Hanbok || 2Shin (English version)

Endnotes

I start writing this on December 29, 2021 at eight o'clock at night. I have on loop a song called Love Train (I recommend listening to it, it's very nice) which I think is fitting, considering there was a lot of love in Hanbok. I don't know if I'll make these endnotes for future fics, but I most likely will. It's a good way to tell you readers curious details of creating and writing a fic.

I think these notes will be longer than later ones, because, well, Hanbok is one hundred and sixty thousand words long. It surpasses Pride and Prejudice in length, for example.

Who knew that from a five-thousand-word oneshot you could get a whole novel? Ah, the creative processes are wonderful....

(Sorry if I ramble a lot, it's something that happens to me as soon as I open a blank Word document; the words just come out).

My initial inspiration came from a behind the scenes video of the video where ITZY dances Not Shy in hanbok. Ryujin's reaction when Yuna rubbed her nose with hers seemed very genuine to me. In fact, I remember thinking "That's the first time I've ever seen Ryujin seriously panicking". Come on, her voice got high-pitched and fluttery! I thought it was very cute. The idea came to me a day later, and it was simple: a scenario where Ryujin is secretly in love with Yuna. Ryujin confesses in a small talk between Yuna and her, being surprised that Yuna reciprocates her love. That was it.

However, about two weeks after the oneshot was published, I thought of more 2Shin scenarios. A scene where Ryujin and Yuna cuddle up to watch movies, lost in their own little world (sleepover at Yuna's house from chapter 4); a date as normal as possible considering they are idols (chapter 5)... And there I stayed for a while.

The initial conflict was clear: Ryujin and Yuna have to learn to keep their relationship a secret if they don't want to fuck up their careers (premise established in chapter 2). However, I didn't have very detailed what happened next, just a vague idea: Ryujin and Yuna have a fight, spend some time apart, come back, they get discovered, their problem is solved, and that's it. How and when were questions I didn't know how to answer.

So it was until one day in the afternoon when my house was alone apart from me. That day the power went out (how I hate you, Latin America) so I had to go to the living room to read (I don't remember what I was reading anymore, probably a Stephen King book, like The Regulators, Desperation or 11/22/63). I put the Kindle aside and got to thinking. A lot. Really hard. So much that my brain hurt.

I kid you not. I spent an hour or so thinking about Hanbok's narrative thread in detail. That's when I mostly put it together: Ryujin and Yuna fight; they spend some time apart; Yuna reflects on her actions; Ryujin forgives her but they don't get back together; she can't stand such a situation for long so she ends up going back to Yuna; they live happily for a few months; they are discovered by a reporter (Seok-neul wasn't born yet; I only knew that a reporter discovered them, the how being in darkness); they are saved by Nayeon, and Jungkook and Taehyung.

About this last part. The Taekook thing was clear to me (aside from MIDZY, I'm ARMY to the core, so I wanted to bring them into the story in an organic way, and I think I got it), but the Nayeon thing came to me while writing chapter ten.

Here's the first surprise: the story ended there, when it's revealed that neither Ryujin nor Yuna will be kicked out of ITZY. The last scene consisted of the one at the end of chapter "Ryujin and Yuna", where the two of them talk in the Olympic Park.

That first ending I wrote in the first ten days of October. Yes, October. I was satisfied with it... until I read a comment on Ao3. Paraphrasing that comment, it said that the person wished Ryujin and Yuna had a happy ending without tragedy, as there was already plenty of it in reality.

That got me thinking.

It didn't take me long to come up with a new idea. I already had the tools there: Seok-neul. Originally, there was no word on what happened to him after "the first picture". Then I thought: he won't be happy. Ryujin and Yuna were saved and messed up his work. He's furious, how about channeling his anger towards Ryujin and attacking her? Bingo.

I modified the final chap to put in Ryujin's beating scene. Now that I remember, I should put a trigger warning on that chapter for explicit violence (I'm not a fan of this, as it ruins the surprise, but sensitive people should be considered). Back on topic, Seok-neul attacks Ryujin and escapes.

(Did I go too far with Ryujin? Was the beating she took too savage? Honestly, it could have been worse.)

At this point, the story ended after Ryujin recovered, having the same scene in the Olympic Park as the ending, only somewhat modified.

Then I thought.

I thought a lot.

I thought that, for a romance story centered on Ryujin and Yuna, there weren't a lot of Ryujin and Yuna moments. Then I added something else: Ryujin was proposing to Yuna in the kitchen of her house while they were making polvorosas.

As you can guess, it didn't happen like that. In the end I changed it, so now Ryujin was giving a hanbok to Yuna in that dusty scene.

About the polvorosas: I love them, that's why I added them to the story.

As time went by, more ideas came up, which are the ones you have already read. For example, the scene in chapter "Yuna" where Ryujin plays the guitar came to me while watching a video of Ryujin's curiosities.

From a 5k word oneshot it turned into a 65K story, and in the end it ended up having a little more than 150K. A novella through and through.

I couldn't believe I added marriage at the end. I remember thinking, at the beginning of the writing, that a marriage was too much. As the story progressed, as well as Ryujin and Yuna's love, I realized it was doable.

A small apology if you don't find the romantic moments very... romantic. The literary genre of romance and such is not something I ever consume. And I mean never really. My thing is horror,(I love you, Stephen King) and epic fantasy (I love you so much, Tolkien, Sanderson and Jordan. I LOVE YOU). The ITZY fanfics I've read can be counted on the fingers of one hand. What the hell: the fanfics I've read in general are counted on the fingers of both hands.

Well, I'm sure you're all bored to death by this point in the notes (I'm already 1k words in, I really need to be more concise), so I have a few questions for you, who read all of Hanbok. Please take the time to read them:

-What is your favorite scene? You can cheat and choose two or three.

-If it is possible for you to choose, what is your favorite chapter? You can cheat and choose two or three, but no more.

-Your favorite dialogue?

-Your favorite paragraph?

As we don't live only on compliments and nice words, I also need you, if you can, to give me some constructive criticism. Read well, constructive criticism, because the destructive ones don't help anyone. If you don't know what I mean, it's something along the lines of "hey, I didn't like this scene because I feel it doesn't add anything to the development of the story" or "this scene doesn't add anything new".

Don't worry: I can handle those criticisms.

There's little more to say, really. Recommend the fic to whoever you think might like it and such.

Ah, Yeji and Jisu have their own story to tell in Hanbok as well. I left a couple of hints throughout the story that indicated they were up to something. That fic will probably be called Hanbok: parallel story. But don't pay too much attention to me on this, as I don't know if I'll see it through to completion.

I am going to finish a 2Shin oneshot. That one will be released soon.

Now it's the end. Thank you so much for reading my story, for voting for it, and for commenting.

I bid you farewell, dear readers.

Flower.