Hi everyone!

Happy anniversary to us! February 21st marked my fifth year as a fanfiction writer. I posted my first chapter of Circling Fireflies here on AFF five years ago. You’ve heard me tell that story over and over: how I got EIGHT whole subscribers and a couple of kind comments, and that was enough to keep me writing.

But I never dreamed that I'd still be writing Fireflies so many years later or that I'd write so many other fics alongside it: The Water God, Unbound, Arc of Time, JJ's various misadventures, and all the oneshots and ty fun my YunJae couples like to have. ;) I’ve been so lucky to have a loyal group of readers; you all have supported me more than I could ever have hoped. ❤️ Right now, I have almost 10k unique subscribers. That’s an incredible TEN THOUSAND people who have read my little stories about YunJae. I can barely wrap my head around it.

I’ve gotten to know some of you all, too, through messages and chats in the comments section. You’re all such lovely people. I feel privileged to share my stories with you and get to hear your thoughts. Your comments have made writing these fics such a pleasure. 

But the truth is that I've slowed down on my writing and I've feared, right along with many of you, that I might not be able to finish what I started. I don't want that to happen, but I need to be realistic about where I am these days and what I can do. 

We all know that the YunJae fandom has gotten smaller over the years. That makes perfect sense. When there are no new YunJae moments to live on and you've seen all the pictures and videos a million times over, it's hard to keep that spark alive. I understand. I find it hard to stay motivated too. Huge hugs and thanks to my devoted commenters and sponsors. I would honestly have stopped writing this past year if not for you. Your comments really, REALLY keep me hanging in there.

So, smaller fandom, less motivation. What else? Well, writing Fireflies, in particular, got a lot harder for me after all the Yoochun stuff. I get sad writing some chapters now, thinking about how things turned out for him. And I’ve lost hope that I’ll see all five members perform together again someday.

I’ve also checked out of kpop for the most part. I don’t follow the gossip or the new groups like I used to--I barely even keep up with the boys anymore. Jae’s birthday caught me by surprise the other day. I realized I’d missed it and then thought, “Oh no, today’s YunJae Day and I have nothing prepared.” Imagine my panic! XD I scrambled to post apologies everywhere and to rush out the new chapter of Mad Love. I couldn’t believe I forgot! And then my beta reader reminded me that it was Jae’s adopted birthday and that the actual YJ Day wasn’t until February 5^th. I felt so dumb to make that mistake. Me! The unofficial YunJae historian! I would never have made that mistake before.

So, yes. All of these things are factors, but honestly? The main reason is that I work as a writer now. It’s hard to write all day at work and then come home in the evening and…write some more. It was different when I started writing fanfic. I hated my job and traveled a lot, so I escaped into writing all the time. But now that I’m a “real” writer, I don’t need this escape as much.

So what does this mean?

What it doesn’t mean is that I’ll disappear on you. I'll wrap up all my stories, one way or another. But I need to be honest about how much time it takes and how much time I have. Something has to give. SO...no more oneshots, I'm afraid. And I’m not going to write the final part of Messy/Come Clean. I’m sorry. It already kind of has a conclusion, so I don’t feel bad about ending it there. (And I’ll find another way to reward everyone who won the commenting contest.)

So besides that, how many other fics am I dropping?

That's right, drunk nerd Yunho. None! I'm determined to finish them all, I just need to be smart about it and focus on one fic at a time.

I let my sponsors choose the order, and here's what they decided:

• After posting the next chapter of Fireflies, I’m going to work on just A Taste of You until it’s done. We’re not that far from the ending and the chapters are short, so I can wrap that up quickly.
• That leaves just Mad Love and Arc of Time. I promise on our holy OTP that I’ll finish them. They’re both closer to the end than you all realize.
• As for Part 3 of Fireflies… I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do yet, but I won’t leave you hanging, wondering how it ends. I’ll see how things look when I finish Mad Love and figure something out from there.

Anyway, the TL;DR version is that I won't write more oneshots or the Messy conclusion, but I'll finish the other fics one at a time, starting with A Taste of You.

Thank you all for your patience. We can do this!