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Twenty minutes.
That’s how long Kenjirou has left to do this online exam for his history class.
And his laptop is right on the cusp of dying.
Coming to the coffee shop to do his exam was intended to be calming and relaxing for him.
He’d get a chocolate croissant, a latte. He’d take his exam at a leisurely pace, ace the thing without a hitch, and go home to a nice hot bath.
Easy, simple.
And yet, his laptop is warning him that it’s at 5%, and he’s only a little halfway through the exam.
Kenjirou is, in his humble opinion, not the frantic type. He likes to think he’s calm and collected and doesn’t get ruffled too easily.
At least when things go his way, anyway.
He likes order and schedule and the second something starts going awry, he starts panicking a little, which can devolve to edging on the brink of a meltdown if things really go off the rails.
And this situation, he’s decided, is going off the rails.
If his laptop dies in the middle of this exam, it takes approximately three minutes to boot back up, so even if the exam does save his progress, and there’s no telling it actually will as this is his first exam of the semester, it’ll still cut time from his test-taking.
Frankly, this exam isn’t even a heavily scored one, and since it’s at the start of the semester, it’s likely just to gauge where students are knowledge-wise, but that’s not going to stop Kenjirou from shooting for a perfect score.
So, maybe Kenjirou’s silently panicking in the middle of the bustling coffee shop, trying to think of something to do.
He’s trying his best to keep it cool, but it’s not working very well when he can see the timer for the exam up in the corner of the screen ticking down.
He can’t even focus on getting as much of the exam done as he can before his laptop dies because he’s panicking so much.
He has his charger, but of course, he chose a table in the middle of the stupid cafe, far from any of the wall plugs, where everyone else seems to be sitting in front of.
Kenjirou doesn’t really want to bother anyone, but there’s a guy sitting against the wall by the window on the far side of the cafe, and he’s not even using the wall plug.
He’s got notebooks out though, so he’s probably working on something.
Even though Kenjirou thinks he has adequate manners when he needs, he’s definitely not above being blunt when he needs to be. And he thinks now is a time where he needs to be.
He stands up, slinging his backpack over his shoulder, and picks up his laptop.
He walks over to the guy, and he desperately tries to ignore how immediately attractive he is.
The guy has ash blonde hair, black at the tips, and judging by his black eyebrows, his hair is dyed. Dark brown eyes, and piercing in his ears.
He only looks a couple years older than Kenjirou, but his piercings make him look mature.
He’s like, strikingly handsome, but Kenjirou steels himself.
The guy looks up when Kenjirou approaches, raising an eyebrow in question.
Kenjirou takes a deep breath and puts on as much of a neutral-yet-convincing expression he can.
“Excuse me, I’m in the middle of an exam and I really need to use the wall plug.”
Succinct, still fairly polite, yet direct and to the point.
The stranger blinks, mouth moving like he wants to say something, but nothing’s coming out.
Kenjirou’s laptop notifies him that it’s at 2%.
He doesn’t have time for this. Time to be a bit more assertive.
Kenjirou drops his backpack on the floor, snatches his charger out of his backpack, bends down to plug it into the wall and connect it to his laptop, and sits adjacent to the stranger.
No words are said from the stranger, and Kenjirou doesn’t bother offering any conversation either.
He focuses all his attention on completing his exam now, so even if the stranger had said something, Kenjirou probably would have just ignored it.
He finishes the exam with only about 2 minutes to spare, but the second he’s done, he sits back in his chair, heaving a sigh of relief.
“Geez, that must’ve been some exam,” the stranger awkwardly jokes, rolling a pen between his fingers.
Kenjirou almost forgot the guy was even there, he’d been so quiet the whole time Kenjirou was finishing his test.
He dips his head to the stranger again as he replies, “Sorry for being so bold. I was a bit desperate. Thank you for letting me sit here, though.”
The stranger waves a hand dismissively.
“Nah, no big deal. I was just surprised, but you looked pretty serious, so I figured there was no harm. What was the exam for?”
“My college history class,” Kenjirou answers plainly.
“This early in the semester?” the stranger asks. “It was probably a placement test, then. Not that it really matters now, but you probably didn’t need to be so worried about it.”
“I know that,” Kenjirou huffs mildly, closing his laptop and unplugging the charger.
The stranger gives him a look that practically screams Oh, so you’re THAT kind of person, huh?, but he decides to ignore it despite his face heating up a little in embarrassment.
“Anyway,” the stranger says, pushing a paper bag towards Kenjirou. “Here, this is for you.”
Kenjirou blinks at the bag. Did the stranger have that when he sat down? What is it?
Actually, why is he offering it?
“It’s a croissant. I saw you were eating one earlier and thought I’d grab one for you while you were taking the test,” the stranger shrugs.
Kenjirou does remember the stranger getting up, but he just figured the guy went to the bathroom or something. He didn’t notice the guy actually bought something.
As Kenjirou’s opening the bag, he glances up at the stranger.
“You saw me eating one earlier?” he repeats skeptically.
The stranger freezes slightly, then scratches the back of his neck.
“Oh, I mean… sorry, that probably sounded creepy. I tend to people-watch when I work in public places, and it was just something I noted in my head for some reason.”
“Work?” Kenjirou echoes as he pulls the croissant out of the bag.
He looks it over, just in case, before biting into it.
“Just doing some homework for college, like you. My name’s Eita Semi,” he says, clicking the pen that he’s been fidgeting with.
Eita Semi… Semi… Kenjirou feels like he’s heard that name before.
“What college do you go to, Semi-san?” Kenjirou asks in between bites.
“Shiratorizawa University. I’m studying psychology,” Semi hums, clicking the pen again.
Kenjirou licks his lips of crumbs.
He vaguely remembers his roommate, Taichi, mentioned an Eita Semi, but he can’t quite recall.
Something about a nickname?
“Semisemi…?” Kenjirou mumbles under his breath, trying to remember.
Semi jolts at that, dropping his pen on the wooden table.
“O-oh, do you… wait, do I know you?”
Kenjirou shakes his head, shrugging. “Not really. My roommate mentioned you, or, well, your nickname.”
Semi groans, leaning back in his chair.
“My roommate Tendou gave it to me. So, then, you go to Shiratorizawa? What’s your major?”
“Art history,” he replies. He glances at the clock above the barista counter in the cafe.
He would be taking a nice hot bath about now if not for his little situation earlier. He wonders if he should just leave by now.
Kenjirou stands up, bending down to pick up his backpack off the floor.
Semi watches him, looking like he wants to say something.
“Well,” Kenjirou says, “Thanks for being a pushover and letting me sit here.”
Semi’s jaw drops and he blinks, blankly staring at him.
“Wh- I- what?” he stammers.
Kenjirou doesn’t really think he said anything wrong. To Semi, Kenjirou’s a complete stranger and letting someone just sit down next to him definitely isn’t a smart idea.
Kenjirou could have stolen his laptop or something, after all. He wouldn’t, of course, but he had the power to.
“Wait a second,” Semi stands up before Kenjirou can get far. “That was a little uncalled for.”
Kenjirou can’t help the scoff of a laugh that comes out of him.
He had pegged Semi as a well-mannered and friendly when he first saw the guy, but it seems like he’s the straight-forward and blunt kind of person, and that kind of makes Kenjirou want to laugh.
Semi catches Kenjirou’s huff though, and his eyebrows knit together.
Actually, it’s kind of satisfying to piss him off, though Kenjirou really can’t explain why. He just met the guy, after all.
Kenjirou shrugs.
“I didn’t say anything out of line.”
“You’re not even staying to chat or anything! I bought you food!” Semi exclaims, wildly gesturing.
Kenjirou really doesn’t understand what the fuss is about.
“Well, thanks? What more do you want from me?”
Semi crosses his arms, sighing, “Well, I thought we could get to know each other or something.”
“Why would we do that?” Kenjirou blinks.
“Because I want to get to know you? That’s… why I bought you food?” Semi says incredulously, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh,” Kenjirou says quietly. “Well, what, do you want me to do, buy you food now?”
Semi throws his hands up slightly in frustration.
“Well it’s pointless if you’re resisting so much! Whatever, it doesn’t matter, later.”
There’s a competitive spark in Kenjirou’s belly now. He doesn’t know why, but he’s not satisfied just walking away from that anymore.
He drops his backpack back on the floor pointedly and sits down with a loud thump.
Semi wordlessly stares at him, frustration replaced with confusion.
“Uh, what are you doing?”
Kenjirou crosses his legs and leans forward on the table, face scrunched.
“We’re chatting. We’re hanging out. We’re getting to know each other or whatever. What’s your favorite color?”
“This is not getting to know each other. It’s supposed to be friendly.”
Kenjirou scoffs loudly, propping his chin up on the palm of his hands.
“I am being friendly. What’s your favorite animal?”
“Your tone is not friendly. Plus, this isn’t like, a good atmosphere for this.”
Kenjirou snaps, “Fine. Semi-san, do you want to go on a date with me?”
Semi freezes like a deer in the headlights, eyes widened.
“You- what? Wait, what?”
“If you don’t answer in the next ten seconds, I’m leaving.”
“Fine, yes, I do!” Semi spits, scrambling to get an answer out.
Kenjirou tries really hard to hold back the smirk that’s pulling at his lips, but he thinks he probably does a pretty poor job of it.
“Gimme your number, I’ll text you tomorrow for a date spot.”
Semi stumbles all over the place, getting his phone out of his own backpack, all the while sputtering nonsense.
“I thought you were just quiet before, but looks like you’re the exact opposite,” he mumbles.
Kenjirou huffs a laugh and disguises it as a cough.
“Well, you’ll find out what I’m like when we have our little date.”
“I get the feeling I won’t particularly like it,” Semi grumbles.
This time, Kenjirou lets his smirk slip.
“Oh, you will.”