A Broken Teacup and a Very Serious Plan

Hitoshi had woken up at 6 a.m. Usually he wouldn’t tolerate anyone at this hour. But today, Sena had promised: “We’ll meet up and make a plan.” Making plans wasn’t something Hitoshi liked. Especially with other people. But for some reason, with Sena, everything felt a little more… complicated, yet bearable. He looked in the mirror as he left the house. As always, he put on his black coat, tousled his hair slightly, and straightened his expression: “I have to look cool.” But then he noticed something green on his teeth in the mirror. “Seriously… was that mint gum?” he muttered, cleaning it hurriedly. Sena was waiting for him when he arrived at the cafe. She had a notebook in her hand, and she was wearing glasses. She’d drawn emoji-filled drawings in what she claimed was her plan notebook. The moment Hitoshi sat down, Sena pushed the notebook in front of her. “Okay! This is our strategic roadmap to find ‘K,’” she said proudly. Hitoshi looked at the notebook. Step one: “Identify K.” Step two: "Throw coffee in your face." Step three: "Take a dramatic walk to serious music." "Is that the plan?" Hitoshi asked, eyebrows raised. Sena shook her head. "No, the real plan is in the background. This is just the 'motivation part.'" "Is there a motivation part where coffee gets thrown in your face?" Sena tried to sound serious. "Sometimes you have to express your anger creatively." Just then the waiter arrived. "What would you like?" Sena ordered immediately: "A coffee with milk and a... er... blueberry pastry?" Hitoshi coolly said, in his classic pose. "Plain Turkish coffee. A little sugar." The waiter took notes. "Black? A little sugar?" Hitoshi squinted and repeated: "Plain... but a little sugar." Sena started to laugh. "Your conflicted mood is even reflected in your coffee order." Hitoshi frowned. "I didn't order a mood, I ordered coffee." When the coffees arrived, Sena turned serious again. He pulled an old USB drive from his pocket. “I found this. It has leaked files from ‘K’s old school system. Encrypted with code. But… I thought you might be able to guess the password.” Hitoshi took it and looked at it. He entered the password screen: “notnow123.” The USB booted. Sena was shocked. “You’re kidding!” “Remember that people use the stupidest passwords to encrypt the most important things,” Hitoshi said. “Being cool is one thing, being smart is another.” “K”’s name appeared on the screen. His code name: Kuro. His real name was still a secret. But the most important detail: Kuro was a former classmate of Hitoshi’s. And in the class photo, he was the guy with glasses, hiding in the back row. Sena enlarged the photo. “Seriously? This kid? In high school, he used to play with gum all the time and wouldn’t talk in class!” Hitoshi pretended to put on his glasses. “I told you cool is silence. Turns out we’ve raised our counterparts.” Sena suddenly burst out laughing. “Then let’s change the name of this plan to: Two Cool People’s Crazy Revenge!” At that very moment, Sena accidentally knocked over his teacup. Everything got wet. Hitoshi slyly stepped aside. Sena felt embarrassed. “Oops… The first loss of the plan: the teacup.” Hitoshi nodded solemnly. “Now this is a war.” They made no plans that day. They just laughed a lot, talked about the past, and finally left the waiter an extra tip as an apology. But one thing was certain: This wasn’t just about “K” anymore. This was about two friends reuniting after many years, coming to terms with the past. And this reckoning was going to be a little mysterious, a little emotional… but definitely funny.

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