(G)I-DLE: First (18+)

Thank You! ✨

Hey, reader!

Well, there it is. We’ve reached the end for (G) I-DLE: First.

Before anything else, I would want to extend my wholehearted gratitude to all of you who stuck with the series since the very beginning. I never thought that this story would blow up so hard that the initial plans I had for it had to be altered slightly just to make it play out the way it did. If it was not for your support for the series, this book would have been long done and perhaps I won’t be even reaching this kind of enthusiasm when I was writing it. It was something that I just did out of curiosity and eventually it evolved into a weekly hobby because of all of you.

Since we’ve reached the end, I’ll do a little story telling about this book and how it came to be. It may surprise some, but this book was not originally created purposefully for (G) I-DLE as the main protagonists as I have thought more of the plot rather than the group that the series would star. Here’s a little journey of how the story came to be.

Honestly, I began drafting about FIRST when I was reading a ton of K-pop fanfiction novels. I could say that I was not entirely a newbie in Wattpad as I have written a couple of stories before, but during those times I was more on the writer side rather than the reader. It was perhaps because of the boredom brought by the sudden lockdown due to quarantine did I begin to look for past times, and one of those was actually rekindling the writer in me. I was right on the last year of my university when the opportunity presented itself, given by the urge and inspiration that the other stories brought me. It was no secret though that I was initially sceptical of pushing through writing again because I had a feeling that it might interfere with my school works.

However, my mind changed after almost a month of browsing through Wattpad’s stories (particularly smut-based ones deriving from normal K-pop fanfiction) and found out that almost every story that involved the K-pop smut fanfiction genre would often use the smut part as a ‘fan service’ in order to satisfy readers rather than an actual challenge of the reader that would play a huge part in the story. While I’m not entirely against that, I wanted to see if a story that uses the concept ‘smut’ as a primary plot point has a place within the fanfiction world. With this premise, the protagonist would deal with the seriousness and the consequences of sex and use it to build himself and become a better person at the end of the story. At the same time, the lack of (G) I-DLE content during the time of my conceptualization (around late March 2020) ultimately caused me to use them as my characters for the story I envisioned. I’ve never been so glad that I pushed through with that decision because I could clearly see now that it was the right one.

Now, fast forward to a year later, who would have thought that the ambitious idea I generated while having a shower would become a weekly staple for my readers. I still remember having only eight readers when I uploaded my first two chapters for this book and now, at the time of this being uploaded it’s almost a hundred thousand already. It’s insane. At certain times I still could not believe how far my story has gone.

But of course, none of that would even be possible if it was not for you, the reader. Even if you’re just a casual one who’s looking for a story about (G) I-DLE to pass time and probably learn more of the members (I did not intend it to do that but if you did learn to some degree then I’m happy to know that), if you’re just here for the smut parts (hey I won’t judge), or if you’re one of those eight readers from day 1 who stayed with the series through thick and thin right until this day, I appreciate you for lending your time on reading this little story I made.

*The cover was so different back then and if you could still remember this, then you’re an OG reader of this story:

Nevertheless, I’m really grateful to you. I owe the success of this book to all of you who kept on supporting the story through all means whether it be by simply reading the story, to those who are voting for every chapter as soon as it was uploaded, to the ones who are adding it to their reading lists, and to those who would go out of their way to comment and send me their thoughts about my work; every single one of you made this journey a lot more fun that I originally thought it to be. I’m happy that I’m able to inspire some of you to even write your own stories through a simple narrative such as this one. It is really flattering and I don’t think I could give enough words to express how thankful I am to you. But regardless:

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

I’ll also take this opportunity to apologize to some of my readers for the story not ending the way they wanted to. I totally understand that and I think that’s one of the thrills and enjoyments of being to upload live as the story progresses, but if you did not like the ending I’m really sorry for that. There are an infinite number of ways the story could end but the path that the plot took was something that I had planned since the very beginning, right before I even conceived the entire plot for FIRST.

The only suggestion I have for that is for you to read the story again, this time with the knowledge that Y/N and Shuhua would end up together. I’m sure that the story would play out differently now that you have the premise of the final couple. I know that it’s too much to ask but I’m sure your entire perspective of the story would change because it would come to exactly how I experienced writing this narrative and hopefully you would understand the significance of Shuhua being the one ending up with Y/N.

She had to. Shuhua is my ultimate bias after all.

I know some of you do not want the story to end because you have been attached to the characters. Believe me, if there’s someone who definitely does not want the story to end, that person is me. However, I wanted to give it the ending that I originally envisioned when I began writing it to make the entire plot coherent. The way I see things, I’d rather end the story on the point where it should end than continue writing the story aimlessly where the plot could get convoluted. I feel like extending it unnecessarily would hurt the investment of thought I put into the story for a year.

Besides, I think the story has already gone a decent length to the point that it could already be retired with the ending that it deserves. After all, they say that “a thing is not beautiful because it lasts, but because it fades”, I think that perfectly sums up why I decided to end the story here and not push through with it further.

Anyway, if you’re looking for something similar to this story, I’m sure at this point there are a lot of other stories scattered across Wattpad for your enjoyment. However, if you’re looking for something that I, myself, wrote, I suggest that you check my one shot story (and probably more of the future books I’ll release) as it would be the book that I’ll be focusing on after the conclusion of this one. My writing schedule would also be poured down for that book from now on.

I would only ask a simple favour from all of you: please continue to support (G) I-DLE no matter what happens. I do hope that your enthusiasm towards the girls would not only end on the resolution of this story because that is definitely not my intention. Vote for them, watch them on their V-lives, send tons of hearts to their IG posts, leave positive comments; do whatever you can to show support for the six girls that made this story as colourful as it could be because their story in the real world is just beginning. Please continue to support (G) I-DLE even if you’re a Neverland or not. That is all I have to ask of you.

There would still be one update after this one short message of a chapter. Whether what that chapter would be about; if it would be related to the story or not, I’ll leave everything to speculation until it would actually be posted. I’m not really sure when but that chapter would also be the final update for this book and it will finally be retired after that.

Please wait for that one. It is coming really soon.

This has been (G) I-DLE: First, and thank you so much for reading this story!

-Je Avarice (@jeskoholic)