I know love

„Absolutely not!“, Florian is crossing his arms with a frown on his face „You know
how much I hate taking pictures, Volker!“. His manager sighs „Flo, what did you
expect? You‘re one of the brightest stars in German football, that they wouldn’t
ask?“. Technically Florian knows very well that Volker is right, it’s not like it’s
unexpected that the DFB and Adidas want him to be part of the photo shooting for
the special jersey, especially because he’s also an Adidas athlete, but he‘s so
awkward in front of the cameras that he tries to avoid it at all costs. Looks like he
can’t get out of this one though.
He lets his arms sink in defeat „Fine. It‘s not like I have a choice, do I?“. His
manager grins and shrugs „Jonathan is part of it too. I‘ll send you all the details via
email!“. And with that the call ends. Flo throws his phone on the couch, great.

As promised he gets an email with all the details after the last practice session at
Bayer Leverkusen comes to an end. His mood immediately sours again. „You
alright bro?“, he looks up and is met with Jonathan‘s questioning glance. They‘ve
always been close, but after Jona found out how uncomfortable Florian is with all
sorts of media activity, he sort of took him under his wing. „Yeah yeah, just this
stupid Adidas thing. Why couldn’t they‘ve asked someone else to do it?“. Jonathan
snorts „You act like they’re asking you to do something completely insane.“. While
he feels responsible for Florian, he‘d never miss out on making fun of him. „You‘re
having way too much fun at my expense.“. Jonathan just grins.

It‘s not that Flo thinks he’s bad to look at per say, he just doesn’t know how to act
and always comes off as slightly incompetent. At least that’s all he’s seeing when
he’s looking at the material after photo shoots or media days. Maybe this time will
be different.

The day off comes faster than he likes, and when he wakes up he‘s greeted with a
pimple right on his forehead. Of course. As if this isn’t already annoying enough.
Jonathan will be having a field day with this on their way to Herzogenaurach. At
least his hair is looking acceptable. The shrill sound of his doorbell pulls him out of
his thoughts. Jonathan. They‘ve decided to drive to the airport together, it just
doesn’t make sense to drive separately.

As expected Jonathan enjoys Florian‘s misery a lot, much to Flo‘s annoyance. He

didn’t even have the chance to drink his coffee in the morning because he may or
may not have used the snooze button a bit too generously. Flo just stuffs his
AirPods in his ears and concentrates on his music. The day will just get better now
he silently decides.

The flight goes by without any hiccups, for that he is very grateful, he even won
against Jona in Uno.

While the plane prepares to land, Jamal wakes up from the consistent banging on
his bedroom door. „Jamal, honey? Are you awake? Didn’t you tell me yesterday
that you needed to be at work earlier than normal?“. He slowly takes in his
mother’s words and almost suffers a heart attack as they fully settle in. A quick
glance on his phone reveals that he‘ll never be able to make it on time, even if he
skips breakfast.
Jamal practically flies out of his bed, tries to find something acceptable to wear
and leaves the house in record time. His windshield is frozen shut, the urge to
scream grows, but instead he uses his frustration to get the ice off his car.

He really enjoys his internship with Adidas, and it’s quite the privilege that he was
given permission to help with todays photo shoot for the new jersey’s. He
obviously knows who Jonathan Tah and Florian Wirtz are, and he felt giddy the
entire week leading up to this day, so he truly doesn’t understand how he was able
to oversleep.

Meanwhile Flo and Jonathan are stepping into the Adidas headquarters,
accompanied by a woman called Camilla. She explained how the day is planned,
but it went right over Florian‘s head. His clumsy and somewhat whacky self took
over again, he’s not necessarily shy, just uncomfortable. Thankfully Jonathan
enjoys meeting new people, and doesn’t mind to speak to Camilla for the both of
them.

They‘re being led into a room where apparently hair and makeup will be handled.
Maybe they have an idea how to deal with his new friend on his forehead.
Flo sinks into the admittedly very comfortable chairs and relaxes a bit, it‘ll be fine.
He sometimes wishes he could be as comfortable with all this as his teammates
are, but alas, he‘s not. „Jona?“, Jonathan lifts his eyes from his phone and nods
„What’s up?“, „You think they can do something about this whole situation?“. He
points to his face, Jonathan grins „They aren’t surgeons you know?“. „Ha, very
funny.“, Flo has to grin beside himself „You could use some plastic surgery
yourself, one shouldn’t throw rocks when they‘re sitting in a glass house.“.

Suddenly the door opens and slams against the wall. Flo drops his phone and
while moving to pick it up sets eyes on probably one of the most beautiful men
he’s ever seen. He‘s quite tall, has brown, curly hair and big brown eyes. „Uh sorry,
wrong door!“. The man leaves as fast as he came in and leaves both Flo and
Jonathan behind stunned. Admittedly for different reasons though. „What on
earth?“. Flo just nods, his mind is still stuck on the guy‘s voice. „Cat’s got your
tongue mate?“, his sexuality hasn’t been a secret for a while now, at least around
his teammates, and everyone supports him. So it’s not a surprise that Jonathan
can read his reaction fairly well.

Flo’s still a bit stunned when the hair and makeup artists come in and prepare
them, they do manage to deal with his pimple. Thankfully, it now matters even
more than it did before. Maybe love at first sight is a thing after all, infatuation at
first sight definitely is. What an interesting turn of events.
After they‘re done with hair and makeup they change into the new jersey’s, even
they realize that it would’ve made more sense to get changed first, but oh well.
„Maybe today isn’t too bad after all, huh Flo?“, Jonathan grins and Flo immediately
turns red. „I don’t know what you mean.“, „Of course you don’t.“.

They enter the studio and to Jonathan‘s delight the mystery guy seems to be part
of this whole ordeal. The man responsible for the photo shoot confirms exactly
that, he introduces himself as Tim, he apparently is part of the marketing team at
Adidas. „And this is Jamal, he is an doing an internship with us as part of his
university program.“. Jamal, the name fits him, Flo thinks. Their eyes meet and he
smiles, Jamal doesn’t reciprocate. Odd.

The shoot starts with Jonathan, that means Florian has plenty of time to observe
both Jona and Jamal. He can’t stop looking at him, and sometimes he even
catches Jamal looking back at him. But while Flo can’t help a small smile
spreading on his face, Jamal never smiles.

Then it’s Flo’s turn, having this gorgeous guy observing everything he‘s doing,
even though it’s just in a professional way, makes him self conscious but also more
eager to do well. And he actually does like the pictures the photographer took.

During a small break Jamal actually joins Florian and Jonathan, but while he‘s
speaking normally with Jona, he‘s almost distant with Flo. It does hurt his ego a bit,
he has to admit. „Jealous?“, Jona whispers, Flo just glares at him and leaves with
the excuse of needing to use the bathroom. It shouldn’t matter that much that
Jamal is acting like that, they don’t even know each other. But it does annoy him
that he’s trying, and Jamal just blocks every single try, while he’s perfectly friendly
with Jonathan. He looks at himself in the bathroom mirror, Jamal can only be
described as beautiful while he definitely isn’t. He‘s attractive, sure, someone even
called him seductive once, but beautiful? No. He shakes his head, this is silly.
As he moves to join Jamal and Jonathan again he can’t help but take in Jamal‘s
form. He‘s lanky while also having some muscle to him, he‘s intriguing to say the
least, and his obvious distance towards Flo only intrigues him more.

The photo shoot resumes with shots of him and Jona together, he feels Jamals
eyes on him, he turns his head and looks directly at him, raising one eyebrow. The
other blushes slightly and looks away. Flo feels Jonathan‘s sharp elbow in his side
„Is that you trying to flirt?“, „Shut up. I smiled at him before and he acts like I don’t
exist while with you he‘s completely different.“, „Aw does that hurt your ego?“,
Florian shrugs his shoulders „Don’t know why. He‘s attractive, but that’s not a
reason to be annoyed by the fact that he won‘t acknowledge me, is it?.“, „I‘ve given
up on trying to understand you.“, Jonathan jabs him in the side for the second
time, and then steps to the side.

After 5 hours the photo shoot finally comes to an end, they sit down to look at the
pictures, Jamal sits directly behind him, he can even hear him breathe when he
concentrates on it. Which he really shouldn’t be doing.

They start with Jonathans pictures, they‘re all quite nice he has to admit. Jamal
adds some comments here and there, he seems to be doing good, even as just an
intern.

Then Flo‘s pictures come up, he has to admit they’re really good, nothing’s left of
usual aloofness. Judging by the slight stuttering of Jamal‘s breath, he thinks so
too. Flo grins, maybe the taller boy isn‘t as indifferent towards him as he acted.

As everyone gets ready to leave, he grabs Jamal‘s arm in a moment of

spontaneity „Wanna grab something to eat?“, as the other boy looks at him with his
big eyes Flo‘s reminded of Bambi, he grins, with his long legs and brown eyes
Jamal does look a bit like this well liked fawn Disney created.
Jamal coughs „Uhm sure, why not.“, Flo smiles „Great.“. Jonathan just shows him
thumbs up, he shakes his head smiling. They grab their jackets „Where shall we
go? You probably know the restaurants better than I do.“, Jamal smiles and nods,
he has a nice smile, Flo thinks. „There‘s a really good Italian restaurant, we can
take my car.“. Flo agrees easily, he likes Italian food well enough.

The car ride feels slightly awkward, neither one of them really knows what to say,
so they don’t really talk at all. Until Flo can no longer act like he doesn’t wanna
know why Jamal acted so weird around him, but agreed so easily to go out with
him now. Jamal shrugs his shoulders, „I obviously knew who you were, and you
sometimes seem a bit arrogant, so I wasn’t sure what to think about you.“. Flo
turns his head so fast he‘s scared he gave himself whiplash „Arrogant? Really?“,
Jamal shrugs „A bit, but after seeing you with Jonathan and in front of the camera
I‘ve realized it’s more that you don’t know how to act.“, „I don’t know what’s
worse.“, Flo laughs. Jamal just grins and stops the car in front of the restaurant.

It does have perks to be well known, even though the restaurant is fully packed,
they get a table that also is a bit more secluded. He doesn’t mind to be recognized,
but Flo does like to enjoy his food without being disturbed too much. And he
doesn’t really want to take his attention of off Jamal either.

„So, you’re doing an internship at Adidas, do you enjoy it?“, Jamal nods „Yeah it’s
great. They have a lot of opportunities and if I do well the chances are high I get
offered a full position after I graduate.“. Flo smiles, it’s nice to see Jamal talk about
his interests „What are you studying exactly?“, „Marketing. I‘ve actually helped
create some of the campaigns you did, but today was the first time I could see how
the pictures are taken.“. The conversation now flows easily, Flo realizes that Jamal
is actually easy to talk to once he feels comfortable.
After a while their food arrives and the conversation naturally dies down a bit, but
the silence isn’t as uncomfortable anymore as the one in the car. They still
exchange looks across the table and every time their eyes meet a smile creeps
onto both their faces. Who would‘ve thought, Flo thinks. They pick up right where
they‘ve left the conversation, and Florian realizes he hasn’t laughed as much as he
does with Jamal in a while.

Jamal puts his hand on the table and inches closer to Florian‘s hand, Flo stalls. Is
that a sign? Is it weird to take his hand? Does he want to hold my hand? In the end
Jamal makes the move and just intertwines their fingers. Their hands fit into each
other well, Jamal’s hand is slightly bigger than Flo‘s and quite soft. It feels really
nice to hold his hand. A sudden calmness settles into Flo. He looks at their hands
and smiles. He starts to draw lines on the back of Jamal‘s hand with his thumb.
Jamal shivers slightly.

After they finished their drinks Flo pays and they leave the restaurant. „Do you
wanna go for a walk?“, Jamal looks at him expectantly and how could Flo say no
to that? „Do you know that you look like Bambi?“, Jamal laughs „You‘re crazy.“.
„I‘m not!“. The taller boy just shakes his head „Whatever makes you happy.“. It’s a
bit shocking how easy everything suddenly feels with Jamal, there’s no awkward
silence anymore, and they‘re still holding hands.

Flo‘s mind is quiet for once, his usual erratic thoughts calmed down. Jamal‘s calm
energy seems to go over on him, which is a nice contrast to his temper. Jamal
suddenly stops walking „Flo?“, Flo looks up and is met with a look in the older boys
eyes he can’t quite read. „I do like you, I didn’t expect that but I got a glimpse into
who you really are, and I like what I got to see. Going off of tonight I think you’re at
least bi, so I‘d like to explore where this might go.“. Jamal chews on his lower lip,
and now Flo realizes that the look is nervousness. He grins „I‘m bi, and I too would
like to see where this might take us.“. Jamal exhales and relief softens his features
immediately. A small smile forms on his lips again „Good.“. He whispers.
Flo grins giddily „I thought you were gorgeous the moment you smashed the door
into the wall earlier.“. Jamal snorts „I was late, don’t make fun of me.“, „I‘m not! I
promise.“. Flo clears his throat „Can I kiss you?“, Jamal stalls, then nods and leans
down. Flo puts the hand that isn’t intertwined with Jamals, on the older boys cheek
and closes the gap. Jamals lips are soft, and they‘re both hesitant, scared to
overwhelm the other. Flo leans back after a while, it could’ve been two minutes or
twenty, he doesn’t know. Jamal looks even more gorgeous than he did before,
which Flo thought wasn’t possible.

„This was really nice.“, he whispers and Jamal agrees just as quietly. They kiss
some more, then make their way back to Jamal‘s car. Flo has a plane to catch
after all. „What now?“, Jamal plays with his car key in his pocket, Flo finds it
endearing „We‘ll figure it out. Let’s start with exchanging numbers.“. In all the
chaos they almost forgot the most important thing. „We‘ll figure it out.“, Jamal
agrees.