Criminal Instincts : Seoul Nights | BTS ✓

Author's Note

Hey, loves.

Before you guys start reading next chapters, I want to talk about something that's been bothering me a bit since the last chapter. And I want to clear it up before you guys read ahead.

Valentina is an agent on a mission. Which initially was to seduce Seokjin, a way to meet the other members of the gang (see mission 01). After that, it was to slowly find information about the gang, by getting close to them.

Valentina is fake dating Seokjin in this book. Meaning even if his feelings are real or not (which we don't know for sure yet and can only guess), hers aren't real. She's with him only for the show, and he doesn't know about that (which again we don't know either).

Now comes the difficult part. Something quite a lot of people have disregarded while reading. Valentina is also a human. She has feelings (anger, sadness, confusion, guilt, lust, you name it). Getting involved with the guys is definitely going to confuse her at one point or another, which it has as we've seen in the previous chapters. Even if she is there as an agent, it's tiring for her to finish a mission that is getting complicated with time.

The book is written in third person, which means the readers don't know unless I - the author want it to be known. Which means you guys don't know feelings of any of the guys till now. Just Valentina. But even those are not shown fully because that'll ruin the mystery.

So, it makes me immensely sad when I see people judging the characters before even knowing why they are doing something or saying something.

I've tried to make my characters as human as possible. And as humans we do certain things or feel a certain way because we have a reason for it.

Just like [Addiction spoiler ahead] how Eun Hee's character was a bit softer, weaker, and easily dependable on Jimin because of everything that happened in her life. And how Jimin's all over the place emotions were caused by his past too. Which many people didn't realise while reading the book.

Just like that, every single character in criminal instincts is acting the way they are for a reason. And those reasons will be exposed at the right time. So, please read ahead by keeping that in mind, and let the characters have advantage of doubt. We all react to some situations a certain way due to our past or something we've dealt with that made us that way.

Another thing I want to talk about is hoe/slut shaming. That is something I won't tolerate about any of my characters. Not Seojung or Jimin or Valentina. Whatever Seojung and Jimin did is wrong, no doubt about it. But even that was quite different than what Valentina is doing.

Yes, Jimin hooked up with Seojung so Seokjin would break up with her. But we only know his side of the story. We don't know why Seojung hooked up with him, when she could've not done that.

In Valentina's case, Valentina hasn't hooked up with anyone. Both times Taehyung initiated the kiss. Yes, she reacted to it. Once because well it was all too sudden. And second time because she was drunk and Taehyung did it to save her.

That is not what we call a hoe. Or a slut.

(In fact don't call anyone a hoe or a slut under any circumstances.)

Yes, that is cheating in a way. But then again she's technically cheating on all of them. She's working as an agent, isn't she? Just remember the fact that some of her actions are driven by normal human emotions and some are driven by her agent mind. And some are a mix of both.

Valentina isn't a perfect character, nor are the guys. They're going to mess up. Which is only human.

I promise everything will make sense once you've read the next chapters. Just please refrain from hoe/slut shaming my characters, and try to see it from a bird's pov. Which a lot of you are already doing and being really understanding and are reading between the lines, which makes me really happy and awed at the fact that a lot of you have theories that are spot on. Some comments have me shook and I'm like how did they know. Haha.

Thank you so so so much for reading my book and supporting it. It really means the world to me. Please stay safe, happy, healthy, and understanding.

Love, Rose.

P.s. Who's liking those daily updates? ;) I know I am enjoying writing them.