#ichihan

***

Ichiban stuck the label of his bottle onto Joon-gi's sleeve. Joon-gi picked it off and folded it neatly in half, not missing a beat in his explanation.

"- so that's my personal view on the best entry point for the comics, though it's still largely debated upon," he finished. "I wouldn't listen to those who say to start with the Williams run. That would be like reading the last page of a book first."

"... The Americans have got it all wrong," Ichiban said, frazzled by this complex web of information. "If I wanna start reading a manga back home, all I gotta do is pick up volume one. This shit is too complicated."

"I don't disagree." His momentum calming down, Joon-gi glanced towards the quieting beach. The tide was beginning its retreat. "... It seems I've been keeping you here for a while."

Ichiban shifted in his seat, checking his watch. Indeed, an hour and a half had passed since they sat down at the beach bar. "Huh. I hadn't noticed."

"Sarcasm, I'm assuming," Joon-gi chuckled.

"No. I really hadn't noticed," Ichiban said. "Time flies when I'm with ya, Han-chan. And that wasn't sarcasm either."

"I find that hard to believe." With a hint of colour in his cheeks, Joon-gi rapped his fingers against his beer bottle. "My apologies, Kasuga-san. If you have better things to do, I won't stop you."

The stiffness had returned, when moments before he had been full of quiet enthusiasm. It was a more familiar sight to Ichiban, but not for the better.

"I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be," Ichiban told him.

"... You do realise that also sounds sarcastic?" Joon-gi asked, with a tiny smile.