Chapter 4 #2
Grace pulled out her phone to keep track of time and saw the red notification for unread emails. Maybe it was a little obsessive, but she hated having unresolved alerts on her phone. So she clicked into her email app to read or delete, figuring it was mostly spam.
One of the emails was a reminder of the interview for the summer intensive program. She clicked the read-later button. The one right below was from this morning: Hello Cho Sun, New episode successfully uploaded!
She clicked into it. She could probably recite these automatic emails by heart at this point. She should just delete it and get back to studying. But her finger hovered over the link to the episode.
When she’d uploaded her first comic a few months ago, she’d been convinced no one would read it. It had worried her so much, she’d logged in to delete the episode that afternoon in shame. And had been shocked to see almost a hundred likes.
And it had only grown since then. Now Grace had the opposite problem.
Somehow, over winter break, the comic had gone viral. Jumping from a few hundred reads to tens of thousands. The series now had over a million views—something that still made Grace’s head spin.
Sun God was originally supposed to be a way for her to purge the fanciful worlds and characters that she used to share with her halmeoni. But the more popular it became, the more she fixated on it.
She worried she was obsessing too much, because here she was, yet again going to check the comments when she knew she shouldn’t.
She clicked on the link and promised herself she’d just peek to see what readers thought and then study for her quiz.
The webtoon app took a few seconds to reroute to the actual episode, and when it did, she skimmed the art for any issues.
Grace reached the end, and her eyes widened as she almost pressed her nose into the screen.
Was this a trick of the light or did that number really say five thousand likes already? In less than three hours? That was the most she’d ever gotten in the first day of a posting. Could that be right?
Grace scrolled down to the comments.
OMG, I wanted them to get home so bad!
What is happening to my bebe! Don’t tell me that Haemosu is in trouble!
How can you do this to us? I can’t wait until the next episode!
Grace didn’t realize her face had broken out into a gleeful smile until she caught her reflection in the screen.
She looked like a human personification of the cheesy smile emoji. But she didn’t care. They liked it. She’d been worried for no reason. Just to make sure, she scrolled through the comments again. Yup, they all definitely liked it. Loved it, even.
“Why do you need so many colors?” a voice asked.
Grace instinctively swiped out of the app, her elbow accidentally knocking half her highlighters off the table. She bent to pick them up as a burst of embarrassment spread through her, like she’d just been caught looking at porn instead of a webtoon.
“What do you mean?” she asked, focusing on putting the highlighters back in order.
“What do you use all those pens for?”
Grace bristled at that. Griffin’s “Asian nerd” comment was still fresh in her mind. “Yeah, I know, I’m a total nerd. But I guess that’s the type of person that comes into the library during lunch.”
“I’m here during lunch. And I’m not a ‘nerd’ like you.”
Is he mocking me?
When the boy still didn’t move away, Grace turned to address him directly. “Do you need h—”
She froze. It was the boy from this morning.
“It’s you again,” he said, eyes narrowing as he recognized her too. “What does this mean?”
“Huh?”
All the reassurances she’d given herself earlier evaporated. He really did look just like Haemosu.
Grace tried to study him without looking like she was studying him.
He was tall, with the classic long legs of a manga hero.
His eyes tilted slightly at the edges, just like Haemosu’s.
His lips were full, his face the same angular shape.
And even his hair style looked exactly the same, right down to the subtle cowlick at the part in his hair.
Even if he didn’t look just like her webtoon character, Grace would have stared. This boy was uncomplicatedly beautiful. Someone who belonged on a TV screen or in the glossy pages of a magazine (or a webtoon), not in her school’s worn-down library.
He lifted a perfect, impatient brow. “Are you done staring?”
“Oh, sorry.” Grace lowered her eyes, a blush heating her face.
He shrugged. “I’m used to it. Or…I was once.”
What the what? Grace didn’t think she’d ever met someone so cocky before in her life. And her best friend was literally wearing a T-shirt of their own face today.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Um, no,” Grace said slowly. I know who you look a hell of a lot like.
Was this his roundabout way of confronting her about the webtoon? He didn’t look like the kind of guy who read comics. Maybe he had no idea he looked exactly the same as her main character. She tried to offer a friendly smile. “You said you’re new, right? Do you need help finding your next class?”
She started toward the checkout desk, where she knew Mrs. Jepson kept printouts of the Winter Lake High campus map. But his hand came down on her shoulder, stopping her.
“Can’t you help me?” At this angle, with the sun shining through the tall library windows, his eyes looked golden.
“M-me?” she stuttered. “Why?”
He leaned down so their faces lined up. The way he moved was smooth and controlled. Maybe he was an athlete? He didn’t seem to mind that their noses were almost touching. But to Grace it was intensely disconcerting to have someone so beautiful standing so close to her.
“Don’t you feel this pull?” Slowly he lifted a hand, his fingers hovering so close to her cheek that she could feel the slightest bit of body heat. But he never actually touched her.
Grace sucked in a sharp breath. His gaze was drawn to her shaking shoulders. That broke whatever spell he’d had her under, and some deeply buried survival instinct took over. Or maybe she’d been friends with Zoe too long. Because her reaction was to aim her knee at his groin.
If he hadn’t been quick enough to sidestep, he’d have been down for the count. Instead, her knee came into contact with his thigh.
He staggered back, gripping his leg. “What was that for?”
“Sorry, but you need to respect a girl’s personal space,” Grace blurted as she shoved her things into her bag. A couple of pens clattered to the ground, but Grace abandoned them in her hurry. Before the boy could recover and come after her, she zoomed toward the exit.
“Wait!” he called after her, but Grace didn’t even look back as she raced out of the library.