Ideas, those thoughts that are incredibly generated in our mind after an intense drunkenness, the kind that does not let you remember what time you fell asleep or how long you slept, or that makes you wake up in a strange place, and later you find out that you slept for two days and woke up in the neighboring state or region.

  ... well, not all ideas are born like that, but it is just a fictitious example. As I was saying, the ideas we create are a response to a need. It can be boredom, where your mind thinks of something to distract you, or in other cases ideas are created in order to solve problems, and this is what we will see today.

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  During the night, when normally most living beings are asleep — such as children, adults, dogs, cats, birds, trees, night watchmen, everyone — except gamers and readers, those creatures who do not know how to perceive time.

  On that peaceful night, there was a light coming from an apartment, and noises were coming from that place.

  In that apartment, the kitchen light was on. A boy was taking a bag from an upper cabinet, and upon opening it, he allowed a sweet aroma to come out of the bag and spread through the kitchen.

  Holding a spoon, he submerged it into the bag, then took it out with some brown-colored grains.

  He placed them inside a cylindrical device, covering its upper part, and with the press of a button, the cylinder began to work.

  After a few minutes, he stopped the machine, taking out the coffee now in powder form, placing it into a kind of deep circular spoon.

  Then, pressing it down with a metal lid, he left the powder in a firm state with a flat surface.

  He placed that strange spoon on top of a small digital scale, giving it a weight in grams. Then, with a thin and small spoon, he scraped a little off the surface, now showing an ideal weight on the scale.

  He pressed the spoon down once again with the strange lid, and with delicate movements, he placed that spoon into a large machine, which, with a twist, made the spoon lock into place.

  With a firm hand, he activated the machine, causing it to emit heat, and soon a liquid began to flow from it, landing in a thermos, producing the sound of liquid hitting metal. A harmonious sound... though not for someone.

  “Master, what are you doing?” said a floating sphere, volatile and varnished, watching a boy with no physical description.

  “Isn’t it obvious?! I am creating the solution to our problems, the cure to all evil! That dark brown liquid will bring relief to our lives!” shouted Jeff excitedly, as if he had resurrected a monster in the middle of a storm.

  “Master, from what I can see, you are only making coffee.”

  “Didn’t you say you didn’t know? And it’s not just coffee — this will help Alejandra. With this, she will stop feeling sleepy. Muahahahaha!” (mad villain laughter)

  “Excuse me for what I am about to say, but this is the worst idea to solve Alejandra’s tiredness. Why not use one of the plans I mentioned?”

  “Because you asked me to ask her to teach me how to get ready properly, but I had already asked her before and she didn’t want to. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look at chapter 10.”

  “Master, why are you looking at the wall? And who are you talking to? Did you drink a jar of coffee again?”

  “And if you want to find out which jar of coffee Esfer is talking about, look at chapter 4,” said Jeff, ignoring Esfer and still staring at the wall.

  Meanwhile, Esfer could only look strangely at his strange master.

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  “Yaaawwwn,” Alejandra let out a big yawn, in case you didn’t notice, while covering her mouth with her right hand.

  “Are you sleepy?” Jeff asked, looking to his side at Alejandra, as they were sitting on the train to the university.

  “Yes, a little,” Alejandra said, yawning on every vowel. “I had to do homework yesterday.”

  Jeff felt a tightness in his chest as he looked at Alejandra in that state, knowing that he had caused it. He had been the reason for her lack of sleep by making her get ready so early.

  “Hey, why are you crying?”

  “It’s nothing, just a little speck of dust in my eye,” Jeff said while rubbing his eyes. “Oh, I just remembered — here.” Jeff grabbed his backpack and took out a thermos from it. “It’s for you.”

  Alejandra took the thermos. “And what is this?” she asked while looking at it with a frown.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “It’s a thermos :) … Wait, Alejandra!! Put the thermos down!” Jeff shouted, covering his face with his hands, while Alejandra raised the thermos with murderous intentions.

  “I’ll ask you again, what is this?”

  “Well, it’s a thermos — with coffee! With coffee!”

  “Aaand?” she asked, still holding the thermos up.

  “Aaand, well, it’s just that you look tired, so I wanted to share it with you, so you could feel a little better.”

  “Hmph, you should have started with that. Thanks,” said Alejandra, uncapping the thermos and drinking from it carefully.

  “Wow, it’s delicious,” she commented, her eyes widening.

  Meanwhile, Jeff rubbed his nose with his thumb. “Well, not to brag, but that’s my specia— don’t drink it so fast!”

  It was already too late. Alejandra was taking large gulps of the coffee. “Huh? Why not?”

  “Well… that coffee is good, but it’s super strong.”

  “How super strong?”

  “Uh, I used it to stay awake all night to— agh.” He couldn’t continue, as a thermos had struck his forehead.

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  “What the hell did you do?!” said a pale and somewhat disheveled girl — who, by the way, is named Coraline — unable to restrain her tone, since she was in the same hallway where she had spoken with Jeff in the previous chapter.

  “Nothing, I just gave her a little bit of coffee,” said Jeff, cornered against the wall.

  “And for a little bit of coffee, Alejandra becomes irritated and tired?!”

  “… It was a very strong coffeeeeee!” Coraline grabbed Jeff’s shirt and pulled him close to her face with hatred.

  “Are you insane? Alejandra can’t tolerate strong coffee, it puts her in a bad mood. Didn’t you know that as her boyfriend?”

  Jeff sweated profusely at that question, thinking she might discover him. “This isn’t the time to blame each other. We need to fix this.”

  “Blame each other?” Coraline commented angrily, but Jeff ignored her.

  “It’s time to think of another plan… let’s see, this time she told me she was tired because— oh, I got it.”

  “What do you have? Idiocy?”

  “No, I have my next plan for Ale’s situation — I mean, my Ale.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a romantic nickname I created for her, and please stay quiet, I need to materialize this plan."

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  “Ah, Alejandra, ah, isn’t this a little rough— aaahh—”

  “Shut up. Because of you I’m like this, so you have to take responsibility,” Alejandra said with a frown while pulling Jeff’s ear. “I’m in such a bad mood from the coffee that I need something to relieve stress.”

  “But wouldn’t a stress baaaaall— forgive me, I’ll shut up” Jeff shouted as he was dragged through the streets by Alejandra.

  They had already left the university and were heading toward their apartments, so Alejandra could finally relieve her stress more comfortably without any close acquaintances nearby.

  They stayed like that the whole way until they reached the doors of their apartments. There, Alejandra finally let go of Jeff’s ear.

  “If you ever offer me that coffee again, I swear I’ll pull your hair,” Alejandra said threateningly as she opened her apartment.

  Seeing this, a sparkle appeared in Jeff’s eyes. “I’m sorry about that, Alejandra. It was very foolish, but I’ll make it up to you right now.”

  “What are you talking about, idiot?”

  “Today I’ll help you with your homework,” Jeff said with a big smile.

  Alejandra looked at him, then entered her apartment and tried to close the door, but a shoe was in the way.

  “Please!, Alejandra, let me help you!, let me make it up to you,” Jeff said, sweat on his forehead as he leaned against the door.

  “I said no!,” Alejandra replied while trying to close the door, stepping on Jeff’s foot with her own.

  “Aaaah!, wait, Alejandra, please, I’m begging you.”

  (Now that I realize it, the “comedy” of this chapter is just Jeff getting hit over and over… well, let’s continue:)

  “Ah, fine,” Alejandra said, suddenly opening the door and causing Jeff to fall.

  “Ah, thank you, thank you very much.”

  “Don’t exaggerate just because I accepted your help.”

  “Huh? Oh, right. Also, thank you for that.”

  “… What do you mean ‘also’—?”

  “Well then, what do we need to do?” Jeff interrupted with rapid words and even more sweat on his forehead.

  Alejandra could only let out a heavy sigh in that situation before answering him. “I just have to make some flat drawings, according to FAD, and also use a color palette that they gave each of us.”

  “… Very well, I’ll help you with the colors.”

  “All right, bring me my colors from my room. They’re on my desk. I need a Melon marker and a Maya Blue one, and Olive and Sangria colored pencils.”

  “Sure, I’ll get them for you now,” Jeff said, then ran into the hallway, but stopped and stepped back. “Where’s your room?”

  “At the end of the hallway, the door on your right.”

  “Thanks,” and with that he headed there again, opening the door and being greeted by a room with white walls, but with rectangular patterns in brown and gray. The furniture shared a muted color. There was her bed, a shelf with several books, and in front of the bed was the desk, which had several drawers on top.

  As he approached, he could see they were open, showing a large number of colors of different types.

  “Okay, Alejandra asked me for a Melon marker… what the hell is the color melon?! Maya Blue must be blue, so I’ll take this one. Then she wants an Olive, which must be a green, I’ll take the one that looks the closest. Now a Sangria… what is a sangria? Ah, I’ll take this one and this one.”

  With the colors in his hand, Jeff headed to the living room, where Alejandra was already working in a notebook on the small table, sitting on the floor.

  “Thanks for bringing them. Leave them on the table,” Alejandra said without lifting her gaze from her notebook.

  Jeff, doing as she was told, left the colors on the table and stayed there standing, waiting for a new order.

  Alejandra stopped working in her notebook and looked at the colors, extending her hand — but she interrupted the movement and looked at Jeff with irritation.

  “Is this a joke? This isn’t what I asked for.”

  “No? But you asked for a blue and a green… the other two, I don’t know what color they are, I won’t lie about that.”

  “A blue and a green? I asked you for a Maya Blue and an Olive, and how the hell do you not know what that is— ugh, you know what, just leave. I don’t need your help.”

  “W-wait, I can help you with something else! I don’t know, maybe a massage,” Jeff said quickly, trembling.

  “And why would I want a massage?!” Alejandra spoke with irritation, her brow deeply furrowed.

  “I know, I can cook you something for dinner. What do you like?”

  “Why the hell are you saying that?! What are you trying to do?! Why are you acting even weirder than usual?a” she asked as she got up, growing more irritated as she approached Jeff, cornering him against the door of her apartment.

  “I, uh, I just—”

  “Just what?!”

  With trembling and sweat on his forehead, Jeff lowered his head. “I… I found out from one of your friends that you’ve been more tired and sleepy in class. I thought— actually, I think it’s my fault for making you help me get ready without taking into account that you also need your own time to get ready. So because of that, I tried to help you with some coffee, and that’s also why I wanted to help you with your homework, so you could rest better. And let me apologize, not only for today, but also for not realizing your situation earlier.”

  At that moment, Jeff kept his head lowered, waiting for her words, but what reached him was a hand on his shoulder.

  When he lifted his gaze with widened eyes, he saw Alejandra, her expression calmer.

  “I forgive you. I understand that you felt guilty about this and wanted to fix it… even though your solutions were terrible.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “You guess?”

  “Well… it’s true.”

  “It’s good that you admit it. Now, you want me to sleep well and I can help you to get ready, right?”

  “As long as you sleep well, I’m fine with that. But if the second one can happen too, that would be excellent.”

  Alejandra touched her chin and looked up at the ceiling. "Hmm, how about you get ready while I guide you? That way you could do it 'by yourself' and you wouldn't make any mistakes, and I could use that time to get ready too."

  "Oh, that sounds good... then I think I'll leave, don't want to take up your time for your homework," said Jeff as he looked away toward the room but not at Alejandra.

  "Oh, yes, see you tomorrow," I said, also looking away at the floor.

  "See you tomorrow," said Jeff, trying to turn the knob to leave, but he couldn't. "Wow, it seems to be locked."

  "You're turning it the wrong way."

  Jeff listened to Alejandra's words, turning the knob without any problem and opening the door.

  "How silly I am. Well, I'm leaving now."

  "I can see that. Goodbye."

  "Goodbye." With that word, Jeff closed the door, but he stood there for a moment before going to his apartment.

  "Wow, that was... strange.

  "In what way, master? Esfer asked, appearing at his side.

  "I don't know, I just know it was... weird."

  "Could it be because of everything you've done today?"

  "Yes, that makes sense. Well, I have to rest. Tomorrow will be a tough day. I'll have to get ready while Alejandra helps me... wait a minute."