deep dive dating | shinichiro sano

2.

meeting #00: weirdo

Shinichiro stared at the motorcycles in his shop, he let his only employee of the day leave early because they had a date. Now, he was covering for his extra hours.

He figured there weren't gonna be any customers since business hasn't been blooming since that one day it was packed. It wasn't the point he couldn't make ends meet, though.

So he started to grab a cigarette from the counter, 'I should really quit.' he thought.

He says that, yet he always found himself looking for one just days later.

The thoughts weighing in his mind as of the moment were images of his last messages with that girl he was paired up with on the DDD website, every time he thought of them, he'd always cringe.

When the thought crossed his mind, he let go of the cigarette and dropped to his knees.

Imagine catfishing someone, which already is something very wrong, then they still think 'you're' ugly. Honestly, he was very confused, Wakasa was his hottest friend and you say he's ugly?!

"Damn it...this is why people shouldn't catfish." Shinichiro cried internally, "But if she thinks he's not good-looking, then what about me?!"

Such a shame.

Shinichiro Sano really liked you. He really thought you were pretty.

'I should start a TV show or a book called No Chance In Romance in the Life of Shinichiro. Wow, wait, I'm such a genius.'

He chuckled to himself, his pride returning to where it belonged as he grabbed the cigarette he dropped to light it once again.

Until he heard the glass door of his shop opening, the wind chimes made their tune and Shinichiro immediately threw the object to the ground.

"Welcome to—!" his words were cut off the moment he laid his eyes on the customer.

It was a woman!

The raven-haired man coughed, he wasn't wearing any gel at the moment so he was wondering if he still looked good. He turned to the mirror and licked his lips, 'Had nothin' to worry about.'

The woman that interrupted his smoking session wore a hat, a mask, and a pair of shades. If it weren't for the skirt and the obnoxiously big earrings, that radiated femininity, she wore, he never would've assumed she was a girl.

"Hello, take your time to look around!" Shinichiro winked but the girl didn't respond, not one nod let alone a word.

Not like a response was mandatory, but it would've been polite if she did. It wasn't even in a 'cool' way, it was just rude and egotistical.

This was the first time a woman had annoyed him, or maybe he was just in a bad mood.

He saw that the girl took two M&M bags from the snack section, which was originally made as a side business for those who'll get hungry while waiting for their bikes to be fixed.

She ran to the cash register, placed her items on the table, then waited for him to scan them.

Shinichiro nervously grabbed her items and scanned them, it was clear she was staring intensely despite her shades, "That would be four-hundred-yen."

No reply, her only form of acknowledgment was her grabbing the money from her pocket and giving it to him for payment. Not a nod, not even a grin (he wouldn't be able to see, anyway).

'Is this girl a celebrity or something?' he hoped she wasn't so he wouldn't look back at this time and regret not asking for a picture.

He pushed the items towards her and she didn't take them for a while, meaning his hand was just holding onto those M&M's awkwardly. As the seconds passed, he was trying to stop himself from getting annoyed because the girl wouldn't take her items.

After one more second, she finally took the items from him and ran away.

An irk mark went to his forehead when she quickly left the shop as if she didn't wanna be there any longer.

"What a weirdo."

Meanwhile, you were panting because it felt like you had just raced a marathon.

More specifically, you felt like your heart had just completed a marathon. It was about to burst into flames, not because of the fact you sprinted your way out, but because of your newly found crush.

You were contemplating on whether you should offer him one of the M&M's as planned, but you were too shy and felt that you made things too awkward while deciding.

So ultimately, you failed.

And you were stuck with two M&M bags.

But you succeeded in finding something to fuel your delusions.

As you turned to face the store you had just left, a grin started to grow in your mouth.

"I just met the man I'm gonna marry!"