Couple of days later

“do you think he could make us the favor?”

“it doesn’t look like they will notice”

“dude, the promo is really worth a try”

Jin arrived to his work station and Casar, Charlie and Ralph were acting suspicious

“yo Jin! Nice to see you”

“what is this meeting about?”

“well, you see, there is a promo here behind the building in a place called Tony Roma’s”

“what type of Promo are you talking about?”

“if we are the first customers that enter at 6:00 pm we get a bucket of beers for free for each person”

“I don’t drink alcohol”

“yes, we know that! but we would like to see if you could come with us”

“so, we can get a free bucket of beers”

Jin stared at them, then Casar said

“c’mon dude, you just have to say that you drink but it doesn’t matter if you don’t”

“when is this promo effective?”

“each Monday”

“c’mon guys, is the beginning of the week and you want to start drinking that earlier on the week?”

and then everyone said at one voice

“THEY ARE FREE BEERS!!!!!”

“ok, ok, I got it, I’ll go with you guys”

Next Monday

They all went to Tony Roma’s and won 4 buckets of 6 Sapporo beers each bucket, but since only 3 of them drank, it was 8 beers each, enough beers for a good night

“dude, this promo is amazing”

Jin was holding Casar who was almost asleep, and Charlie said

“Casar is so weak at drinking”

Then Ralph said

“Jin, you need to learn to drive so we can come every Monday and you can take us home since you don’t drink alcohol”

Charlie was laughing and said

“you have the best ideas when you are drunk Ralph”

Next Monday was the same, and then next Monday only Charlie, Ralph and Jin went for the promo, and the next Monday only Ralph and Jin went for the promo and won 2 buckets, that meant that Ralph would have to drink 12 beers alone and

“dude, are you sure you going to drink all of the beers yourself?”

“I guess”

“but you have to drive home, don’t you?”

“yes”

“are you sure you are going to be ok?”

“we will see”

Then Jin started to think

Well I guess I could try one and see what is this world that this people talk about, this might open chances to join Tenma when she goes for drinks with her friends

“give me one Ralph”

“what are you talking about dude”

“give me a beer, I’ll try one”

“are you being serious? After all this time that you have been avoiding alcohol you will just say yes?”

“yes, why not”

“OMG IM GOING TO SHARE A BEER WITH JIN”

“shut up, is not a big deal”

“I have to text Charlie and Casar”

Then Ralph gave a beer to Jin and he said

“Salucita”

“what the hell is Salucita?”

“is a word that Casar taught us, if you don’t say that, then you are not part of the team”

“ok, ok, I guess I’ll give a try”

And then Jin became an alcoholic, well, not really but he started to share drinks with his friends, was not bad at all because he was always the one that drank the minimum amount of beers, like two beers only, you could say that he was actually a social alcoholic.

Several days later

Jin was still working with Tenma in several projects, it became very common to see them together, everything was right but Jin didn’t felt that he was getting close enough to Tenma so one day, on those Thursdays of drinks Jin mentioned that he had a weird dream

“so, I had this dream: I had a box of Marlboro Light on my hand and started smoking, and when I realized it, I had already finished 5”

“so, you are going to start smoking now?”

“so, who is going to share one cigarette with me?”

Charlie then said

“I won’t be one that will take you to that level, I won’t forgive myself if I do, knowing you, you will get addicted to it”

“C’mon, I can control it”

Then Ralph extended his hand with his cigarettes and said

“Ok, if you are a man you will do it”

He was testing him knowing that Jin would say no at the end but Surprise! Jin took the cigarette and started smoking but Charlie said

“you are doing it wrong, you have to inhale and then get the smoke out”

Jin tried to follow the instruction and then Jin started to cough

“THAT’S THE WAY MAN”

It was really sad to see Jin fall on those bad habits but he had a reason, a very stupid reason, he was building courage to move to the next level with Tenma.

One day at work

Jin went to the smoking area with Tenma and he told her if she could share a cigarette with him

“when did your start smoking?”

“a couple of days ago”

“it was curiosity or you already knew how to do it?”

“it was curiosity, it happens that I started drinking alcohol too”

“oh sorry, I invited you for drinks and didn’t know you didn’t drink alcohol”

“well, I do now, and also I can control it, I was scared at the beginning”

“why?”

“I heard that those habits become a problem if you abuse”

“that’s true”

The true is that Jin wanted to get even closer to Tenma and Tenma already knew that he was doing this for that purpose

That night, Harima was staring at the mirror and asked himself

What are your plans now Jin? If you moved this far…. what are you going to do next? How far can you take this game? Do you feel that she will accept your feelings? The truth is that I will see how far this game is going to take me, is all or nothing, I’m not going to live in the past and wait for Marisa, I have to move on