“Where are we headed now?” he happily asks her as they are pedaling their way out on the street.

“You’ll see. You’ll definitely love it there”, she said as she accelerates making him to pedal faster to catch up with her.

They arrived at a library-looking building with a large field in front of it. Minsoo drinks in the surroundings, noting that people are everywhere; most of them, young ones.

“What is this place?” he asked as they rest their bicycles outside of the building.

“This is the haven of manga here in Japan”, she boasts. “We are now in Kyoto International Manga Museum, this is the greatest manga library in the world, you wouldn’t believe what you can find inside. Let’s go!” and she bounces forward and inside the Museum.

Inside, the infamous Wall of Manga greeted them, a collection of approximately 50,000 publications which are arranged in an open access library system than spans 200 meters throughout the building. And the best thing about this huge collection of Manga is that anyone can take a book from the shelves to read. Which is what the two bookworms did.

“Woah, there are even those that was created even before World War II!” Minsoo exclaimed with much awe, Hyun Hae couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Do you know that this Museum houses 300,000 manga and comics collectively?” she states matter-of-factly, feeding his curiosity and awe, his eyes glitters.

“Wow, this place is really great! Do you come here every time you’re in Japan?”, he asks without taking his eyes off the piles of manga proudly standing in front of them.

“Come, let’s see what we can read”, and she guided him into one of the library database touch screen panels. “You see, these books are arranged alphabetically by author’s name, shonen manga (boys), shojo manga (girls), and seinen manga (young adults) are divided into different floors, from first to third respectively, but if you have a specific book to look for, you can search it here”, she explains and point to the electronic library database that is easy to operate.

“But, how do I read a manga here? Surely they are written in Kanji?” he worriedly asks.

“No problem about that, comics from other countries as well as Japanese manga can be found in here, they have been translated into other languages, there’s English and Hangeul, you should be fine”, she grins. Again, Minsoo’s eyes widen with awe and amusement, this is a piece of heaven for him.

“So, are we using this?” she asks, pertaining to the machine in front of them.

“Hmm, I don’t have anything specific in mind, let’s just scan everything, can we do that?” he said still letting his eyes wander around, looking for a specific book that would caught his eyes from among the thousands there.

“Okay, then”, she agrees.

The two of them wanders on their own, took one book after the other to read. They lost track of time as they were both engulfed in the sanctuary of the books they are reading  when Hyun Hae heard her stomach growl; it’s already two in the afternoon and they haven’t had their lunch yet.

“Yah”, she walked to Minsoo’s position at the far end of the wall, they are in the shonen division, “aren’t you hungry? It’s 2pm already”, she softly said when she get nearer him.

“Ah, chinchayo? Now that you mention it, I felt the little monster inside my tummy, he’s angry”, he laughs.

They headed out to eat lunch but came back quickly after.

“Have you seen how Manga are made?” she asks him when they entered the Museum again.

“Yeah, in youtube.”

“Well, in here, you will be able to see it live!” her eyes widen in excitement and anticipation.

“Really?” his eyes mirrored hers, she nods and lead the way to the Manga Studio.

Arriving at the studio, they saw professional manga artists draw manga starting from the initial pencil sketch. “This is a rare chance to see how manga is really made, from black and white images to full color”, she says softly, nudging him.

They watched the artistic hands of the artists draw manga characters for as long as they can, saving the greatness of these people to memory.

“That was really daebak!” Minsoo exclaimed. “I wish I can draw my own manga someday”, he said with hopeful glee just after they turn to leave the room.

“You’re drawing?” Hyun Hae asks intrigued.

Minsoo looked at her, smiling he said, “Well yeah, sometimes, when I’m in the mood”, he shrug shyly.

“Are you good?”

“I don’t know, but my drawings are decent, I would say”, he says dismissively.

“I wanna see! Show me”, she says enthusiastically, making him smile at her as he witness a genuine interest.

“Some other time”, he smiles.

“Okay, I’ll look forward to that, but speaking of drawings”, Minsoo looked at her again, “let’s go have our own portraits drawn”, she said, tugging him by the arm.

“What do you mean?” he asks as he let himself be dragged to the direction of yet another room.

“That’s another feature of this museum, visitors can have their portraits drawn in minutes, we should have ours as souvenir”, and they continue walking.

______________

“Hmmm, looks decent enough, but are my eyes this big?” she asks as she examines the portrait the artist draw of them, they are both smiling and looking straight.

“That artist is really great, she even covered even the detail of your earrings, wow”, he said in awe. “Can I keep this?” he asked as they have only one copy of it.

“Since you paid for it, it’s only suitable that you keep it, plus, I think my eyes are dawn wrong, their bigger than the usual”, she shrugs.

“Your eyes aren’t big, they’re round, they just looked big because my eyes are small, see?” he points on their eyes that stares side by side each other. She just shrugs it off.

“Come now, we’re meeting someone”, she said.

“Someone?” he asks but didn’t get to receive an answer from her as she strides forward.

If I’d said something, he might get a hint, she thought, smiling to herself.

They arrived at the DiverCity Plaza where all-18-feet of metal plates of white, red, blue, and yellow stood before them—the life-sized Gundam that Japan boasts.

“Woah, I hadn’t imagined it to be this huge really!” he said, looking up at the giant work of art in front of them, “pictures didn’t do it justice.”

“Come, let’s sit there and wait for darkness to fall, it’s more magnificent when they have lighted it”, she said pointing to a vacant place for them to sit.

“Wait, let’s take photos with it first.”

“Okay”, she took her digicam out, “stand there”, she points at the spot nearest the foot of the Gundam, people can get to a close distance but not near enough to actually touch it—safety precautions  if ever something goes wrong. He poses, imitating how the giant robot is standing with a huge grin plastered across his face, he looked like a child enjoying his self so much, she pushed the button and the moment was captured.

“I’ll take your photo, too”, he volunteers as he walk back on her direction.

“No need”, she refuses, “I already had pictures with him.”

“But you don’t have any with me, right?” he is suggesting, she smiles. “Let’s take a selca with him on the background”, he motions for her to follow him and walk near the robot again. “Ready? Hana Tul Set, say kimchi”, he chimes.

The photo was taken with open into a big smile as Minsoo chants the same words she said when they took their first selca together after the cosplay convention. “Wow, it turned out good”, he commented, and they walked to the vacant place Hyun Hae pointed earlier and wait for the Gundam to be lit.

They are both silent, observing their surroundings, there are number of people as well at the plaza, probably doing the thing they are doing, waiting for the spectacle to occur when night falls.

“Do you want me to massage your hand?” he asked out of the blue.

Hyun Hae, though slightly taken aback, let out a small chuckle before offering her right hand to him. “What’s gotten into you?” she asked as he started massaging her palm softly.

“Nothing, I just thought your hands might be tired from cycling”, he said softly.

“Ain’t it feet the ones we’re using to pedal?” she laughs.

“Well yeah, but the hands control the handles so they are tired, too”, he explains then motion for her to offer her other hand which she unquestioningly did.

He massages the other hand, too, gently pressing his thumbs on it. When he’s done, Hyun Hae offered to do the same. He happily gave in. When she is about to let go of his hand after massaging both, Minsoo clamps his hand tightly around hers which made her look at him in surprise. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“Relaxing your hand, I’ll squeeze it gently like this for all the pressure to go away”, he said as he slightly squeezes her hand on and on.  “Please?” he softly asks upon seeing the hesitation in her face.

Looking at him now, she shrugs her shoulders and let him hold her hand as he wishes. Damn, don’t give me that look, you babo, she scold him inside of her head, she faces ahead, staring at the Gundam once again. He’s smiling a triumphant one.

When the lights around the giant robot are lit one by one, they watched in awe. “Wow, you’re right, it’s more beautiful at night”, Minsoo said as he gape at the marvel in front of him, still clutching her hand in his. She just sits there and enjoyed the moment.

After some time, they decided to go home and retire for the day. When they are near the place where they parked their bicycles, Hyun Hae tugged Minsoo’s hand that’s holding hers; he looked down at her, his brows furrowed.