It’s a fact of life that love hotels in Japan are never more than a stone’s throw away from a ramen shop. Some might say that this is because late night romantics make for the perfect clientele, but Iekei Ramen Funk Love has a more interesting perspective.

This new omnibus series by Hakutou Awashima revolves around such an eatery serving up iekei ramen slap bang in the middle of a love hotel district. Chapter one specifically tells the story of Rara Inukai, a 24 year old working in the publishing industry and in something of a situationship with her coworker. She’s in the middle of paying for both of their bowls when the owner of the shop pipes up and tells her that he can provide hints to end the whole affair, provided that she keeps coming back and filling up a points card.

While Inukai is the focus of the story, this mysterious proprietor is the one who sets events into motion. His hints take the form of cryptic wordplay and cause Inukai to reflect on why she can’t seem to break the cycle of illicit rendezvous, given that her coworker is already in a relationship. The eventual revelation that the closed off environment of the love hotel itself is preventing things from moving forward is even paired with the owner’s musings that ramen shops always open up near love hotels so they can use the tears in the air to flavor their soup.

Combining ramen and romance in this way is certainly interesting, even if the metaphors don’t always mix together perfectly well. It feels like Awashima had two goals for chapter one here: telling Inukai’s story, of course, while also simultaneously justifying why a ramen shop should be the central location for other stories going forward. Perhaps it should have been one or another when asking the reader to swallow two things that don’t usually come as a pair, but you have to respect the level of ambition.

In any case, what’s most welcome about Iekei Ramen Funk Love is how it depicts the difficult situation between Inukai and her coworker with a certain sense of maturity. Of course, cheating is wrong, but Inukai gives her coworker the space he needs to be defenceless in a way that his perfectionist personality doesn’t usually allow. Even when Inukai finally decides to end things for good, he still responds with words of thanks.

Just because something is immoral doesn’t mean that it isn’t needed, nor that it wasn’t useful. Ever since reading Mii-chan and Miss Yamada, I’ve been thinking a lot about why we value certain relationships while discrediting others. My answer isn’t quite ready yet, but a good bowl of noodles might help to clear my head.

Chapter One Club is a weekly column that aims to spotlight the latest in new series and one-shots from across a wide variety of different demographics and publications.