Well, congrats. You have finally reached the end of this story. It's been a long journey but I've managed to write this whole thing in less than a year and I've had many people love and support this story so here's the part where I thank you all, even though most of you probably won't read it, haha.
I started this story back in July of 2018 thinking no one would read it, boy was I wrong. This story got so much attention. I've said it before but honestly, this story was one of my least favorites to write (bottom of my list actually), yet it was the one story that got the most reads and hit 2M reads in less than a year and I'm still baffled as to why it all happened but I'm glad so many people enjoyed it.
To answer a question that I'm probably going to get a lot: No. I will not write a sequel. I really believe that some stories should be left as they are and this one is one of them. This is really the end.
To answer another question: No, I am not Korean. I also do not study Korean culture as a career or anything. I just like doing my research well when I'm writing about a specific culture. Asian cultures have always been an interesting thing to me so I've done some investigation of certain things in the past.
And probably the question I get the most: No, I will never write a story that's not Namjin centric. I consider there are enough fanfics with popular ships out there and I just want to write about my OTP and my preferred side-ships.
Another thing is that there is to be mentioned is that at the very beginning of every one of my books there is an intro. In the intro for this book, I clearly stated that the side ships will not always be what you think they're going to be. So for those of you upset over them, I did tell you and if by now you still do not understand why the pairing ended up how they did, then reread the whole book. With an open mind this time. Some readers are even nice enough to comment on their own perspectives and I find them truly smart observations.
Every character had a huge importance and each one had their own roles. I'm really glad how everything turned out and can say I'm satisfied with the end result. Since this is a section where I can finally speak up though I just wanted to comment about certain aspects of this book.
First off, although so many characteristics and scenes are taken from BTS, I want to remind you that these characters are not the boys. These are fictional characters that I've used to create my own little Bangtan Universe. So to continue I want to mention that there were many topics covered in this book but I want to talk about the characters themselves and what they represented. I'll be going by them individually.
Kim Seokjin
Many of us force upon ourselves a certain role. We think that we need to always do things for other people and we forget about ourselves. Maybe you're the type who listens to other's problems but no one listens to you. Maybe you're always there but no one is there for you. In this story, Jin thinks too much of others, thinks too lowly of himself. At a turning point, he gets mad because he fell too easily for a guy and gave him his heart only for it to be broken (even though it's a misunderstanding). He realizes something, he needs to reach a point where he can be content with who he is before he can be content with another person. And he builds up this confidence (which starts off as just fake confidence till he himself believes it) to get him through every situation. That's Philautia—selflove.
Kim Namjoon
Oh god, Namjoon in this book. I love him. He is so broken, so confused, so unknowing of who he is and how to separate himself from something he is forced to be. I feel that at first Namjoon represents Ludus — Playful Love. He feels those butterflies in his stomach, he does crazy things such as escaping with Jin during their date and honestly he's basically high off of dopamine that he really can't think straight. It's so cute. I've said it on twitter but this Namjoon is inspired by the whole RM/Kim Namjoon identity crisis that the real Namjoon has gone through and I just felt like I sort of understood him while writing this. Namjoon's Ludus is destroyed when Seokjin 'dies'. If you recall, in the beginning, Namjoon was super flirty but after Jin came back his mood changed and he became more serious and honest with his feelings. So he shifted to a Pragma — Enduring Love where he is really committing himself to Jin rather than just talking about it. He moves hell for Jin rather than letting himself be pushed around by the court or his own grandma. I also believe Namjoon's character has a lot to go more into depth on, but honestly I'm getting tired hehe.
Min Yoongi
Yoongi is always my favorite character to write. Yoongi is pretty wise when it comes to others, but he doubts himself a lot when it comes to himself. There are a lot of people like this. Ones who solve others' problems but can't solve their own. And I love the Love that Yoongi represents here. It's Storge — Familiar Love. It's a lot like love through friends, but it's kind of a family love between a parent and child. Yoongi practically raised Jungkook and Namjoon, they're his kinship, his brothers, but he was the closest thing to a father figure that the two of them had despite being pretty young himself. At the same time Yoongi represents those of us who have to pretend to be strong for the sake of others but are actually pretty weak inside.
Jung Hoseok
Hoseok and his humor were KINGS in this book. I loved writing his dynamics because honestly in life you need someone who is positive and can just bring a smile to your face. I don't know if anyone noticed but Hoseok really keeps to himself when it comes to feelings. That's because he has this forced role of being the moodmaker among his friends and when he breaks it's just so relateable. For example when he was told he was supposed to be the positive one and he replies "who on earth gave me that role?!" or when he can't handle the emotions when dealing with Jimin's almost death that he just starts lashing out at everyone. It's really a term of "those who smile are also hurting" sort of thing. Hoseok's love is definitely Philia — Affectionate Love. Because of the love he has over his friends. He's probably the most unbiased because if you look at the group dynamics Jin loves Tae the most but is best friends with Hobi, Tae loves Jimin and Jin, Jimin is close to Tae and Hoseok but Hobi just really loves them all equally which is why the fighting affects him the most but he struggles to speak up about it till he blows up. He's also the only one who didn't have such an obvious problem to deal with, more like he was just there to help everyone out.
Park Jimin
Literally one of the most important characters in this story. Honestly, everything I wanted to touch on in this book was because of Jimin. Jimin is like a lot of us. Or at one point we have created a Jimin. At the beginning of the story, a lot of you were all "poor Jimin" due to the issue with his father, further down the line you all started hating Jimin because of his way of being and his selfishness. Y'all called him names like "attention whore" and even when he survived and Taehyung decided on his own to stay by Jimin's side, y'all still blamed Jimin. When Jimin tried taking his own life you commented "wow that's so selfish" or "Life is hard but get over it". When Jimin finally realized that he has been hurting Tae, you said "wow, he's dumb" or "dang, he just now realized it?" All you did was judge. Let me go ahead and state that when you find people like Jimin, these people don't know that they're actions are wrong. It's how they were taught, or how they learned to survive in the life they were forced to grow up in. With no household affection (which is where we're supposed to first get our doses of love) we search for love somewhere else. Jimin found it with Taehyung, Hoseok and Jin. Seeing them being taken away from him, however, he snaps and does those things because he feels the affectionate bond he as is wavering, so once again he's searching for another source of love. Some comments did say that the vmin relationship is toxic because Jimin needs to learn on his own, but y'all, if it is sooo easy to just fix yourself or love ourselves then we wouldn't need others, but humans are creatures that need other people. An alcoholic can go back to an addiction if the environment they live in isn't pleasant. Who creates that environment? Other people do. I could go on forever talking about Jimin's character but I'd rather just yall go through the whole thing one more time with new eyes. The love he represented was Mania — Obsessive Love.
Kim Taehyung
Philia — Affectionate Love. Taehyung is a special case. Taehyung was the baby of his group. He was doted on and spoiled to the point of where there were a lot of decisions that he couldn't necessarily make on his own. The person who he had the greatest love for was his brother, who was always by his side and never questions Taehyung's clinginess. He depends a lot on his friends throughout the book and doesn't really make decisions on his own. It's a very blind love, much similar to an obsessive one. Taehyung never really helps anyone in the book, he's kind of just there, and we learn in the epilogue that he may be an Aromantic. For those talking about his "crush" let me explain. Aromantic people have LITTLE or no desires for a romantic relationship. They have crushes but they're not called crushes they're called a "squish" and it's a platonic attraction. Now remember, Taehyung kissed Hobi once back when they were young, but he could've been confused because he just now found out what an aromantic was. Also, Aromantcs can be of any sexual orientation so the fact Tae is gay is nothing. But when you see his relationship with Jimin, you can sort of notice he has a squish on Jimin because he rejected being in a romantic relationship with Jimin, but still wanted to be friends. Also you can have multiple squishes so thus the whole Jungkook thing. What I loved about Tae is the very thing many readers criticized him for and it was choosing Jimin over Jungkook. I haven't seen anyone comment on it but in the epilogue, Taehyung says "How could I abandon my friend for someone who I had a simple crush on?" How many of you have ruined friendships or family bonds over a guy/girl that you liked? Most likely you barely even knew the person but set aside those who were by your side for a long time.
Jeon Jungkook
In the book, Jungkook is the most selfless of them all. Jungkook is the youngest in the story, so he sort of represents young love, an innocent love where the person simply doesn't know any better. He literally does not think twice when it comes to helping someone. He immediately helped Jin with the whole kitchen incident, he found a way to help Taehyung overcome his eating disorder and was willing to sacrifice himself by marrying someone he didn't love so that his brother could. I like to think that Jungkook represents Agape — Unconditional Love. Many people are saying Jungkook didn't get the ending he deserves. Didn't he? Who is the person Jungkook loves the most? Isn't it obvious by the way he was willing to throw everything away for that person? It's Namjoon. And he ends up living with Namjoon and Jin, in other words with his family. The people he loves.
Of course, though, there are a lot of things I decided not to comment on because that can be led up to your own perspective, I just wanted to give you my own.
In any case, I hope this book has taught y'all many things and has helped you all in some way. My motto is that I write to heal not entertain, so hearing all of your stories with this book has been a marvelous read.
If you are now wondering what to do with your life. Reread. Books are meant to be reread. Or read one of my other books. Whatever floats your boat haha.
Thank you for the journey and the love towards this story. Sincerly,