/* After writing such a serious story, I have decided to do something fun. So, please put up with my self-indulgence */

MC: How are you feeling now after completing Sacrifice Thy Heart?

ak: I feel as if I have completed a marathon. I had been writing this story for the past 7 months; 2 months more and I can deliver a baby. *chuckling away*

MC: What had prompted you to write Sacrifice Thy Heart after your long hiatus?

ak: I was motivated to write again after reading the story The Equation of Time by racheose. Her story had explored the feelings and the thoughts of her characters so well that I want to try writing too.

MC: The title Sacrifice Thy Heart gives a sombre feel. Won’t you want your comeback story to be a happy one?

ak: Happy stories are never my forte. The title Sacrifice Thy Heart was inspired by the title of a friend’s story Defy Not Thy Heart and a statement made by a reader in one of my old stories - “It's those kind of feeling whereby even though you can be with the person you really love, but something pull you back so badly that you have to sacrifice your own heart in the process.” I want to write a story like this again.

MC: It seems like you have written many stories before this. Is there any difference when you write this story?

ak: I could not believe that I survive through this story. *brushing my hands across my forehead and laughing away* I had written 5 chaptered-stories and 3 one-shots before this, but the process of writing them was never as intense as this story. I have never fallen in love with my own story character until I wrote Kang Gary of this story.

MC: So is Kang Gary your bias now?

ak: Running Man will never be same without any one of the 7 members but I would have to admit that Gary is my favourite Running Man now. However, when I started off with this story I didn’t have any favourite RM member; otherwise, I won’t have written a SA story with Gary having such a major part.

MC: Did you set off to give Gary such a major role in your story?

ak: Actually no. My original intention was just a SA story with Ji Hyo leaving Jong Kook after he discovered that she could not have children, thereby sacrificing her heart so that he could find someone else to set up his family. I actually got this idea from another fanfic that I read (http://winglin.net/fanfic/chocofudge/chapter_14.shtml) but I would say our styles of writing are very different and many elements of our stories are different.

MC: So what prompted you to give Gary such a major role?

ak: One reason was the readers’ comments. It seemed like he had gained quite an amount of empathy from the readers after he had helped SA reconciled during their first tiff. Another reason is that when I told my good friend that I like Kang Gary character in my story, she told me to write more about him then. *letting out a long sigh* And I innocently did as she said and I sacrificed my heart along his character. *laughing away again*

MC: Given that this story has attracted two major fan bases, were you pressured by them into writing two endings for your story?

ak: *waving both hands fanatically* No, no. I wasn’t pressured by them into writing two endings. As Gary character grew bigger in my story, I had changed my intended ending from sacrificing Ji Hyo’s heart to sacrificing Gary’s heart.

The intended ending was for Ji Hyo to still leave Jong Kook for the same reason but it was Gary who found her in the seaside shed on a rainy night. Gary then convinced her to give herself and Jong Kook another chance and he “delivered her back to Jong Kook” by driving her back to her matrimonial home. When Ji Hyo reached home, she found a drunken Jong Kook and they had a “kiss-and-make-up” ending.

I had written quite a fair bit of this new intended ending, especially the conversations between Gary and Ji Hyo at the shed and in the car ride. That's when I felt that I wanted to do something for the Kang Gary character in my story. So, I decided to write one more ending where this guy gets the girl.

MC: The intended ending seems different from the SA ending that we read. What has happened?

ak: *laughing and falling off the chair* *sitting back upright and in a serious tone* After I had completed and posted my MC ending, I shared my intended ending with that good friend of mine. She told me upfront that she won’t read my SA ending if I proceed with my intended ending. “Your SA characters have no growth in the SA ending.” She further elaborated that if Ji Hyo and Jong Kook didn’t change in the story, their relationship won’t last. She also told me that I was relying too much on Gary for the SA ending.

After chatting with another two friends, I come to accept that if I continue with my intended ending, I will be writing a Kang Gary ending not a SA ending. What I had promised my readers is a SA ending so I had to deliver a proper one. Hence, I was threw off-course and had to start plotting and thinking about how to write my SA ending from scratch.

MC: No wonder you took so much longer to update the SA ending. So do you regret writing the new SA ending?

ak: *laughing* No, I don’t. I’m glad that I took up this challenge and I hope I can pass the expectations of my harshest and most valuable critic. After all, she had come to this website because of me and she had read my story even though she doesn’t know much about RM.

MC: Will you write the intended ending then?

ak: *shaking head* No, I think having two endings for a story is more than enough, I won’t be writing a third one.  *with misty eyes* My heart just hurt when I deleted the parts that I had written for Gary and Ji Hyo for that ending in my draft.

MC: So will you be writing another fanfic soon? If yes, will it be a SA or a MC story?

ak: *laughing real hard with hands over tummy* I don’t know yet. I’m going to finish my Christmas fanfic first. I owe my LJ fanfics readers that much.

*giving a low bow, and waving hands to say goodbye*