Firstly, I want to thank everyone who read this story. It has been a while since I’ve written something new because I was so busy with my current life. So I had to take a break from writing for over a month which made me doubt if I can come back improved, and I was happy to know that there are people out there who enjoyed this story even so. I’m certain I wouldn’t have been able to finish this story if not for your feedback and support. And thank you MoonlitPrincess who encouraged me to post the first chapter after reading my draft. I would never have reached the end or even started if not for you :).

And secondly, I want to talk about this story in detail. What I wanted to convey through the characters and what meaning is behind the characters’ actions including the metaphors and what message I wanted to convey in the end. I highly recommend you to read this because I think this will bring quite a difference if you ever read this story again :). 

1. I wanted to use analogies in this story and use the concept of ‘fire’ and ‘water’ in multiple ways.

At first, I planned on using fire as the negative concept and water the opposite. But it seemed too cliche so I decided to use that idea in a different way : to make fire as a negative element to Joohyun but to Seulgi, it’s water. 

You can see that fire has a negative impact on Joohyun by her lighter and the cigarette scar on her chest. Wanting to burn everything and even herself with the lighter, being scarred with the cigarette when she tried to escape the mistake she made. But with water, it’s more on the positive side. Taking a shower at Seulgi’s house and then properly talking to Seulgi right after, her thoughts of what wonderful life she could have had if there were more people like Seulgi in her life at the valley, the rain helping her think that maybe she can start anew.

But eventually, as you can see from the candle scene in chapter 3, Joohyun finally uses the lighter to light the candle she bought for Seulgi, showing that her negative element has changed into a comfort and slowly realizing her feelings for Seulgi.

And you can see that water is a negative source to Seulgi since she almost drowned when she was young. And I tried to emphasize that by Seulgi’s thoughts of being afraid she’ll drown in the rain and being worried about the flood that might come when she was young.

Unlike Joohyun, and thanks to Joohyun, fire has more of a positive side for Seulgi. Even though it can easily be extinguished by water, it’s still precious to her as you can see in chapter 3, saying that she never received a present before when Joohyun gave her the candle. And in chapter 3's last scene, she crouches beside Joohyun in the rain, willing to be drenched with her even though there was an umbrella. This shows Seulgi’s love for Joohyun, willing to go through the same pain for someone special to her.

So to summarize :

Irene, Joohyun has a traumatic event due to fire. And yet, she gave Seulgi a candle and even felt its warmth despite how small the flame is. 

Seulgi had once almost drowned, and even though she claims she doesn’t have any trauma related to it(and even claims that she has learned something valuable), you can tell from chapter 4 that she is still afraid of it sometimes. And yet as you can see on chapter 3&chapter 4, she feels glad Joohyun is by her side when it rains and even allows herself to be drenched in the rain on chapter 3.

With those behaviors, I wanted to show how people heal and love. Loving each other to the extent they can even make their pain as happiness for someone or something you’re willing to experience again regardless if it has fully healed or not. I wanted to show Seulgi’s fear of water in chapter 4 because you can never really get fully healed from what you’re afraid of. Its trait always remains and the only difference is our adaptation to it. They’r