The Winners Take It All | Chishiya [English]

21 days

(~parts from here are not edited yet!~)

Twenty-one days could be long or short. It always depended on the angle from which you looked at it.

Was one waiting for something? The days would pass agonizingly slowly.

Was one getting stressed? Time was flying by.

My situation was more dedicated to the second possibility. I was under pressure. It might have been my own fault when I had decided on the time frame. An apartment in three weeks? Was I crazy in some way? I had already barely made it in the last five weeks, so how the hell was it going to work now?!

I couldn't give up though, I didn't want to see my parents win. I had resolved to leave this hell, so I would. No matter what happened, I would find a way.

Three days had now passed, with 18 more to go. I had scoured the entire Internet, looking for potential places to live, but of course I had had no luck. If even one apartment came on the market, it was completely overpriced and then taken again within minutes.

A message appeared on the edge of my laptop. An email from my professor.

Re: change of study course.

For a brief moment, I was able to put apartment hunting in a drawer.

Dear Hayashi-san,

I am pleased to inform you that the change to medical psychology has been unanimously approved.

Congratulations!

However, I must inform you that we had decided to require you to make a substitution.

You will be told exactly what this is after your next lecture by your accompanying professor.

I wish you another successful day!

Yours sincerely,

Denjira-san

A kind of relief flooded my body. At least SOMETHING that was working out in my life right now. I closed my mailbox and set about browsing the net some more. After all, not a minute could be in vain....

--------------------------------

What can I say? I could have spared myself the search yesterday. Dormitories, apartments, even houses! The market was empty!

And now I was on my way to the university again, still dejected. I had really slipped into a lousy situation. Maybe Kuina had an idea? I pulled out my phone.

Hey, are you free this afternoon?

She answered not a minute later.

Sure! Suggest a time and place and I'll be there!

I smiled slightly and typed an address, as well as a suitable time, into the chat before putting my phone away again and entering the university. Determined, I made my way to the third floor, where I entered a different lecture hall this time. Criminal psychology and medical psychology might have the same stem, but it had a difference in execution.

Criminal psychology was more passive. You had to observe a lot, interpret. The medical variety, on the other hand, was active, as you came to a conclusion with questions, as well as observation. You worked closer with people, which I personally liked better.

In fact, I also liked the lecture very much. We had a fairly young lecturer who combined his facts very well with appropriate examples and therefore made it interesting. Sure, the previous lectures had been great as well, but this was a bit better.

I was proud of myself that I ended up with a good amount of information on my Word document. "Hayashi-san?", the lecturer addressed me as I was packing up my things and I nodded politely. "Yes?", I replied and we shook hands. "It's a pleasure to meet you! Well, do you have time for a brief moment? I'd like to discuss replacement services with you, as well as a few other concerned parties," his voice was pleasant. I could guess that he was a good person to talk to as well.

So we left the room together and he led me through half the building before we stopped in front of a meeting room. Somehow I got the feeling that this was going to be a lengthy conversation. As a precaution, I sent Kuina a text message to give her a heads up.

He knocked on the door and then opened it. Together we entered and... Were suddenly no longer alone. There were other students sitting in the room, seven others to be exact.

Denjira-san had already hinted at something like that, but I didn't expect to find them all here now.

"Hello, Tomoki-san. Ah, you must be Hayashi-san, right? My name is Faruka-san. I'm in charge of the substitute performance together with Tomoki," a slightly older gentleman had immediately stood up and greeted us, "As you could already tell, the substitute performance will be handled within a group."

All of a sudden I was a little stressed. Group work? Denjira hadn't mentioned anything about that at all!

I was offered a seat and sat down before something else caught my eye. A familiar face... My stomach began to tingle.

Chishiya, the guy from the group, was also here. He was sitting in the room, looking around carefully.

"We've divided you into two groups so that the topics will fit well with your focus. Tomoki will lead group 2, and I will support group 1. I'm sure you're wondering what this strange substitution is. We received a request from the Medical and Engineering Research Office that needed subjects for two studies. Both studies are about communication at work, that is, collaboration between different people. We decided to combine the substitute performance and study," Faruka-san folded his hands, "I know it's a huge task. On the other hand, it will also look good on your application report. You have the option of refusing to participate, however, the evaluation basis would be much worse for you."

Oh bloody hell! This couldn't be happening!

"Tomoki, would you like to take your group with you already?" he asked afterwards, since no questions were asked.

"Well, with pleasure, dear colleague. Then I would need Obiki Ryo, Daiki Hinata, Chishiya Shuntaro, and Hayashi Ayuna once!", my heart leaped for no reason. I was in a group with the mysterious young man!

We stood up and left the room, only to be seated again in another.

The young professor looked at us with a smile.

"Well, welcome. You are the subjects of the medical study. You have all chosen a medical major. Physical therapy, nursing, psychology, and medicine. You deserve the honor of working together and then writing a detailed technical paper about it." why did I feel there was so much more to this?