Irritating Relaxtion

Jean finished his exercises, sweating like a pig going to a slaughterhouse. He had to put more effort into his exercises since his shoulder kept hurting him, forcing him to do one-arm pushups. He sighed as he turned his head to the door of the occupied simulation room. 

'I'm curious as to how the simulation works,' Jean thought, but he knew it was too late because the next test starts in around 30 minutes. Besides the four in the room, he was the only one here. Krista left soon after they went to the simulator. Floch and Connie are now outside racing around the grounds against each other, sky animal vs land animal.

When he made it back into his room, he took a brief cold shower before going into his bag and putting on a simple white tank top, a pair of black sweat pants and blue boxers. He looked at his jacket and he looked at the hole that Krista's arrow made in the left sleeve.

"Sorry about your shoulder, Jean," he mocked in a high-pitched voice as he put on his jacket before grabbing his badge, stuffing it in his jacket pocket, and placing the room key card in his pants pocket. Jean put on a pair of white socks and his shoes before heading back out.

Walking outside, he decided to sit on one of the lawn chairs and relax on his shoulder while some of the other participants were either playing in one of the pools, relaxing in one of the jacuzzis or just having a conversation while taking in some sunlight. Jean turned on the alarm on his phone and took out his wireless earbuds to listen to rock music when he heard some shouting.

"Haha! I told you, you're not faster than me!" Connie exclaimed.

"That was a fluke! You had a head start! Plus, I'm hurt!" Floch argued.

"No, I didn't have a head start! You're just slow!"

"Yeah, we'll see about that next time when I fully recover," Floch said.

Jean sighed as he stood up to move to another spot that was a little more discreet but it was for naught as Reiner called his name, making the brunet groan as he sat down next to him at a roundtable with an umbrella in the middle. Jean noticed the change in Reiner's clothes with the brawny teen now wearing a red t-shirt with the word 'Powerhouse' printed on the chest area and white jogging pants.

"I don't think wearing white pants is a good idea especially if we're gonna be doing a test in a forest, you might get your pants dirty," Jean advised.

"But you're wearing white too."

"Yeah, but I have a jacket,"

"Have you seen Krista lately?" Reiner asked. "I saw her this morning but haven't seen her at all." 

Jean shook her head. "No. The last time I saw her, she was practising her archery but she left afterward."

Reiner sighed. "Krista has always been training a lot. Not that I mind. I like a fit girl."

'Even though she barely hangs out with you? I'd be surprised if she calls you a friend,' Jean wanted to say but he kept quiet.

"Have you tried calling her?"Jean asked.

"No response."

"Well, it doesn't really matter. You're gonna see her at the start of the second test anyway," Jean said, leaning back on the plastic chair.

"That's true," Reiner sighed. "Ok, Jean, you know I like Krista, right?"

"I mean… yeah it's not hard to see that. You would have to be blind not to notice."

"Just like you with Mikasa?"

Jean's cheeks burned up. "W-W-Well, I mean l-like, I mean she looks c-cute but y-you know…"

Reiner chuckled. "I was always curious about this but What do you like about her?"

Jean put some thought into it. What did he like about her? Was it her dark grey eyes, her smooth fair skin or soft-looking lips? Jean then remembered the time that Mikasa decided to put her hair down, with it just reaching below her chin and nearly hitting the base of her neck. Jean was in a trance looking at her straight and thick black hair. He could tell that she takes care of it with a little shine in her hair whenever she's under a light source.

"Her hair."

"Her hair?"

"Yeah, her hair. It's…black," Jean said.

"Damn. It's sad that she's a goth, though. I think if she dressed similar to Krista or a little more sexier, I would possibly like her too," Reiner said.

Jean didn't mind her style. He actually was quite fond of it except for all the jewelry that she wore, he wouldn't be surprised if a magnet accidentally stuck to her.

"Unfortunately, she's an issue along with Eren. Those monster twins are the biggest direct threat to us."

Jean remembered the first class they did in the Adventurer Program in junior high.

3 years ago

Jean sat on the bleachers waiting for this speed test to be done. The speed test was running a whole lap and the timer would stop just when the runner ran past the finish line. The blue course layout was in the shape of an oval measuring 1000 meters.

"Eren Yeager, it is your turn for your lap. Please put on your bracelet and stand by the starting line."

The skinny boy was wearing a black shirt that was slightly torn at the collar with messy medium-length black hair styled in a wolf cut, making the upper half of his face hardly visible. His shorts were also black with red shoes that looked so worn out that the colour was fading. Some of his fingers on his right hand and his left forearm were wrapped in badges that were discoloured with spots of faint red.

"He looks like he's in the lower class. How could he be here?" Jean said while holding his bottle of water. "Plus, he looks so frail that he can break his ankle if he goes too far."

"Well, let's see how it goes, "A guy with a bowl cut said.

"Honestly, Marlowe, I wouldn't be surprised if he gave up," A wavy-haired girl shrugged.

Mikasa raised her hand. "You skipped me, sir."

"You will go after him since you were late. Now, Yeager, are you ready?"

The boy hopped and stretched a bit before getting into a sprinter stance. The teacher counted down.

"3…2…1…go!"

Right after the go, he was gone within a blink of an eye, leaving a cloud of dirt behind him as he sprinted his lap. Jean looked to see most of his classmates in shock seeing a black blur going around the track. He was already done with the tracker recorded at 4.5 seconds.

"What the hell?!" Most of the class shouted with some saying fuck at the end instead.

Even the teacher was shocked with his eyes widened as he slowly turned to Eren.

"4.5 seconds?" Eren said before sighing. "I'll do better next time."

Next, it was Mikasa. She tied her hair in a quick bun before getting ready to run. When she started, she was nothing but a blur as well. She ended at 4.8 seconds, almost tying the previous record. Eren jumped up in surprise mixed with excitement.

Eren extended his arm for a fist bump."That was sick! You're fucking fast!"

"Thanks. I could say the same to you," Mikasa said as she slowly reciprocated his attempt. 

"Those two…how?" Reiner said in shock.

"Is that a school record for raw speed?" Connie said.

"Won't be a surprise if it is," Marlowe added.

"Those two…are not normal…even in metahuman standards. Those two are monsters…" Krista said.

"Are they related?" Connie asked.

Jean looked at Mikasa as she sat next to Armin then looked at the new kid. " Unlikely, but won't be surprised if they are…"

"They've improved since then," Jean admitted. "But we've improved as well. The best we can do is pass these tests ourselves."

Reiner nodded in agreement. "Can't argue with that. So do you want to help me find Krista?"

"I don't know," Jean placed a bored hand on his face. "I wanted to relax my shoulder before the next test starts."

"Well, we can get a quick bite before we search."

Jean sighed. "I'm not hung-"

But then his stomach growled, hearing the word 'bite' coming out of the burly teen's mouth.

'Fuck.You.Stomach.'

"Your body is saying otherwise, bud," Reiner chuckled as he stood up from his chair. "Come on, pal. Let's go!"

'I'm pretty sure you don't see me as your pal, Reiner,' Jean thought bitterly as he reluctantly got up to follow the older teen to the restaurant.

The walls were white with the tablemats on top of the circular tables being white as well, contrasting with the black placemats. The cutlery was wrapped with a white napkin placed on top of the placemats. There were circular tables all around except for the ones next to the wall on the right side of the room, there were booths with black leather seats with rectangular-shaped tables instead of circular ones. Across from them, were the doors leading to the bar but there was a scanner beside the doors to scan your ID to see if you're 18 and over. On the left side, there was a sliding glass door leading to the patio with more tables except there was an umbrella standing through the middle of the tables with a 4-foot black wooden fence around the area. He and Reiner decided to sit outside, able to see the pools and women that were swimming in them.

Jean sat across from Reiner before A brown-haired,fair-skinned waiter wearing her uniform consisting of a white dress shirt, black pants and dark brown dress shoes walked out from the sliding doors and gave them tablets for the menu a couple minutes later.

"So, Jean, what are you getting?"

Jean looked at the menu. There were many options like burgers, steaks, pasta, soups, salads, tenders, and pizzas with each having a vegan and vegetarian option. There even had a dessert section as well with a variety of cakes and ice creams as well.

"I don't know, I'm not gonna get anything too heavy for my stomach," Jean said, reading the menu.

"Well, I know what I'm getting," Reiner raised his hand, making a couple of taps before confirming his order.

Jean saw something that caught his eye.

'I haven't had one of these in years.'

Jean confirmed his order before the waiter appeared again and took back the tablets.

"What do you think is going to be the next test?"

Jean took out his phone. "I don't know. We'll see what happens."

Jean went back into his FPS game. He went to a shotgun-focused loadout before he joined a search-and-destroy server.

"What game are you playing?"

"The mobile version of 'A Soldier's Duty'."

"I didn't know that they made a mobile version. Is it free?"

"Yeah, but if you get better guns faster, you have to pay for it."

The waiter came out from the sliding doors, holding a tray with their food while having their drinks on the other. Reiner got a medium rare t-bone steak with peppercorn seasoning and diced red onion with seasoned chopped potatoes on the side and Jean decided to get a poutine with crispy straight fries covered in rich brown gravy with pieces of kernel cheese that were halfway melted.

"Shouldn't you eat fish before the test?" Jean said.

"Why?"

"Doesn't fish have more iron than beef?"

Reiner shook his head. "Beef has way more iron than fish. For every 100 grams of t-bone steak, there are 3.4 milligrams of iron instead of 0.3 milligrams in salmon."

'That's a little over 11 times more.'

After they finished their meal, Reiner decided to call Krista but to no avail.

"Dude, relax. You will be with her in a half hour," Jean said, getting a bit irritated by Reiner's persistence. He went on his phone, watching some boxing techniques as he followed Reiner to the facility. The two continued to search for the girl by going to each floor but no dice. As they left the training facility, Jean's frustration with Reiner grew more and more, with his face turning to a scowl. He ruffled his hair before rubbing his face.

"Can we stop now?" Jean said, irritated. "You will see her in 15 minutes, anyway. So why bother searching? Do you even know her room number?"

"Room number…room number…That's it! She told me her room number! You're a genius, Jean! Let's go!" Reiner said, running back to the hotel.

"Fucking idiot…" Jean muttered.