You Look Like You’re Drawing Me

Her phone on the coffee table rang. The ringtone was one of the Inuyasha OSTs, called Dead Soul.

The song featured a lingering, melodious flute; the melody was slightly bizarre, yet enthralling at the same time. The song was played when Kikyo made her appearance. When Kikyo was reincarnated, she was all alone, surrouned by a sky full of Shinidamachuu* that lit up like balls of light as they floated around her, circling her. 

* (Inuyasha reference) Shinidamachuu 死魂虫 = Dead Soul Insects, or Soul Collectors 

Every time Kikyo made such an entrance, Dead Soul would play in the background.

Yuan Yuan Yuan walked into the toilet to wash her face. She brought her phone in and put the call on loudspeaker.

“Yuan Yuan, what are you doing?” On the other end of the call, a vibrant, female voice sounded.

“Mmmh…” Yuan Yuan Yuan’s face was still submerged in water, so she gave a few mumbles in reply.

“Oh, you’re washing your face.” The voice seemed to realise what she was doing. “Yuan Yuan, did you read the Dreamanga recommended titles?”

“…which one? The Extraordinary Year 3 Class 8?” Yuan Yuan Yuan wiped her face and glanced at her phone.

“No, I’m talking about Demons.” The girl replied. ♢ YOU LOOK LIKE YOU’RE DRAWING ME, CHAPTER 07 is hosted at ZHANLANN.COM ♢

Yuan Yuan Yuan hung her towel back and looked up at the ceiling in her toilet.

“Yeah I read it, why.” She picked up a comb and pulled her hair up into a bun as she asked.

“Nah it’s nothing, I just wanted to ask if you can make Lady Ran’s costume?” The girl asked in the call.

“…can do.” Yuan Yuan Yuan returned her comb to the counter after she was done with her hair.

Speaking of Demons, when her friend brought up the topic, Yuan Yuan Yuan appeared calm and collected, but in reality, her heart was trembling away in her chest.

What if her friend asked her soemthing she didn’t know how to answer?

—— Did you see the black jacket guy?

…yea she did.

—— What did she think of him?

…he’s alright, he’s alright.

Dreamanga was the platform where the manga Demons was published on. Dreamanga was available both online and in print. Their printed copies would feature the most popular mangas that were trending. They’d slot in some interviews with the manga artists are the back as well, or the artist’s unposted works to attract readers to purchase and find out for themselves.

Today was the day Dreamanga published their physical copy. Yuan Yuan Yuan usually followed the manga online on her phone, but this morning, she woke up especially early and went downstairs to the magazine stand to buy a physical copy.

She tore open the plastic packaging, found the last section on the manga artist interview and read through each and every one of them. There was Wei Du Ka, Appetiser, Li Xiao Li… the familiar artist names flashed past her eyes, but she didn’t manage to find Ji Qiu’s interview.

She tsked, and threw the manga back on to the table. Thirty bucks down the drain really.

Yuan Yuan Yuan wanted to check out who this Ji Qiu person actually was and where he hailed from. She didn’t expect that the even physical copy did not include the artist’s information. 

A lot of manga artists would share about themselves, and even do a face reveal sometimes. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan had spent the past few days going full out FBI mode to find out more about this manga artist. In the end, the only information she dug up was the name “Ji Qiu”, and a big picture of a cat.

The manga artist’s profile picture was a hand-drawn cat with a souless gaze, and a rather deviant expression. The artist left absolutely no form of contact behind, no Weibo, no QQ, nada.

Yuan Yuan Yuan had been beside herself in anxiety. All sorts of ideas popped up in her head — she’d even wanted to go down to the magazine HQ — but none of them seemed legit or reliable enough…

She’d even thought about if she should completely change her appearance again, for example dye her hair pink or something…

These were solutions that popped out in her desperation; in other words, she was really trying to claw her way out of this situation. But after a heart-trembling week of wait, no one came looking for her. Her life continued as usual; not a single thing’s changed. 

It was only these few days did Yuan Yuan Yuan finally manage to calm herself down. Since the demon slayer didn’t manage to catch up to the black jacket demon in the manga, did that also mean… the artist also didn’t manage to find her?

All other things aside, Yuan Yuan Yuan was still pretty confident in her ability to escape and her glamour magick. If she wanted to pretend to be someone else, she wouldn’t let it slip, she’d never slipped up before. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan threw the manga on to a book rack, returned to her bedroom and thought about the call she had earlier.

The girl in the call was her classmate back when she was still in university. The two of them were from the cosplay club. When Yuan Yuan Yuan had first transformed into a half-demon, she was still thick in the chuunibyou* phase…

*chuunibyou (中二病) is a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers

She’d remained in contact with the girl after all these years; this friend was one of the few she was still in contact with.

The girl was the prettiest girl in their club, and she was amazing at cosplay. As a member of the club, Yuan Yuan Yuan had always been going with the flow rather than actually producing content or cosplaying herself. After so many years, that girl was already married and has a kid; meanwhile Yuan Yuan Yuan was still flying solo. 

Yuan Yuan Yuan fell back on her bed and reached for the small lamp by her bed. The “Lady Ran” that the girl had mentioned was a character from Demons; she was dressed in crimson red, and had a head of raven black hair. 

Erm… to clarify, Lady Ran is the demon lady that just died in the chapter published last week. Lady Ran was a demon spy that infiltrated the demon slayers to obtain classified information.

Of course, given her personal experience, there really might just be a legit “Lady Ran” who’d just died a few days ago.

Yuan Yuan Yuan rubbed her chin. Now that she thought of this, she must admit the artist was quite impressive, how did he get his hands on such detailed, private information?

She didn’t dwell too much on this thought. Instead, she opened Taobao, searched up the Lady Ran’s costumes and realised there were quite a number of entries that came up.

The amazing quality of the art in Demons had attracted quite a decent following of fans. The enthusiasm and fondness of the manga and the characters by online readers often manifested in the form of periphery developments, such as the creation of cosplay costumes, or shirts printed with the character’s signature lines.

Just the number of different types of the same costume being sold on Taobao told her that this character was indeed quite a popular one.

Yuan Yuan Yuan placed her phone down and picked up a roll of red cloth. She felt the quality of the material, it seemed quite fitting for the character, so she placed it at the side so she could cut and sew a Lady Ran costume later and send it over to her friend.

When night came, Yuan Yuan Yuan locked the door, lied down on her bed and switched off the lights.

Perhaps it’d been too happening a day for her, her head was a complete mess. In her lethargic daze, she seemed to have dreamt of many, many things.

“Don’t forget…”

“Even if you die, don’t forget…”