Texting is a thorny way to communicate when you’re in love. Leave a message unread for too long and your S.O. may think something’s amiss. (Especially when you start typing and then stop, causing the ”...” to pop up, followed by nothing.) Use a totally ambiguous emoji, and your boo might get the wrong impression.
Artist Dingding Hu, who’s based in New York City and hails from China’s Szechuan province, knows this firsthand. In the cute comic below, she illustrates how complicated textual relations ― and face-to-face relations! ― can be.
Yep, it’s possible to experience the dreaded ”...” in real life. (On the plus side, at least he got that “I love you” in before dozing off!)
Hu has been in a relationship with her boyfriend for about five years, and in that time they’ve gotten way better at communicating. Still, sometimes sleep just takes precedent over pillow talk.
“We figured out later that it is way more efficient to have an important communication face to face when we both feel available,” she told HuffPost. “That said, I’m usually the one who falls asleep during a movie or TV show, while my boyfriend tends to fall asleep when I am talking to him in bed.”
Hey, sleep happens.
To see more of Hu’s work, visit her website or check her out on Instagram and Tumblr.
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.