Lukas and Julius’s Friendship

Lukas and Julius’s Friendship is marked by a recurring contradiction: Lukas sees Julius as a liability, but their shared schemes and moments of care keep drawing them together. Julius’s bravado can expose his friends to danger; Lukas openly condemns that recklessness, yet does not simply abandon him. Their bond is tested most sharply when a criminal plan goes wrong and Julius acts on behalf of Gino, leaving Lukas to confront both the damage caused and the loyalty behind it.

First Impressions and Friction

When Gino suggests waiting because Julius is coming, Lukas immediately wishes he had known earlier. He would rather have gone straight to his own home: Julius talks too much, and his swagger makes trouble likely. Lukas sees him as a thin boy who carries himself as if he were the toughest person around. In a neighborhood where he stands out, that pose attracts people looking for a fight; being with him can make his companions targets too. Julius arrives loudly, grinning and greeting the boys in a manner that prompts Gino to try to quiet him. His entrance establishes a pattern that shapes the friendship: Lukas is exasperated by Julius’s performance, but the two continue to spend time together.

After Lukas is beaten, that exasperation becomes anger. Julius says he had been about to do something, but Lukas challenges the claim: now that the fight is over, talk of what Julius meant to do is no help. He accuses both Julius and Gino of standing by while he was punched, and faults Julius for stopping to engage someone who had approached him aggressively. His anger is not only about the blow; he regards Julius’s choices as having helped put all three of them in danger. The friends fall silent and look at the ground. Julius offers Lukas a cigarette without speaking, and Lukas accepts it. The gesture does not resolve the argument, but it gives the scene a quieter aftermath: even while hurt and accusing his friends, Lukas remains with them.

Shared Risk and Complicity

Their friendship moves from hanging out to joint criminal action when Julius joins Lukas, Gino, and Sanchez in planning to steal computers from their school. The plan promises each of them several thousand euros, and Julius responds to it with enthusiasm. When Lukas questions how they will break in, Julius produces a lockpick and boasts that he can open doors, cars, and basements. Sanchez counters with a large key ring, which he presents as the more useful tool; Julius puts the lockpick away and studies the keys with awe. Their exchange shows how readily the friends turn a risky idea into a practical plan, with Julius eager to display a skill but willing to follow a better opportunity.

On the night of the theft, Julius discloses that he has brought Julius’s Tear-Gas Gun. Lukas had thought Julius was joking when he mentioned it previously; now he worries that being caught with the weapon could turn trespass and theft into a much more serious offense. Julius’s decision intensifies the danger for all of them, even before they enter the building. Lukas and Julius nevertheless continue with the group. At the school, they are unnerved by the possibility of a night watchman, cleaners, motion sensors, or cameras. Sanchez unlocks the gate and leads them along the basketball courts, then opens a side entrance near the seventh-year classrooms. The fear belongs to all three boys, but Julius, usually the loudest, is quiet as they go inside.

When Sanchez spots unopened cartons of computers and monitors on high shelves, the successful discovery briefly makes the theft seem easy. Lukas passes the machines down while Sanchez and Julius take them; the group then has to work out how to get the heavy computers over a fence. The plan’s practical difficulties bring their earlier confidence down to earth. Julius blames Lukas for choosing the route at the back and recalls that he had wanted to leave by the front. His complaint turns their shared undertaking into a fresh point of friction: the boys are partners in the crime, but they do not share responsibility without argument.

Failure and the Burden of Secrecy

After the theft, Lukas and Julius try repeatedly to sell the computers. By the fifth shop, Lukas wants to give up and hide or discard the machines rather than risk being found with them. Julius urges him to keep trying, even as he smokes one cigarette after another. When a shopkeeper notices that three students are offering brand-new computers shortly after a school theft, the attempted sale is exposed as suspicious. The encounter shows how far the friends’ plan has carried them from the easy money they imagined: the computers are difficult to dispose of, and their presence makes them vulnerable to detection.

The remaining computers bring the danger back into Julius’s home. His brother has found them in Julius’s room and, after an argument, believes Julius’s explanation that he is storing them for a friend who will collect them that day. Julius tells Lukas and Sanchez that they must get the machines out of his room, either by hiding them or attempting another sale. Lukas thinks of Marco, who would have reacted far more harshly. The episode reveals the unequal pressure their shared crime creates: what began as a group plan now threatens Julius inside his own household. Lukas still considers abandoning the computers, even if that means losing the hoped-for money, while Julius is focused on removing them before his brother discovers the deception.

Loyalty Tested by Gino’s Crisis

Julius’s attachment to Gino changes the meaning of his risk-taking. When Lukas challenges Julius over his conduct toward Gino, Julius explains that Gino’s father beats Gino and his mother, drinks heavily, and took the 200 euros Gino received from the computers. Julius insists that he did not act for amusement: he believed Gino needed help escaping a violent home. Lukas counters that giving Gino Tilidin will not solve the abuse and asks why Julius has not called the police. Julius’s answer is an anguished rejection of that suggestion, not a calm defense of his choices. The argument exposes a divide between them: Lukas questions whether Julius’s intervention can help, while Julius is focused on the danger Gino faces and doubts that official help will do anything.

Julius is left with a swollen face, dried blood, and tears in his eyes. On the night bus, he tells Lukas and Sanchez that he only wanted to help, hopes Gino will not get into trouble, and believes the attack on Gino’s father was self-defense. He also speaks of Gino’s mother and brother, making clear that his concern extends beyond his friend alone. His repeated plea for them to believe him conveys how completely the episode has undone his usual bravado. Lukas feels sorry for him. When the bus reaches Klinikum Neukölln, Lukas presses the stop button, offers Julius a hand, pulls him upright, and puts an arm around his shoulder. They enter the hospital together in silence. The gesture does not erase Lukas’s earlier anger or settle their disagreement over what could have helped Gino, but it shows the friendship at its most protective: after condemning Julius’s judgment, Lukas still stays beside him when he is hurt and overwhelmed.