Wired (Gencio)

Chapter One

"You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Genji Shimada stared at his bicycle, which was laying in the grass outside of his university. The wheels were still spinning, and tangled in the spokes were a pair of pale pink earbuds. One of the buds was swinging around lazily, occasionally hitting his leg. With a loud groan, he shifted his bag to one shoulder and bent down, trying to untangle them from the tire spokes.

"Please still work, please still work, please..." His mind was racing as he pulled it free, ignoring the weird looks he was getting from other students on the sidewalk. He heard a quiet, feminine laugh and ignored it at first. But when she spoke, he paid attention.

"Vhat did you do to get zhat to happen?"

He looked over his shoulder and caught the sight of blonde hair. Sighing in relief, he sat down on the grass and turned to face the woman. "It's a long story, Angela."

Angela hugged her books to her chest and sighed. Then gracefully, as if she was floating, she took a seat next to him. "I've got time. Zhe medical department isn't far from here."

Genji flight the urge roll to his eyes and let his gaze wander to the grass. He started plucking blades of grass and twirling them between his fingers. "I was biking here from my apartment and listening to a lecture from yesterday. Long story short, one of the buds fell out and got stuck in the wheel. I'm lucky I landed on the grass."

There medical student winced and spared a glance at the concrete next to him. "Very lucky indeed..."

In The blink of an eye, she was back on her feet. She held a hand out to a him, a sympathetic look on her face. "You should really invest in a more expensive pair. Maybe Bluetooth ones vould vork vell for you."

The green-haired male shrugged, still staring at the ground. He took her hand reluctantly and pulled himself to his feet. "I doubt I have enough for one of them, though."

Angela gave him a skeptical look, one of those that a mother gives a child when they know they're being lied to. "Genji."

"What?"

"I've vatched you buy a careful of ramen with fifty dollars. I'm positive you have enough for some Bluetooth headphones."

This time he actually rolled his eyes. "Please, Gabe doesn't pay me that much."

"You get twenty an hour."

"Still."

She shook her head, exasperated. "Look, a new music shop opened downtown a few veeks ago. They sell some quality stuff for a decent price. Plus zhe owner is very nice."

The Asian looked up at his friend with an eyebrow raised. Without breaking eye contact, he pulled his green bike up by the handlebars. "And what's this store's name?"

"Mein Gott, I'm probably butchering this, but..."She pulled out her phone, tapping and scrolling for a few seconds. "Sinta batide? Vhatever, I'll let Google Translate do it."

The Swiss tapped a few more times as Genji sat on his bicycle seat. He slipped his ear buds into his hoodie pocket, vowing to test them later. "Hopefully they work, so that I don't have to struggle to find this store..."

A robotic voice cut through his thoughts, its voice feminine. Dully, it said, "Sinta a Batida." A moment later, it repeated it in English. "Feel the Beat."

"It's on Strickland, past zhe froyo place." The blonde slipped her phone back into her pocket and gave him a sweet smile. "Give it a shot, vill you?"

He wanted to say no. He didn't have the time or the money or the resources to go out of his way and view a music shop across town. But everyone knows you can't say no to Angela Ziegler.

A strained smile made its way into his face and he nodded. "I'll do it sometime this week. Thank you, Angela."

She nodded in response and hugged her books tightly to her chest. Then, quickly and quietly, she started back down the sidewalk towards her class.

The smile dropped from his face and he sighed loudly. Annoyed and frustrated, the Shimada let his feet hit the pedals and continued to his class. "She better be right about this..." he thought bitterly as he continued to his class.