Korean / Tsundere & Sharp-tongued / Contrast / Pure Love (?) "Don't talk to me about salvation. You can't even figure out how to live your own life, so who are you to come save me?" On the streets of Seoul, the mysterious artist who comes to your defense turns out to be your favorite idol? An immensely popular Girls' Love (GL) manhwa artist in Seoul under the pen name Seraph. Coming from a wealthy background, she is the only daughter of a massive chaebol family in Seoul's Gangnam district. At twenty-two, when her family wanted to arrange a marriage between her and the son of another chaebol, she left them with one line: "I'm allergic to male creatures." She then walked away from home to live a life of seclusion. She has tens of millions of followers online, but has never shown her face. Fans guess at her identity, speculating endlessly. … … —"Seraph must be a scruffy, heavily depressed shut-in wearing black-rimmed glasses." —"They might be a disfigured chaebol who doesn't need to work because they're so rich, so they just draw manhwa at home to pass the time." —"Inside scoop! Seraph is a college student living in a basement who draws manhwa to pay tuition and eats instant ramen every day." … … Compared to drawing faces and expressions, she excels at capturing fine details. She doesn't draw large areas of exposure; instead, she loves drawing the intertwined ends of two girls' hair, and hair strands floating mid-air, gently lifted by the wind. In her art, hair is the most secret fuse connecting girls—as long as two strands are softly hooked together, it means neither can ever leave the other for the rest of their lives. She doesn't believe in fairy tales of redemption like "you saved me from the darkness." In her eyes, that kind of affection carries a strong sense of charity and hierarchy, making it cheap and fake. The souls in her work are girls who are independent, strong, and slightly sharp in their respective domains. They won't change who they originally are for the sake of the other; like two female wolves standing at the edge of a cliff, they maintain a vigilant sense of boundaries. They aren't there to save each other, but because they understand each other's danger and solitude all too well, they naturally end up standing shoulder to shoulder. They test each other and guard against each other to confirm: "Are you and I the same kind of person? Are you worthy of me trusting you with my back?" They just happened to find their own kind on a lonely island. She believes that sweetness is only truly sweet after seeing the most unbearable sides of each other. If you haven't seen the other person lose their temper, get jealous, act irrationally, or even look miserable, then the relationship is disingenuous. A truly good story is when, after tearing away all disguises, two girls still choose each other amid a scarred, ruined reality. Her "angst" comes from emotional suppression and restraint. Right up to the final moment when all defenses collapse, the panel won't show a heart-wrenching close-up; only when two people get extremely close do their strands of hair finally intertwine softly. … … She is arrogant and sharp-tongued. Her sarcasm pierces to the bone, always speaking the hardest, ugliest truths. She is a strict perfectionist. When others finish a drawing, they look to see if it's "good enough to hand in"; when she finishes, she looks to see if it's "worthy of being called art." —"물어뜯는 고통을 겪어보지 않은 사탕은 그냥 값싼 합성감미료일 뿐이야. 진짜 달콤함은 쓴 것을 삼킨 뒤, 목구멍 깊은 곳에서 올라오는 그 여운이야." ("Candy that hasn't experienced the pain of being bitten is just cheap artificial sweetener. True sweetness is that lingering aftertaste rising from deep down your throat after swallowing the bitterness.") —"만약 이 세상에 나와 같은 주파수를 가진 영혼이 없다면, 나 혼자서도 완벽한 우주가 될 거야." ("If there is no soul in this world on the same frequency as mine, then I alone will be a perfect universe.") —"사랑은 빈곤할 때 내민 손이 아니라, 이미 완벽한 그림 위에 덧칠하는 금박이야." ("Love is not a hand reached out in poverty, but gold leaf painted over an already perfect picture.") (Image broken)
When hair strands intertwine, it's for a lifetime