"Happy birthday, Jin!"
June 6th. He had forgotten about his birthday, thinking it was just an ordinary day. The date had crept up on him amidst the whirlwind of the season's end—the championship celebrations, the transfer rumors, the endless media obligations. But his family had not forgotten.
After dinner, as the restaurant lights dimmed, Maria walked in with a large cake adorned with candles. The warm glow flickered across her face, and behind her, Uncle Hans and little Frank wore matching grins. Only then did Jin Hayes realize he was already 17 years old.
Seventeen. The number felt surreal. In 2007, he was just an ordinary junior high school graduate, taking advantage of the summer vacation after his high school entrance exams to participate in a football talent show. With a playful attitude, he made it to the finals and came to England with his friends, to Everton. The place where the dream began.
His two years as a professional player were even more exciting than the 30 years he had experienced in his dreams. Especially the past 2008–09 season, Jin Hayes had countless firsts: his first encounters with giants like Real Madrid, Manchester United, and Barça. His first championship. His first taste of the pain of regret.
"We wish our Jin to achieve his dreams in the new season!" Maria said, raising her glass.
"Winning the Champions League at 17? That's a bit too exaggerated, isn't it?" Uncle Hans chuckled, shaking his head.
"Why not? Is Jin an ordinary player?" Maria retorted.
"You're right," Hans admitted. By common sense, he always felt it was absurd. But when Maria countered, he realized that Jin Hayes was definitely not an ordinary player. This child was a once-in-a-century football prodigy. Winning the Champions League at 17 wasn't some wild fantasy. If nothing unexpected happened, Jin Hayes would have been a treble winner at 16! That would have been truly absurd.
In Uncle Hans's opinion, achieving the highest honours too early might not be a good thing. For example, Anderson of Manchester United, who joined Manchester United at 19, won the Golden Boy Award in 2007, and came on as a substitute in the Champions League final, helping his team score a penalty and lift the Champions League trophy.
After that, he never had any outstanding performances and gradually fell from being an unsellable asset at Manchester United to a fringe player. There are also people who won a world championship at 17, and that flash of brilliance became one of the few highlights of their professional career. After that, it was as if they were trapped in Incheon that year, constantly hitting new lows and making no further progress.
In Uncle Hans's view, Jin Hayes was still very young and had plenty of time to constantly set new records and conquer various competitions. The victories, defeats, sweat, pain, injuries, and separations that a professional player encounters are all indispensable parts of a career. Without any one of these, a career is not complete. No one's professional career is smooth sailing; no championship comes easily. They all require hard work, sweat, and a bit of luck to fight for.
In happiness and emotion, Jin Hayes closed his eyes and made his 17th birthday wish. The wish was simple: he just hoped to have as perfect a season as possible in the 2009–10 season, fighting without regret. He blew out the candles, and the room erupted in applause.
When it was Anna's turn to give him a birthday present, she suddenly said with a hint of shyness that she needed to prepare, and then Jin Hayes should come to her room later.
???
When did Anna get so bold? Jin Hayes's heart inevitably sped up. Could it be... He tried to push the thought away, but his imagination ran wild. After dinner, he felt a bit nervous in his room, mentally prepared, and even brushed his teeth, before carefully knocking on Anna's door.
"Come in."
The girl's lazy, soft voice made Jin Hayes swallow, and he pushed the door open.
Downstairs, Uncle Hans was still pondering. "You think, they wouldn't really get into trouble, would they? No, I have to go up and check, tell Anna to open the door."
"Don't meddle. Don't you trust your daughter? Besides, if they really got together, wouldn't you be satisfied with Jin as your son-in-law?" Maria said, rolling her eyes.
"I know Jin is a good kid, but they're both too young."
"17 is too young? When we were 17, we were already..."
"But—"
"Come on, let's go, give the kids some space."
Maria grabbed her husband and dragged him out of the house. No matter how worried Uncle Hans was, there was nothing he could do. He could only stare at the lit window on the second floor and sigh deeply. "Is my daughter really growing up?"
As they left, they casually turned off the lights in the living room and dining room. In the darkness, Frank, who was eating cake, was baffled.
"Wait? Am I not here? Was I really adopted?"
With no other option, Frank pulled out his phone.
"Honey, what are you doing?"
"Alright, I'm coming now."
Putting the cake in the fridge, Frank grabbed his jacket and motorcycle helmet, went out, twisted the throttle, and rode off in style.
Old Fritz was at the other kids' house, leaving only Jin Hayes and Anna in the entire cottage.
"Hey, what was I even thinking?"
Jin Hayes's mental preparations before entering the room were meaningless. Anna was just sitting at her computer desk in her usual cute bear pajamas. Seeing Jin Hayes, she happily waved him over.
"What do you want to give me?"
"Come sit here, close your eyes first."
Anna pressed Jin Hayes into the chair, then went behind him. One small hand covered Jin Hayes's eyes, while the other clicked the mouse. Jin Hayes could only feel the cool softness on his eyes, the gentle warmth behind his head, and the faint fragrance from the girl.
"All done!"
With a mix of nervousness and anticipation, the girl removed her hands. Jin Hayes looked curiously at the screen. She had opened a media player, and now there was only a single line of text on the black screen.
Having been exposed to some Christian culture in the Heinrich household, Jin Hayes recognized the adapted quote at a glance. It was from John 14:6: "Ich bin der Weg und die Wahrheit und das Leben" (I am the way and the truth and the life).
Before Jin Hayes could fully appreciate its meaning, his own image appeared on the screen. It was from last year, his youthful face from his first professional match.
DFB-Pokal, Borussia Dortmund vs. 3. Liga Magdeburg.
"In the 56th minute of the second half, Jakub Błaszczykowski leaves the field, replaced by the 15-year-old youngster, Jin Hayes, on loan from Arsenal."
"Jin, his first touch—wow!! Brilliant control! An audacious chip over his opponent!!"
"He's in the box!! Is it a pass or a shot?!"
"It's a goal!!! Jin Hayes creates a goal in the first minute after coming on as a substitute! Helping Borussia Dortmund equalize!"
"A stunning assist! Extremely imaginative!"
"Who would have thought that after only 5 minutes on the field, super-sub Jin Hayes tears open a gap on the wing and delivers a brilliant pass to his teammate!"
"Borussia Dortmund fiercely pulls one back! 1–1 against Werder Bremen!!"
"A last-minute winner from the young magician!!"
"4–3!! An epic comeback against Bayern Munich! Can you believe it?!"
"Helping Borussia Dortmund overturn the dominance of the Bundesliga giants!"
"Jin Hayes successfully defended the Westfalenstadion!"
"The teenager is Dortmund's saviour!"
"Again, he steps up to defeat Bayern Munich twice, leading Borussia Dortmund from the relegation zone all the way to the Champions League!"
"Crazy! The Allianz Arena is absolutely wild! 39 minutes into the first half, away team Borussia Dortmund leads 4–0!"
"The young player, 16 years and 86 days old, completes his first Bundesliga hat-trick!"
"Jin Hayes also breaks the record for the youngest Bundesliga hat-trick!"
"Goooool!! That's a Jin-style world-class shot!!"
"He doesn't score easy goals!"
"He's practically a god on the field! Oh my god!"
"Jin breaks the Champions League record! He is the youngest goalscorer in the Champions League knockout stages!"
"It's a goal!!!"
"Jin Hayes's acrobatic finish further extends the lead!"
"Borussia Dortmund leads by four goals away from home!"
"In 5 Champions League group stage matches, Jin Hayes contributed 6 goals and 7 assists!!"
"This young man has completely silenced the Bernabéu!"
"Jin — — — · Shot!!"
"It's a goal!!! A last-minute winner!!"
"Aggregate score 7–6!! Borussia Dortmund defeats Manchester United at Old Trafford in the last minute, advancing to the Champions League semi-finals!!"
"They are truly the biggest dark horse of the season!"
"He is the youngest hat-trick scorer in Champions League history! And the first Chinese player to score a hat-trick in the Champions League, and the first to score four goals!"
"Borussia Dortmund is down 2–5, a score that most people would consider impossible to equalize!"
"But! The 16-year-old Jin Hayes leads the Black and Yellow youth storm, scoring 3 goals in the second half! 5–5! They did it!"
"The goal in injury time, Jin Hayes and the team's perfect cooperation, almost passing the ball into the net! Breaking Barça in Barça's own style!"
"Jin Hayes sprints 80 metres, taking the head of the enemy general from amidst a multitude of troops!"
"The match is over!! Borussia Dortmund defeats title rivals Wolfsburg head-on, winning the championship two rounds early!"
"The Bundesliga championship shield, absent for seven years, is finally returning to Borussia Dortmund!"
"Jin Hayes, the hero of Borussia Dortmund's championship, lifts the salad bowl. Let's all say it together: Borussia Dortmund, are champions!"
"After 40 minutes of silence, Borussia Dortmund, with all players back in form, is on fire! Marching towards the German Cup title!"
"Jin Hayes, at only 16 years old, leads Borussia Dortmund to win this season's Bundesliga double!"
"You can always trust this young man!"
Accompanied by the driving electronic rock of a popular track from that era, highlights from Jin Hayes's past two seasons flashed continuously. Among them were broadcast game clips from TV stations, as well as content Anna herself had filmed with a DV camera. Every moment of the past two seasons at Borussia Dortmund was condensed into this nearly 5-minute highlight reel.
It was clear that Anna had spent a long time preparing this compilation. She didn't know how to edit, so she secretly learned Premiere Pro video editing and even used After Effects for some special effects. The video showed traces of a beginner, but the editing quality was on par with professional YouTubers! It was hard to imagine this was the work of a video editing novice.
More than the footage Anna collected, Jin Hayes was surprised by the effort the girl had put into it!
Jin Hayes couldn't help but turn to look at the girl, but she grabbed his head with her small hand and forcibly turned him back.
"Don't look at me, keep watching the video."
After the two seasons of highlights, the last half of the video showed footage from the championship parade five days ago.
On June 1st, the Borussia Dortmund club, in conjunction with the city government, held a double-championship parade in the city centre of Dortmund. Jin Hayes and his teammates rode on a double-decker bus, all wearing double-championship commemorative shirts, holding the two championship trophies on the top deck of the bus. They received cheers and applause from the frantic fans lining the streets.
The entire city of Dortmund was like a holiday... No, it was a carnival!
Almost the entire city turned out, and there were even many Chinese students and immigrants in Europe who rushed to the scene. A small city with a resident population of 600,000, it was flooded with over a million people that day. Borsigplatz, the site of the championship celebration, was completely packed, with a dense crowd as far as the eye could see.
Anna recalled the scene that day with a slight fear—if anything had happened, there would have been nowhere to escape; all the fans in the square simply couldn't move. Fortunately, the atmosphere at the time was filled with celebration, and the entire championship celebration proceeded smoothly.
At the celebration, in addition to displaying the Bundesliga championship shield and the German Cup trophy, the Borussia Dortmund coach and players took turns on stage to give their championship speeches. At the end of the video, it was the speeches of the Borussia Dortmund team, each person igniting the passion of the tens of thousands of fans present with a single sentence.
When it was Jin Hayes's turn—the biggest contributor to the double championship, the darling of Borussia Dortmund, the King of Westfalen—to take the stage, Anna, holding the DV camera at the back, recorded the spectacular scene at that time. Hundreds of thousands of people in the audience were showing their reverence with worshipful gestures, expressing their sincere respect to a Chinese teenager.
The footage from the camera could hardly convey the shock of seeing it in person at the time. Anna even had a fleeting feeling that Jin Hayes on stage was too distant from her, and that as an ordinary girl from an ordinary family, an unknown model, she seemed no longer worthy of being with Jin Hayes. Fortunately, this feeling lasted only for a brief moment. Anna was more happy and proud for the boy she liked.
"Was it that lively that day? The lights kept shining on the stage, I couldn't see below clearly."
"Of course! You have no idea how exaggerated the scene was."
"Okay."
Jin Hayes only realized how exaggerated it was when he saw the footage in the camera.
Then came his speech. Holding the microphone, he spoke eloquently into the camera, and after a brief review of the past season, Jin Hayes solemnly promised the hundreds of thousands of people in the square:
"Next year! Next season, we, Borussia Dortmund, will not be satisfied with just the double championship. We will continue to strive for more! Overturn Bayern, overturn Manchester United, overturn Real Madrid and Barça—overturn all the powerful giants in Europe!"
"They say the Bumblebees are a youth storm, so let the destructive power of this storm be even greater!"
"Together, we will sweep across Europe! Stand at the pinnacle of Europe and claim that damn Big-Eared Cup!!"
A violent roar immediately erupted from the crowd, so much so that Anna's camera shook wildly.
The scene cut back to Jin Hayes. His glance back after school, his sweat on the training ground, sleeping soundly in his bedroom, driving his Lamborghini around town with style—Anna had been recording every moment of Jin Hayes with her camera. Countless images flashed quickly with the melody, finally returning to Anna herself, in footage recorded at an unknown time.
"Jin, over the past two years, we've spent so many wonderful times together. In the new season, and every season after, I'll be with you. Happy birthday, Ich lieb' dich."
Perhaps the final German phrase, "I love you," was too cheesy. Anna blushed even more and simply turned off the screen.
The video ended.
"Anna."
"What?"
"I really like this gift—"
It would be a lie to say Jin Hayes wasn't touched. He never expected that the usually serene girl harboured such strong emotions. Every time he fought on the field, she was silently by his side. On the other hand, he was sometimes busy with matches and training, preoccupied with results and pressure, and had neglected Anna.
"Anna, Ich dich auch—"
Jin Hayes intended to respond to her last words and turned to hug the girl. But she became even shyer, unable to handle such a situation, and pressed her hands on Jin Hayes's shoulders, preventing him from turning.
"Just like this, don't turn around."
Jin Hayes could only feel Anna behind him, her hands wrapped around his neck, her whole body pressed tightly against him, carrying an intoxicating scent. Her cool, moist lips gently pecked his cheek.
Who could resist that?
"Jin, don't move, just like this."
"Eh?! What are you doing?!"
"They're still here!!"
The girl panicked. Her slender arms couldn't restrain Jin Hayes at all. Instead, he scooped her up in a princess carry and tossed her onto the pink bed in her room, piled with plush toys.
"They've already left."
"Don't..."
Anna suddenly regretted showing him the video in her room. Of course, the more flustered and scared she became, the more she felt a thrilling sense of breaking through her comfort zone explode in her heart.
"Could it be... today?"
She looked up at him, her eyes wide, her cheeks flushed. Jin Hayes looked down at her, his own heart pounding. For a moment, neither of them moved. The video's final frame still glowed softly on the computer screen, casting the room in a warm, intimate light.
"Anna," Jin Hayes said softly, "thank you. For everything. For being here."
She reached up and touched his face, her fingers tracing the line of his jaw.
"I'll always be here," she whispered. "No matter where you go, no matter what you achieve. I'll be watching."
He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then her nose, then—very gently—her lips. It was their first real kiss, and it tasted like birthday cake and promises.
When they finally pulled apart, Anna was smiling, her eyes glistening.
"Happy birthday, Jin."
He grinned. "Best birthday ever."