The hallway outside was quieter than I expected as most people had stayed in the room, still picking apart the question.
I checked the map, found the nearest vending area, and started walking. It took four minutes to find it.
A row of machines tucked into a small passageway between two buildings. Drinks, snacks, a food machine that looked brand new.
I found the milk tea on the second machine from the left. Thank god. There was only one left.
The machine had a tap-to-pay icon on the screen with the price underneath it:
1 point.
I pulled my phone out and held it up. A soft chime and faint buzz rippled through my hand as the can clattered into the slot.
As I reached for it, another hand slipped in just before mine and closed around the can without hesitation.
He pulled it back, adjusted his glasses with his free hand, and turned to walk away.
"Hey." I said.
He didn't stop.
"That's mine."
He kept walking at the same pace. "You didn't have it."
"I was reaching for it."
"Reaching isn't having. You hesitated and that's your problem."
[Individuals consistently assign greater value to resources they have already claimed or are in the process of claiming, regardless of ownership. This makes loss feel disproportionately larger than equivalent gain or also known as possession bias. What will the MC do next?]
I followed him at his pace. "There's only one left and I bought it either way."
"You were slower." He said it as a fact he was reporting.
"Huh? Are u deaf, I said I bought it."
He stopped and stood there for a second, then turned around and looked at me.
His face was a blank screen, no irritation, no amusement, or any interest in the conversation at all.
"You're number 24." He said.
"Yeah."
He paused before holding the can out and letting go before I had a proper grip on it.
I caught it two inches off the floor.
He had already turned back around.
"If you can't hold onto things," he said, walking away, "don't reach for them."
He disappeared around the corner.
I straightened up, looked at the can in my hand, then at the empty hallway.
He's in my class then, why didn't I recognize him?
I cracked it open and kept walking.
***
The third class was in Building D, ground floor, Room 2.
Same faces, again.
I was starting to expect it now. I found a spot near the middle this time, for no particular reason, just didn't feel like committing to the back for every class.
The room was different though. It was larger.
The desks had been pushed to the walls and the center of the floor was completely clear.
That was the first sign.
The second sign was the teacher.
He was already at the front when we filtered in, standing with his hands behind his back, watching the room fill up.
He was tall, genuinely tall, where you would notice it immediately.
Something about him told me he was athletic.
His clean uniform, combed hair, and straight glasses. He watched us settle without saying anything.
When the last person found a spot he let out a small, slightly crooked smile, like he knew something you didn't.
"Good afternoon." His warm voice filled the room. "You can call me Satoshi."
He let that land for a second, then clasped his hands in front of him.
"Today is straightforward. You'll be working in two teams." He gestured at the cleared floor.
"The task is simple. Move all sixty of these crates," he pointed to a stack against the far wall that nobody had noticed until now, "from that end of the room to the other side that has a marked line on the floor."
"The team that doesn't finish in the given time, gets a punishment." He let that land for a second. "Both teams start at the same time. You have 8 minutes total."
He took in a breath.
"Each crate weighs between fifteen and a hundred kilograms. Be careful as they are not labeled. The teams are decided by the two highest individual scorers in this room." He closed his eyes."Atamai Mienai and Tsuyosa Hitoride. You each pick your team."
The room shifted slightly.
"Oh." His eyes moved to the empty seat. "It seems like we don't have Mr. Mienai with us. The third ranked, Kiritsu Ishigaki will take his place for now."
Tsuyosa stood up without reacting while on the other hand Kiritsu was already on his feet.
"I'll need a moment before I pick." Kiritsu said, looking at Satoshi directly.
Satoshi's smirk didn't move. "Thirty seconds."
Kiritsu turned and looked at the room. His eyes made a few people sit slightly straighter without meaning to.
Thirty seconds went by as Tsuyosa watched him do it but said nothing.
Kiritsu picked first, gunning for the first few names: Higuma, Kaede, Hina, and eight others.
Each pick had a logic to it that wasn't hard to read if you were paying attention.
On the other hand, Tsuyosa picked the other twelve people as there was no pattern that was immediately obvious.
Kiritsu glanced at Tsuyosa's selections, tightening his jaw slightly.
Neither captain said anything about strategy once the teams were set.
Satoshi on the other hand stepped back against the wall, crossed one arm over his chest, rested the other elbow on it, and surveyed with the same tilted smile.
"You may begin whenever you're ready."
"That's it?"
Satoshi paused. "You seem disappointed."
He surveyed the teams.
"Very well, The team that finishes last will receive a penalty."
"What's the penalty?"
His smile gradually loosened as he pointed up. "If you're worried about it, then make sure you don't finish last."
Nobody moved for half a second as Kaede grabbed the nearest crate.
"Hold on." Kiritsu's voice cut through immediately. "We should check weights before you lift. Call out anything heavy."
"I've got it." Kaede didn't stop.
"Kaede that's not what I-"
"Tsk. You think we have time to sit on our asses?" He glared at Kiritsu.
Kiritsu exhaled through his nose and turned to the rest of his team. "Fine. Everyone else, check before you lift. Call out if it's heavy."
It worked, mostly as It created a rhythm on their side. Higuma tested each crate quietly and passed the heavy ones to Kaede without a word.
While Hina kept a running count out loud every few trips, nobody asked her to but everyone used it.
Our side was looser. Tsuyosa positioned himself at the heavy end of the stack without being asked and started moving. Everyone else just matched his pace.
I picked up a crate, checked the weight, moved it. Then another.
Two minutes in, the floor started getting crowded. Both teams crossing paths and crates stacking up near the line.
That was when Kiritsu said something quiet to the person nearest to him.
Thirty seconds later I nearly walked into a wall of crates.
Three of Kiritsu's finished crates had been placed directly in the path our team was using.
Haruto sidestepped around them, looking back at me with a raised eyebrow as I dodged another crate.
Later, one of Kiritsu's guys stopped carrying as he planted himself in the middle of the path with his arms loose at his sides.
Shun came through first on a return trip and caught a foot directly to his ankle.
He stumbled forward, catching himself on the nearest stack with both hands. His crate scraped loudly across the floor.
He turned quickly, throwing out a punch.
The guy was looking the other way as he dodged the punch catching it with his free hand. "..."
"Fuck you dumb-!" The guy pushed him across the classroom into the chairs before he had a chance to finish his sentence.
"Don't ever spit on me again." He said taking out a towel to clean his face.
> Lucien Moreau
> I think i would get beat up for saying anything about this guy.
Shun stared at the back of Lucien's head for a second, with his jaw tight as he picked his crate back up and kept moving.
But his next trip was slightly slower than it needed to be, as beads of sweat bombarded his face.
A few seconds later Mio stumbled on a crate, seeing this I dropped my box and stepped in before it dropped to the floor.
"Thanks." She adjusted her grip.
"Mm."
Higuma on the other hand was moving between the stacks but his trips seemed like they were slightly longer than they needed to be.
He deviated from the path before a half second pause before each lift.
"This fucker, He's wasting time on purpose." My eyebrows creased, as I watched him do a full trip.
Kaede crossed paths with Haruto on the return.
With just a shoulder that sent Haruto sideways into the edge of a crate.
Haruto grabbed the nearest stack to catch himself, and stood back up.
He looked at Kaede who had already turned away.
"Tsk… so fucking tuff muscle brain."
Haruto straightened up, and picked up the next crate with extra energy.
"Good, That's exactly what we need" I half muttered, half nodded.
With about a minute left the pace broke down entirely. People stopped checking weights.
Kiritsu's team was running. While we started pushing our boxes.
Somewhere in the chaos a foot caught Leif on the way past.
I didn't see who threw it but I saw him go down hard on a crate with one knee. His knee was bleeding slightly through the uniform.
"WHO FUCKING DID THAT!" He clenched his fists.
Nobody acknowledged it as the last crate crossed seconds apart on both sides.
Kiritsu's team in four minutes thirty seconds.
And ours urs at four minutes thirty four.
Everyone was breathing harder than they expected. Kaede had a red mark running down his forearm.
Higuma looked completely fine, which after watching him deliberately drag his feet for four minutes felt almost insulting.
Kiritsu surveyed his finished side with quiet satisfaction.
Satoshi walked to the center and looked at both lines of crates.
"Eight minutes and four seconds total." He nodded once. "All crates across."
"Total?" Kiritsu frowned.
"The task was for each team to move all thirty crates across the line." Satoshi said. "I didn't specify per team."
The room went very still.
"You had eight minutes combined. " Satoshi Paused. "At least you finished. That's what matters for now."
"For now." Haruto repeated slowly.
"Thats not fair though." Someone said from the crowd.
"Fair huh," Satoshi picked up his bag.
"Wait-" someone started.
"That didn't make any sense," another voice followed immediately.
"Are you serious?"
A few more voices rose at once.
Satoshi didn't stop walking. "Anyways results when they're ready."
"Sensei." Hina stepped forward. "What exactly was the point of all of this?"
He looked at her with that slight smile that hadn't moved once in the entire class. "To move crates."
He walked out.
The door clicked shut and the room exhaled all at once.
"Moving crates." Haruto repeated slowly.
"He's lying." Kiritsu said.
"Well no shit-"
"Obviously." Tsuyosa said. He picked up his bag and left without another word.
Kaede looked back at the boxes before noticing one of the corners of the box on their side was just barely not all the way over the line.
"Huh what the fuck. I moved this box so how didn't it go over the line." He quickly looked around the room with a frown.
"It must have been one of you fuckers wasn't it. One of you guys must've moved our boxes, didn't yall." He pointed toward our team.
I looked at the cleared floor, the messy lines of crates on the far side.
"Kaede please calm down-" Kiritsu interrupted.
"You're talking like your team didn't just try to sabotage our team." Leif retorted.
Kaede grabbed him by the collar, lifting him slightly off the ground. "So what? He never said we couldn't."
Leif didn't struggle as he calmly stared into his eyes. "Didn't u just hear him? Eight minutes TOTAL, and y'all fuckers just made all of us lose."
For a second I thought Kaede would punch leif but he simply clicked his tongue. "Next time, watch your step. Like the teacher said… it could be your last."
Kaede shoved him onto the floor. Storming out of the room not before leaving a dent in the door frame. "I'll find out who did this one way or another."
"All of you disgust me." Leif corrected his collar and walked out the door.
Hina stepped closer, lowering her voice. "That was messy."
"Yeah."
She looked back at the crates for a second.
"Haji…" She didn't continue until I met her eyes. "I feel like I'm missing something."
I stared at my milk tea can. "It wasn't about the crates."
Walking over I took a long sip before heading out. "It never was."
I pulled up the app and found the dormitory tab.
Block E. Room 114. East side of campus.
I looked at the map, then at where I was standing, then back at the location.
"You have got to be kidding me." Breaking into a walk.
The campus did not get smaller the more you moved through it. If anything it felt like it expanded.
New buildings appeared between ones I'd already passed.
Department stores, ramen stands, dining and fast food places…and what?
I rubbed my eyes, squinting at the sign.
Cosmate.
"…no way."
A slow grin spread across my face.
Yeah.
This school might not be so bad.
I took one wrong turn down a path that led to what looked like a sports complex, corrected, then somehow ended up walking a full loop back to a ramen stand I had already passed.
I stopped, stared at my phone, then at the ramen stand, then back at my phone.
"How the fuck…"
I zoomed in on the map, and found the small label for Block E buried in the east corner.
I forgot my damn GPS doesn't work sometimes.
Damn it… I really need a new phone.
"Stupid ass school, so big for what?" Grumbling, I turned around walking the right way.
As I turned the corner, three guys had one guy backed against the side of a building.
The kid against the wall had his arms up as he faced me.
I slowed down without stopping.
Then I noticed a figure standing a few meters off to the side with his arms in his pockets.
But the posture was what caught me off guard. His was neck jutted forward, back arched like a candy cane.
He was just watching with no expression from what I could read from where I was.
His white hair flicked toward me, instinctively I looked back without a word.
"What?" Spitting on the ground.
I looked away and kept walking.
"No need to get crossed up in the cross fire" I grumbled.
"Tsk."
I didn't turn around as Block E came into view ten minutes later.
The sun was low by then, painting the sky pale orange.
Opening the door, cool air rushed toward me as I read the sign:
Floor 1 0-50
Floor 2 51-100
Floor 3 101-150
Room 114 was on the third floor. Reaching my room, the door unlocked with my phone.
I pushed it open and stood in the frame for a second.
A clean wooden floor holding a single bed, single desk, one drawer unit against the wall, and a window above a desk catching the last of the light.
It was exactly big enough to not feel small but offered nothing beyond that.
I dropped my bag by the desk and sat on the edge of the bed taking in my new room.
Lying down, I drifted off as my mind was devoid of any particular thought.
Sitting on top of me was like something heavy I hadn't noticed the weight of until now, my eyes didn't fight it as they closed on their own.