After I've died a thousand times, my new 'boss' and I calmed down and tried to settle things.

"So, Mr...?"
"Jaeger."
"Mr. Jaeger, what seems to be the problem here?"
"Well, I-"
"You've signed up for a job in a difficult economy, and you're complaining?"
"No, it's not that! It's just that I wanted to sign up for the Eng-"
"Like I said, you're complaining because you didn't attain your so-called 'dream job', like millions of other people may I add, and now you're complaining."

I am so sick of this guy already.

I sigh in defeat. He does have a point, am I just being too naive about life? Even if so, he doesn't have to be so harsh about it, jeez.
I sighed deeply and give in to him.

"I don't know anything about manga.", I changed the subject.
"Well, that's what I'm here for.", he stood up and walked to the door, "Come on, we don't have all damn day.", he rushed me.
I quickly shot up and followed him. When walking out the door, we turned right to continue down the hallway which I thought would be the end of me due to a certain loli.

We walked into a large room, and I mean it was humongous. The room was filled with personal desks, files, cabinets, scanners, inking & coloured supplies, some certain drawing-station thingies, and other things which were normal for a work-space.

"Raviiiioooliiiii~!", my ears were pierced by a squeal.
"Oh merde..", was Levi's reply. Suddenly, Levi was tackled by some brown-haired woman. "Let me go, shitty glasses!", he scowled.

Suddenly, the mad-woman turned her attention and brought her face as close as possible to mine, her glasses and large brown eyes sparkling with awe. "Oooh~ and who is this lovely little specimen?!", she goggled.
"He's the new story-line assistant. He'll help us decide our story-line and assist in drawing climatic scenes or whatever is needed.", Levi explained.
"Whoa, excuse me, draw?", I exclaimed.
"No, Mr. Jaeger, you're in a manga department to read; Of course you have to fucking draw!"

My heart sunk.
I was decent at drawing, but I know I couldn't draw consistently for a long time, and in many different ways.

Levi then gestured for me to walk over to a station of some sort (that desk thingie I was explaining about). It was a flat surface with a high voltage desk lamp. On the surface lay a sample of a blank manga panel. Levi picked up a pencil and quickly filled up all 5 panels with a sketched scene.
Levi moved his hand swiftly, it was almost majestic-like. I hadn't noticed I was staring at him until he snapped in my face.
"Are you paying attention, Jaeger? I'm not doing this for my own health."

I quickly snapped back into my senses and averted my eyes to the newly sketched panel.
"This company's manga department specializes in Shoujo & Romance.", Levi explained.
"What, and what?!", I couldn't believe what I was hearing; Not only am I not pursuing my sole reason for joining this company in the first place, but I'm also stuck spending my life drawing out and planning out girly love stuff?
"Honestly, Jaeger, I'm quite certain you're too young for a hearing aid."
I replied with an exasperated sigh.
"Now, Jaeger, I want you to show me how much you could do in 2 minutes. You may draw any scene, as long as it applies to the shoujo/romance genre."
"What, why?!"
"I'm preparing you for the reality of this job; Time and pressure are the two main aspects.", he explained.

I picked the pencil up and quickly thought of a cliche scene; In the 5 panels, I drew a scene where a girl and boy finally confess their feelings, and kiss.

Levi sighed.
"Well, hey, I didn't sign up for this in the first place!", I defended, before he was able to lash insults out at me.
"It could be worse,", he responded. "Quite honestly, it's not truly bad; it's mostly your strokes, they make the picture feel unnatural and too forced; here." Levi reached for my hand.
I'm left-handed, and Levi was to the right of me, so Levi ended up reaching his arm around my back and over to my hand. He tightly grasped my hand, fixing it's angle and position on the pencil. He leaned into the side of my face closely, and I could slightly feel the warmth of his breath.
Embarrassed, I had a hard time paying attention to what he was explaining to me; I wanted to get out of this position as soon as possible.

"When you do the stroke for the face, do it lightly. Also, no lines are completely straight on a person, curve them just slightly so the curve isn't noticeable, it gives the picture form and feel.", Levi moved my hand as he explained.
"And what is up with this kiss scene? The angle is completely off; Have you never kissed anyone or something?", Levi moved his gaze from the panel to my face. Not helping how close he already was to me, our eyes were completely affixed on one another.
I felt my face get hot and quickly averted my eyes elsewhere in the room.

"Ha", Levi chuckled. "That's pretty pathetic, no offense."

I'm going to kill this bastard.

"I didn't say I haven't!", I defended.
"Well, you also didn't say you have.", he retorted.

"Oohh~ this would be perfect for my next Shounen-Ai publication!", the mad-woman suddenly interrupted.
I was baffled, "Y-your what?!"
The woman looked at me puzzled, "Shounen-Ai, you do know what that is, right?"
"Hanji, please, keep me out of your fantasies, I'm your boss for goodness sake.", Levi said as he released me and straightened himself and raked a hand through his hair.
"Well, the boss does subjugate his subordinates, if you know what I mean.", The woman identified as 'Hanji' nudged and winked at me.
I gulped and pulled my collar uncomfortably, "Well, what does any of this have to do with Shoujo manga?", I asked.
"DokiDaisuke Publishings consists of Shoujo and romance in general", Levi explained, "that includes: Harem, School-love, Shounen-ai, and Shoujo-ai."
"It sucks that they won't allow us the rights to publish the good stuff, like Yaoi", Hanji whined, dramatically wiping a fake tear from her face.

This time Levi was the one to give a sigh, rather than me. "Shut it, you useless Fujoshi."
"Now, now, Levi Ravioli, who got top sales on that BL manga 6 months ago? They're trying to obtain an anime adaptation, you know; So you've gotta give me some credit for being useful.", Hanji retorted, smiling and pointing her index finger up at Levi, who scowled and slapped it away.

"Anyways, brat, you have all of these books for reference", Levi pointed to and enormous corner of bookshelves. "Analyze them and attempt to recreate and reform some of them as practice.", Levi ordered and pointed to a desk, "That'll be your personal desk, you're here 'til 8; Have fun. We'll begin critical work tomorrow. So do not waste this time. There will not be mercy.", Levi explained as he walked out of the room and back into the hall.

What have I gotten myself into?