🥃 Liquor & Cigarette

I love this work; it's a short manga with very beautiful art. It's a story about childhood friends who always liked each other, but only admit it as adults...

In a small town with an Italian countryside vibe, two friends grew up together since they were little. In the present, Teo runs a liquor store, and Camilo a cigarette shop (hence the manga's name).

Camilo is a total hunk: calm, kind, tall and very popular, with long hair he washes with grapefruit-scented shampoo... Teo, on the other hand, has a bit of a tsundere vibe, but at the same time he's shy and good-hearted.

There's going to be a wine festival in town, and Teo's presence is important for his store. At this festival there's a drinking competition.

So Camilo invites him to drink together and train for the competition. On one of these nights together, Camilo confesses his love to his childhood friend, and the two slowly begin to develop a sweet and sensual romance.

It's lovely, the characters are adorable, and of course it has that basic “I'm not gay” cliché, but the sexual tension between the two is clear from the very first page, and once the romance takes off, it just keeps getting better. I recommend it to anyone who wants a light, delicately arousing story and likes a countryside vibe in the style of “Call Me by Your Name”.