Strangely, we did not see Joonmoney at all after our first day in Japan.  I had expected him to come bursting out of his room, demand that we take him along, and proceed to be irritating for the entirety of the trip.  But no.  No Joonmoney.  Just Kris and me.  How suspicious.

“Hanbyul, let’s go!” Kris exclaimed.  “Manga museum, remember?”

I rolled out of the bed that we had shared (to be clear, I hogged like ¾ of it, sorry Kris), and onto the floor of the hotel room, muttering so that he might leave me to my sleep.

“But Hanbyul, it’s three in the afternoon.  And we’re in Japan, remember?”

“Mhmm.”

“We’re going to travel via train.”

“Hm.”

“You can sleep on the train.”

I rolled up into a sitting position, eyes still closed, and stuck my arms in the air.  “Help me up.”

“What are you, five?” He chuckled.

 But he pulled me up anyway, right into his arms.  I felt my cheeks turning red, squirmed out of his embrace, and rushed into the bathroom, leaving Kris laughing to himself.

Dammit, Kris.  I quickly brushed my teeth and my hair and made sure that I didn’t look stupid before reentering the bedroom.  Soon, we were out of the hotel room and on the train.

Kris was texting secretly the whole way there, so I decided not to bother him.  Instead, I used Kris’s shoulder as a pillow and took a nap.

I don’t know about you guys, but I love Japan already.  If this were math, then I think that it would be something like:

Annoying things <<<<<<< food < Japan < Kris << food in Japan

<:>

We walked in, and I almost cried.  IT WAS FREAKING AMAZING.  Okay, so like, there’s all of these shelves and shelves and shelves of all of the manga I’ve dreamed of.  I just can’t right now.  Oh gosh. 

THERE WERE EVEN OTAKUS.

If I was the kid in the candy store, then Kris was my parent.  Thanks to him, I did not spend all of my money on manga, reminding me that there was also “food, Disneyland, and food”.  We kind of just roamed around a bit, staring at all of the various manga collections in the glass cases (which makes me kind of sad, because people aren’t reading them).  There were all of these informational posters on the walls, but because they were in Japanese, the struggle was real.  Kris could make out some of the word meanings, since he could speak Chinese, but the struggle was still pretty real.

Though I must say, I did come to appreciate manga beyond the “hahahahaha this plot is so silly” and “this guy is kind of attractive in a weird way”.  I never want to become a manga artist, but I admire those who do.

OKAY BUT I SERIOUSLY CAN’T GET OVER ALL OF THE WALLS AND WALLS OF MANGA EVERYWHERE.

But if I thought the manga museum was pretty amazing, well…that was only the start.

<:>

We found a nice place alongside the river, which, according to some tourist brochure, would be a great place to have a picnic.  Kris unpacked all of the food that we had bought at a convenience store earlier that morning, and I put the blanket on the ground.  Then we sat down, ate, and I guess it was pretty romantic.

“No way, the chicken totally came first.” I insisted.

“I disagree.”

“But without chickens—”

He started to laugh, and I frowned.

“What?” I grumbled.

“It’s just that, here we are, trying to have a romantic lunch next to a river, and we’re discussing something that is the total opposite.”

I nodded.  “Kay.  What do you want to talk about?”

“Okay, Miss Hanbyul, I have some questions for you.”

“Again with the questions?” I tried to sound annoyed but smiled anyway.  Some things never change, I guess.  “Okay, what do you want to know?”

“Do you have a Bandaid?”

My eyes widened.  “Why?  Did you fall or something?”

He nodded solemnly.  “I scraped my knee falling for you.”

“What?” I made a face.

He chuckled.  “Can you give me directions?”

I cringed, a vague idea of what he was going to say next.  But foolishly, I decided to play along.  “To where?”

“To your heart.  I seem to have lost myself in your eyes.”

“You’re so irritating,” I muttered, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Can you empty your pockets?  I believe you’ve stolen my heart.”

At that point, I couldn’t help but smile.  Kris laced his fingers through mine.  We sat in silence, staring at the river, though the inside of my head was anything but that.