If You Think Playing Hard To Get Is Overrated, This Comic Is For You

Ah, the so-called “thrill of the chase .” You know, the whole cat-and-mouse game that singles supposedly love so much ?

The whole back-and-forth — are they or aren’t they into me? — can feel exhilarating at first . But who really has the time or energy to play hard to get? Not illustrator Dami Lee , for one.  

“I think everyone enjoys the feeling of being pursued, but I don’t think I’ve ever held back on purpose to bait someone,” she told HuffPost. “I’m not that smart or calculating and I don’t have time for shenanigans! Just be nice to me.”

Lee captured the absurdity of “the chase” in the illustration below, which was inspired by an episode of the Japanese reality show “Terrace House ” that she watches with her boyfriend Matthew. 

“There was a scene where a girl had just been turned down by the guy she was aggressively pursuing for a while, and her friend told her that ‘guys like the chase,’” Lee said. “A lot of things on that show are kind of questionable at times and that advice felt pretty outdated to me.”

Lee said she did kind of play hard to get after meeting Matthew on Tinder three years ago — but not on purpose. 

“At the end of our first date, I told him, ‘This might sound like a lie, but I’m leaving the country for about three weeks,’” she said. “I actually did have a couple trips planned before I started a new job, and thankfully he understood I wasn’t actually trying to flee the country in an elaborate plan to ghost him . So it wasn’t an intentional chase. And once I got back, we started dating right away.”

If you want to see more of Lee’s work, follow her on Tumblr or Instagram . You can also check out her book Be Everything At Once!

Love Illustrated  is a HuffPost comic series that captures the realities of modern love. HuffPost has partnered with Tumblr’s Creatrs,  a collective of their most talented artists, to create this original illustrated series. Verizon Media, HuffPost’s parent company, also owns Tumblr.