Chapter Text
That morning, every employee of ‘the Arnacoeurs’ woke up in a different mood. Some were excited, some were motived, others resigned or annoyed. But, they all had one thing in common: they were nervous. They knew that, before the day was over, they would have a new mission to carry out… but they didn’t know what it would be exactly.
All that was sure was that it would involve a break-up. Let me explain: a few years before our story starts, Pep Guardiola, a successful manager fresh out of business school, opened a firm specialised in… well… in break-ups. He hired the most charming people he could find, trying his best to choose them quite different from each-other, in order to be able to offer their services to as many clients as possible. The concept was consisting in helping people getting out of relationships that were supposedly bad for them, or getting them to realise something love-related (it could go from admitting their sexuality, to realising that they were in love or that one-night stands would not get them anywhere).
Of course, those in need of help can’t call the frim themselves, because the whole problem is, in fact, that they don’t know they have a problem. That’s why a friend of theirs, or some family members ask for an ‘arnacoeur’ to come into action. The firm’s supervising team discuss who they should assign to each case, studying the profile of the client and deciding which one of the employees would fit better to them. Then, when each employee is given his mission, he is free to work on it and to decide how to act to achieve his goal, whatever it is (most of the time, getting the client to break-up with someone who is not pegged for “The One” by the client’s relatives). For that, he gets the help of a team composed by two members of the supervising team. Usually, the teams of three (the helps and the ‘arnacoeur’) don’t change, everyone now having their habits.
And our story starts the day of the mission assignments in the male department of the firm. That is precisely why the boys were nervous. Some cases were pretty complicated and hard to deal with, so the pressure would not get down until they knew what they had to do. Once they did know, each boy would be either serene or feeling like banging their head against a wall.
At eight o’clock sharp in the morning, all the employees were in the meeting-room, waiting for their boss to get them their assignment. A few of them were biting their nails or fidgeting nervously like Fernando Torres, some others were managing to keep a cool exterior like Iker, and others were done caring at all (no, in fact, scratch that, ONE was done caring, and it was Daniel Agger, who was half slumped on his chair, looking defeated)
“So, we all know why we are here this morning, so I’ll cut the crap”, started Pep, in his ‘no-bullshit’ fashion. Having no time to lose, he continued, handing out the missions directly:
“Alonso, you have to seduce some guy who just came out of a failed relationship, I’ll let you read the whole file.” Xabi nodded and took the file from his boss, from what the latter had said, the mission did not look so bad.
“Torres, you have to get a womanizer to stop one-night stands. Good luck with that.” And here it came: the mission worth banging your head on a wall.
“Cabaye, you have to get two best friends to realise they are made for each-other. And I’m only quoting the person who called.” Yohan smiled genuinely, he loved this kind of missions. Missions that made you work for true love (yes, he was a great sap).
“Casillas, you are on a ‘break-up’ mission, same for Gotze and Agger. Various family members and friends called, as always, because they are sure that someone they know is involved in a relationship that is bound to make them unhappy. So, you know what to do: you have to make sure the person really would be better off: you know our slogan: we break relationships, but never hearts. You are now free to go, good luck to all of you.” Said Pep, dismissing the boys.
Everyone got up and walked to their rooms, to read their whole file in peace but, before, they called the members of their team and arranged a meeting with them (which was not really hard, because nearly everyone was living in the firm’s building, sharing rooms together).