Kyomachibori Destiny

The other day, I was on a bus heading into town.
I don't usually take the bus, but it's nice once in a while.

It stops every so often to let people on, then stops again to let people off.

Thinking about the impermanence of all things, I gazed blankly out the window while listening to EGO-WRAPPIN'.

Cars, motorcycles, people walking, and people on bicycles.
As I thought about how everyone is going their own way, while waiting at a red light, my eyes were drawn to a man on a mountain bike waiting right next to the bus.

He was wearing short sleeves and shorts, and had a helmet on.

Even if the breeze feels nice, it's still pretty hot out.
I was impressed that he was wearing a helmet properly, so I just watched him idly.

When the light turned green, he started pedaling standing up, picking up speed rapidly.
I didn't realize mountain bikes were that fast.
He was going at an incredible speed, faster than the bus.

And he was a sturdy-looking guy, so that probably helped too.

Then, he stopped at the next light.

Huh? Something felt off...

The bus started moving again.
The mountain bike pulled up alongside.
Looking at his back as he pedaled standing up, I realized it.

His pants were slipping down little by little!
It wasn't just a peek of his underwear; it was a peek of his butt crack.

The more he pedaled, the more they slipped, but he kept pedaling standing up with a completely cool expression.

Where are you in such a hurry to go while losing your pants?

I completely forgot which stop I was supposed to get off at.
I was captivated by the butt of the mountain biker riding next to me.

He must have been riding alongside the bus for about 15 minutes.
During that time, his pants kept sliding down, and he'd pull them back up at every red light.

This is the ultimate art of the 'chirarism' (the art of the peek).

This might be the first time in my life I've ever looked forward to such an innocent, unintentional peek.

Men are sad creatures; even if it's an elderly grandmother, we have the sad instinct to follow with our eyes anything that gives us a glimpse.

At the same time, while watching the mountain biker's butt, I felt strangely calm.

What on earth am I doing?

I was supposed to have come into town for an errand.
What is this?
I've blown that errand out of my mind, and I'm captivated by the peek of a mountain biker whose butt crack is about to be revealed.
I had already passed my stop.

In that case, there was only one thing I could do.

Just watch over the fate of this 'peek-a-boo' biker until the end.

Alright, leave it to me.
I'll observe him in earnest.

There are many people who can outdo me when it comes to observing others, but I still have a fair amount of confidence.

I think, perhaps, that pedaling standing up is what's causing it.
He swings his hips left and right, which makes his pants fall down.
So I think if he sat down to pedal, they wouldn't fall.

But he only pedals standing up.
He's possessed by the charm of standing pedaling.
Huh? Could it be on purpose...?
No, that can't be it.
There's no way he has any ulterior motives while pedaling his bike so hard and sweating like that.

Likewise, I have no ulterior motives in watching him.
After all, I like women.
Even so, for some reason, this situation where a man's butt is gradually being revealed is so funny that before I knew it, I was on the fourth song of EGO-WRAPPIN' playing in my ears.

Could this 'peek-a-boo' style actually have a high affinity with the groove of EGO-WRAPPIN'?

If this were SOUL'd OUT or something, the story would change 180 degrees.
I'd like to try that out, though.

Moving forward, pants slipping, stopping at a light.
Stopping at a light while pants are slipping again.
I'm just watching that from the front-row seat of the bus next to him, with EGO-WRAPPIN' as background music.

This alone makes the bus ride worth it.
The song is the fifth one.
What's playing now is EGO-WRAPPIN's signature song, 'Kuchibashi ni Cherry'.

This is a song I personally have a very strong attachment to; I really love it.
Especially the lyric, 'What's more important than the speed you compete with is the landing.'
The goodness of this song is packed into this lyric.
I remember it every time I hear Gen Hoshino explain it on the radio as 'classical yet new music'.

I mean, I just got on a bus, right?
That's all I did today.
Yet it makes me feel so many diverse things.
I'm grateful to the half-butt mountain biker and EGO-WRAPPIN'.

I was so immersed in the emotion that when the chorus 'Kuchibashi ni Cherry' came on, I couldn't help but sway my body and get into the groove.

The mountain biker was swinging his butt left and right on his bike while pedaling standing up. It was truly a horizontal groove.
I was listening to EGO-WRAPPIN' and swaying my body while watching him. You could call it a vertical groove.

Is it okay to have a session created by such a coincidence?
I even felt like I could go all the way to the final stop like this.
That's how excited and uplifted I was.

At least until the moment the mountain biker turned a corner and took a different path from the bus.

This is exactly what despair is.

I've felt despair many times before, and each time I've been crushed, thinking I'm no good, and felt so down I could sink into the ground.

This easily surpassed all those despairs.

A session that ends suddenly.
He's gone, leaving only my vertical groove behind.

I almost asked the bus driver, 'Why didn't you turn?'

I skipped my destination stop, listened to EGO-WRAPPIN' in sync with his horizontal groove, and then came a sudden parting at the moment I was most into the vertical groove.

I learned for the first time how a band member feels when someone asks to leave the band at the peak of their popularity due to creative differences.

If the parting was going to come so abruptly, I should have just blasted 'Kuchibashi ni Cherry' from the start.

The only salvation is that the bus passes near my destination stop again.
So I got off there.

The 'stop' button flashes red in vain, expressing my feelings.

After getting off and walking a bit, I reached my original destination in town, the tobacco shop.

I've started coming to town to buy cigarettes lately, so if I'm lucky, I might meet the mountain biker again.

I'll be ready to play EGO-WRAPPIN' at any time in case I meet him again.
Better safe than sorry, right?

But there was a good thing, too.
The lighter they gave me as a bonus when I bought cigarettes was a lime-green Bic lighter.
I already had red and yellow ones, so I was thinking I wanted a different color.
So I'm pretty happy about the new color.

Well, that's about the extent of my joy.
But this much is just right for me.

Thinking that, I looked up while waiting for the light, and the mountain biker from earlier was waiting for the light on the opposite sidewalk.

I thought it was fate.
If I were a girl, I would definitely have felt destiny.
To the point where the nostalgic phrase 'Is this destiny?' would pop out.

The streets of Kyoto are laid out in a grid, so that's probably why these encounters happen.

But at that moment, I didn't care about that, and as we passed each other, I watched him pedal standing up and slipping his pants down again with warm eyes.

Ah, that's definitely it.
What EGO-WRAPPIN' taught me.

It's not about the journey.
What's important is the end, this moment.
It was exactly as they said.

What's more important than the speed you compete with is the landing.