Football was Sae Itoshi's life. The sport ran through his veins, it fed him the same way food did and practicing it was like an oasis in the middle of the desert and hours of dehydration.

Sae lived to to play football; he breathed to wake up yet another day and feel the ever so usual weight of the ball against his feet, kicking it around, to hear the roar of the crowds in a stadium while the field was illuminated by the lights of it.

Sae Itoshi wasn't born to be a lover. He had been aware of it from a young age, and you had know about it the moment you two met. But you stayed.

You stayed in a relationship where you weren't a priority; and while you weren't entirely unwanted, you weren't entirely loved either. You had known of the place you'll take even before getting in a relationship with him, but that didn't meant it hurt any less to be in this situation when one was being so easily brushed aside.

Sae hadn't known how you two even got together, he didn't remembered ever asking you out on a date, much less to become official and he hadn't been the one to initiate the conversation about future plans to move in together. Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye you've been dating two years, which was more than what he had ever thought he'd date anyone. He didn't understood your persistence.

But he did understood that, he'll never be able to love you the way you wanted or needed to be loved. It wasn't in his nature, and doing so meant less football time and concentration, and he wasn't willing to drop the biggest passion he had in his life.