"Marco?"
"Hm?"
"Why do you think people say such cruel things?"
Marco thought about it as he and Erik were at training, kicking the footballs at goal while Roman was defending it. His younger companion was unusually quiet for a big chunk of training, he thought there was something bothering him.
"Well," he sighed, "some people are dumb, Erik. Real dumb, stupid, idiotic people.They don't think how their words can affect a person. Why do you ask? You barely even get these kind of comments."
Erik was asking this question not for himself or out of pure curiosity but for Hanne.
The poor girl has been down ever since confronting her feelings and emotions with Erik in his car, and he's tried everything in his will to at least cheer her up. She acts like she's alright and that everything is fine—getting outside, doing her job, but he couldn't bear to see her and know that she still reads the comments on her photos like it was some kind of daily routine for her.
He paused for moment. "For Hanne."
"Ah." Marco knew this situation too well, for his own girlfriend had gone through this when they first got together. "It's those damn comments. You know, when you show off your girlfriend for the whole world to see, about half of the user who comment hearts and shit on whenever you post something with you in it are bound to attack her on social media."
Of course Erik knew that. He wasn't so much of a dumb boy, but that was a logical thing to happen.
What separated his thoughts from what was happening was the way Hanne reacted to it. Expecting a cool response, he would only be surprised to find that she reads through every single one like it was the Bible. Absorbing all the meaning it had and applying it to her own personal life.
It just killed Erik to see such a beautiful person do that to themselves like they had lesser value to the world.
He nodded, knowing the consequences given to her from her actions. The ones he couldn't stop. "I know, but is there something I could do to just help her?"
"Take her phone away."
He looked at his friend blankly. "Marco, I'm serious."
"Well, you could always distract her from social media," the blonde suggested. "Like take her out for dinner or stay inside and watch movies together."
"Did that ever work for you and your girlfriend?"
"She lives in a different country, do you think I have the power to fly over whenever I want to?"
Yes, Erik almost said. But he only ignored his remark and went on to make his point. "But do you think it will work?"
"Why not?" Marco shrugged, passing off the ball back to his teammate. It was like he was an expert on everything Hanne was feeling. The reason, the emotions, the solution, and all Erik thought he had to do in order to cheer his girlfriend up was to listen to him. "Look, this is something you need to think about for the sake of Hanne. If you really want to remain with her and for her to be happy, take it into serious consideration."
The young man had already done that. Multiple times.
From the idea of bringing her on a vacation out to the Greek island of Santorini to simply surprising her with a bouquet of flower each day for a month, Erik could only come to the conclusion that any of these can make the situation worse. His eyes went to find the Dutch girl crouching down at a corner busy capturing the moment of the whole team training , and all he could think about was how glum she must have felt at this very moment.
