Chapter Text
High school entrance exams were right around the corner. Coming from a cheap, run-down school, Chuuya had barely any hope of going to a top school. He sighed heavily as he stared at his blank choice paper. He had to write down at most three options, but he didn’t even have one.
“You could try a sports school,” Yuan encouraged, eyeing Chuuya’s blank paper. “You’ve always been good at martial arts. Maybe pursue a career in that.”
“Or physics. You’re the top student in that,” Shirase added.
“But I doubt I make the top fifty in the country,” Chuuya protested, slamming his head against the desk.
He hated how he couldn’t have had a normal life, couldn’t have gone to a normal school, and couldn’t have a chance at a good career. He didn’t even have a childhood. For as long as he could remember, he was a lab rat. His life is what you could consider a living nightmare. A few years back, he woke up outside. He doesn’t remember how he escaped, but he was certain there was someone who rescued him. Chuuya had always wanted to meet this person and demand why they had rescued him from the lab, only to let him die on the streets.
For days, Chuuya had wandered the streets of Yokohama, surviving on scraps that he didn’t know were poisonous or not. He was all too familiar with fear, but the fear of survival was vastly different from the fear the scientists gave him. It consumed him day and night. On a very cold Tuesday, he was huddled under a bridge in his old rags when Shirase found him. He was Chuuya’s saviour, and he owes a lot to him.
“You don’t know that,” Shirase reassured Chuuya, tilting his chair. “I know you will ace whatever entrance exam you choose to do.”
“Just remember us when you reach new heights,” Yuan added.
Chuuya frowned, staring at her. “You’re not going to try?”
“We’re not as talented as you,” she smiled sadly, resting her head on the desk. “We’ll go to some old, broken-down high school for losers like us.”
“B-b-but-” Chuuya protested before Shirase raised a finger to his lips.
“It’s fine,” he said.
Chuuya felt lost. For his best friends to just accept that he will have better opportunities was crushing. He was a nobody, an experiment at most. How could they think he will be better off in the world than them?
“Why can’t we just stay together?” Chuuya asked.
Shirase and Yuan shared a look before bursting out into laughter. Chuuya looked between them, wondering what was funny about what he just said.
“Our grades are between average and below average,” Yuan started.
“We’d only be dragging you down,” Shirase finished.
Chuuya opened his mouth to argue, but the professor had entered the classroom, snapping everyone back to attention. Shirase and Yuan took their seats as attendance was called. When the lesson started, Chuuya zoned out as it was basic equations he had already mastered ages ago. As he solved the problems, his mind went back to his conversation with Shirase and Yuan. They were both wrong if they thought he was being brought down. He was going to stay in the same school as them and work in some crappy office if it meant staying with them.
________
When school ended, they headed out to get some crepes. Their morning conversation seemed long forgotten as Shirase was going on about an organisation completely composed of orphans in London. They operated similarly to the school they attended. A small group of adults fund their school for orphans they find in the slums to try to give them a second chance at life. It was just barely enough funding to keep the school operating.
A small queue was in front of the crepe truck. A young girl with purple hair tied in pigtails stood with her mother in front of them. She held a stuffed bunny plushie. Chuuya wondered if he ever went to buy crepes with his mother like this young girl. He really wished he remembered more about his past before the lab, but those memories seemed to have been erased from his mind.
When the young girl received her crepe, she was so happy that it brought a smile to Chuuya’s face. He liked seeing children be happy with their parents. It was a small comfort that they didn’t have to experience what he or his friends had to go through.
After buying their crepes, the trio sat down on a bench overlooking the river. Chuuya saw the exact moment when Yuan ascended the planes of the universe as the sweetness enveloped her taste buds. He took a bite of his own, letting the flavour melt on his tongue. He’s had a crepe on one other occasion, but it tasted nothing like this. The banana complemented the strawberry flavour perfectly, and the chocolate and whipped cream added the perfect amount of sweetness to the already ripe fruits.
“You can thank me for suggesting to save up on our allowances,” Shirase exclaimed proudly.
“Almost makes me forgive you for the hours of cleaning we had to do,” Yuan said blissfully.
They stayed by the river until the sun started to set before heading back to the dorms. The kids on kitchen duty were running around to set up the tables for dinner. Chuuya recognised Akira and Shougo among the chefs.
“Had fun?” Shougo asked sarcastically as he spotted the trio.
“Loads,” Shirase said smugly before telling them about the crepes they had.
Chuuya went back up to his room to change. He dropped his backpack on the floor and pulled out the first things he found: a hoodie and a pair of jeans. Shirase came in a few minutes later, flinging his bag against a chair and taking off his socks.
“Put those away, man. They stink,” Chuuya joked, covering his nose.
“Shut up,” Shirase whined, falling face first onto his bed.
Chuuya noticed the immediate mood change. “What happened?”
Shirase sighed loudly against his pillow. “The wicked witch said she’ll cut our allowance if we keep 'spending it without care'.” He made air quotations.
The witch running this dormitory/orphanage was a tough one. She did not tolerate tomfoolery and forbade sweets upon many things. The students liked to call her the Wicked Witch of the West. She is the wife of a wealthy businessman in America, L. Frank Baum, who helps fund the school. To him, this is a social experiment, and his wife, Maud Gage Baum, treats them as such. She makes sure they are either doing chores or studying whenever they’re in the dorms, so most of them spend their days outside.
“I wish she’d just die already,” Shirase complained. “She said she’s cutting fifty per cent of our wages for two weeks for arriving .5 seconds after curfew. Why is she even in Japan? Isn’t America the land of the free? Shouldn’t she be happy there?”
“Shirase, don’t think you can hide in here!” the witch yelled, kicking open the door. “You’re on bathroom duty for the next month.”
“Holy shit, woman. Do you not know how to knock?” Shirase demanded.
“Make it a month and a half.” Shirase rolled his eyes, but lucky for him, the witch had shifted her focus to Chuuya. He tried to look at her defiantly, but her gaze was terrifying. “What about you, Chuuya? Want to join him?”
Whatever he said, he was sure she was going to give him an equally bad task. At least he did not have to answer as she continued with barely a pause. “You’re stuck on dishes for the next two months. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I expect you to be in the kitchen. Now where’s Yuan?” She pronounced the an very nasally, so it came out like anne. Yuan has tried to correct her pronunciation before, but Baum didn't care.
Chuuya threw his arms in the air as the door slammed closed. How was that fair? He looked at Shirase, who was throwing different hand signs at the door. When he met Chuuya’s gaze, he said, “Your punishment is way easier. Don’t fucking complain.”
“I am because you know damn well she’ll expect me to come back here once we live in high school dorms,” Chuuya fumed.
The door swung open then, with a very pissed off looking Yuan. “Did you have to go tell everyone we went out for crepes?”
“What did you get stuck with?” Shirase laughed upon seeing her expression. “I’m on toilet duty for a month and a half, and Chuuya’s got dishes for two.”
Yuan crossed her arms, glaring daggers at Shirase. “Cleaning duty for five weeks. And before you say anything, you know how big those roaches can get?”
Shirase and Chuuya both burst out laughing. Yuan had seen worse than giant roaches when she lived in the slums, yet as soon as she sees one, she starts yelling her head off. For one, they’re impossible to kill, and for another, she finds them gross. Chuuya knows she’s had to live off scraps for a little while, and that is actually gross.
“Would you stop laughing!” she screeched.
“Fine, let’s switch,” Shirase proposed.
“You’re kidding, right?” Yuan looked at him incredulously, a small smile forming on her lips. “Hell no.”
Shirase shrugged. “Worth a try.”
The bell rang, signalling that dinner was ready. Shirase jumped out of bed, stretching his limbs before making his way out. Yuan and Chuuya followed him. They took their places at their seat, and because Maud Baum demands that they follow American traditions, they joined hands for her to say a long prayer to God, thanking him for the food. Every once in a while, especially when her prayer went on for too long, someone would complain that a simple, “thank you for the food,” was enough. The witch would lash out and say they were in her household, so they will follow her customs.
“Amen,” she finished, and they repeated it after her.
“That one was overkill,” Shirase whispered as he grabbed a bowl of soba.
Mrs Baum was eating some puke-looking thing she called food, saying that she refused to eat something made by the students. She also refused to eat Japanese food unless it was made authentically by professional chefs. Chuuya wondered why she took this job since she obviously detested them.
When they were done, Chuuya entered the kitchen under the watchful gaze of Maud Baum. At least he wasn’t the only one, but the number of dishes was monumental. The worst is that he’s only getting fifty per cent of his usual wage, and because the witch refused to learn the difference between yen and USD, it was very, very little.
When he was done, Chuuya wanted to go to sleep, but he had to study for the entrance exams. He still didn’t know which high school he wanted to go to, and both Shirase and Yuan refused to tell him which ones they signed up for. He had four more days until it was due, though, so he was sure he could convince them to tell him.