Yumeko came home from school early today, and was absolutely going to get started on her homework once she finished this one volume.

It wasn't until almost dinnertime that she got through almost the entire series, when she found something strange in one volume of her romance manga.

There were post-it notes stuck on all the pages, written down in what was obviously her oldest brother's handwriting. It said funny things like, "Bring back this character in next issue," "Tone misapplied here, correct for full set release," and "hand proportions off here, correct for full release."

Yumeko texted her oldest brother.

"big bro ur waaaaay too into this romance manga lol. ur not a diehard fan right?"

Considering how defensive he got over "Let's Fall in Love ," the last time she brought the series up anything was possible, really.

It was a lucky day when Yumeko went to the bookstore. She'd found an older magazine that had a section of Sakiko Yumeno's work. She bought it immediately.

Yumeko skimmed through the magazine until she found the work she was so excited for.

All in all, it was pretty confusing. And Yumeko thought that her favorite manga artist must've wasted a lot of ink. Having all those dark background must've worn out more than a few pens, at least for a starting manga artist.

"hey big bro found one of ms. sakiko yumeno's old work. it was too dark and confusing."

She was about to continue that she liked it even though it was confusing, when she got a text almost right away.

"I'm sure she was trying her best!"

Yumeko had to agree.

Once, when Yumeko and her friend were talking during lunch, she'd discovered something weird.

"I saw someone who looked like Mayu," her friend said as she picked up pickled plum from her lunch box. "He was reading through some romance manga and complaining that he forgot to put in some character or something."

"Was that my other big brother?" Yumeko asked. "He does that sometimes! He thinks he's Sakiko Yumeno."

"Wow. Really?" Her friend leaned in. "He doesn't look the type that understands girls."

"I know right?! Isn't it weird?"

Yumeko went to the art store to buy some books on drawing. When she brought them to the register, she saw a girl with two big, polka dotted ribbons in her hair. From the back, she looked very familiar.

Yumeko realized something when she substituted the two ribbons in favor of one white one pinned to the back of the girl's head. She immediately texted her brother.

"big bro i saw someone at the art store that looked just like mamiko!"

She wouldn't know it, but her big brother walked around the store the next couple days to see if he would spot this Mamiko look-alike.

Yumeko went to her brother's room to find the next volume of her manga. She'd accidentally left it there.

She was looking through his old desk when she found a thick envelope. She opened it up and found a manuscript with a note on the front page.

"Make the next one more exciting lol –Maeno."

Yumeko wondered who this Maeno could be, before curiosity got the better of her and she looked through the manuscript.

She found penciled drawings of the first work of Sakiko Yumeno. Without all the darkness surrounding the couple, the background looked very bland.

She laughed and texted her brother after she shoved the paper back into the envelope.

"ur really good at copying big bro! u should be a manga's assistant!"

A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on June 25 2018