The atmosphere was tense, the group all crowded around Rai. Slowly, he reached out and pressed the button. Silence. Nothing happened. Someone sneezed. "R-Rai?" Yuu-na ventured hesitantly. "Um... you have to put money in... first..."

There were collective nods as M-21 wondered what the Vampire Prince was thinking (surely he knew!). Frankenstein, otherwise known as Lee, pulled some currency out of his pocket, having foreseen this... complication. He held it out for his master. "Here. Put one bill into the machine and then press the button," he suggested.

Rai didn't bother nodding and merely took the bills, selecting one and slowly feeding it into the machine. Everyone held their breaths. The machine slowly rolled the bill back out. Shinwoo grimaced. "Corner's folded. And it's on the wrong side. See the picture by the slot? It's supposed to be like that."

Rai corrected it, as silent as ever, and re-fed it into the machine. It whirred, then fell silent. Rai looked at Frankenstein, who nodded encouragingly. "Now press the button!" He barely refrained from tacking on 'master'.

M-21's brow twitched, in consternation, not annoyance (he didn't actually have the right to be annoyed with these people, even if they were completely out of their minds). What was the big deal? Ik-han stood on his tiptoes to see over M-21's shoulder, eyes wide with delight. This was so exciting!

Rai finally depressed the button, and in the bottom compartment of the vending machine, a soda fell. He stared at it for a moment, then pushed aside the flap and took it out amongst cheering.

But there was just one thing M-21 couldn't get. One thing that he'd really been wondering. Were all of these people idiots? Or did they think Rai was?

None of them had paused to wonder why, even as a foreigner, Rai didn't know how to operate modern (in)conveniences.