"a latte macchiato, please" with a minimal smile you turn to the young woman standing behind the small coffee stand on your campus.
you've been waiting in line for a whole ten minutes now.
the line full of excited students who can hardly wait for the vacations has been longer than your life even.
"what do you mean you're home already? what about your math class?" you ask yoichi through the phone, which is just between your shoulder and ear so you can count the change in your hand and give it to the brown-haired barista.
gratefully, you take the coffee and turn to leave.
"yeah, y/n! i'm on vacation already! professor anri said she's running late and still wants to catch her plane to new york, so she let us leave early. not bad, huh?"
annoyed, you roll your eyes, still have a two-hour philosophy class ahead of you. "yeah, totally. i gotta go, i'll see you tonight, yoi."
"see you later, you idiot. enjoy your lesson." the black haired laughs out loud, while you can literally see his eyes rolling.
quickly you click on the chat with your mum and text her that it's going to be a bit late at your place as you still have practice and the next thing you feel is a thud, then your phone falling out of your hand and last but not least a burning pain on your chest - it feels like your body is on fire.
well, y/n. maybe take your eyes off the screen when you put one foot in front of the other.
a glance down reveals that all your coffee is now all over your tshirt, which was white until just now.
"fuck, can't you be careful?" you grumble louder than you had planned, drawing a few stares.
"oh my god, i'm so sorry!," you hear a sweet, warm voice, which makes you look up and into a pair of yellow eyes. "i really didn't mean to."
not a second later he's rubbing his arm across your chest, hoping to get the brown coffee stains off.
slowly you take a deep breath through your nose before taking a step back, allowing the boy's hand to slide back to his own body. "it's okay, it's just not my day." you say curtly, reaching for your phone, which thankfully has not sustained any damage.
"can i at least buy you a new coffee? i'm really, really sorry. i just didn't see you."
"thanks, but no," you point behind you with your thumb. "i should go change."
"he but i-" he starts again but you interrupt him, after all, you don't have all day.
"i said it's okay." you can't stop your eyes from rolling before you run to your locker and pull out your gym shirt.
so you really did stand in line for ten minutes and spend almost 500 yen, only to lose the coffee again within seconds. sighing, you change in the restroom and then fast forward to your last class for today and the next few months.
to be honest, you don't think you've ever looked forward to anything as much as you're looking forward to the semester break this year.
of course, you're a few minutes late, but your teacher doesn't really seem to care. instead, she throws you a friendly smile and motions for you to sit down.
with quick steps you squeeze through the crowd to get to your standard seat in the second row.
putting your backpack down you drop onto the squeaky chair with a sigh. only now do you notice the coffee mug on your table and eye it for a few seconds with a raised eyebrow.
confused, you turn your head once in all directions to keep a lookout for the boy from the break.
who else would have put a coffee there for you?
but how would he know when you have class and where?
a good 80 people are sitting in this lecture hall, but none with bright yellow eyes.
you let one last glance wander through the last row.
your eyes almost automatically linger on the person who is already smiling at you, waving briefly.
so it was him after all.
"in your last lesson before the long-awaited vacations, we'll philosophize a bit more. to be precise, today we're going to talk about responsibility," professor yukimura begins, looking expectantly around the room. "or rather, the responsibility and power of a single person, in dicey situations." with quick steps, she walks to the adjacent small room and pulls out a table on casters, places it in front of the lectern.
on the table are a few rails and a small train set, and you actually wonder if you have now arrived at kindergarten.
"the following situation: we have a car passing the tracks," with nimble fingers she places the car on the tracks before pointing to the train. "the train, has a defect."
"that means it can't stop?" you hear a girl call out from the row behind you.
"correct," professor yukimura smiles. "it will crash into the car at full speed and take the lives of all the occupants," she points to a small gearshift. "you can operate this lever to change the direction of the train. but then the train will hit a wall at full speed and kill 30 passengers."
skeptically, you raise an eyebrow while taking another sip of your coffee.
"now it's up to you guys. do you leave everything as it was, so that the five occupants of the car die, or do you steer the train in a different direction, thus ensuring that it takes the lives of 30 people right away?"
slightly, you shake your head. "that's absurd. both are absolutely wrong."
professor yukimuras' gaze darts to you before she smiles. "mrs. y/n, feel free to come forward and discuss the situation," searchingly, she looks around. "mr. meguru, would you do the honors?" she grins, whereupon your eyes follow hers and land on the bob haircut from this morning.
how have you never noticed him before?
"all right," you mumble confidently to yourself as you see the black and yellow haired make his way to the front and stand up as well, squeezing through the rows to the front.
"well then, let the discussion begin." the professor grins happily at you two before stepping aside to give you a better view of the scenario on the table.
crossing your arms in front of your chest you look to her. "flipping the lever and thus letting the train hit the wall would be murder. that would be absolutely morally wrong."
a few approving sounds and some murmuring pass through the room. expectantly, you look into a pair of yellow eyes.
"but would you rather let four other people die for that?" questioningly, he raises an eyebrow and bites his lower lip.
"the good of many weighs more heavily than that of a few. what would you do, mr. oh-so-smart?"
a smirk creeps onto his lips and he looks up from the train to you. "maybe roll the dice, i don't know."
dismayed, you raise your eyebrows. "what a great idea."
quietly, he sighs. "the complete situation is pure crap. you're stuck in a quandary, and every decision you'd make would have its drawbacks,"
mrs. yukimura begins to nod. "that's exactly the crux of it. most of the time you only have two disasters to choose from. but now what if that car had your parents in it? would that affect your decision?"
"of course i would save my family." he answers immediately.
"that means you make the decision based on how close you are to the people involved?" pokes yukimura, to which he nods. "so you would sacrifice mrs. y/n's sister to save your own?"
"there must be some compromise, in this tricky situation!"
"but there isn't, that's just it. don't shirk your responsibilities" you say, to which he looks at you.
"that's not what i'm doing. what would you do, huh?"
damn, he's getting on your nerves right now.
can't he just make a decision himself?
with nimble fingers, you pull the plastic figure out of the toy car. "i'd sacrifice myself for the good of the others and get everyone out of the car" annoyed, you drop it next to the car.
"how noble of you." rolling his eyes he crosses his arms in front of his chest.
"i don't think i've ever met anyone who got on my nerves as fast as you're doing right now." you're straight up, to which you get a few shocked looks.
"i can just say the same back." falsely he smiles at you.
and this guy was still sugar-coated this morning and bought you a new coffee?
quickly, you make your way back to your seat, dropping onto the chair.
one last time his yellow eyes sparkle at you before he too goes back to his table.
"well, thank you very much already, guys. that was largely informative." yukimura presses her lips together and then continues her usual lesson.
[...]
with quick steps, you walk down the street to yoichi's in the evening. he only lives a good two minutes away, which is why you decided to just drag your suitcase behind you instead of taking an extra car ride to his place.
you're not quite sure if that was the best idea, though. the stupid cobblestone keeps getting your suitcase stuck somewhere, so i've probably already woken up the whole neighborhood at midnight.
but what the hell, in less than two hours you'll be on a plane and then they can't do anything to you.
"here i am." you startle your best friend, who you just snuck up on as he hangs his head in the passenger door.
lightly he bumps his head and winces before turning to you. "if you scare me again, i swear to god-" a small laugh comes from his lips, to which you grin as well.
"scared in the dark, huh?"
yoichi rolls his eyes, grinning. "certainly not."
with a flourish, you haul your large, black suitcase into the trunk and then close it.
"i can't wait to finally let the sun shine on my belly and sip coctails without end. just you and me, it's going to be legendary." a wide grin spreads on your lips, whereupon yoichi's slowly fades away.
"about that, y/n.. my mom really wants my cousin to come. she says he'd just be sitting around at home meditating all vacation otherwise." he bites his lower lip, giving you a wait-and-see look.
skeptically, you raise an eyebrow. "and you're just telling me this now?," you glance at the watch on your wrist. "about five minutes before we leave for the airport?"
apologetically, he looks at me. "i just found out a few hours ago, too. but he's really cool, funny and totally sweet. you'll like him."
"we'll see," slightly annoyed, you stroke your hair. "and when is he finally coming? we're about to leave." again, you look at your watch.
"he should be here any minute, he's still inside." explains yoichi, to which you nod in understanding and he starts looking for something in his backpack in the trunk.
sighing, you lean against the car when suddenly a voice sounds next to you.
"sorry, i'm already here." the voice is not unfamiliar to you, which is why you lift your head with a quick movement.
as if by itself, your jaw drops a bit - he doesn't seem to feel any different either.
"what are you doing here?" you ask at the same time, which was apparently yoichi's cue, because he too is now peering out of the trunk.
"you know each other?" he asks, confused, to which you shake your head.
"fleeting"
"we met after over a year today in our philosophy class." he utters, to which you raise an eyebrow.
"actually, we met this morning when you spilled my coffee on me." sweetly you smile at him, batting your eyelashes a few times.
meguru rolls his eyes slightly. "of course you had to tell him that now.. of course."
an amused smirk creeps onto your lips.
what are you doing here, anyway?
sure, yoichi has mentioned his cousin meguru a time or two, but you've never met him. and had you known that the guy in my philosophy class was his cousin and was also going on vacation with you two, you would have run away on your shoes faster than they could have looked.