"Ms. Shirogane, thank you for your submission to FanNexus's November 2016 issue, Don't Fear Reaper-kun !
Our team of readers and reviewers have gone through your work, but unfortunately, it failed to make the next issue's featured fanfiction.
But do not fret! We still appreciate the effort you put in on your writing. You can still submit your work next month. There are always second chances! :)
-The FanNexus Team"
Gone through her work? Appreciate her effort?!
Tsumugi went through the trouble of rewatching Reaper-kun five times to get characterization right. She didn't turn in homework for a week, gulping down coffee as she tapped away at her keyboard at night. Four beta testers proofread her fanfiction and her friends, both online and real-life, loved it to pieces.
And they just threw her passion project to the trash? This is bullshit! Tsumugi tore the rejection letter into a hundred pieces and threw the bits on the wall. The electric fan's gusts of wind swept the scraps near her Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Death Note posters and into the floor. She ignored the resulting mess; she'll just clean it the next morning.
Crashing to her bed, Tsumugi glomped her Dio Brando body pillow tightly and showered it with her tears. Confident and charismatic, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's main antagonist was someone she wished she had more positive qualities of. Unlike him, Dio's likeness in her dakimakura provided comfort, allowing her to bury herself in its foam.
"How the hell am I gonna make into FanNexus? Their standards are so strict." Similar thoughts filled Tsumugi's mind. She remembered her friends telling her that light-hearted romantic stories have a higher chance of acceptance. She noticed yaoi pairings appeared frequently in FanNexus' featured fanart. But despite her work featuring these, the editor team somehow didn't think her magnum opus was worth placing it on their current issue.
What did the editor team say in that letter, again? "I can still submit my work next month. There's always second chances!"
After 10 minutes, her tears stopped flowing as her mind pieced together a new plot and which characters to fill it with. Tsumugi opened her music player, immediately tapping Sorairo Days. Good thing the volume was 50%, or she would've woke up her mother with the song's loud opening guitar riffs. Even then, Shoko Nakagawa's uplifting vocals kickstart her creative juices, sweeping across her mind like a flash-flood.
She got up and went to her desk and looked at her Tombow pencil. Back to work. Worn down from sketching cosplay outfits and writing stories, but ever-reliable. As Sorairo Days reached its first chorus, Tsumugi remembered what the song inspires her to do: bring out 150% in everything she does.
"I'll turn that rejection letter to an acceptance letter!"
