𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃; jean k.

chapter 5.

"do you have heart?" a man yelled in front of the crowd. it's the night of the graduation ceremony and all the cadets are gathered in front of an old stone building in a nearby city.

"sir!" we all yell while saluting.

"as of this moment, you have three options open to you. chose wisely" he starts, "the garrison regiment: who's job is to reinforce the walls,  the scout regiment: who ride out into titan country to take back what was once ours, and the mp regiment: maintaining law and order under orders from his royal majesty. those cadets eligible for the mp have already been named. the rest of you, take a look. these are the top of your class".

standing in front of the rest of the cadets is the top 10 trainees, who's names are called from tenth to first in the class: sasha braus, connie springer, marco bodt, y/n l/n, jean kirstein, eren jaeger, annie leonhart, bertholdt hoover, reiner braun, and mikasa ackerman.

i stand in line with the rest of the top 10 with a confident smile. to be at the top of the class with my friends is such an honor. but most importantly, i'm sure to do well in the scouts now.

-

"alright! mp here i come!" connie says as he clanks his cup together when sasha's.

"three square meals a day for life!" sasha says excitedly. i overhear their celebration and walk over to them in the crowd of cadets in the large banquet hall.

"connie, what's in your cup?" i ask.

"who's asking" he responds smoothly.

"oh! i bet it's beer or wine!" sasha says, "let me have some". she goes to grab his cup but he moves it around so she can't reach it.

"why would i do that?" connie asks.

"because you love us" i say as i step next to sasha and we both give him the puppy dog eyes. he sighs and pours some into both our cups.

"how in gods name did i get ranked under eren?" jean asks as he walks over to me before taking a sip of his drink.

"jean, not everything has to be a competition. you still ranked top 10 so you can be in the mps now. be happy" i say with a smile as i rub his arm with my hand.

"yeah i guess" jean says before taking another swig of his drink. who knows what's in his cup. in the meantime, i overhear a conversation from the other side of the room.

"you're really going to turn your back on the mp for the scouts? why in the world would you do that? you're in the top ten" thomas asks.

"the scouts have always been my goal. i don't want the easy life with all the work i've put in" eren respond.

"are you insane?" thomas asks loudly while getting in erens face. many people including jean turn to watch this unfold, "how many people have died? we're talking a fifth of the population. if that doesn't paint a picture for you i don't know what will. we can't beat them".

"yeah? so what?" eren says, "we buckle? take it all lying down? things have changed. maybe not a lot, but enough. they aren't the mystery they were five years ago. you're telling me it's better to cut our losses? let all the death and destruction be meaningless? i'll drive them out, and as long as at least one of us can say that, we're not done". eren then storms out of the banquet hall, and mikasa and armin follow him out.

"woah. what was that all about?" jean asks as he turns to me, but right when he does connie's drink hits me and i feel a little funny, "y/n? are you okay?".

"huh? oh yeah i'm fiiine" i respond. i feel my cheeks start burning up and the world around me gets a little hazy.

"hold on a minute..." he says before taking my cup and smelling it, "woah okay. who did you get that from".