"I have two years until I need the transplant... maybe less. If, within two years, I can get you to fall in love with me... you have to agree to be the one to operate on me. Deal?"
— Lynn Wiles
Pulse is a Thai language yuri webcomic that was written and illustrated by Ratana Satis, which began on May 3rd, 2016 and concluded on November 4th, 2017. A bonus chapter was also released two weeks after the final chapter was posted.
It's about a heart surgeon (Mel Sievers), who couldn't care less about love and considers sex a mere pastime. But when she meets a bubbly patient (Lynn Wiles) who has a debilitating heart disease, the two strike an unlikely bet. If Lynn can finally get Mel to start a real relationship with her, Mel can become the one to perform surgery on her through providing a new heart. As a result, Mel starts to understand the blissful highs of romance and consider a new future with Lynn, even when her own past resurfaces in the worst way.
Also, there's a character page that needs more love.
Tropes:
- Art Shift: When the comic is from Mel's perspective, every panel contains a great attention to detail. But when Lynn takes the spotlight, people are designed in a more cartoonish aspect, to the point where they're Super-Deformed at times.
- Bait-and-Switch: Chapters 61 to 63 lead us to believe that Mel gets struck by an oncoming vehicle, injuring her to the point where she will become the unintentional heart donor for Lynn. However, it turns out that the heart donor was actually a third-year intern, while Mel still did her duty as the surgeon.
- Billy Needs an Organ: Lynn is currently dealing with a heart disease, where the only solution for her donated heart. The second half of the series revolves around the drama surrounding this trope, since she cannot have the surgery unless a heart becomes available.
- The Cameo: In the final chapter, Donut and Mew appear as bystanders watching Mel's and Lynn's wedding.
- Can't Tie His Tie: A female example. Mel cannot tie her necktie on her wedding day, so Crystal has to help her.
- Chekhov's Gun: The emergency alert remotes that Lynn and Mel use whenever the former's heart acts up unexpectedly. In chapter 65, Lynn presses it right when Mel is about to get on a flight, letting Mel realize that Lynn is finding her. Thus, she leaves her flight and reunites with her love.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: After Mel and Crystal prepare to have a high school fight in the bonus chapter, Mel trips on a rock and accidentally pulls down Crystal's skirt, revealing her penguin-printed panties.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After many trials and tribulations, Mel and Lynn finally tie the knot at the end.
- Fauxshadowing: Chapter 51 has a scene where Mel confesses to Sue that she cares about Lynn to the point where she would gladly become Lynn's heart donor if needed. Chapters 61 to 63 appears to pick up this plot thread after Mel is seemingly caught in a car accident... only for a Bait-and-Switch to reveal that she was rescued by a bystander before the car hit her.
- Foreshadowing:
- In chapter 45, Mel gives Lynn a stuffed bunny with an x-shaped stitch on its chest, joking that it had a heart transplant. She then tells Lynn to put the bunny up to her ear and listen to it after her heart surgery is complete. Nineteen chapters later, it's revealed that Mel intentionally stuffed two wedding rings and a proposal note inside the stuffed bunny and sewed it up. She was planning for the right occasion to indirectly ask Lynn for a marriage!
- The doctor who tells Mel that Lynn couldn't have heart surgery yet in chapter 48 also informs her that Director Sue Whickers told him about this. It's a gigantic hint towards the extent to which Sue would try to sabotage Lynn, so that she can have Mel to herself.
- Chapter 49 has a confrontation between Mel and Sue, where the latter shows the former Lynn's lab results. They serve as proof that Lynn was ineligible for heart surgery compared to the other heart patient. As such, Sue sarcastically remarks that Mel wouldn't accuse her of forging these results. Later chapters would show that she actually did.
- Chapter 62 ends with Lynn's heart surgery finally beginning, with Mel seemingly being the ironic donor and one of the doctors welcoming an unseen surgeon. We don't see the surgeon's face, so why would such a person be hidden from the readers if Mel appears to be at death's door? Because it's a fake-out: the surgeon was actually Mel and the donor was a third-year intern.
- Hope Spot: Chapter 46 has a doctor present Mel and Lynn with great news; namely, that Lynn has been placed at the top of the organ donor waiting list! But cue chapter 48, where that same doctor returns and tells Mel that another patient with a better compatibility rate has received the heart instead of Lynn.
- Mistaken for Gay: The bonus chapter reveals that in high school, Mel and Crystal were assumed to be a gay couple by other female students. When one of them gives Crystal a love letter and says that she's fine with Crystal and Mel being a thing, the two friends don't take that well.
- Oh, Crap!: As soon as Mel sees Sue in the hospital, her face simply contorts into genuine fear.
- One-Word Title: The series is simply called "Pulse".
- Race for Your Love: Lynn does this after finding out that Mel is set to leave town. She makes it and even stops Mel from making her flight.
- Rule of Symbolism: Every time the chapter ends with "To Be Continued", there is only one pulse, indicating that Mel still isn't emotionally secure about her relationship with Lynn. But after the final chapter, where Lynn and Mel get married, the words "The End" is accentuated with two pulses. Now, Mel is not alone and ready to spend the rest of her life with the one she truly loves.
- Shared Universe: The final chapter reveals that Lily Love takes place in the same world as Pulse, since Mew and Donut have cameo appearances.
- Spoiler Cover: Chapter 65 and 66's covers display Mel and Lynn in wedding attire, which confirms that Lynn will stop Mel from departing town and the proposal will be successful.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Mel hands over her phone to the police, claiming that she recorded Tom mockingly confessing his abusive behaviour towards Grace. Unfortunately, this is rejected because the video was made without Tom's approval.Chief: I don't believe that unlawful recordings of a conversation would hold up well as evidence in a court of law.
- Wham Line: There are two of them in chapter 54. After one of her trysts with Sue, Olivia accidentally bumps into a pile of documents, sending them tumbling to the ground. She notices two familiar documents regarding Lynn and picks them up to read it carefully, leading to this exchange:Olivia: Hey... isn't it that kid's lab results? What is this, Sue? The copy doesn't have the same numbers printed on them...
Sue: (Snatches the documents from Olivia's hands) It's nothing. Just leave that alone.
Olivia: ...Don't tell me. You forged the copy? - Wham Shot: Chapter 64 has Lynn tearfully hug the stuffed bunny that Mel gave her, only to hear a ringing sound from inside the bunny. Wanting to find out what's causing the noise, she cuts the stuffed bunny's chest open, revealing two wedding rings and a note with one simple message: "Will you marry me?".
You are the love of my life.
