Taehyung leaned back in his chair, trying to stretch out his back. He could feel his spine curling in on him a little bit from the long hours he'd spent hunched over his drawing board, but there was no shortcut to the process. First, he hand-drew a rough sketch mockup of the chapter, frame by frame. Then he'd start creating the basic template digitally. Then he'd do several layers of digital rough sketching, usually in a light blue shade. Then he'd start the actual sketch. Once the basic elements were sketched in, he'd have to start working on coloring the layers, adding highlights, shadows, all that.

So, it took a long time.

He'd had an assistant to do some of the coloring for him, but he'd had to fire Jungkook after he'd started trying to exert his own artistic influence ("Why can't the main character's eyes be purple?" "Because they weren't purple in the previous four volumes."). So Taehyung was working by himself again.

He was almost done with base sketches. If he worked all day and through the night, he could probably get to some of the detail work tomorrow and maybe – maybe – start coloring the layers the day after. Given that his deadline was a week away, he should be fine. Although there was this one frame that he just couldn't sketch quite right-

His thoughts were cut off by the ringing of his phone. If he had his way, his phone would be completely silent and lying forgotten somewhere in his room, but he had to keep it on 24/7 in case his agent was trying to contact him. Sometimes, deadlines got moved up (which meant Tae had to get out of bed at three in the morning to get back to work) or an editor had caught an inconsistency in the mockup that needed to be addressed before it affected too much of the story.

According to caller ID, though, this wasn't his agent.

He took the call just the same.

"Hey," Taehyung said, sending a glance down at his work before pushing back from his desk and pacing around the room, stretching out his back some more.

"Hey yourself," came the voice from the other end, and Taehyung smiled as he collapsed on his couch, feeling a little of the tension ease out of his frame. "Am I interrupting your work?" Jimin asked from the other end of the line, and somehow, Taehyung knew he was biting his lip. "I can call back later if-"

"No, it's fine," Taehyung said, turning so he was laying down across the couch lengthwise instead of sitting up. "I needed to take a break anyway. My back is killing me."

"Have you tried a heating pad?" Jimin suggested. "Or maybe you need a chair with better support."

"Yeah, maybe," Taehyung said just to agree with him, but he knew in reality that he would probably do neither.

"Well, I just finished the last serialization you sent me," Jimin spoke up.

Because Taehyung's current work – a historical seinen type – was actually pretty popular, it was being serialized a chapter a week by a big publishing company. When Jimin had heard about Taehyung's success, he'd asked Taehyung where he could find his comic, and Taehyung had started having a copy sent to Jimin each week.

"Yeah?" Taehyung asked, rolling onto his side with his left elbow propped up, holding the phone against his ear. He supposed it would be more comfortable if he just put it on speaker and set it down, but he felt just a little bit closer this way. "What did you think?"

"Okay so the main character's origins were revealed and I did not see that coming!" Jimin exclaimed, and Taehyung huffed out a small laugh. "But it's all sort of starting to make sense, like why he's involved in the first place. And I feel like his best friend really just makes the whole thing work, although I feel bad for him."

"Why's that?" Taehyung asked, flipping onto his stomach instead. He always got a little bit restless when he heard someone else review his work.

"Because, like, this is the character that's always there to support the protagonist. He believes in him and trusts him absolutely, and he would sacrifice anything for him, and yet the main character doesn't do the same for his friend. He doesn't tell him who he really is, and I don't know why, but that makes me sad," Jimin explained, and Taehyung bobbed his head, his hair falling into his eyes. It was getting too long since he didn't leave the house altogether that often.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"It's just, I don't know, the friend doesn't really need any sort of a reason to be there. It's clear that he just wants to preserve their friendship. But who would do the same for him? I don't know," Jimin rambled on, and Taehyung nodded again.

"You're right, I hadn't really thought of that."

"Are you going to kill off the friend?" Jimin asked, and laughter bubbled up in Taehyung's throat as he rolled onto his back, his head ending up off the couch and angling toward the ground.

"I can't spoil anything! But...I wouldn't get too attached to him."

"Taehyung!"

"I'm kidding! ...maybe."

Jimin's gasp on the other end had him laughing even harder, and as his laughter trailed off, the panel from earlier came to mind.

"Oh, hey. I'm having trouble drawing this one scene. Can you come over soon and help me out?"

Every now and then, when Taehyung couldn't quite get the angles or proportions right for one of the fighting scenes, he'd ask Jimin to stop by to pose as a model for the frame, and he'd sketch it from the start again.

"Sure," Jimin responded, and Taehyung heard the ruffle of papers as Jimin checked something on his end. "Um, would tonight be all right? I'm a little tied up for the day."

"Sure," Taehyung responded. "Thanks, Jimin. I appreciate it, really."

"It's no problem," Jimin said with a small chuckle. "If I were a highly successful artist producing a popular comic, you'd do the same for me, right?"

"Right," Taehyung confirmed. "And I'm sorry to bother you, I know you're busy. But one time Jungkook was stopping by so asked him to try posing, but his proportions are all wrong. Not like, him as a person, I mean, but compared to the character."

Taehyung didn't know if Jimin realized it, but the main character's friend was actually based off Jimin. Taehyung didn't know if it had been intentional or not, but many aspects of the character – his personality, his virtues, even his stature – were modeled after Jimin.

Maybe Taehyung had done it so he had an excuse to keep in close touch with Jimin.

And maybe – maybe – Taehyung had been narcissistic enough to model the main character after himself. His other brothers also had anonymous cameos throughout the series, but they had smaller roles. He didn't really know why he'd essentially made Jimin his sidekick in the serialization, but it just seemed to make sense in the story.

That said, he didn't want their characters to be exclusively modeled after them. Like what Jimin had been saying earlier, about thinking that the protagonist's friend would sacrifice everything for someone who wouldn't do the same. Maybe that's how it seemed in the comic, but Taehyung didn't want that to be true in real life. He valued Jimin, truly.

So things weren't exactly the same as they were in the serialization.

Such as the small detail that yes, he'd been planning to kill off the protagonist's friend since the beginning.

But how else was the main character supposed to feel propelled into action in the name of vengeance?

"Speaking of models," Jimin said, and Taehyung blinked, refocusing his thoughts. "Did you see? Hyungwon was on the cover of a magazine just the other day."

Hyungwon, Jimin's longtime friend, had (at least in Taehyung's limited estimation) few definable talents, but he had a nice face, so things had worked out rather well for him. As far as Taehyung knew, the two still kept in contact, although Hyungwon had gotten increasingly busy after becoming marvelously attractive.

"I didn't see that, actually, but I'm not surprised," Taehyung said offhandedly. He didn't know Hyungwon that well despite his friendship with Jimin, and Taehyung was really only pretending to be interested. "Did he grow another fucking foot since the last time I saw him?"

"It's definitely possible," Jimin responded, soft laughter falling out of his mouth. It was a sound that Taehyung liked. "I mean, he's always been tall, but now I just come even with his nose. Every time we have a long conversation, I get a neck ache the next day. I've started just asking him to sit down instead."

Taehyung hummed on the line, letting Jimin know that he was listening, but he really didn't have anything else to say about Hyungwon. "You're still good to stop by tonight, then?"

Jimin gave an affirmative mm hmm. "I'll text you when I leave, okay?"

"Okay. Do you know what you want to eat?"

"Oh, Tae, you don't have to cook anything for me-"

"No, I want to. As a thank you. And you can't stop me anyway, so just let me know when you think of what you want."

"All right," Jimin said, and Taehyung could hear the smile in his words.

Taehyung smiled back, and he wondered if Jimin could sense it. "I'll see you later, then."

The two hung up, and Taehyung remained lying down for a second, reveling in the soft texture of the sofa against his sore muscles. After a minute, though, he forced himself to get up, grabbing his glasses from the coffee table.

According to a recent article on "the mysterious author of the latest hit manhwa" (that was him), the glasses made him look "calculating and sexy, accentuating the sharp plains of his cheekbones and softening bangs that fell into secret-filled eyes."

Taehyung, needless to say, was enjoying his recent rise into popularity.

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published 06/17/20 (mm/dd/yy)