Chapter 53
Whether the bustle of the eight-person room was what Cristiano wanted or not was not clear for the moment. He looked up while carrying his luggage and asked, "Where do I sleep?"
"Here." Keane pointed to the upper bunk bed at the innermost side.
"Oh." Cristiano blinked, his eyes fell on the corresponding lower bunk bed, where his national team teammate Costa was sitting.
Costa met Cristiano's eyes, raised his eyebrows, and found that his national team friends didn't seem very enthusiastic.
So Costa gave him a fake smile: "Long time no see, won't you give me a hug?"
Who was it that rushed up and gave him a bear hug and nearly strangled him to death last time? But there was no expression this time?
"Oh... we just met two weeks ago." Cristiano said, bending down and hugging Costa perfunctorily.
Costa rolled his eyes. The last time they met was not too long after the night of the Champions League final! Who is double standard?
"You're going to sleep here?" Cristiano asked Costa as if to confirm, while his eyes turned to his lover and raised his eyebrows slightly.
"What else?" Costa smiled. "Am I sitting here just to chat with you? Or do you want someone to sleep here? Tell me, and I can switch with that person."
Cristiano opened his mouth.
Just by seeing the other man's eyes clearly light up, Ferdinand was very sure that Cristiano would definitely bring up what Costa said without hesitation.
He interrupted Cristiano and said, "Stop messing around. What difference does it make? It's time to go out and gather."
Costa spread his hands, shrugged his shoulders, and gave Kaka who was standing at the door an expression that said "I can't help you".
Cristiano had no choice but to put down his luggage. He noticed that Kaka's bed was at the door, completely diagonally opposite to him, which could be said to be the farthest distance in the entire dormitory.
Cristiano opened his eyes wide, this was too inconvenient!
He couldn't help but whisper to Kaka during training: "Why did you choose to be so far away? And my position, why are we not together?"
"It was a draw." Kaka sighed.
The eight-person room was arranged by Keane. If Maldini had not proposed to arrange the beds by drawing lots, Manchester United's big brother would probably have chosen to put the two of them in the farthest positions.
But who knew that even by drawing lots, his luck would be so outstanding.
When Maldini saw the result of the draw, he couldn't help but close his eyes, but the Manchester United captain showed a kind smile.
Cristiano was silent after hearing this, and then suggested cryptically: "Why not be the last one to draw next time?"
"Good idea, Cris." Kaka laughed angrily. He pinched Chris's still soft and fleshy face, and mischievously pinched the beautiful curly-haired puppy into a pufferfish with a puffy mouth.
Cristiano rolled his eyes.
Ruud van Nistelrooy came over and interrupted the two men's whispering. Kaka subconsciously put down his hand, and Ruud van Nistelrooy pinched Cristiano's face without any hesitation: "Don't be lazy, boys, start training."
Manchester United's main players came over at the same time, and the few who particularly loved pinching faces were not left out. Almost everyone pinched Cristiano's face.
"Hey! What's wrong with you guys?" Cristiano waved his arms. He swore that his face must have been pinched red. Except for Van Nistelrooy and Ferdinand who liked to do this when celebrating goals, this group of people were not so keen on this usually.
Ferdinand pushed Cristiano's head down and took him away, while looking at Kaka with obvious warning.
Kaka suddenly realized that he and Cristiano were being too intimate. If they were already playing for the same club, no one would find it strange and ambiguous, but it was only 2004 and he was indeed a little carried away.
Kaka looked at Ferdinand and the others with gratitude. At least with their cover, his actions just now would not seem so abrupt.
There were many shots on the training ground. After receiving a warning from Ferdinand, Kaka obviously kept his distance, and when Cristiano tried to get close to Kaka repeatedly, he was pulled back by his teammates.
After the training, the group returned to the locker room to take a shower. There were cameras in several corners of the locker room, and some were even aimed at them taking a shower. Cristiano rolled his eyes when he saw this and simply took off his training clothes and covered himself with them.
After Giggs and others hesitated for a second after seeing this, they also took off their training clothes and covered the private shots in other positions.
"Are those guys crazy?" Cristiano muttered. "It would make me think they were crazy and wanted to auction my nude photos."
He took off all his clothes - the locker room in the training camp was much smaller and simpler than those in their club. The bathroom and locker room were connected together without even a partition. One could see directly into the bathroom from the locker room, and the bathroom had no partitions - Cristiano tied a towel around his waist, walked into the bathroom barefoot, turned on the faucet and wet his hair.
Neville spurted the water out with a "puff" sound: "Auctioning your nude photos?! Ronnie, your imagination is always amazing."
When Cristiano heard what Neville said, he opened his eyes and looked over. Water dripped from the ends of his curled eyelashes. He wiped his face, curled the corners of his mouth and shook his finger at Neville provocatively: "That's a market you don't understand."
"That's all you understand?" Neville was amused. He paused after subconsciously retorting, and widened his eyes in horror. "Wait, Mendes?!"
Ferdinand, Keane and others immediately stared at him. Cristiano's eyelids twitched and the foam got into his eyes. He quickly raised his head to rush out and denied it quickly, "Don't talk nonsense! It's not true! I just saw this kind of forum speech."
Yes, that's right. He still took a look at that wonderful forum. Not all discussions there were about him, there were also discussions about other victimized stars, but his content was indeed far more than anyone else's.
While he admitted that a lot of the content gave him goosebumps, some of the posts were interesting - he saw one that discussed his relationships with some of the players.
It is difficult for Cristiano to describe what kind of mood he was in when he clicked on the video. Maybe he felt a little uneasy, and also a little bit of secret expectation and curiosity. He wondered whether this group of gay people would discover his relationship with Kaka.
But the reality was to his great disappointment. There were about four hundred floors inside, at least three hundred of which were arguments between him and his Manchester United teammates, and the other one hundred were discussions between him and his national team teammates.
Cristiano only found a dozen or so speculations about him and Kaka, which were inconspicuous in the high-rise building and no one even took them seriously.
Is the radar out of order? Cristiano told Mendes to keep a close eye on the content on that forum; he needed to know how his relationship with Kaka was viewed by the most discerning people.
As for gossip authorities like The Sun, Cristiano believed he didn't need to say it.
If Cristiano had seen the contents of those tabloids that were sold for reprinting, he would have found that the ranking of the various rumors about his same-sex friends was almost identical to the discussion posts in the forum.
A flavor of domestic sales turning into wholesale.
Mendes thought Cristiano was worried about the fanatical gay fans that Ferguson had reminded him of, and he assured Cristiano that he would keep a close eye on the forum.
——Later, he was very glad that he had developed this good habit, which helped him realize at the first time that his two cash cows had turned into entwined swans.
Cristiano's teammates in the locker room were still wondering: "What forum?"
"Well, just some forums." Cristiano paused and evaded the question. He quickly washed and put on a clean T-shirt. "I'm going to eat. I'm starving. Hurry up."
Fanny raised his eyebrows, looked at Keane and the others, and exchanged glances: "It seems that he has secretly visited some adult websites that children should not visit."
"BOSS should strengthen supervision," said Ferdinand.
Neville: "I agree."
Rooney couldn't help rolling his eyes as he listened: "Oh my God, listen to the nonsense you are talking about."
Keane and his companions looked at Rooney when they heard this.
Rooney: "'Not a website for adults for kids'? God, he's six months older than me! But I never feel like a child with you guys?"
"Rooney, you..." Giggs paused, wanting to say something but stopping himself. He really couldn't get the same care from Rooney as he did from Cristiano. He might have to admit that sometimes it depends on appearance.
Ruud van Nistelrooy patted Rooney on the shoulder: "Maybe you look mature and reliable enough in advance."
"That's a good thing." Neville said thankfully, "I can't babysit two kids at the same time."
Rooney raised his eyebrows, feeling vaguely as if he was being praised, but also as if something was wrong.
Keane and Ferdinand urged in unison: "Stop chatting and pack up quickly."
"If we don't go to the cafeteria, there won't be much food left."
Giggs and his men immediately followed suit, and after packing up, they carried Rooney and said, "Let's go!"
When they arrived at the cafeteria, Cristiano was already sitting with Kaka for dinner. Rooney covered his mouth and whispered: "They just can't be separated, right?"
"Just eating." Giggs coughed lightly, which was nothing, at least from his upright perspective.
Cristiano waved to his teammates: "Hey! I got you some food, come on."
Ruud van Nistelrooy strode over upon hearing this, and was pleased to see his favorite potato and beef stew on the table. Cristiano was eagerly saying to him, "I grabbed a portion for you. It's not easy to grab."
In fact, he and Kaka both took one for each other, and only realized that they had taken too much when they returned to their seats.
No problem, the Dutch love to eat stews. Cristiano gave his share to the Dutch in the team.
"Yes, I like it very much." Van Nistelrooy said, sat down with a little pride, and looked at Manchester United's other main players.
"Everyone has a share. I remember you all liked these two?" Cristiano pointed to the two large plates of pasta and mushroom soup on the table. "Go check for the others. I'll just get these for you."
"That's good enough." Giggs patted the table and went to get his meal with satisfaction.
Watching the Red Devils leave to get their meals, Cristiano was visibly relieved.
"What?" Kaka raised his eyebrows and looked at his lover, "No wonder you took so much pasta and soup. But why not bring something else?"
"These are enough, I just can't just bring them to Van Nistelrooy." Cristiano winked at Kaka, he rolled a forkful of tomato pasta and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling: "The awkwardness of the British is beyond your imagination, but I have rich experience."
Kaka: “…”
He saw it.
He also rolled a forkful of pasta from the Manchester United Red Devils into his own plate. He slowly rubbed the metal fork: "You make me want to play in the Premier League."
"Hmm? Come to think of it, Boss also thought about buying you in his previous life." Cristiano swallowed his food and laughed, but after thinking about it seriously, he shook his head and said, "But the Premier League style is not suitable for you."
Kaka saw that Chris was seriously answering his spur-of-the-moment thought. He smiled helplessly and sighed: "No, Cris, what I mean is... I envy you for being able to spend such a long period of time with them."
Kaka thought to himself, no, he lied, he envied more than just this.
He envied Cristiano's equal and sincere kindness to his teammates, and he wished these precious qualities belonged only to him.
But he is also very clear, he always knows how good Cristiano is. He welcomed Benzema in French when he first came to Real Madrid, and joked with Kovacic in Italian when he transferred from Milan to Real Madrid. As for Kroos, even in German, Cristiano would always take the initiative to say a sentence or two to communicate.
Marcelo would enthusiastically use these to praise Cristiano at parties, and Cristiano would look proud and smug, boasting that he was just an ordinary language genius.
But Kaka knew very well that this was because Cristiano had experienced the loneliness and torment of language barriers, so he would always notice such small details at the first time. Such sincerity and attentiveness also made it easy for him to gain the respect and love of those who were also the chosen ones in the team.
Kaka thought of this, he tilted his head and gently rubbed Cristiano's neck, sighing softly: "Cris, you are always so nice."
Cristiano paused, put down his fork, and held Kaka's face with both hands: "Wow, Kaka, do you want me to tell you how good you are?"
Kaka kissed his lover's warm and dry palm and smiled. This was different. He thought, Cristiano would not be jealous of this, but he would.
"Kaka is a good friend to everyone," Cristiano said.
He looked into Kaka's deep brown eyes, and saw the little Cristiano in his pupils. Only with him did his heart fall heavily and steadily in his chest, feeling satisfied and at peace.
He curled up the corners of his mouth, with a little happy complaint in his voice: "Do you know how much I hated this before?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
