Hello! This is my first time publishing a story here (it's my first time publishing a blog post!), but I have been reading and enjoying some wonderful stories here and wanted to share my own, so I'm currently working on one woohoo

However, I wouldn't give myself full credit for this; I had my own experiences, several shoujo mangas and thorough tumblr-ing research to thank for. So, I would say this goes to the creative minds that made these works and provided the information I needed to make this story.

In particular, the manga ホリミヤ (Horimiya 'Hori and Miyamura) plays a huge part in this, and the story is basically based on that whole theme of the manga. There will also be elements from other mangas that I've been enjoying lately as they all encapsulate the theme of school life and young people quite well imo. I'll credit them as I write the author notes :)

Nonetheless, I'd like to say I am genuinely writing this in my own time and effort, so I do apologise for any coincidental similarities with other stories here 

Let's get it straight, though. In the words of Rob (John Cusack) from 'High Fidelity': All romantic stories are a scrambled up version of the first one.

Anyway, this story is very close to my heart as the elements and inspirations that I used really hit close to home (as most slifeoflife stories do), such as different kinds of relationships (romantic, friendship, family, etc.), school life and most importantly, entering adulthood; as a student myself, I am currently going through this phase.

So far it's been a good way of looking back at my own experiences, like looking through a stack of old photos and some more recent ones. The pop culture references I make here will probably familiar to some people, and I feel that helps with the realism of the story's concept.

I am aware that doing slice of life stories can be difficult, especially when someone talks about dealing with real social issues such as bullying, self-harm or teenage pregnancies; they can be misunderstood and misinterpreted because it gets carried away by the romance or the drama of the story, but it's important to remember that they are real. Someone out here in the real world is seriously experiencing these issues, so these should by no means be taken lightly.

I myself will try to treat these as sensitively as possible in the story. While I say that, some of the characters might say things that may be offensive, but it is how I have seen people and myself behave.

I guess I'll be walking a fine line.

On a more positive note, I would encourage some to take an interest in more independent South Korean hip-hop; I'm still new to it, but after some exposure I've found the underground scene to be really vibrant and has a longer history than most people think. Although the Hallyu Wave is still on the rise, I feel that it has misconstrued some aspects of hip-hop due to the rise in popularity of idol rappers. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have idol rappers, but rather it's important to distinguish Korean hip-hop as its own individual sphere within the Hallyu Wave. I think that BTS suit the theme because they stand in between idol-dom and independent hip-hop artists.

Like I said, I'm new to the culture, so while I don't know what really goes on in the underground scene, it's an important factor in the lives of the characters I'm writing out.

I do realise the discourse on this is still ongoing, and because Rap Monster, Suga and J-Hope have had exposure to that kind of environment it was really interesting to write out their characters in this upcoming story. If you haven't watched it, the '4 Things' documentary featuring Rap Monster is a good insight as to what I mean.

Anyhoo, end tangent.

Hopefully the journey will help me come to terms with what's going on in my own life; I'm currently in Japan studying for a year at a university, and it has been a lifelong dream of mine so no surprises at how excited I am at the moment (still doing the occasional happy dance) but afterwards what do I do? That question always gets me thinking, you know?

I'm really excited once I get this story up and running! It's been a while since I shared anything for various reasons (in short, life happened), so I hope someone out there will at least smile while reading this. I am not looking for subscribers, upvotes, or comments, but just knowing someone enjoyed the work I'm doing on this, is good enough for me :)

There is also that small, minute detail of procrastinating my Japanese Language work but let's not think about that for now