At the Finish Line [Haiji Kiyose] - Run With the Wind

thirty-three - "celebrating"

Looking through his pieces of paper, Shindo stands at the head of the table, relaying his emails to the group that are sat around.

"So, we have the short-distance track team offering to be our water-helpers for the race. I figured we'd need to practise it, for their benefit and ours too so we'll have an hour or so next week with them." Shindo tells the group.

"That sounds great." Haiji nods, stirring the large pot of stew. "And the shopping vendors?"

"They're sorting out our accommodation for the two days and the transport. Tazaki-sensei will be in the van that drives behind the team member running, as well as an official." Shindo continues. "Everything is almost taken care of."

King grins. "We'd be lost without Shindo working behind the scenes."

Shindo sends them a sheepish grin. "It's nothing, really. I enjoy this kind of work."

"He even managed to send his end of term essay to his professor a few days ahead of the deadline," Musa says.

"Unlike someone else we know..." Nico raises an eyebrow.

All eyes fall on Chiyo, sat next to Prince at the end of the table with her headphones on, blasting music as she types furiously on her laptop keys.

Haiji stifles a laugh. "She was doing well until her professor gave her the wrong essay title and her first draft was completely useless."

She stops typing for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut and hunching over the laptop, head in her hands.

"Are you sure she's okay?" Musa asks.

Haiji shrugs. "It's an economics essay, anyone would find that difficult to write about for 3,000 words."

"Even Yuki would struggle to write an economics essay." Shindo comments.

Nico furrows his eyebrows. "Speaking of Yuki, where is he? Or Kakeru for that matter?"

"They both went out to buy some drinks for this evening," Haiji tells them.

Chiyo pulls her headphones off and looks at Shindo. "The formula of Revenue is Selling Price x Quantity Sold, right?"

"That sounds right." He nods.

She sends him a quick thank you, immediately pulling her headphones back on and continuing to type.

"I thought you dropped economics last year, Shindo?" King asks.

"Some of the economics material is also linked with business." He says. "And anyway, you gloss over revenue and market sales in the economics course that I took in my first and second year."

Nico nods slowly. "Wow, I give Yuki all that stick about law students being lazy but maybe I don't give him enough credit for studying hard."

"Don't tell him that though," King smirks.

"What are we celebrating tonight?" Prince asks.

Haiji grins. "Well it's Kakeru's birthday on Christmas eve and Chiyo is spending Christmas with her sister from the 23rd. So, we decided to have a joint birthday and pre-Christmas celebration while she's here."

The music from Chiyo's headphones stops and she triumphantly pulls them off her ears and places them down beside her laptop. "And I can now enjoy the festivities tonight feeling guilt-free."

"Did you send over your essay?" Haiji asks her.

She stands up from the table, grinning from ear to ear. "I certainly did. So now I don't have to worry about it!"