...𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.

The melodic ring of a bell echoes through the air as you enter the shop and a sweet candy-like scent fills up your nose almost immediately. A bunch of buzzing neon signs and fairy lights lit up the ambiance, while subtle lo-fi music can be heard from the counter area.

The cashier greets you with a slight nod of her head and a smile, that is looking more forced than genuine. With a slight nod of your own, you acknowledge and reciprocate her greeting, before heading straight to the back of the shop. In between what seems like a never ending amount shelfs storing sweets and other various snack options, you finally find what you were looking for.

"HEART STOPPER" it wrote out in big funky letters on top of the pop-up.

What had enough space for at least a dozen card packs, now merely showcased a handful leftover pink, shiny packages. It is insane if you think about it, today was only the day of the first launch and this little shop was not even too famous. They surely advertised the hell out of these cards for the past few weeks, but never did you expect to be nearly too late to get your own hands on at least one of them.

What was so special about these cards? You did not really know, but were easily dragged along the hype they quickly gained. Take the idea of "Pokémon" cards - or literally any cards you can collect and play with - and mix it with the concept of the golden ticket from "Charlie's Chocolate Factory". E voilà, there you got "HEART STOPPER". You guess it works like any other card game... there would be some crazy collectors going at each other's throats to get their hands on the "limited edition" cards, while others would trade the hell out of their collection to create the "ultimate deck" with the strongest cards available.

From the advertisements and teasers you had come across, these cards surely owned some of the prettiest artworks you had ever seen, at least for a card game. And you already knew that you too would spend a ridiculous amount of money on them, let alone the "limited edition" cards. You had enough time to figure out how the actual game behind these cards would work later on. So without hesitating any further, you grabbed one of the shiny packages and made your way back to the front of the shop, where the cashier was mindlessly typing away on her phone.

"You know how these work?"

"Absolutely not."

The cashier chuckles a bit at your answer, before handing you what looked like some sort of manual.

"Well, at least they make up a pretty collection. But if you want to actually figure these out, take a peek into this thing as well."

You hand her the necessary amount of money and leave the shop. The sweet bell rings one more time as you rummage through the little plastic bag to get out the manual. For a what you assumed would be another boring little booklet of information, it was looking way too pretty to not further dive into it.

Little did you know what you were getting yourself into...

H E A R T S T O P P E R

"We all know it, the excitement, the adrenaline kicking in when buying something without really knowing what you just got your hands on.. technically having an idea of what could await you, but still no guarantee given that it actually will, just hoping to hit the jackpot.

And as you open the shiny lucky-bag, internally having your fingers crossed, you suddenly see the flash of what could be a holographic shimmer. Your fingers start shaking and get a little cold as you further fumble with the piece of plastic. Your breathing hitches and suddenly there it is in all its glory.. the jackpot you had hoped for. There it lies, your heart stopper."

You chuckle a bit to yourself this time, as you read out loud the overly dramatic intro of the booklet. You definitely know what the creators were trying to get at, but it felt like they were more excited than whoever was actually buying their products.

"With a variety of eye-catching artworks and designs, HEART STOPPER will be guaranteed to not only be an adrenaline increasing game of 'lucky draws', but also provide you with the prettiest collection any card collector could own."

Now that surely is a confident way to tell someone to spend a ridiculous amount of money on some pretty looking pieces of paper. Screw Kpop photocards, "HEART STOPPER" is the real deal now.

"But there is even more to it! Collect your cards and trade them in your local shop for your desired 'limited edition' card."

And just like that they had all of your attention, the competitiveness inside you rising to the maximum. Nearly faster than light you flipped to the next page, which teased a few more card designs.

"Before we continue on, have an exclusive sneak peek at the newest additions to our assortment of HEART STOPPER cards."

Your eyes carefully glide over the variety of designs and you think about the amount of time and effort that must have been put into them.

And to be fair, these sneak peeks only hyped you up even more to find out what was hidden inside your own freshly bought package. Completely in your own little world of excitement and admiration, you flip to the next page...

R U L E S &
R E G U L A T I O N S

And there you finally had the information you needed to figure out how HEART STOPPER supposedly works.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕BOOK REQUIREMENTS
Your book needs to be published already, and contain at least 3 actual chapters (does not include character introductions, author notes, playlists or similar "filler chapters"). Exceptions and alterations can be made for VIP's but are NOT guaranteed.
(!)NEW: One-Shots need to be discussed separately, depending on the amount and length of chapters it consists of.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕CONTENT REQUIREMENTS
I do not do covers for other graphics related books (shops, portfolios etc.) or books that romanticize / glorify / downplay sensitive topics (slavery, discrimination, racism, mental health issues, crimes, sexual content including minors etc.).

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕INSPIRATION LINKS
You are free to link down inspirational images (to further elaborate or explain and idea of yours) but I will never recreate someone else's hard work or use it as a resource within my design.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕USE OF MY WORKS
You are guaranteed 24 hours to claim your delivery after I uploaded it within this shop and request any small alterations / changes if needed. Furthermore you have to use the respective design for at least one coherent month after claiming it.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕SHOP HOPPING
You are not allowed to request for the same cover in multiple shops at the same time. Cancel your request with me / in my shop before going somewhere else and the other way around.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕ACCEPTING ORDERS
I do not necessarily go by the concept of "first come first serve". As long as requirements are being fulfilled and rules are being followed, you can place as many requests as you want and as often as you want (in case a request has not been accepted the first time around, but you got new ideas and want to try again). For each request batch I will choose whatever requests inspire me the most, according to how much time is available to me. I will not necessarily react / respond to each and every request right away, unless they violate the rules (and therefore just can not be accepted at all) or contain any other minor mistakes and need to be corrected. I may discuss a few things with you or ask questions to better understand your ideas, but that does not necessarily mean I have accepted your request.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕WAITING QUEUES
Every request that is being accepted will be mentioned on a public waiting queue in a separate chapter. The order on the waiting queue does not necessarily determine the order of delivery. VIP's may be prioritized when working on requests. I will directly inform the authors as well when their order has been accepted.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕DENYING ORDERS
If your request has not been accepted, it could be due to one or more of the following reasons: rules have been violated, requirements are not fulfilled (yet), I could not find fitting resources, I did not have enough time to accept more requests, an erroneous form was not corrected, the idea did not inspire me enough / was too vague or the idea was too complex and exceeds what I am capable of editing wise. Me denying your request does not mean your book is bad or that you are a disastrous author, please do not take everything personal.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕VIOLATION OF RULES
Violating any of the shops rules or regulations possibly leads to being banned from requesting again and not being allowed to use the respective design anymore (in case I already designed something for you). Of course it depends on the severity of the violation (a minor mistake in the request form does not get you immediately banned, unpublishing chapters** after receiving your delivery and therefore not meeting certain requirements anymore would do, for example.. **lazy excuses such as "correcting plot mistakes" but not giving the slightest sign of activity even after a month will not be considered).

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕ORDER DETAILS
I will provide a specific request form for you to use, please do not modify that form (with loads of extra symbols / emojis or whatsoever), it does not have to look aesthetic, it has to provide me with important information. Within your request please mention a "key", it consists of the following math task: 111 - 17 = x (only mention the answer for "x", not the whole task) and a certain emoji, depending on what type of customer you are (regular customers use the eyeball 👁, regular VIP's use the joker card 🃏 and one-time-VIP's use the bonbon 🍬 — more information about the "customer types" can be found in the following chapters). Alongside that please tag one or more friends (no spam tagging random accounts), whether that be other designers or someone that could be interested in requesting as well.

꒰১ ໒꒱ ₊˚﹕PAYMENT
It is mandatory to: follow me for as long as you are using my works, credit me in the book description and vote on the respective chapter of your delivery. It is optional but very much appreciated to: add my shop to a public reading list of yours, vote on other chapters of this shop and maybe even leave some feedback (on other designs or what you think about the shop's concept and how it works, your experience when requesting etc.). Another optional but very much appreciated payment is to leave a small donation on my ko-fi page, you can find a link beneath my profile bio.

W A R N I N G S

♡⃕ Do not use my works for commercial purposes. The designs provided by me are for personal use on Wattpad only! I will not take on legal responsibility for any violations regarding this, as I made my intentions very clear.

♡⃕ Do not use, safe, repost / redistribute, recreate, copy, alternate or edit my works in any other way without permission. Do not sell, print or use my works in any other way without permission. A violation of this will be considered as plagiarism / a copyright infringement and may lead to legal and / or financial consequences, you have been warned.

♡⃕ If you are inspired by my works or by this shop in general, reach out to me about it first and do not forget to provide proper inspiration credits back to me. Any violation of this will be considered as plagiarism / a copyright infringement and may lead to legal and / or financial consequences, you have been warned.

You furrow your brows, sad at the thought of how strict content creators have to be nowadays, only to try and protect their hard work. After this you finally reach what seems to be the last page of the little booklet.

S P E C I A L T H A N K S

"I would like to thank @torizss and @DanielaNavarro5 for being a major inspiration while conceptualizing, formatting and decorating this shop and its content."

You make a mental note on checking out the works of mentioned artists and creators later on when you get home.

And just as you were about to put the manual back into your bag, you noticed a little extra paper tag that must have slipped out of it earlier...

© eggyeuls, 2023
I retain all rights to my works.