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You heard your stomach roar as you scurried down the steps of your office building. It was finally your lunch break, and you couldn’t wait any longer. You had opted to skip breakfast this morning as you were running a little late and you cursed yourself as soon as you had gotten into work. There was a meeting today that you had completely forgotten about which kept pushing your break back and back until the perfect silence within the conference room was broken by your screaming gut, begging for anything to fill it.
With haste, you made your way to the Poppo Mart along Shichifuku Street. A cold drink and salmon onigiri were crying your name. Perhaps you’d purchase a bag of chips too just to help keep you alert for the remainder of your work day. Anything so that that paperwork you’d have to go through would be less exhausting. But you didn’t want to worry about work right now. There was but one thing that was keeping you from keeling over on the street: Lunch
You almost forgot to look both ways before you darted across the street to the convenience store. The automatic doors graciously granted you entrance and you stepped in. That stale, musty aroma mixed with the hot foods on the heat trays of the shop brushed past your nostrils and you felt so much more empowered. Poppo Mart was a castle, and you were its goddamn ruler. A few other people appeared to be in your kingdom, but that didn’t matter right now. Quickly and carefully, you dodged the endracks of snacks to make your way towards the back of the store where the premade sandwiches and onigiri resided. Then you saw it. One lone Salmon Onigiri was left on the shelf and you knew in your heart it had your name on it. You began to extend your hand to the deliciously savory snack with stars in your eyes. And just as you were what felt like mere inches away from your beloved onigiri, your climactic moment was shattered.
You found yourself looking at the backside of a taller man, and everything you had been hoping for was now destroyed. The man’s fluffy, dark brown hair was just about as loud as the bright red suit he wore. Anger coursing through your veins, you prayed his face would be as punchable as his outfit. He held the onigiri - your onigiri, in his right hand while he turned around to continue his shopping. That’s when you caught his profile. His glowing skin caught you by surprise and you couldn't help but notice how perfectly his facial hair framed his face. In your observation you diverted your gaze towards his eyes, and your chest tightened as his brown orbs turned to meet your own. He froze in his tracks as soon as he noticed you.
“O-Oh!” His voice was deep, but the soft timbre in his expression told you he would pose no threat. He turned to face you, and you; still in disbelief of what had just happened, slowly felt all of your rage and anguish dissipate as you found your eyes getting lost in his own. Moments ago you were ready to make a scene in the store, maybe even throw hands with this guy. He looked at you with the kindest demeanor.
“Shoot! Did you want this?” his free hand swung behind his head in embarrassment, “I saw it was the last one and I got really excited. I didn’t even look to see if anybody else had been eyeing it!” he flashed you a sheepish but stunning smile. You found his semi-nervous laughter to be rather charming. He took a step towards you and held out his hand.
“Salmon is my favorite, but if you’d like this one, I can try another kind today!” You were simply speechless. While this was everything you had been craving today, you felt as though making this man part with that particular snack would be the most malicious act imaginable. Part of you wanted to just tell him “thank you” and take him up on his offer, but your hand just wouldn’t move however many times you tried. Before you could even say anything, his body suddenly jerked, catching you off-guard.
“Oh, wait! These things are usually like two-for-two-hundred!” he pulled his hand back as he turned around to face the display. His finger hovered across the labels until he found another flavor he decided would be equally as tasty and then took it into his hand.
“Here, let me pay for these! It’s the least I can do. Sorry, I’m really embarrassed.” he let out another chuckle along with a warm smile.
“A-ah, no, that’s fine I can pay-” you tried to stop him. This whole ordeal really wasn’t as devastating as it originally felt, and now you were just starting to feel badly.
“No, no, I insist! Besides, you usually save a bit extra when you take advantage of the deal, yeah?”
You tried to say one more thing as an attempt for him to reconsider, but he had already started to walk towards the counter. At this point, it would be far more work to get him to change his mind. His stubbornness on the matter was irritating, but you also found it to be quite endearing. You took in a breath,
“Thank you,”
The red suited man purchased a few extra snacks for himself in addition to your onigiri. While he cashed out, you stood behind him waiting to purchase your own beverage, but when he noticed you were behind him, he offered to get your drink as well. Those were two-for-four-hundred after all. A little more amused by the situation, you followed the man out of the shop and the two of you stood off to the side to divide your purchases amongst each other. He graciously handed you the salmon onigiri and your drink and you shared with him a warm and welcoming smile.
“I’m Ichiban, by the way. Kasuga Ichiban.” he said. You gave him your name as well.
“Sorry again about all of this!” he popped the cap off of his drink and took a sip.
‘It’s fine, really. I should be thanking you to be honest.” you chuckled as you began to unwrap your snack. Ichiban’s lips parted from his beverage.
“So do you work around here?”
His invitation for small-talk caught you by surprise. But you were humbled that he was even remotely interested in you and your life.
“Yeah, I actually work at an office just down the street. We had a long meeting today which pushed my lunch break back, so I’ve been dying to get over here for a while now.” the man scoffed.
“Well, shit, I can understand if you hated my guts after picking up that onigiri.”
You clicked your tongue, “Really, Kasuga-san, it’s okay. Thank you for being so considerate. I don’t get to see a lot of that so much anymore in people around this part of the city.”
“Ah, you can call me ‘Ichiban’” he said, “Most people tend to call me that anyway. You can too!”
You nodded looking back at him. “So then, Ichiban, what brings you to Kamurocho? Do you live around here?” if he said yes, you could probably snag another chance of seeing him. Ichiban’s face lit up as if he was thrilled you asked him such a question.
“I actually grew up around here!” He sounded kind of excited. “But I stick more around the Ijincho district of Yokohama these days. I came back here for a little bit with some of my friends. We’re kinda taking care of our own business, but we’ll be heading back eventually.”
You felt a strange and heavy pain in your chest. He would be leaving here eventually. This made you rather sad for some reason.
“Oh, well, that’s really nice you get to come back here!” you felt as though you were faking your enthusiasm. But it was even more strange to you why you felt you even needed to do that in the first place. Just moments ago, you were thinking about punching this guy in the face. As you looked down, you noticed the time on your wristwatch and jumped at the sight.
“A-ah!” you gasped, “I need to be getting back to the office!” you hated that you had to end your conversation, but your company was very strict about returning from breaks on time. You took one last bite of your onigiri, finishing it completely.
“O-oh! I understand,” Ichiban said, “well, it was really nice meeting you!” he smiled handsomely once more towards you and you returned it with your own.
“Same to you, Ichiban.” It was bittersweet saying his name in this moment. “S-safe travels!” you wished him before you turned around to head back down the street to your workplace. You caught him waving goodbye to you, and you wished so badly you could have spent more of your afternoon with him…
Ichiban had left such a lasting impression. During your entire walk back to the office, he was the only thing on your mind. Did he frequent that store? What are his friends like? Would you be able to see him again? You cursed yourself for not offering to give him your number. The bottle came to your lips as you stopped in front of your office building to take a sip. The drink tasted a little better today.
The following day, your schedule seemed to be about as normal as any other day. It was almost a shame that today wasn't as chaotic. If your schedule got messed up, you might have been able to slip out again at that same time to run to the Poppo. Just one more time, you wanted to see Ichiban. His gentle and inviting smile was so captivating, and the genuine kindness he showed you - a complete stranger in that moment, was something you’d never be able to forget no matter how hard you tried. Your typical lunch break was about an hour and a half before the time you had left yesterday. If you went at your usual hour… would you still have a chance to see him? A lot of your morning shift consisted of staring at blank word documents and maybe a few extraneous webpages here and there. Focusing on anything else was nearly impossible. That fluffy-haired man was all you could think about.
By the time your break for lunch rolled around, you debated trying to hold it off as an attempt to conveniently creep closer to that time of your fateful encounter from yesterday. Your stomach had a different agenda. The hunger pangs only got more and more painful to the point where you could bear it no longer. Begrudgingly, you collected your things and slowly made your way out of the office to walk to the Poppo Mart. You did not have high hopes. You imagined you would walk right into the store as if it were any other day, pick up something to eat, and carry on. Pretty much the same way you anticipated it would go yesterday. With each step you took towards the building, you prayed that maybe, just maybe that fluffy-haired man would turn up.
At last, you walked inside of the convenience store. That same musty smell mixed with the hot food danced past your nostrils as you gazed frantically around the store. Not a red suit to be found in sight. Other patrons wandered the store with seemingly no purpose other than to kill time. Part of you felt like you’d join them. The other part of you felt like accepting your fate and just grabbing your lunch and heading back to the office. Yet, you found yourself skimming the pages of a weekly manga magazine you’ve never even heard of. This was hopeless and quite frankly, rather pathetic. If you really wanted to see him again, you would have asked for his number. But perhaps you were just so shaken that you had forgotten to even ask. With a heavy sigh, you accepted your defeat and set the magazine back down. You picked yourself up a cold drink and another onigiri, not even bothering to look at the flavor you grabbed and made your way to the register to check out. Sadness in your heart, you stepped out of the Poppo Mart.
“Ah, there’s that brat!” you heard a voice call out in your direction. Quizzically, you raised an eyebrow. Were they referring to you?
“You and your company screwed over my buddy here.” a burly man wearing sunglasses walked towards you, followed by two other men in flashy clothes. You found yourself surrounded and completely blocked off from the rest of the street. Getting back to work was now going to be a challenge. Clenching your bag tightly, you spoke up,
“Is there something I can help you with?” in a shaky voice, you tried your best to summon your customer-service persona. These guys apparently had some issue with your workplace, and how they knew you worked there was a little worrisome, but nonetheless, you needed to either get yourself out of this, or settle things cordially. Considering that there were three men approaching you though, you didn’t think things were going to go too smoothly.
“You think you can scam my pal here out of all that cash? Some of these fees seem like bullshit!” one of the men got a little too close to you for comfort and his friends followed. They all reeked of stale cigarettes. You knew how all of the processing fees worked with your place of business, and quite frankly, they were pretty easy to understand by customers if they just read through them, but people would always find something to complain about. The worst part of all of this was that you literally couldn’t do anything about it. You didn’t know their situation, you didn’t even know who worked with them and you didn’t have your computer with you to look up their information if you even wanted to help. And something told you deep down that these guys had no desire for any sort of “help”.
“Yeah, scumbag, you overcharged us!” someone nudged your shoulder briefly causing you to lose balance before you caught yourself. You didn’t see this ending well, and your heart nearly beating out of your chest made things exceptionally difficult for yourself. You trembled.
“I-I’m sorry if we made any sort of mistake, but I’m off the clock right now, so I can’t help you at the moment,” you prayed that your honesty would get through to them. A stupid thought, really.
“Well, we’re a little impatient.” the other men began to block all of your possible ways of escape. You were surrounded. You were terrified. All you wanted was to leave. You channeled all of your courage into your next words.
“I would be happy to assist you back at the office.” Your statement was firm and you looked the man in the eye as you spoke. All he did was grab you by the collar, causing a small yelp to escape from your lips. You didn’t dare make eye contact again.
“We don’t feel like walking over there.” the man was inches from your face. “I think you can just pay us right now out of pocket and we should be good.”
Those were the words you dreaded. Now you were getting mugged. Fantastic. And you had spent the last of your available cash on your lunch. All you had to offer were a couple of yen coins, maybe ¥250 total. You opened your mouth and said the words you knew would get your face pulverized.
“...I don’t have any money…” and you zoned out knowing what was to come. You heard the man asking you questions like, “Huh? What was that?” but everything else was just muffled to you. All of your energy was now being invested in preparing your entire body for a beating, or perhaps they would just kidnap you instead? None of these options were great, but you started hoping that maybe it would just be the kidnapping because that would certainly hurt less… Your thoughts were just a morbid mess at this point. All you wanted was some lunch. All you wanted was to go back to work. All you wanted was to see that man you met yesterday once more.
And then suddenly, your collar was free from the man’s clutches. You came back to reality in the middle of falling to the ground. Fortunately you were able to fall onto your bottom, cushioning the impact ever so slightly. When you looked up, you saw the man who held you with his hands on his face. You heard groans of pain. It was difficult to see everything that was happening entirely. You made out figures. There were four now. The two men who were originally on either side of you rushed to this new man throwing punches. The fourth figure grabbed the arms of one of the other men and flipped him backwards onto the ground. Fearing that you may get caught in the rumble, you willed your body to stand up and you rubbed your eyes hoping that it would improve your vision enough to see who this mysterious person was who had just saved your life. You blinked several times. When you looked forward, a red suit jacket flapped in the wind, and you saw a familiar and obnoxious hairstyle that brought your hands to cover your mouth in astonishment.
“...and get the hell out.” is all you heard Ichiban say once your hearing fully came back. The three men who were harassing you scampered off back down the street, and you didn’t think you’d be seeing them again any time soon. Ichiban turned around to face your shaking body and he looked at you fondly.
“I was hoping I would get to see you again if I came here!” he started, “I’m sorry it ended up like this…” he began to scratch at his head in disdain, but you leaped towards him to throw your arms around his body in a state of euphoria. He was warm, and you loved how perfectly your head seemed to fit right onto his chest as if it was made just for you. You gave him a tight squeeze and he laughed, returning your embrace. The two of you stood like that for what felt like an eternity. Eventually you pulled away.
“Thank you…” you said, still somewhat frazzled from the situation. Ichiban nodded,
“I’m happy I could help! Any idea what they wanted from you?” he sounded concerned.
You shook your head. “They must have just noticed I came here a lot and figured out where I worked so they could get some dirt on me to scare me out of some cash…” you honestly didn’t want to think too much about it, but that seemed to be a logical explanation.
“But, seriously I can’t thank you enough! You really saved me…” Ichiban stuck his hands into his pockets.
“It’s alright! I’m glad you’re okay!”
It was hard to tame the smile on your face, “You’re like a real hero, Ichi!” The man tapped his foot in embarrassment. “And… Do you know what heroes get as rewards?” you leaned in a little closer to his face. Ichiban smirked,
“The pride and satisfaction of doing a good deed?” His response caught you off-guard and you couldn’t help but let out a bellowing laugh. Ichiban still had that adorable and dorky grin on his face that you found so perfect. You tilted his face towards your own to look into his shining eyes.
“You’re funny, but no, something else…” carefully you leaned in to plant a soft and loving kiss onto his cheek, and you could feel his body tense up under your touch. When you pulled back, your knight in shining armor looked enamored. Ichiban brought a hand to his face and you could see him chuckling softly to himself baring his teeth. He was so handsome.
“Th-thank you!” He was bashful. “But I was glad I could help you out!” with some hesitation in his movement, he reached for your hand and held it gently.
“Can I walk you back to the office?” you squeezed your own hand onto his.
“I’d really like that,” you replied, and lead your hero with you in the direction of your workplace.