The Troublemaker And The Masterpiece | COTE X OC

The Bus Incident

(Credits to their rightful owners)

Ayanokouji Kiyotaka POV

It's a bit sudden, but listen seriously to the question I'm about to ask and think about the answer carefully.

Question: Are people equal or not?

(One equality monologue later)

I was going to the school on the bus, which shook every time it passed over a bumpy area of the road.

As I watched the landscape change from area to area, the passengers on the bus increased gradually.

Most of the passengers were wearing school uniforms.

The lone frustrated salary worker who got on the bus remembered the time when he accidentally groped someone the last time he got on a crowded bus.

An old woman standing in front of me stood precariously on her unsteady feet, looking as if she would fall over at any time.

I made a mistake by taking the bus.

Even though I was able to secure a good seat, the cold wind was blowing towards me and the whole bus was crowded.

That poor old woman will have to wait until the bus arrives at her destination.

The cloudless sky and clear weather is refreshing... I think I might fall asleep.

My tranquility and peace was suddenly interrupted.

"Don't you think you should give up your seat?"

For a moment, I opened my eyes that were about to close.

Eh, by any chance, were you scolding me?

That's what I thought at first, but apparently the person in front of me was being warned.

A young, well-built, blonde-haired man was sitting down in the priority seat. I mean high school student. The old woman was standing next to him. An office lady was next to the old woman.

"You there, can't you see the old woman having trouble?"

The office lady seemed to want him to hand over the priority seat to the old woman.

In the quiet bus, her voice got louder and attracted the attention of the other people in the bus.

"That's a really crazy question, lady."

The boy might have been angry, ignorant, or perhaps brutally honest, but he just smiled and crossed his legs.

"Why should I give this seat to an old woman? There's absolutely no reason for me to give it up."

"Isn't it natural to hand over the priority seat to the elderly?"

"I don't understand. Priority seats are just priority seats, and there is no legal obligation for me to move. Whether or not I move should be decided by me, who is currently sitting in this seat. Will you give up your seat because I am a young man? Hahaha, that's a stupid way of thinking."

I watched as the office lady and the young man started arguing.

Personally, I didn't get myself involved because I agreed, at least in part, with the boy.

Once the moral problem is solved, the obligation to give up the seat disappears.

And that office lady also started arguing with the boy when she could have asked anybody else in the bus to give up their seat.

But I was also curious to see if other people agreed with the young man.

I looked around the bus and saw that there were two kinds of people - ones who pretended not to have noticed, and ones who had a hesitant look.