The Artist’s Burden

Pairing: ChanKai/ SeKai

Summary:Popular mangaka collaborators, Seoh and KJ have never met in person despite making a hit manga/webtoon series together for more than a year. Their shared editor/manager Chanyeol plans to change that...

Notes: I participated in a fic exchange and this is what I came up with. It's not the best work, but it is my last EXO work. Castaway the Heart is near and dear to me, so that will be completed someday.

Never Gonna Happen!

Presented by: Namu-Sae Publishing
Written/drawn by: Seoh
Colored/inked by: KJ

Jongin sighed loudly, putting all his pent up frustration in the irritated noise. As soon as he took a seat, he slumped over the booth table and buried his head in his folded arms. From where he was seated across him, Chanyeol raised a brow, but didn’t say anything as he took off his jacket and made himself comfortable in his seat.

“I know that sound. Is this the beginning of another ‘lazy co-worker’ rant?” An amused barista by the name of Baekhyun asked, sleek black apron tied around his waist, a long sleeved cotton tee pushed up to his elbows and a tray of Jongin and Chanyeol’s usual order balanced on one hand.

Jongin only grunted, shuffling minutely to further hide in the comfort of his arms. He was wearing one of his favorite sweat-shirts, something extra large and lined with a soft white fleece that he probably wouldn’t mind making into a blanket right in this coffee shop.

“You know us so well,” Chanyeol answered with a soft grin on his face. Since Jongin wasn’t going to surface any time soon, he took the ice cold green tea and iced caramel tooth ache Jongin liked to drink in the middle of winter. It was a little hard to get used to Jongin’s habit of drinking nothing but cold drinks in the winter and hot drinks in the summer, but eventually Chanyeol grew used to it and he occasionally had something out of season with Jongin. However, their snacks matched the season of baking and consisted of buttery croissants and an off menu chocolate dipping sauce the owner of the coffee shop, Jin, liked to make just for Jongin.

Once he was done delivering their order, Baekhyun huffed and slipped into the booth next to Jongin. “If I didn’t know you two, our best customers, then I obviously would be failing at my job as coffee maker and social butterfly.” Jongin felt the slight dip in the space next to him, but he didn’t bother moving.

Instead, he let Baekhyun maneuver him until he was slumped at his side and resting his chin on the petite barista’s shoulder. A hand was soothingly rubbing up and down his back and occasionally patting him. He felt a little like an overgrown dog, but Jongin decided to let his pride slide in favor of accepting the physical comfort.

As usual, Baekhyun and Chanyeol fell into a light chatter while Jongin dozed and allowed himself to relax a bit. He had been up for a full twenty-four hours and his body was insanely tired, but his mind wouldn’t let him fall asleep. Usually if he had to stay up, he would play some hype music his old roommate used to listen to when clubbing. Work had kept him up and he was ready to snap from all the stress. This week hadn’t been as bad as previous ones before, but Jongin had been sent the sketch drafts from the mangaka he was working with a mere 48 hours before the deadline, and he was just about ready to scream in overworked frustration.

Never Gonna Happen! Was a popular manga that told the story of a regular college guy who suddenly finds himself engaged to a demon prince. Jongin was the proud inker of this popular series. The mangaka would sketch/draw in the panels and the characters with pencil and paper while the scripts and storylines were sent to Jongin via his manager Chanyeol. The final lines were inked over by Jongin, and the background was edited and drawn in almost completely by him as well.

But since their first volume had gotten so popular, the manga company decided that their series needed to be made into a webtoon. Usually, this would not bother Jongin at all, but the sketches for the next chapter of the manga had been sent to him two days ago and the sketches were so light and messy that Jongin couldn’t scan them at all. This meant that he had to ink over the mangaka’s sketches, scan them, then re-sketch them on his computer and add in color, text, and any clothing textures the mangaka demanded be added via sticky note on his messy sketches. Just to spite him, sometimes Jongin ignored the sticky notes attached to the sketches sent to him and instead did whatever his sleep deprived brain told him to do.

And as if that wasn’t the only set of challenges handed to him, Jongin’s mangaka partner was apparently a horrible habitual procrastinator. Every sketch sent to him since the manga had reached the third volume had been sent in two days before the deadline. After the recent deadline rush, Never Gonna Happen! has begun volume five. and considering each complete manga volume contained six chapters and sometimes bonus sketches he had to color over, he was tired and overworked.

This of course, bothered Jongin immensely since he was a person who liked getting things done early so that he wouldn’t have to worry about them later, but his mangaka partner…he was starting to wear Jongin thin and they hadn’t even met yet!

“—barely made deadline this time. I think I need to have a talk with Mr. Seoh.” Chanyeol finished saying, mouth drawn in a troubled little frown when Jongin managed to open his eyes, feeling like he had taken a nap without having actually fallen asleep.

Baekhyun hummed in agreement. “You should have had a talk with him sooner. From what I hear, this guy is a selfish partner.”

Immediately, Jongin made an indignant noise of agreement. “Exactly! Because of Mr. Seoh, my nap schedule has eroded my sleep schedule and I get stuck unable to sleep at all at three o’clock in the morning! And his sketches! They’re so messy  I have to clean them up, but its so hard when I can barely see the pencil or there are fifty different erase marks and I can’t even tell the difference between his mistakes and his final pencil lines! Ugh, if I ever see him—”

”Aww Nini, seeing you so fired up over this makes me feel bad, but at the same time it’s so cute I wanna squish you in a hug and never let go,” Baekhyun interrupted with a slight coo in his voice, eyes practically full of stars as he watched Jongin pout. He was trying to be scary, but he couldn’t pull off anything close to the word when his eyes were droopy with sleep and he had an unruly little lock of hair sticking up at the crown of his head.

“I second that,” Chanyeol added, chuckling to himself when Jongin looked at him with a betrayed expression. Try as he might, Jongin was a human puppy and there was nothing he could do to change that.

Pouting now, Jongin muttered more complaints about Seoh, the mangaka behind the series he was practically dragging himself through hell to complete every deadline.

Sensing his fatigue and irritation, Chanyeol softened and broke Jongin’s still warm croissant into bite sized pieces, taking one and dipping it into Jin’s heavenly chocolate sauce before feeding Jongin from across the table. Without thinking about it, Jongin let his manager feed him, so used to it at this point that he didn’t even notice the stares on them anymore.

“…Well, I think my break was over like ten minutes ago, so I’ll see you guys on the next deadline survival celebration.” Baekhyun said suddenly, running his hand through Jongin’s hair and ruffling it as a familiar goodbye. Jongin was also used to this, so he didn’t bother trying to muster the energy to slap Baekhyun’s hands away from his already messy brown locks.

“Later Byun,” Chanyeol answered, getting waved off by Baekhyun. The coffee shop was always a little slower on late weekday afternoons, but after a deadline rush, Jongin usually slept until noon the next day and was only able to get up when Chanyeol promised to treat him at Jin’s place.

“Chan,” Jongin called, expression intensely serious even as he played a bit with his croissant and stuffed some in his mouth like he was chomping on a big bite.

“Yes?” Chanyeol replied, watching Jongin chew and then move on to sip some of his overly sweet caramel drink. The cold was seeping through the thin plastic cup and it made the tips of Jongin’s fingertips pink, but he shuffled his oversized fleece sleeves down and used his sweater paws to hold his drink. It was insanely cute, especially when Jongin took his time answering, sweet brown eyes slowly blinking behind his thin golden wire frame glasses.

“…I don’t think I have enough energy to make the walk home,” Jongin finally admitted, cheeks turning a light coral pink and matching his sheepish expression.

Chanyeol couldn’t hold back his laugh, even if Jongin had been the one to insist that they walk to the coffee café in the first place.

“Don’t worry, I can call a cab, just don’t make me carry you home.”

Grinning and laughing a little, Jongin immediately agreed.

Chanyeol is definitely not his favorite person. Sehun thought with a huff, crossing his arms and wondering how he was going to shortcut his usual scolding lecture about deadlines and working faster and harder in the next drawing rush. It wasn’t his fault his company gave him three month quarters for his new chapters, that wasn’t enough time to recharge his creative mind! If Never Gonna Happen! was to keep its steamy appeal, Sehun needed time to party and mingle with the lonely hotties of the world.
It was all honestly in the name of literature!

"-can't keep doing this, it's completely irresponsible. Furthermore, I think-"

Although, admittedly his last fling lasted the entire writing quarter and took up most of his time, but he still managed to remember his deadline and he still made his submission on time this week, so what if his work looked like he sketched it half asleep after a hard night out drinking?

It would make complete sense, he was tipsy and he was tired when he sketched the latest chapter before he folded them lazily in a letter envelope and handed them over to Chanyeol the next time he remembered to show up to one of his publishing company’s meetings. Wait…now that he thought about it, he’d actually never been to one of the meetings. But slipping his work onto Chanyeol’s desk personally had to count for something.

“-you’re not even listening, are you?” Chanyeol asked, ending his stern rant. He looked a little frustrated, his jaw was pulled tight and he was probably grinding his teeth a little. His perfectly tailored suit was even rumpled a little and his usually crisp blue undershirt was ed, tie somehow not around today. It was a little distracting.

Sehun would have to use this for material in his newest chapter. Maybe the demon shows up at Jimin’s workplace, gets mistaken for a model, and then is forced to wear something a little like Chanyeol’s getup right now. ‘Oooh, gotta remember that one,’ Sehun hummed to himself, a salacious grin making its way onto his face as he spun in his comfy office chair and took out a puppy notepad and began his daily addiction of writing prompts on sticky notes.

“Oh Sehun,” Chanyeol called out, looking unamused when Sehun held up a finger just to take another thirty seconds to finish up writing his note out.

“Okay, you were saying something?” Sehun prompted once he was done, slumping in his chair and spinning back around to face Chanyeol. The flat screen behind his manager showed him his reflection and Sehun frowned when he noticed that he’d have to get his roots done soon. That’d take all day in a salon, oh the things he did to achieve the perfect platinum blonde.

Oh wait, Chanyeol was blocking his view again.

“You’re so difficult,” Chanyeol sighed. He took off his black metal framed glasses and shoved them in his suit pocket. His eyebrows were furrowed and the corners of his mouth were turned down at the ends.

“Yes I am, its such and achievement isn’t it?” Sehun quipped with a cheeky grin on his lips. He was constantly scolded growing up because he was a bit of a rowdy child. It came to no surprise to anyone that he smoothly transitioned from a problem child to a problematic adult. At this point it was a lifestyle and Sehun liked stressing Chanyeol out a little. The man was his manager at the publishing firm but he acted like an uptight lawyer.

He needed a little ruffle of the feathers now and then, just to keep him young of course.

“An achievement is reached or given when someone does exceptionally well at keeping their goals. Being a pain in the isn’t an achievement.” Chanyeol stated. Sehun was about to open his mouth and reply, but his manager cut him off with a sharp glance.

“Anyway, since you were not paying any attention to me at all, I’d like to summarize my very well made points by saying that you need to sketch the panels for the next chapter much more neatly. You also need to get your work in at least two weeks before the deadline, or the company will shorten your timeline and only give you a month to get the next chapter out.”

At that Sehun coughed in surprise, “No way! No one can get a chapter of Never Gonna Happen! out in a month! Is everyone in the company insane?”

Chanyeol shook his head, exasperation and disappointment dripping from his voice. “If you bothered showing up to any of the meetings we had, which are mandatory by the way, then you’d know that the company owners want us to streamline and speed up all our stories. We’re only in high demand because we were able to transition from paper to webtoon, but there are other sites offering the same services as us and they have faster updates.”

“B-but Never Gonna Happen is the hottest webtoon and manhwa of the year, two years in a row!” Sehun sputtered, growing a little close to worried now. His story was at the very top, everyone was reading it from school girls to ahjummas, it was better than a K-drama and he was the reason it was so great. The company couldn’t shake him down like this!

“Yes, that’s a true achievement, but the company queen is demanding that we get higher views and more coin.” Chanyeol sighed, crossing his arms and sitting on the spine of the sofa behind him. Sehun’s home was a modern open plan and his office was basically a desk area behind his couch. A huge bay window with seating was right next to the desk and it was Sehun’s favorite place to nap and read. That warm spot by the window was probably the reason he got side tracked so easily.

“Coin?” Sehun asked, wondering when their company got so money oriented. In fact, when did the his company’