Volume 1 - CH 9

Ninth day of confinement

Translated by SoundDestiny

Edited by Kaepinned

After breakfast.

The standoff with the liquid tablet continues.

I repeatedly divide frames appropriately, erase them, draw a rough sketch that looks like a character, and then erase it.

If I were capable of coming up with masterpieces, I wouldn’t have had my name rejected by editors so many times.

‘──No, wait?　Do I have to draw an interesting story on a commercial level this time? It doesn’t matter if the work is terrible. I’m not getting paid for this. I don’t have to worry about how the editors feel about it, or whether it will get buzz on social networking sites.’

The girl just asked me to draw a manga.

Then there is nothing difficult about it.

It’s not a romantic comedy manga that will sell, as the editor in charge told me to make, but a manga that will please the girl.

It’s a lot easier when you think about it that way.

‘Then again, a manga with her in it would be better, wouldn’t it?’

Looking back, there have been a few events that have happened in my confinement with her that could have been a story.

‘Can we have a four-panel story about everyday life?’

I take up a pen.

At first, I drew a four-panel comic based on the incident where she made me eat her sugar-covered fingers.

It was done easily, in less than 30 minutes.

The resistance I had felt to drawing manga up until then seems to have been a lie.

‘Would people think I’m lazy with this? I should draw a short. In any case, I’ll play with it.’

This time, I am drawing a short manga based on yesterday’s conversation.

When I don’t have to worry about reader reception, I am more willing to experiment with novel panel layouts and character designs and I get more and more into it.

“……”

I didn’t even notice she was by my side.

With two silver trays on the floor.

Only then, I realise that it’s already dinner time.

I think I have skipped lunch.

“Oh, sorry. I’ll eat now.”

I hurriedly put down my pen and replace it with a spoon.

“May I?”

“Oh, yeah, you can read it. I haven’t finished the finer details yet, but please do if you still want to.”

I then hurriedly scrape down my lunch.

“……”

The girl operates the liquid tablet.

She reads the comic as if she is chewing each piece.

I watch  her with a hurried feeling as I am slowly rolling the jelly for my dinner on my tongue.

Eventually, when I finish my two nutritional meals, she looks up from the liquid tab.

“How is it?”

I ask her, looking into her face.

‘What does she think of this first project?’

“Thank you.”

Surprisingly, it is a positive response.

“Umm, why thank you?”

I anticipated the words [interesting] or [boring] or some other critique of the work, so that’s why I tilt my head and ask.

“……”

But she doesn’t answer my question and she begins to put away the silver trays.

I cannot read her entire expression because of the mask.

But the corner of her eyes definitely loosen.

That reaction is enough for me at the moment.