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Chapter 4. Coffee Break
The next morning, Yuki woke up feeling lighter. He showered. Properly. Not the quick rinse he'd
grown accustomed to. He tackled the laundry and washed a pile of dishes that had been
glaring at him for weeks. Feeling accomplished, he texted his friends even.
Tennis and beer next weekend? When Yuki walked into the lab,
he noticed a group of international students like himself hunched over their stations,
eyes glazed with exhaustion. It struck him how much they mirrored his own state just a day prior.
He approached them with a smile. Coffee break? They have the new coffee machine in the
engineering building. It actually tastes like coffee too, he offered.
Their surprised faces softened into gratitude. As they chatted over steaming mugs in the break room,
Yuki realized the power of these small gestures. Not just for them, but for himself. And how easy
it was to extend this kind of kindness to his lab mates, and yet he never did for himself.
Later that evening, as he walked past Miss Saigon, he smiled warmly at the familiar
smell of savory broth. He didn't go in, but knowing it was there,
the closest thing to the satisfying bowl of gyro in this sleepy college town, was good enough.
When he needs more than caloric intake and nutritionally balanced liquid,
he can come here. And now he knows he deserved it too, at least every once in a while.
No, Yuki didn't have everything figured out. He still had papers to write, grants to apply for,
and experiments to run. His car repair was hurting his bank account. He still couldn't fly home to
see his family this winter. The pressure of his big wild dreams still loomed large. But now,
but now, he carried with him a small crucial piece of wisdom.
Even the most driven dreams need a pit stop, because he's a human after all.
Sometimes, a nice meal isn't just food. It's a reminder of simple human joy that feels,
not just his biochemical being, but also his soul.
The end.
