| Hwoarang's shoulderblades froze at the voice before he responded. "Domo." Placing the pool stick against the table, he relaxed, twisting his neck only slightly to accommodate the look that settled on Jin. The 'what are you doing here?' look. Kazama's eyes were indeed fixed acutely on his subject. He lowered his arms slowly, still smiling loosely, conversationally. One wide-set shoulder rose in a shrug as he addressed the question about which he'd been thinking for quite a while. "You still have my lighter." The comment earned a stare intense enough to humble a three- headed hydra. The almond skin that separated linear, dark brows furrowed, lending inscrutability to the expression etched over Hwoarang's youthful face. After a moment his lips twitched with the bud of an incredulous grin, and he shifted to a stance perpendicular to the Japanese. " .. you're kidding, right? Cuz, well .. " He raised a hand to the back of his neck, averting his eyes. "I sort of misplaced it." Eyes that only looked brown in the light lowered to the empty pool table, an expression of mellow amusement on his now-thawed face. He had prepared himself to appear mellow if -- when -- he met up with Hwoarang, in hopes it made things easier. "Saa. I guess I'll make due." Jin looked at Hwoarang and then back to the table as his thumbs hooked over the pockets of his jeans - - his favorite jeans, faded blue and beginning to fray at the cuffs. His jacket was unzipped but made too narrow a gap to see his shirt. Jin forced a smile before he spoke again. "Hey." "Nah, I'm not that good yet." Hwoarang admitted flippantly, wrapping his muscle-lined arms around the back of the chair as he faced Jin. Like pools of palpable warmth, his rich, reddish eyes traipsed over the serene Japanese features as he spoke with honesty he could afford on this subject. "I lose a lot of cash - but hey - I'll never get good if I don't practice, right?" Shrugging, his lips remained set in an immutable, easy grin. "Right. I mauled a lot of bonsai before I was finally able to trim them properly; I keep several of them at home. Have you ever tried to tend one? I think it must be like taking care of a baby." He rested comfortably against the back of the booth, his jacket folded and resting in the seat between Jin and the wall. " . . . can't say I have." The man they called 'Fatal Lightning', who leapt out warehouse windows in a single bound tended flowers? Hwoarang-five-weeks-ago would have wasted no time haranguing what he took to be a self-admitting pansy, after he first got over his disbelief. But he managed to answer, without making his initial inclination to laugh and subsequent surprise too evident. Call him softened. Kazama was interesting. " .. what got you into that?" Just picture Jin in his trademark black, enflamed gi pants and red handguards ... stooped over a tiny potted tree with a little watering can in one hand and a pair of shears in the other. Jin did often and was the first person to smile at his own expense on the matter. |