Chapter Text
Clink, Clink, Clink.
Dropping to the bottom of the vending machine compartment were three coins of change to Y/n L/n's previous push of the juice box option around three buttons diagonally to the right of the can of grape soda. 100 yen, and two 50 yen coins now sitting in her palm.
Now, the only thing she was waiting for was the star of the show: the glorious box of juice that she had run past around 10 classrooms to get for the lunch period.
Still, whirring, vending—whatever the machine was doing—it was taking far too long for a simple 6-ounce box of liquid to come out. All the while her precious time wasted while she tapped her foot against the metal.
"Are you kidding me...?" She mutters, sighing in frustration at the machine's failure.
Out of the past couple of months she spent at Karasuno Prefectural High School, never did she have a problem getting a juice box out of the machine. All she wanted was her damn apple juice, sugary liquid—drink, to get her through the day, but it seemed like the universe had other plans for her.
And it definitely didn't help when she viewed another student round the corner, waiting in line for his turn to the machine she was desperately shaking.
Embarrassing as it was, she didn't want to give up on the 300 yen juice box that was supposed to vend to her minutes ago, and she continued to push the familiar blue button with agitation.
After further speculation, she suspected that the box was wedged in the machine's opening gap, somehow preventing it from falling out and becoming accessible to students. At this point, she figured there wasn't much else she could do, and muttering curses under her breath, she turned to the boy behind her to inform him of the inconvenience.
"It's jammed, I think. My drink isn't coming out, so you should probably get whatever you want at another machine," she shoves her coins into her wallet aggressively, waiting for the boy to leave her peripheral.
Instead, he brushes past her, kicking the side of the vending machine a few times, shaking it himself another few times, until they both hear a clank sound from the bottom of the machine.
Shocked, she froze, seeing the taller, bigger boy grab the juice box that had just fallen and hand it to her. Still slightly surprised, but amused, she slowly grabbed the box from him.
"Oh, thanks..." she mutters, separating the straw from its wrapping, before stabbing it into the box.
"No need," he mumbles, inserting his coins into the machine and waiting for his own drink to fall down below, before grabbing it swiftly and walking past her once again with a yawn.
As she sips sweetness from her straw, she watches him pass, shrugging off a kind interaction to focus on bigger, more important things.
──────────────────────────────
"Is this what you mean when you talk about bigger and more important things? Watching reality TV shows while you're tutoring?"
Fumbling with the tabs of her computer, Y/n switches almost immediately to another screen, filled with words and questions, numbered in order.
"Hah....what do you mean?"
Glaring down at her is one of her closest friends, Chiyo Fukuhara. Grade 1, also Class 5, just like her, and another girl who's lost in the boredom of staying after school to help their peers catch up with their studies (although, she actually enjoys staying after school just so she can yell at some of her classmates, which Y/n knew she had a weird complex about).
The two girls, proving their reputation to the Honors class of Karasuno's first years, were already grappling with the hooks of spreading education to every minor crevice of the student body. Despite Y/n being class president, Chiyo was definitely more of the head-strong, assertive type. Yet, here she was, fulfilling the role of vice president, right beside Y/n.
Sheepishly, she returns to her student, watching a few portions of scratch work piled in the blank space from before, before eyeing Chiyo back with a frown.
"Stop embarrassing me in front of my student!" She hisses, noticing the boy in front of her curiously glancing at her and the other brown-haired girl, as he fills the paper with numbers.
Chiyo softens her gaze, pressing her lips together to the side.
"Sorry, Y/n. I was just joking with you," she says softly, "but seriously, you told me at lunch you had bigger and more important things than looking through the class files Mr. Jiro assigned us? But we're still waiting on you to finalize everything with us."
A soft gasp escaped Y/n's mouth, covering her mouth briefly with her fingers before she recalled her duties.
"Oh, shit! We're having that meeting tomorrow, aren't we?" She groans before leaping to hug Chiyo tightly with a thankful sigh, "Chi! Thanks for reminding me! I'll get that done tonight."
Rolling her eyes at her friend's dramatic gestures, she manages to slightly push off the other girl before chuckling at her silliness.
"Yeah, yeah, I know you were going to remember," Chiyo leans in, "but maybe a reminder now would help you not remember at midnight tonight like you usually do."
Y/n guiltily lets out a laugh at her statement, before turning back to her workspace.
"You kind of got me there. But, to be fair, the broadcasting club's been super busy recently, so most of my attention has been on that. Cut me some slack, hm?"
Pouting her lips at the other tutor across from her, Y/n rubs her hands together in a manner that makes her look like she's praying to the gods at the shrine every New Year's.
Clicking her tongue at her friend, once again, she indulges her friend's half excuses and grabs the sweater hanging from a neighboring desk, resting it on the bag that's occupying her shoulder.
"Whatever, girl, you do what you gotta do. Text me if you need help. I'm gonna head home now, so clean up before you leave, yeah?"
Y/n hums a confirmation to her friend's slight command, and waving a "bye" to her as she leaves the classroom with a thumbs up.
Looking back at the student in front of her, she snaps her fingers in front of his distracted attention, pointing back down at the paper that was wedged between the two of them.
───────────────
Yawning, as she turned the corner to approach the vending machine one last time for the day, Y/n took out another 500 yen coin from her wallet, sliding it into the coin slot and swiftly pressing the button under the canned coffee.
Before she could have the chance to hear her change drop out, a sudden slam into the glass in front of her, made her heart leap out of her chest (practically). At this time of the day, not many people were even at school anymore. 5 pm was definitely already super late for a lot of clubs, so keeping her guard up was not on her mind.
Though after whatever just happened, she figured, she might have to.
"Dumbass, you almost hit someone!" A voice yelled, jogging footsteps up in her direction. Yet, slowly shaken and attuned with reality, it took her moments to realize what was happening.
"Hey, you alright?" Turning around slowly, she faces a familiar face—and his tall, big stature—again in front of her. The boy from earlier in the day who shook her juice out of the machine, sweating in a white T-shirt and grasping a dirtied volleyball in his hands.
She wouldn't have noticed it if she wasn't looking that closely, but she saw his eyes widen for a second, before he shot a glare back at an orange-haired boy behind him.
"Y-yeah, I'm okay. Watch out, next time," she mumbles, quickly picking up the coffee from the vending machine slot below, rushing to scurry past him and avoid another embarrassing encounter.
Shit, didn't just run into him once, but twice at this damn vending machine. She thinks, sighing to herself mentally. Maybe this is my sign to start buying the overpriced juice bottles at the cafeteria....
"Hey!"
She flinches at the sudden words, but reluctantly turns back with a clearing of her throat.
"Yeah?"
"You forgot your change," he says, sticking out his hand with the coins jangling inside his fist, waiting for her to put out hers.
She peers up at him, observing his ebony hair and deep blue eyes, fixated on seeing her hand reach out.
And when she does, he hands her back her prize.
The prize of surviving the day, not getting her head hit by that volleyball, and somehow obtaining a jammed apple juice early in her lunch period:
A mere 200 yen.