Strings of Memory

Afterword

It felt like some great force was pulling me in.

Into the hot wind that enveloped her.

And as I continued watching her...

...I realize that I fell. Hard.

I just fell in love with her. Really hard.

"A dream?"

I looked at my surroundings.

"Yeah. It must be a dream."

Because if that wasn't a dream, then I would still be seeing you standing there. Staring at the sky, looking so serious and lost at the same time.

"Fuck!" I punched the floor when I realized it.

A dream. A very good dream that will never, ever happen again. No matter how many times I wish for it to happen.

"It's so unfair!" I shouted as tears started falling from my eyes.

I looked up at the bright sky, crying.

"Kaneesha..."

♪···♪

As you can see, I changed a lot in the prologue—including the characters' names. Kaneesha became Luna because I had already used Kaneesha in another story. Elijah became Elliot because "Elijah" is quite popular, especially because of Elijah Montefalco. I didn't want my readers associating my character with someone else.

And if anyone's curious—yes, I was a Jonaxx fan in high school. Haha. But I stopped reading when she started the Costa Leona Series. Actually, I stopped reading Wattpad in general around that time. The spark just wasn't there anymore after I got into manga and manhwa. I only went back in 2023 to read Inksteady's Taming the Waves—because I wanted to hurt myself. Hahaha. I missed crying over angst stories.

As for my original Chapter 1 (which I first published in 2018), it was completely different. It started with Wynther meeting Luna—specifically, the moment in Chapter 5 where she jumps on him. Originally, it was framed as a memory before shifting to the present, where Wynther was... in a bar.

When I reread it, I was flabbergasted. Hindi ako makapaniwala na nilagyan ko ng bar scene ang isang story na about sa isang high school student. God! Kasalanan talaga 'to ng kakabasa ko sa mga general fiction stories dati. Ugh! It's really cringy.

Oh, and in my original Chapter 1, that's when Elliot punched Wynther.

That's all for the changes I made. Most of what I added came from my plot points. Unlike In the Shadow of Regret, I stayed as close to my notes as possible. I only made minor edits to dialogue flow, but I didn't deviate too much from my original plot.

Or... maybe I did? I'll talk more about the other changes in the next section.

The Chapters

Chapter 22 - The Pause Before the Storm

Wynther was originally supposed to confess to Luna in the clubroom, but I changed it because it felt out of character for him. Instead, I made Luna the one who tried to confess but ultimately couldn't. I also focused on Wynther never calling her by name throughout the chapter to emphasize the impact of him finally saying her name at the very end.

For better understanding, here's what I wrote in my plot points:

A scene where E asks W to meet him in the clubroom, saying he has something important to tell him. W goes and waits, but instead, L arrives. Confused, he asks why she's there, and L explains that E told her W had something to tell her. W realizes this was E's doing. He contemplates confessing, maybe even having an internal monologue while looking at L, but ultimately decides to wait until after the festival. Instead, he tells L that he called her because he wants to go home with her. L is taken aback. When W asks if she doesn't want to, she answers that she does. Then W says, "Let's go." A pause. "Luna."