CHAPTER 84: BUTTERFLIES?

"Hahaha... She calls and you’re kicking your father out? How ruthless... Have fun," Javi whispered as he walked out of the room.

"Hey, Jo, how are you doing?" Lukas asked softly.

No response came from the other end of the phone.

"Hello... Can you hear me?"

"...Ye...s," her voice came through, cracked as if she was holding back tears.

"Jo, I am okay. I swear. Please don’t cry."

"Who says I’m... crying?"

"You’re not? Because I would never want to be the reason my queen sheds tears."

"I’m not crying... not anymore, at least," she whispered the last part.

"What did you say? I didn’t quite get it."

"Nothing. How is your ankle? Does it hurt?"

"It hurts a bit, but the doctor said it wasn’t that serious. I should be completely healed in 2 to 3 weeks."

"That’s great. I’ll come see you tomorrow, okay?"

"I already can’t wait for tomorrow. Now that you’ve told me you’ll be coming, today will pass so slowly. It’s going to be a long wait."

"I knowwww... I’d have loved to come today, but things at school are getting really hectic. I can’t afford to miss classes today, even though I haven’t been able to concentrate at all."

"I understand that, dear. I’ll see you tomorrow morning, okay? And please don’t be too worried about me. Injuries like these are quite common in the sport."

"That doesn’t make it any less painful, though. Does it?"

"You’re right, it doesn’t. But knowing I’m causing you pain by being injured makes it even more painful for me."

"...Fine... I’ll try to concentrate on my school work. Call me if anything comes up, okay?"

"I will do that. Have a nice day. I’ll see you tomorrow."

"See ya!" she responded as the call ended.

Lukas looked at the door of his room. "Dad, come in! You know I can see your ear, right?"

Javi calmly pushed the door open, peeked inside the room, and looked at the door. "Hmmm... Aha, so it’s tinted glass... No wonder," he said as he stepped in. "Finally done with your call? So private you kicked your father out?"

"Yeah, I’m done."

"How’s she faring?"

"I’ve let her know I’m okay. She’ll be coming tomorrow."

"Who’s ’she,’ Lukas? Your girlfriend?" Larsson asked as he stepped into the room.

Following behind him were Knauff, Theate, Kristensen, Uzun, and Collins.

"Oh God, what are you guys doing here?" Lukas asked.

"Awwnn... You’re so happy to see us? It sounds like you’re about to tear up," Theate teased.

"Yes, I am about to cry. For very different reasons, though," Lukas replied.

"There’s a word for people like you in Japanese... It’s called ’Tsundere’," Uzun said.

"There he goes about anime again," Collins muttered. "Give it a few seconds and this topic will shift to ’The Big Three.’ Can always finds a way to talk about Attack on Titan."

"Bro, that’s the greatest show ever made by humans in history. It’s not even close. The fact it’s not included in the ’big three’ conversations is because it’s on a whole other level," Uzun continued.

"I can’t lie... he does have a point," Lukas admitted.

"Ohh, please... Not you too, Luke," Kristensen said, comically placing both hands on his head.

"AOT’s just GOATed. That’s not my fault. You’ve gotta give it a watch sometime, bro. I binged it during the off-season. It was the greatest two weeks of my life," Uzun said.

"Enough anime talk. The draw for the Europa League play-offs is today, right?" Knauff asked.

"Yeah, in an hour or so," Larsson said, glancing at his watch.

"Nice. Let’s watch it together," Knauff suggested.

The boys turned on the TV and switched to Sky Sports News HD, where the draw would be broadcast.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Lukas was staring at the screen, a bit perplexed.

"TT, in the previous timeline, we also lost to Roma, right?"

[*Yeah, Eintracht lost 2-0 to Roma.*]

"And even if we scored one goal this time, it didn’t change their position on the table, did it?"

[*It did not. They still have the highest goal difference among teams that secured 12 points. So they’re still 15th on the league table — which is where they finished last time. Your club also finished 5th with 16 points, like before.*]

"So why does this bracket look different from what I remember?"

[*Maybe because you’re remembering wrongly? It’s been 20 years since this happened anyway. It’s not your fault if your memory of the Europa League play-off bracket from 20 years ago is completely non-existent.*]

"So are you saying this is the same bracket as in the previous life?"

[*Oh, definitely not. I was just presenting a plausible theory as to why your memory might be fuzzy.*]

"Smart mouth. Anyway, what has changed?"

[*The play-off matchups are exactly the same, but your position in the bracket has switched. Eintracht met Tottenham in the Quarterfinals previously. Now, the earliest you can meet Tottenham/Man Utd is the semis. That’s the biggest change.*]

"Is this another of the so-called butterfly effects at work?"

"Guys... Who knows when the actual draw for the round of 16 will be?" Lukas asked the group.

"21st of February, after the play-offs end on the 20th," Uzun replied.

"Who do you want us to meet in the Round of 16? Fenerbahçe, Anderlecht, Bodø/Glimt, or FC Twente?" Knauff asked.

Uzun: "I wanna play Fenerbahçe."

Theate: "Hmm... Anderlecht. It’ll feel good to put them in their place."

Kristensen: "Ohh, Arthur, you played for Genk, right?"

Theate: "Yeah, came through their academy. I don’t like Anderlecht, at all!"

Larsson: "I don’t care who we play. As long as we win. I wanna play in the final in Bilbao."

Knauff: "We’re gonna make it."

Lukas looked around the room quietly and smiled. They all looked determined to push themselves as far as they could in this competition.

* * *

One week later.

8th February, 2025.

"And it’s another 1-1 draw for Eintracht Frankfurt. Eintracht Frankfurt has now gone three games without a win: two league draws against Wolfsburg last week and now Borussia Monchengladbach. Tonight, Tim Kleindienst opens the scoring with a header, and Hugo Ekitike levels the score. No other tie-breaker for the next hour of play. You see Eintracht in the past two games — wasteful in front of goal, unable to stick the ball in the back of the net — you’ve gotta ask, who is it that they are missing?"

Lukas watched the post-match analysis by Sky Sports on the B. Monchengladbach vs. Eintracht Frankfurt match, which had ended a few minutes ago.

He was sitting in his living room, as he had not travelled with the team for the away match due to his injury.

Well, his injury had already completely healed in the LTC. But he was just waiting for some time to pass before he ’exported’ it, so it wouldn’t look suspicious.

"I can’t wait any longer," Lukas muttered, looking at his team’s next schedules. "If I wanna start in both matches against Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen, I have to be fit enough to play against Holstein Kiel first."

"TT, export injury progress now."

[Grade 1 Sprain: Overstretched ATFL

Injury Progress in LTC: Fully Healed

Exporting Progress to Real Life.

Progress: 1%

Estimated Time: 8 hours]

"Ohhh, you’ve got to be kidding me! What kind of slow connection is this," Lukas lamented as the progress bar triggered PTSD from when TT initially updated to version 3.0.

[*.....*]