Himeouji 4 (Patreon)

4 - Early Morning Cycling

RAW

The next morning, Yuuma was at Himeouji’s apartment quite early.

When Yuuma contacted him to check if he was awake, he said he was still sleeping.

When he told him that he was there, Himeouji sent an angry message ‘You’re way too early!’ with a mysterious emoji attached.

“It's not even 6 o'clock... I'm still pretty sleepy though.”

“It’s already six thirty you know”

“If it's only about thirty minutes, we won’t be late…”

This is not a problem as far as time is concerned, but in that case they will arrive at the school a little later.

Since many students go to school around that time, they might end up standing out.

“I’m fine with that, but I’m sure Himeouji wouldn’t want that”

“...Sorry, thank you”

Himeouji, who bowed his head admirably, was at least more of a prince than he was yesterday.

His eyes are somewhat swollen, but his complexion looks good, and his hair is glossy.

(...is it fine like this? Yesterday, it felt like he selfishly went and self-destructed.)

(T/N: I don’t know who he is referring to, or what the situation he is talking about. It could be the fact that Himeouji was biking on his own and almost collapsed, or Yuuma one-sidedly deciding to escort him, or Himeouji crying when that happened.)

Yuuma was wary of that, so he came early in the morning, but it seems that his worries were unfounded.

With a sense of relief, Yuuma turned his bike around and faced the direction of travel.

“Yosh, let’s get going—— wait, do you know how to ride this?”

“Y-yes… though, it’s the first time I do something like this”

A tandem bicycle is a bicycle for two people that looks like two bicycles joined in a row.

The rear part also has a saddle, pedals, and fixed handlebars, which means that two people can pedal, doubling the propulsive force.

Some towns do not allow biking this on public roads according to their regulations, but at least in this town, there is no problem.

“Yotto…huh? What’s this, there's a step separate from the pedal——”

“If you get tired of pedaling, just rest your feet there. because it's been modified a little bit so that the driver in the back can do that.”

“Is that really okay!?”

It feels like he thought it was an illegal bicycle——but it’s not that extreme a modification, and his parents have told him it's not a problem.

“Well, let’s put aside the small details—— let’s just go”

“Reply properly! Mou, you’re being pushy!”

Despite his complaint, Yuuma began to pedal, and Himeouji also began to pedal behind him.

It had been a long time since Yuuma had ridden a tandem. Come to think of it, it felt like this, a nostalgic feeling rose at the same time.

“Ooh—, amazing... it's not as heavy as I thought. It might actually be comfortable…”

“That's good. If this was too difficult, I could have used something like a three-wheeled tandem bicycle.”

“Three-wheeled——, tricycle?”

“No, not that kind——”

A three-wheeled tandem bicycle is like a bicycle with a wheelchair in front of it, and is also used for nursing care.

There are other types, but if Himeouji was the one on board, it would be the wheelchair type.

“If you sit in front, I feel like I can ride to school like that.”

“T-that’s really embarrassing… sorry, please let me rest for a bit.”

“Roger. You don't need to push yourself too hard, only do what you can. Also, let me know when you're pedaling.”

“Yeah, I got it”

He rested his legs as he said this, perhaps a dozen minutes into their departure.

There is the accumulated fatigue from yesterday, but even without that, commuting to school by bicycle from here would still be tough.

When he thought about it, he managed to arrive at school properly yesterday.

“...You did your best”

“Eh, what’s all of sudden? Or rather, in the current state, Hanyuu-kun is the only one doing your best”

Indeed, the fact that Himeouji is resting his leg means that it is only Yuuma that is moving the bike.

However, Yuuma did not seem bothered by this, he was turning the pedals smoothly, dashing along the school route even faster than when the two of them did earlier.

“...You said that your father rides a lot, but doesn’t Hanyuu-kun ride a lot too?”

“Are you talking about bicycles? Well, it’s not like I’m doing bicycle sport, but I think I ride more often than normal people”

Due to family circumstances, his father has been looking after Yuuma more than necessary.

Of course, since he became a high school student——or rather, an adolescent, he has had fewer opportunities to do so, but they used to do things like cycling.

“This is nice, cycling! If it’s like this, I feel like even I can go too”

“I used to be pulled along by my father on a tandem like this, once I got used to it though, we each used our own bikes.”

In between such talks, Himeouji put her foot back on the pedal several times.

Leg fatigue, original physical strength.

He himself seems to have a good grasp of the distribution of these areas.

“——Maybe you should try cycling? So that you can ride alone”

“Really? Haha, that would be fun——I’ll do my best building up my stamina”

“Aah, but take it slow. Don’t overdo it, you’ll just break you body”

I know I know——he said.

He responded in good form, but by the time they passed halfway along the route, he was getting used to it and was turning the pedals more often——.

————

(T/N: if I get used to it, I might be able to release 2 chapters per day. Well, that day’s still really far away.

Btw, it’s short, but some of the next chapters should be longer, in exchange for only releasing this chapter today, I won’t be taking two days to translate again. As long as the chapter is not too long anyway)

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