Chapter 28: Saudi '23

                                    

                                          

🎶 Dreamers [Music from the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Official Soundtrack] — Jung Kook, BTS, FIFA Sound 🎶


                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
📍 Manchester Airport
soph.corbyn Little getaway 🇸🇦🩵
alfie.corbyn Enjoyyyyy 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼
rubendias 😍
sarah1309 Have fun! 😊

There I was, on Monday morning at the airport, feeling utterly lost in the middle of the private terminal for City's chartered flight to Saudi. The first team players had already arrived and been taken to a secluded lounge while the staff was checking in all of their baggage, which included physio and training equipment as well as everyone's suitcases. My father was also busy himself, checking in his things while talking to his co-workers.
"Hey, are you ok?" I heard a girl's voice asking and turned around to find a pretty brunette who must have been around my age.
"Um... just a bit overwhelmed. You're Julian's girlfriend, right?" I asked, remembering her from that dinner at WOOD a few weeks ago.
"Yes! You're Ruben's...?" she asked with a small grin on her face.
"Girlfriend. But it's all pretty new and fresh so..." I mumbled and made hand signs that gestured to keep it quiet.
"Oh! I'm so happy for you" she replied and patted my upper arm.
"Erm... So how does this work? We just check in our stuff and...?" I asked.
"Yep, we're in a separate boarding group, first come the players, then staff and then friends & families" she explained as we started queuing.
"There's so many people, I wouldn't have imagined" I mumbled, looking around the hall that was filled with people.
"Yeah, but flying to the Champions League final was even crazier. We had two planes because there were so many coming" she explained and I nodded, listening to her stories from the final a few months ago and now I regretted not going, thank you, Ed, for holding me back, again.
It was our turn to check in eventually and I thanked Emilia a million times for sticking next to me as I really didn't know many people yet, but she insisted on it, stating that a year ago, she was in my same shoes. We actually got along really well and the 8 and a half hour flight passed quickly with us watching movies, napping or just talking about our lives and getting to know each other better. When we arrived, we were both in desperate need of a loo on steady ground and took our sweet time emptying our intestines after collecting our baggage.
"Hurry up, hurry up, this is the last bus!" a guy with a baby blue City jacket urged us as we walked out to the exit. We ran to the bus, which was half-empty as apparently everyone had already managed to get to the hotel before us.
"Oh thank God, imagine we would have been stranded here" I groaned, my nerves already on the rocks because of being here and probably meeting Ruben's parents soon. I didn't know what they looked like and didn't feel like walking up to every couple my parents' age in our group and asking Hey, are you Ruben's parents?
After checking into my single room and freshening up a bit, it was time for dinner. Time to meet the parents. I barely managed to arrive to the entrance of the food hall, that Ruben had already stood up from his table and walked over to me.
"Hey! How was the flight?" he asked and smiled adoringly at me.
"Good, I met Emilia, she was really nice to me" I replied, nervously fiddling with the rings on my fingers.