General afterword

I didn't really expect I was going to write an afterword when I first started this story, but these months that I've written it, you readers have all been such a wonderful, supportive, funny and enthusiastic bunch who's put up with my rants, lame jokes, and weird photos that I felt I ought to thank you for that. Really, I couldn't ask for a better group of readers, and while I might not have been able to talk to all of you, I hope you know that. 

When I got the idea for TKP and put it up, I wasn't expecting it to do well. I knew it wasn't a romance story; it was a old-fashioned mystery that was mainly about SHINee trying to puzzle out who'd killed someone, the only tag it really had going for it was 'EXO', and there are hundreds of thousands of EXO fics on this site, so I didn't expect any sort of success at all. I told myself that I'd be happy enough if I got ten subscribers, and made my peace with it. I was precisely right about that happening. And then, to my complete surprise - I'd woken up and found a sudden spike in subscribers and couldn't figure out was going on -, my friend Korekrypta put it on her recs list when there were only 7 chapters and it could've easily turned out awful, and well, here we are. I can't thank her enough for that. 

This fic grew and went in directions I really didn't expect it to take when I first conceived the idea of it, and I wouldn't have even dreamed anyone would like it enough to want a sequel to it. So thank you to all of you for sticking around with this fic - whether you were here from the start or subscribed to it only this week - and putting up with me, I hope you've enjoyed this as much as I have, and I'm going to nip this thank you section in the bud here because I'm starting to sound like a Miss Universe contestant. But really, I love you guys <3 

Answers to frequent/interesting questions I got

Why is Baekhyun the butler?

If I had a dollar for every time I got this question... Well actually I'd probably only have about five dollars. But I got this question/statement a lot, so to go into my inspirations for the characters:

Baekhyun: I'm not certain about this one - quite frankly ideas just sort of happen to me and then my brain starts running with them and the next thing I know I'm writing a story about 1930s!SHINee solving mysteries - but I sort of liked the idea of doing something different with Baekhyun than how he's normally portrayed in fanfiction, and I was very taken by his MAMA/History eyeliner, and he ended up being a cunning, sort of slimy butler. 

Sehun: I think one thing I really wanted to do with this fic was play around with people's expectations and pre-conceived notions about the characters - and a big part of the story is about our misconceptions of one another - so I turned towards how a lot of the EXO members are typecast in fanfiction. Sehun's often the rich bratty jerk, so I tried to make him into a massive one, only for him to turn out to be innocent all along.

Kai: He's either a playboy jerk in fanfiction, or a lovely dork (although the former is much more common than the latter), so I picked the second because I liked it better but then I decided he would be extremely interesting as the criminal and he ended up being a really complicated character.  

Suho: He's rich and EXO's leader, so rich father Suho it was! 

Kris: I was really worried about Kris being the first victim because I was concerned people might think I was being vindictive, but thankfully that never happened. Since he and Suho were once co-leaders, I decided to make them related. 

D.O.: He can cook, and he's often portrayed as being very cold and silent, so I went with that, but with him being good all along. 

Tao: He and Sehun's friendship convinced me he should be Sehun's friend here. 

Lay: The healing MAMA powers. 

Chanyeol: Literally no clue, this one just happened. I don't even think Chansica is a something anyone ships. It worked out, though.

Luhan: I liked the contrast of this very beautiful individual with a cold, greedy, dead heart, so he ended up being a somewhat sinister businessman. 

Xiumin: He seems like a very meticulous guy. Also, he's usuall