Lunch came and went. He’s looking out for Hyun Hae and immediately found her outside of the house. She was blabbering something, in yet another language he came to recognize as Tagalog.

“Mama ko, mama ko, mama ko!”, (my mother, my mother, my mother) she shouts happily. He saw her sitting with her legs curled beneath her, a white dog sits on her lap, while she’s holding on to the sides of its face with both her hands. She is looking up to the direction of her mom.

He then saw Haruhi Obachan rushing to the direction of her daughter, looks of urgency is on her face. She hasn’t reached her yet when she shouted back worriedly. “Ano’ng nangyari, anak ko?” (what happened, my daughter?) When she finally reached her daughter, she sighed as she saw that there’s nothing to worry about. She sighed of relief.

“Look, Zelman is growing bigger, and it’s fast! I didn’t imagine he would grow this big just after three months”, she said, while shaking the face of the dog that she now has on her arms.

“Aish, this kid, I thought it’s something more important that just stating your discovery of your dog’s growth”, she hit her head softly. Hyun Hae pouts but eventually smiled at her silliness. That’s when she noticed that Minsoo is watching the both of them. He just stood there, watching them.

“Oh, Minsoo-kun is here”, Haruhi said in English. “I’ll leave you, two, now, I’ll take my afternoon nap.”

Minsoo slightly bowed at Haruhi before facing Hyun Hae who is now hugging and squishing her dog. He wants to start a conversation but he doesn’t know how to start.

Hyun Hae breaks the ice. “Okasa said, you’re here for vacation? What do you wanna do or see in Japan, really?”

Minsoo hesitated to answer, he never tried talking to anyone about her fascination to anime and manga, and that that is the foremost reason of his visit here. She saw the hesitation on his face, so she gave him the space and decided to just talk.

“Do you know that I got Zelman’s name in an anime?”, pertaining to the dog that’s sleeping now on her lap. “Hehe, anime is big in Japan, you know, and I’m a big fan!”, she said with a friendly smile.

His face lit up. She saw it and she suddenly thought that maybe, they share something in common.

“Hey, you smile when I mentioned that I’m an anime fan, I can tell that you are here for that reason, am I correct?”, Hyun Hae ask, trying to open a friendly conversation with him.

Minsoo then moved from his position, and sits next to her on the ground but made sure to keep enough distance. He crossed his legs and pulled it up to his chest, with his arms crossed against his legs.

“So, what’s your favorite, anime?”, she asked, though she haven’t received an answer yet from Minsoo if he really is an anime fan, she pushed on.

Smiling, Minsoo answered, “One Piece”, he ducks his head, a little shy about admitting him being a geek. He’s losing his cool image now, but he doesn’t care, so few are the people who let him speak about this side of him, and he definitely wants Hyun Hae to be one on those few. He wants her to know him.

“Oh”, her eyes widened. “The Strawhat crew? We call them the Mugiwara”, she said smiling.

“You know them?”, he asked happily, turning to face the lady by his side who unexpectedly understands him.

“Haha, I love One Piece, too. My favorite would be Luffy, of course, the CAPtain”, she grins.

“Sure, Luffy is so strong, but I like Roronoa Zoro more. I admire how he trained hard and harder, and hardest, so that he can become the greatest swordsman that even the heavens will hear his name. I adore the discipline he instills in his self, and his undying spirit to support and follow his CAPtain.”

As he explain, and talk about why he likes his favorite character, Hyun Hae couldn’t help but adore the man that’s speaking it out beside her. Mostly, people who watch any show, be it a movie, or an anime, they most often see the strength, the power; but this man, he sees through that, and claims to adore the discipline, more of the personality and character of an anime figure. Hah, his ideas and thoughts are sweet, so good to listen to.

They talked about One Piece for almost two hours, before they shifted to other anime, then manga, then back to anime. They’re getting more and more at ease with each other. She’s happy, he’s astounded as to the amount of things he just shared to her when he suddenly thought of asking about the origin of her dog’s name.

“Oh, as I said earlier, his name came from an anime I also love, Black Blood Brothers. They’re vampires”, she said, forming her hands to claws in front of her face, towards his direction. He lightly chuckled. Zelman the dog is gone from her lap, he’s out at the front yard, sleeping, yet again.

“Zelman Flock is a red-haired, red-eyed vampire who can ignite anything just by looking at them, he can will it, that’s how great he is, plus, he’s a leader of a pack. He’s not the main character, though, Jiro Mutchizuki is, one of the two black blood brothers”, she explains.

“Ah, but what made you like him?”, he asked.

“Hmmm”, she thought, tapping her chin in the process. He’s watching her. “He’s cool”, she laughs. “It’s a little ironic after saying that his power is fire, but yeah. You see, I’m not a great judge of character unlike you with Zoro, hehe. You see him as someone far greater than the way I do, and here I am, trying to justify why I like Zelman Flock by saying that he’s cool. Flat. Nothing else”, she said with a sad look on her face which made Minsoo laugh a little.

“Aish, you’re so cute”, then he laughs again.

She’s about to say something, when her mother called for them saying that dinner is ready. She almost jumped, looked at Minsoo who is surprised as well. They didn’t notice that it’s really already dark outside, and they’ve been talking for hours, sitting on the ground beside Zelman’s mini house. He helped her get up by offering his hand. She took it, but let go the moment she is on her feet. She dusts off her shorts and walk through the house, with Minsoo lagging behind.

He called me cute?

I touched her hand.

Working hard on hiding the smile on his face, he sat on the dining table.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

yay! got another one! thank you!

i wish i could say that your subscriptions fuel me to go on with my story but i can't!

i already finished writing this story, and i am just reviewing it before posting it here.

so, expect updates to pour like rain, hehe!

Kanpai!