[Chapter 1 - How It All Began]

Her voice was like the wind.

Whenever it reached his ears, he could feel all of his muscles instantly relax, the burns and aches accumulated from long practice hours melting away like butter. His life became routine: wake up, go to practice, shower, and then relax to Aria Romano's radio show, Song For You, until her voice lulled him to sleep.

He never really understood what it was that made him like the show so much. Aria's voice was crisp and cheerful, for one part. But perhaps what really did it was that she always made her listeners feel included. Many times he had felt compelled to send in a letter, to express his gratitude to her and her show for helping him during the darkest times of his soccer career.

Soccer was an important part of his life, but important would have been an understatement. Soccer was his entire world; without it, he would have nothing else, so the fact that he was able to make a career out of the sport was more than he could ever want. When he had received the offer to play professionally in Italy, he thought his life was set.

That was until he had experienced for the first time, life outside of his native country Japan. Yes, he had gone traveling outside of Japan before, but unless it was for overseas tournaments, he had never stayed in foreign countries for too long, especially on his own. While the idea of life outside Japan had been both thrilling and liberating, the reality hadn't been easy.

The food had been one thing. Although delicious, it had been difficult for him to stomach meals that he was not used to. Gone were the days of rice and seafood, replaced instead with bread and noodles.

Language was a whole other issue on its own. He had immediately felt the language barrier with his limited Italian. His teammates were thankfully understanding of his situation and tried to help as much as possible, but the language barrier made any sort of communication challenging.

With so much occurring in the early stages of his professional soccer career, the thought of quitting and moving back to Japan crossed his mind now and then. That all ended when his team's trainer Isabella introduced him to Song For You.

"Ichirouta," she had said, beckoning him after practice one day. He complied, only to be given a piece of paper with the name Aria Romano and the words Song For You. "Aria's radio show is one of my favorites," the girl explained. "She has helped me through the toughest times. I highly recommend it." He had stared down at the paper, perplexed, before giving Isabella a smile and returning home. He figured that it wouldn't hurt to listen to this Aria Romano's show.

So once he had gotten comfortable on his couch and changed into loungewear, he tuned in for Song For You. At this point, he didn't understand how a radio show could give him the life-changing experience Isabella had promised.

Right as he was about to stop listening, Aria's segment began. His hand stopped as soon as he heard her introduction: "This is Aria Romano and you are listening to Song For You! The night is young so let's have fun tonight!"

A few minutes into the show, his first thought was 'I wish I had known about this sooner'. It was difficult to describe exactly how the show made him feel other than that it made him comfortable. Aria felt like a friend rather than a radio personality. Her voice gave him strength. She had a way with words, and her words were affecting him.

Kazemaru Ichirouta was hooked. After that first night, his outlook on his life in Italy completely changed. His Italian grew exponentially, which also increased his confidence. He socialized more with his teammates, and met with his friends from Raimon more often, as a few like Someoka Ryuugo and Kidou Yuuto were also playing soccer professionally in Italy.

Aria Romano had changed him. Despite his busy schedule, Kazemaru had made a few attempts to attend the occasional meet-ups the radio personality hosted for her listeners, but to no avail. Aria's listener base was so large that there was always limited entry. Of course, Kazemaru missed them every time.

At the current point in time, the young man was content to leave things as they were. Aria would continue to be his support, and he would have the liberty to imagine what she was like in person.

Yes, he told himself. He was content.


"Earth to Ichirouta! Hey, you alright?"

Kazemaru jumped. He had been staring aimlessly at his beer for who knows how long. He looked up to see his friend Fideo Ardena looking at him with concern. Someoka and Kidou, who were also present, glanced at each other, silently asking the other if they knew what was up. The four men had decided to catch up at a bar that night, and Kazemaru hadn't been responsive for the past ten minutes.

Kazemaru gave Fideo an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Fideo. Were you saying something?"

Fideo shook his head and grinned. "It's fine. I was just telling everyone that my old university is hosting a reunion party next week. I wanted to invite you three."

"Someoka and I already said we would go," Kidou said, taking a sip of his beer. "It sounds interesting."

"Yeah, who knows?" Someoka added. He picked up a chicken leg. "It would be nice to be around girls for once." He took a bite of the meat and chewed thoughtfully. "Soccer's great, but it doesn't really give us time for much else."

Fideo chuckled. "So you're at that age already, huh Ryuugo?" he teased.

Someoka slung an arm around Fideo's shoulder. "What does that make you?" he retorted. "We're the same age, you know. Unless you already have someone you haven't told us about?" Someoka smirked. Fideo laughed and shook his head.

"I wish." He turned back to Kazemaru. "So, what do you say? Want to go to the reunion with us?"

Kazemaru pondered. He didn't have practice on Saturdays, so he wasn't necessarily busy…but that meant missing Aria's show that night. The reunion was most definitely an evening event. He looked at his friends. With everyone's busy schedules, it was difficult to all be in one place. Kazemaru smiled to himself. Well, one night wouldn't hurt. "Sure," he finally answered. "Count me in."

"All right!" Someoka cheered.

"Thanks for agreeing to go with me, guys! It'll be fun," Fideo promised.

"I'm looking forward to it," Kazemaru said. He took a sip of his beer and looked out the window. He had already missed Song For You that night, but oh well. He could live with reruns.