"Whispers of Affection: Forbidden Love in Familiar Arms"

Prologue

"We grow apart because we grow in different stages and not all of our stages align."
- Dominic Riccitello

A loud bang startled me so badly that the iced coffee in my hand almost spilled over and dripped onto my study materials. Frustrated, I put the glass on my desk and pushed myself in my swivel chair, so that I rolled out of my room and straight into the hallway, where I saw a sight I was already quiet familiar with.
My brother Pablo was standing at the end of the hallway, near the front door, his face red and his eyes reflecting a whole cocktail of emotions.
At his feet was his sports bag, his crumpled clothes sticking out of it.
"Uhm, excuse me, young man, but what the hell are you doing?
Why are you throwing your things around like someone who has escaped from a madhouse?"
I asked demandingly with my arms crossed. Pablo, whose face had now returned to its normal color, scratched the back of his head without saying a word while he lowered his head to avoid my angry gaze.

According to the sports bag, Pablo had just returned from football training with his club, FC Barcelona, ​​and there was only one vague reason for his mood. Internal problems.
"Oh fuck, what have you done?"
I tried as hard as I could not to sound too reproachful, after all, I wasn't our mum.
"Nothing. It's about Férmin."
My brother finally blurted out before he sank on his sports bag to sit down, ruffling his wet hair. A wave of relief washed over me, as Pablo was anything but well-adjusted and uncomplicated and often got into minor arguments and problems. But I was all the more surprised that this time it involved Férmin, one of our closest friends since childhood.
"Wait a minute, are you talking about our Férmin?"
"Obviously, nobody else calls their child Férmin."
Gavi grumbled at me, his face still buried in his hands.
I took a deep breath so as not to give an equally rude answer and to be the more sensible of the two of us. "Okay, Pablo, what do you think about moving our very nice conversation to the living room instead of sitting here on the floor?"

"The next season is about to start and Xavi told Férmin today at training that he is not part of the project, not in the B team and certainly not in the professional team."
It felt like my heart had skipped a beat.
In contrast to Pablo, who made his debut for FC Barcelona in 2022 and has since gone through the roof, Férmin remained in his shadow, only played for the B team and was hardly allowed on the pitch there either.
It almost seemed as if he was invisible to the coaches and the president of FC Barcelona.
Pablo and Férmin had known each other since they were children, as both trained at the La Masia academy. Because of the close friendship between the two, Fer and I got along quite well, but that was nothing compared to their close bond, which was now threatening to tear.
"What does that mean, what does Xavi has in mind?"
"Férmin will be loaned for next season."
I bit my lip, unsure of how to interpret such a decision. Players were loaned out to prove their talent elsewhere in order to possibly return to their original club. But in most cases, a loaned player never came back.
"Férmin is an incredible fighter who gives everything, he will definitely be able to prove himself, Pablo."
I put a hand on my younger brother's shoulder to encourage him, but he immediately shook it off in frustration.

"Not when the damn team he has to go to is called Linares Deportivo, damn it."
The first pillow flew across the living room.
Pablo's impulse control and aggression problems were always a big point of discussion in our family, but today I could understand them incredibly well. Football was an unfair sport, and professional football was living hell.
Linares Deportivo, a team whose name I had never heard of, even though my whole family was crazy about football. Bad sign. I looked silently at Pablo, who had now jumped up from the couch and started pacing back and forth like a tiger in his cage.
"They play in the third division in Spain. Nobody watches them, nobody will praise Fer's talent and then he'll never come back and I'll lose another teammate, FUCK!"

❗️FC Barcelona and Linares Deportivo have reached an agreement for the transfer of the player Fermín López to the Andalusian team for one season, until June 30, 2023. In this way, the young Sevillian Barça Atlètic footballer will compete this season in the group 1 of the First Federation.
@Fcbarcelona