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First time he saw the man - a rare new face in the neighbourhood - leaving his neighbourhood convenience store, only one way to describe him occured to Miyadate Ryota: a bicycle prince.
He looked so confident jumping on his bike, even though laden with plastic bags, and driving off like the wind. He was the epitome of cool to Ryota.
Needless to say, Ryota felt slightly ashamed of his own mode of transportation, a scooter that seemed so small and insignificant in comparison to the Bicycle Prince's bike. So he waited for the man to ride off into the unknown, go fully out of sight, before he himself parked his scooter and entered the convenience store.
By the end of that day he almost forgot about the Prince. He did not expect to see him again. His neighbourhood was small and he'd have been notified if someone new had moved in by at least three of his elderly neighbours. Most likely, he thought, this man was riding through his neighbourhood, realized he needed some stuff, saw the convenience store and after leaving it, went to his own neighbourhood, which for all he knew was on the other end of the city.
Well, he'd been wrong. The next day, coming out of the store with some ramen cups, he saw the guy again. He was leaving his bike on the bike rack in front of the store, and Ryota's scooter was just by the bicycle rack. He felt shyness overcome him.
And then the guy smiled. "I like those ramen cups too!" he said, nodding at Ryota's plastic bag, as if they were old friends, not a really cool guy who rides his bike like the wind and himself, boring Ryota, a scooter guy.
He tried to return the smile but the guy probably couldnt see it because Ryota's gaze locked onto the pavement and there was no earthly force that could make him lift it up to meet the Prince's eyes.
"Okay," the Prince said softly, "have a nice day." He entered the convenience store.
Ryota felt sick, like he was about to die of shame. How could he have acted so... so like a loser weirdo with no manners whatsoever?
He decided to wait for the guy and offer his apologies. Clearly he was a new neighbour, or was out here on some business, which meant Ryota would probably see him again. Ryota liked his walks to the convenience store, he was shy but would not let it interfere with his daily pleasures.
The man exited the store, once again laden with plastic bags.
Ryota had an idea. First, he took a deep, calming breath.
"Hi," he choked out, "do you maybe need help with your bags?"
"Oh," the guy said, surprised to see him there. Then he nodded and extended his hand to give him one of his bags. "You have a bike?"
"No," Ryota said, heart sinking, "just that thing there," he motioned at his scooter.
"Oh, dangerous," he said, winking.
Ryota's heart stopped a little, he was sure.
"Follow behind me, it's not far off. It'll only take a moment of your time."
The Prince got on his bike just as swiftly as yesterday, his clothes billowing with his movements. He really was too cool to be speaking or accepting help from someone as boring and uncool as Ryota.
Ryota nevertheless followed him, feeling incredibly lucky to be behind him, getting to watch the way he rode his bike, fast, confident, like he owned the road.
About five minutes later, the Prince stopped at a small building, the plaque at the entrance said "Weather Station" followed by some numbers and the name of his city.
"My place of work, only started few days ago."
Ryota nodded, and gave the Prince his bag.
"I'm the newbie so they like to make me do the convenience store runs. By the way, I'm Abe, Abe Ryohei," he made a small nod.
"I'm Miyadate Ryota," Ryota said automatically, ecstatic to have finally found out Prince's name. For a moment he thought about calling him Ryohei once they got to know each other better, and his cheeks and ears started feeling hot. "Oh, and nice to meet you," he added, his shyness once again taking over his body, making him unable to look Abe Ryohei in the eye.
"Here," Abe said, and fished something out of one of his bags. Then he dropped it into Ryota's bag. "My favorite candy. I'm a bit of a sweet tooth."
Ryota looked up to see him smiling. His heart would seriously give out if he continued with that. With being so cool and nice and cute.
"Thank you," Ryota mumbled. Then, gathering some courage from his already seriously depleted reserves, he reached into his own bag, took out one of his ramen cups and said, "You said you love these right?" And he put it into Abe's bag.
Abe's mouth fell open. "I can't believe my new neighbours are this nice!" His smile was dazzling.
"See you around," Ryota said in the most cool way he could muster, getting on his scooter like it was one of those manly huge bikes.
Abe waved at him when he turned to wave himself.
They turned it into a daily thing, Ryota would wait for Abe in front of the convenience store in the morning, and he'd help him get his bags to the weather station. Sometimes, inside the convenience store, or as they said their goodbyes in front of the station, they'd chat about their lives. Ryota had a part time job at a small restaurant, and Abe mostly entered data into the weather station's ancient computer and did the convenience store runs for his ancient co-workers.
One day, after they'd known each other for several months, Ryota gathered all of his feeble, dubious courage and decided to ask Abe if he'd like to come to his house for a home cooked meal.
"I promise you, my cooking is pretty edible," he said, trying not to show how much it would mean if Abe said yes.
"Just so we're clear, this would be a date," Abe said out of nowhere, his eyes locking onto Ryota's.
Ryota's throat went dry, his hands started sweating. He nodded once.
"Oh, awesome! Sometimes I don't know with you. I've been trying to flirt with you since the first day we met. You were the hottest guy I've ever seen in my life. And you're so kind, and generous with food and careful in traffic. My type."
"Oh," Ryota said, thinking what the hell did Abe mean he'd been trying to flirt since they'd first met? How clueless had he been?
"You know," he said instead of betraying his utter hopelessness at all things romance, "first time I saw you riding that bike I thought you must be some kind of a prince of coolness."
Abe smiled, a bit naughtily, "I've been hiding my actual level of coolness, I'll show you tonight, on our date. That's, if you want me to."
Ryota smiled back, nodded. "Then I'll make the food extra edible."
Abe once again jumped on his bike in that cool manner of his, only to get off immediately and put the brake down. He ran to Ryota, beamed at him, and then without any warning, kissed him on the cheek. "I'm going to think about our date my whole shift," he said.
Ryota, still processing everything that had just happened, watched him get on his bike one more time and ride off, still so cool, still the Bicycle Prince. His Bicycle Prince.