ahhhhhhhhh please don't kill me. that ending has been planned for almost as long as the fic has.

but before i get to that i feel like having a lil recap of things from my perspective. [if you're finding this under the blog section or something like that and it randomly popped up and you felt like reading for reasons i'm not sure about, this probly will contain a spoiler or two of the story Learning to Shine, feel free to read it first^^]

it's been a while since i've written a fanfic..over a year at least. i used to write on live journal but i deleted it. stupidest idea ever cuz it'd probably be nice to upload those old fics here for people to read, but they're gone now. so this was a really big start for me. maybe i should have started on a oneshot first lol.even though i started writing the exo fic first, that one was more for my friend, Learning to Shine was my fic for me since i felt there was a lack of myunggyu. so this fic feels more like my frist back rather than exo despite the fact that without the exo fic i wouldn't have thought of this fic idea lool

looking back i wish i worked on myungsoo's character development better, but i am proud of how this has gone. in my head this story is more myungsoo-centric than myunggyu-centric and i like that in a fic. i always get so weirded out in the end of fics when they're like 18 but found the love of their life who theyr'e gonna spend forever with. call my pessimistic, but in my head romance isnt like that. it has a lot more ups and downs. but who you are sticks with you.that's why i did my best to make this more about Myungsoo rather than MyungGyu.

part of me really feels the Myunggyu friendship went too fast, like they just clicked really quickly together, but i blame my impatience for that one lol. but i justify it with there's just some people who you meet that you suddenly feel connected to. i wanted myung to have a little of that, especially since this was his first time really kinda falling for someone. the first time to me should be awkward and the timing weird. just feels more natural that way in my head. [though this is once again talking about the friendship, not the romance. i think im satisfied about how that went]

i like the Myungya? Hosoo? i dont know what to call Myungsoo and Hoya lol. but i like their relationship here and i hope you do, too. i kind of based the way they talk to each other off me and my friend. we're kinda mean, making jokes about each other, but if someone else was mean to me, i know she'd take them down lol. i think everyone should have that kind of person in their life, someone to trust no matter what

and i hope everyone enjoyed the brother-ness between Myungsoo and Jinyoung as much as i did. i like a good family fic so i figured why not throw that in here too. he was a nice way to keep things bouncing around and not have to only focus on the growing relationship between Myungsoo and Sunggyu. plus little kids are cute haha. i kinda think kids are awesome.

the title

i have no clue if people had questions about the title, but i'm explaining my thoughts so i figured why not explain the title as well. This story is a journey about a boy who didn't experience much growing up. he skipped out on his teen years especially, so he didn't go through the middle school first love or anything like that, so each chapter is a first for him to learn from

the ending

i'm sure everyone is shocked by the ending. it did come unexpectedly to most i'm assuming. i think it was the way i ended it that made everyone go 'uhmmmm what just happened?' though some people did see a break up coming from sunggyu in chap 15

but life is unexpected, so why should the story be any different? 

now i can't explain everything like why it ended that way specifically but i can say why the story ended.

It ended because this story wasn't about Myungsoo and Sunggyu. it was just about Myungsoo and his journey from being the shy, awkward boy in the beginning to someone who is strong, confident, and in the spotlight. Hence the title, Learning to Shine. Over time he learned how to stop being shy from the time he spent with his friends, and how to start being someone who could stand up on a stage in front of an audience and capture people's hearts. The moment he walked away from Sunggyu, he stopped being that shy boy, he's stronger now. Now, it's time for him to Shine.