enlightened by my words. However, they stopped cheering for me this time. They all had come to Rina's side and they became cheerleaders only for her. They couldn't trust me after the foul play I just did but it seems that they have understood the reasoning behind the foul I made.

The game had started. Because of the foul play I did, we had come to an agreement that the game would start the same way as before. It will be Rina with possession of the ball.

Rina had dead serious eyes glued to the ball. She had pink and deadly calm aura around her. She came dribbling towards me or to be precise the goal behind me. She couldn't do the same shot again because the same trick wouldn't work. She had known by now that I was a genius who could copy her moves and evolve during a solo game.

My eyes then glued themselves to the ball. The surrounding lost their meanings. I could hear the cheering the girls did, whether it was for me or Rina, I couldn't care any less.

The ball was near me and it wasn't going anywhere because I wasn't letting it go anywhere. I remembered the last 2 goals Rina had done against me, I couldn't realise it but now everything was crystal clear. In a 1v1 game, the most important skill was your concentration to the ball.

As it started to make sense. I could feel the world losing their colours. The puzzle that was hiding from my eyes before, appeared now. I knew the puzzle piece that I had to draw. The piece of puzzle was like that of card in size. The word "Focus" was imprinted on it. The piece came to my forehead and entered it.

The moment that puzzle piece entered in me, my eyes became white. If before I had 70 percent concentration then now I have entered hundred percent concentration.

Suddenly the ball disappeared and I wondered where it went. After all my eyes were glued on it so where it could go? Suddenly my IQ kicked, and I saw above. The ball was in air. It was too late to think about it as I knew, Rina's diagonal fly kick was coming.

Suddenly I had an idea, a crazy idea. What if I can match the speed and movement of ball and make my own counter attack?

As soon as that thought came, Rina had already jumped and made the diagonal free kick. At the same time I also jumped and made a back flip. The football hit the rear of my legs. The force was tremendous enough to smash it apart to the other goal. And it did. This was my own created move which I had not devoured from anyone. I would name it 'The backflip shot'. I always knew I loved those flying shot goals. This move had instantly became my favourite move of all my collections.

Goal 2-3. I had won the match.

This happened so fast, that Rina didn't get the time to defend the shot. After all, my backflip shot had multiplied the speed of the ball by many times. So counter attack was way fast for her to do anything.

The amazing kick from me had mesmerized everyone on the audience. Even Rina was no exception.

Rina had a blank face right now. Soon she had come to a realisation. She had lost the match!

Many of her friends, the members of Pink Lock came to reassure her. The words which were demolishing my masterpeice game, came running to my ears. I was fuming with anger! These girls were saying that my play was just luck?

"It was just a fluke."

"He got lucky Rina otherwise he could have never won the match!"

Before I could retort in anger, Rina said something which made my impression of her skyrocket.

"Stop. These were not luck or fluke. These were the true skills of a true soccer player." Rina interrupted the girls. She then looked at me and apologized, "I'm sorry, these girls were just trying to reassure me and they didn't care about the justice in their words."

I nodded, you can't say anything bad against other party just to reassure or please the first party. In this case, that first party was Rina while I was the other party!

"By the way, what's your name? I can not, not know the name of the man who defeated me." She declared as she asked me.

"My name is Roy." I told my name to her and the entire Pink Lock.