day one hundred and sixty three . 

It had taken Frida a few hours to decide, after she had gotten permission from her parents. And five days later, the Becker family was accompanying the Damm family to Chile. Their first destination was Vina del Mar, where the seleccion Mexicana would be facing Bolivia at Estadio Sausalito. 

His family had been good at keeping her presence a secret, and Frida tried her best not to let her excitement show. As far as he knew, she was still upset that he wouldn't be able to visit her.

The stadium was in a south american country that was far down in the continent, making it a significant distance from the home of the guest team. Bolivia was much closer. But when it came to fans, Mexico was represented with thousands of fans in the stands. Bolivia would be the team wearing green during that game, which meant Mexico would be forced to dress in their red jerseys. The stands were painted in Bolivian green, but the tricolor wasn't left behind.

A multitude of red jerseys painted the stadium, letting the players know they were supported by their fans. They believed in them, the men representing their pride and honor; a team representing Mexico.

Frida dressed in a red jersey with his name and number on the back. Due to the heat of the month of June in Chile, she wore jean shorts and black sneakers. Her jet black hair was pulled back into a pony tail. Her sister Agnetha sat right beside her and her older brother sat to the other side. All of them were excited to watch Jürgen play live for the first time.

The ocassion was made even more special because it would be Jürgen's first time playing along side the national team.

His family had been able to get great seats despite the last minute plan to bring Frida and her family along and the German young woman felt her heart speed up when she saw the two national teams walk out onto the pitch. 

In all honesty, her eyes were trained on the men with scarlet jerseys and charcoal black shorts. Their knee high socks matched the color of their jerseys in the same brilliant red tone, but had a lightning bolt design halfway up, which created the shape of the letter M. It was an M for Mexico, the country they would fight hard to defend on the pitch.

Frida spotted a thin young man walk out and she was certain of recognizing him before she even read the name on the back of his shirt. He was tall, a few inches taller than most of his team mates. His hair was brown, but with hints of gold tint when the sun hit him at just the right angle. He would be talking a couple more steps before turning to face the crowd for the anthems. Her brown eyes checked the name on his shirt. This was the moment of truth for Frida. J. Damm, number twenty-five. 

When Frida was finally able to actually see him, she was filled with a sense of excitement and joy. Now she would get to hug him like she's been waiting to, but most importantly, there wouldn't be a distance problem or the problem of different time zones, at least for a few days.

Her sister Agnetha nudged her and when Frida turned, she saw her sister wiggling her eyebrows at her. "You're boyfriend is handsome, Anni." She teased.

Frida went red in the face. "Aggie!"

"What?" Shrugged her younger sister. "I wanted to mention it before, but mum wouldn't let me because of the pact both of you made. He's just lucky you're not ugly." Agnetha joked.

"Jürgen isn't like that." Frida assured her sister. "I think that if I were an unnatractive person on the outside, he wouldn't be worried by that. I fell in love with his heart, and I hope he fell in love with mine. I don't care if you tease me for it, but sometimes one can fall in love when they look with their heart, not with their eyes."

Agnetha snorted. "Right. Well, you're lucky too. Mum says you'd make perfect babies. She's even already named them."

"Oh my gosh." Frida gasped, horrified. "We haven't even met in person yet and you two already planned out our lives?"

Her sister shrugged once more. "Sometimes we get bored and there's nothing on t.v."

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The game kept members of both families at the edge of their seats. Frida found herself shouting at everything that happened during the game. She shouted when Jürgen would get knocked down, she shouted when the Mexican side was near the opposing goal, she yelled when Jürgen got knocked down several more times. Though he was tall, she worried that being one of the younger as well as thinner players on the field, he could get pushed around so easily that he could become injured. And she was filled with rage when number twenty-five was given a warning for fouling a member of the opposing team. She yelled when the Bolivians snuck past the Mexican defense and she yelled when each attempt at a goal was stopped by the Mexican goal keeper.

Her yelling went from stressed to overjoyed, and back again, in a matter of seconds. When the tricolor managed to get past the rival goal keeper and a player named Oribe Peralta sent the goal straight into the back of the net, everyone in the stands who was supporting the Mexican team jumped up to celebrate. Frida and her family celebrated it as well. And when they scored a second goal, Frida knew the team had their victory assured.

The game was over by early afternoon. Frida and her family followed the Damm family out of the crowded stadium. Everywhere were euphoric Mexican fans, thrilled to have watched their team win their first game of the tournament. Sounds of voices cheering and traditional music playing filled her ears.

It was all foreign to her.

Jürgen's parents asked her to stay close. They worried that she or any member of her family could become lost, and since none of them spoke Spanish, they would be screwed.

The parking lot was equally as estatic as the outside of the stadium and it was over an hour when they reached their hotel. The national team was staying at one nearby, but visits were restricted. Their coach wanted them all to be on their best behavior, so as not to ruin their concentration. But his parents had found a way around it.

Once they dropped off her family at their suite, Mrs. Damm invited Frida for a cup of coffee at the cafe in the lobby. The friendly woman walked with Frida and they sat at a table. Before a worker could approach them to take their order, Mrs. Damm complained, "Oh no! I left my wallet with my husband."

"That's fine." Frida shook her head. "I can pay."

"No." Mrs. Damm refused. "You go ahead and order something. I'll just run up to my suite and get it." With that, the woman got up and raced out of the cafe.

Frida waited five minutes, then ten. Fifteen minutes had gone by when Frida realized Mrs. Damm was not coming back. The young woman didn't know what to think. She thought his mother might be playing a prank on her, or maybe she had just forgotten to return.

She got up from her seat and gathered her things to head out, but was surprised to see a young man as he reached the entrance. He was looking down at his cellphone screen and his hair was damp as though he had just gotten out of the shower. He dressed in black training pants with green striped on the sides, and a black jacket with his national team logo on it. He looked like he hadn't been planning on going out. He clicked the lock button on his phone and stuffed it into his pocket, his honey colored eyes scanned the surroundings of the cafe, like he was searching for someone.

But there was no recognition in his eyes when they fell upon Frida.

She bit her lip, urging herself to speak up and talk to him, but she was too nervous.

Upon finding that the person he was searching for was not there, he shrugged and turned to leave. On his face was a faint look of annoyance. And that's when it hit Frida. Mrs. Damm had probably set this up for them to meet without him knowing she was there.

Realizing that, the twenty year old ran out of the cafe in search for him. She stopped him, just as he was about to turn the corner and disappear into another hallway. 

"Juju..." She called shyly.

He completely stopped in his tracks, frozen.

Slowly he turned, nervous to see her for the first time. This was the girl he had been talking to for a year. She was his best friend, the one who truly knew him and made him smile. He loved her.

Finally standing before each other, just ten feet apart, both could feel their hearts thumping frantically against their chest. He wanted to run to her, and she to him, but both were unresponsive. 

The young man's mouth opened slowly, and a barely audible sound left his lips.

"Frid." He uttered her name for the first time.

And, she was certain, it sounded just beautiful in his voice.

the end.

-

the first update of the new year!

and yesss.

i'm evil by ending it like this. muahahaha. but...i thought it would be fun to give it this type of ending. you know, like in "la misma luna" *spoilers. sorry if you haven't watched it* when carlitos finally finds his mom after travelling days from mexico to find her in the united states and they're on opposite sides of the street. so they press the button to turn the light green so they can run into each other's arms. but then the movie ends with the camara focused on the street light as it turns green and you're left without the lovely moment of mother and son hugging.

i mean, you know it'll happen. but you don't get to see it. that's what happens with jurgen and frida in this story.

so yeah.

i really hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it for you guys. the story that will replace this one now is a paul aguilar one, which i might post later today. so stay tuned for that.

i love you.

-clary xx