Notes

Akaashi and Bokuto welcomed some time to introduce and skim through mangas. Akaashi was admittedly excited to go all out on talking about his preferred mangas. He had acquired a great listener too, who was very willing to sit through and quietly listen.

If it weren't for Sugawara, Akaashi wouldn't have time to relax. He was practically being paid for reading manga. Besides, the flow of customers was sadly low. The bright sun attracted most people to beaches and restaurants. Neither of them minded since Sugawara relaxed at the counter while eating snacks. Akaashi on the other hand,

"This series is very underrated in particular. It's new, so I understand. Still," Akaashi slid the first volume of the series toward Bokuto. He seemed to take an interest in the series. He scanned through the interesting art style. The plot itself was very out of the box indeed, though it wasn't a genre he paid much mind to.

"This isn't something I've encountered in terms of manga," Bokuto hummed to himself and avoided flipping too much. He wouldn't want to spoil anything for himself. He gave an optimistic nod toward Akaashi and set it aside along with two other series Akaashi had described.

"Homework before Tuesday, you read one of these. You don't need to complete it, but I'd like to hear your thoughts," Akaashi undeniably sounded excited. Bokuto raised his eyebrows in thought but nodded in agreement. He was bad at choosing between good options.

However, he ended up choosing the newest series due to its nature. It was very out of the box, and the characters were insanely interesting. He would have fun reading the manga.

"Am I allowed to text questions or thoughts?" Bokuto asked in regards to the challenge or homework. Akaashi's smile reached his eyes as he nodded.

"Yes, but remember to save your last thoughts for the food hall," Akaashi gave him a thumbs up only to make them both chuckle in unison. Alright, Bokuto could do that. It wasn't often he was challenged like this, but it was cool.

"Hey, sorry for intruding. Akaashi, customers are picking up. Do you mind?" Sugawara sheepishly chuckled. Both of them felt embarrassed. Bokuto felt embarrassed for interrupting his shift. Akaashi felt embarrassed for sitting and not doing work.

Both of them looked at each other, and immediately noticed each other's embarrassment. Sugawara left to give them privacy. He couldn't help but turn his head and look at Akaashi in particular. He was going to have much fun with this.

Bokuto sent Akaashi an empathetic look, though he wanted to laugh. Akaashi found it funny how he was paid to read manga for nearly an hour. As Akaashi was about to clean up the small table, he noticed Bokuto already picking up the series and trying to navigate through the genres.

"It's my job, I should start doing it," Akaashi couldn't help but admit an embarrassed laugh. Bokuto shook his head in the disappointment of himself. How could he do the same mistakes over and over?

"I definitely hijacked your job again. Let me help at least, and I'll buy this one," Bokuto laughed fondly at the bizarre events. He did feel bad for cooping one colleague away from the silverhead.

Navigating through the shelves and alphabetical orders was a pain, but Bokuto eventually got it. At least he hoped he did. The worst thing would be to have Akaashi clean up after him again.

"Hey, I'll give you my discount. It was my idea after all," Akaashi soon walked up to the register to get the payment ready. He got a forty-percent discount on all mangas and contents in the store. Bokuto nodded in agreement and made sure to send a smile of gratitude his way.

"There we go," Akaashi saw the amount go down significantly. He would happily give Bokuto the code for reading and give him an opportunity to nerd.

"Thank you, I guess I'll see you on Tuesday. Also, I'm so sorry for kidnapping your colleague there," Bokuto quietly apologized so as not to expose himself in front of other customers. Sugawara only laughed fondly, before he shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, it's okay. I'm glad you had fun," Sugawara wished him the best. Akaashi almost let out a relieved breath, since he didn't say anything embarrassing. Knowing Sugawara, he would have said something along the lines of: "Not the first time", "he's your soulmate after all", or something.

"Have a stress-free shift, both of you," Bokuto started to wave goodbye to both of them. Akaashi gratefully beamed in anticipation upon Tuesday. Perhaps he would get some opinions over the phone, too. He looked forward to just nerd out and having Bokuto genuinely care about his nerding.