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"Yo, coach, see we came back on time," Jese flashed a grin at Zidane.
"Jese, nice to see you. Hope you've been practicing your backfoot. Rafa, I have missed you so much in defence and Karim, my boy, I know it must have been tough so I'm truly grateful you came right away," Zidane smiled at the three of them and then, as if counting over in his head. "Um, where is Isco?"
"Yeah, about that," Raphael began.
"He did come back, right?"
Karim still looked downcast as he answered, "He said that he won't leave India until he finds his own love story."
Zidane's eyes widened as he spluttered in shock, "What do you mean he won't leave until he finds his own fucking love story!? What if he never finds it or—or it takes him forever? Who does he think is going to play on the field if he is off stalking cupid?" He nearly shouted at Karim, "You should have brought him back!"
"I already had my heart trampled over because of you, HOW THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DRAG ISCO'S ASS BACK HERE? I-I-why is it always me? Madrid loses a match, blame Benzema. Isco isn't coming back, blame Benzema. I have to go back and leave Shaheen without any explanation, blame Benzema! Even though it's not as if I'm just messing up things on purpose. You know what, I'm sick of being blamed. I'm sick of-of being the punching bag of everyone in the whole wide world. So, let me just practice because that's what you called me back for."
Zidane was speechless, stunned by how Karim had addressed him. This wasn't the Karim he had known up till now. The shy, respectful man who nodded along to anything he said...he had had no idea, Karim felt he was blamed for everything. It was true, the No. 9 was often treated as scapegoat by crass fans on suffering a defeat but he had no idea it affected him that much. He watched with dread and dismay as he watched his star striker pull over a practice jersey and begin the warm-up. He looked at Raphael and Jese for some sort of explanation...something, anything but Raphael literally ran away muttering, "Oh I forgot to wear my socks."
That left Jese who wasn't quick enough to think of an excuse. The coach turned to him with a quirked eyebrow. Jese turned red, "Isco said Zizou bear will understand."
"So...I take it Karim still doesn't have a girlfriend after the trip. What happened?"
"Being gossipy, Zizou bear?" Jese winked.
Zidane looked exasperated, "I am worried for him."
"Oh, of course, of course, coach. Yeah, Shaheen was kind of upset that Karim didn't tell her he was leaving until the last minute which was also right after they kissed so you can imagine it wasn't pretty. And by kind of upset I mean a lot upset. And you know our Karim. He just left. No attempts at reconciliation or even goodbyes. He just fell into a pit of dejection and foul temper. All he has done since then is mope over Shaheen's YouTube videos."
The older man nodded thoughtfully, "And all this happened in the space of twenty-four hours and now here you all are."
Jese sighed, "'Tis the way of the world. 'Tis a sad and dreary place, our world."
