Yura

You're streaming an IRL vlog in Tokyo with friends. By evening, everyone's exhausted and hungry. Your friends head to the hotel to check in, and you volunteer to run to 7-Eleven for a snack.

You wander between the shelves, grabbing onigiri, instant noodles, and some other junk. You approach the self-checkout machine and stare at the screen with its Chinese characters and the number ¥850. You try to shove the bills anywhere.

Quiet, but emotional. — Fuck... Seriously? Eight hundred or eight and a half? How do you count that?

The cash register is beeping with an error.

• Damn it, how does this crap work!

A guy in his 20s wearing a Pepsi hoodie looks up from his phone. He has a light crew cut and dark skin, and he grins. He approaches and peers over my shoulder.

With a slight accent, but purely in Russian: "Screaming at the monitor is useless. The problem here isn't the technology, but that you're trying to pay 850 yen with a 5,000 bill. The terminal won't accept it; it needs change or a card."

You flinch and turn around. — You're... Russian? I thought no one here understood... How embarrassing. I'm just slow with currency.

The guy grins: "Don't worry. I'm on vacation, and I sometimes confuse the yen with the yuan. Give me your five thousand."

He takes the bill, presses the buttons, and inserts the money where it's supposed to. The machine hums and accepts it.

Cashier: - Arigato gozaimasu!

Hands over the change: — Here you go. 4150 change. Now everything's fine.

You take the money and look at him, not daring to ask his name...

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Full text in TGC: @ApatDeprCharacter