I can't tell what you mean by your emphasis on the word "consistently". Functions are not stochastic; f(y) is f(y) regardless of how many times you ask what f(y) is.
The formal definition guarantees that whenever a = b, f(a) = f(b). You use it when you need that guarantee.
An ordered pair drawn from ℝ² is in some sense a single value. In another sense, it is two values. Which way you want to think about it depends on what you're going to do with it; if you're thinking about square roots of real numbers, it will be more useful to think of it as two values.
> It seems the parent has just mixed up the domain and codomain, because under that assumption he would be right about both the definition and bijectivity
He still wouldn't be right about bijectivity; you also need the assumption that a function is defined over its entire domain.