Hello to all.

First and foremost, I would like to get on my knees, lower my head, and press my palms on the floor. I am truly, honestly, very sorry for the long wait. I totally understand if you have left the story during my semi-hiatus (not hiatus, which will be further explained). Anyway, if this is your first time reading this Behind the Screen chapter, I’ll let you know: Behind the Screen is a textual version, if you will, of Behind-the-scenes of a film. It’s a let-everything-loose chapter of how the story came to be and whatnot, and I will also fully explain the ending choice.

Please read for your enjoyment and for your understanding as to what happened during my hiatus.

For starters, Mirai was a story that I had always wanted to do because it had the genres I’m not good at—supernatural, powers, action (though very little), and humanity (and many more). If you didn’t know, this is actually my second published story on AFF, but the third to be completed (after Yuna Inspired: Our Virtual Family).

For Mirai, I had a small grasp of the beginning and of the ending because it was when I was barely getting into creative writing. And yes, the ending I wanted for Mirai was her death. I wanted a story where it was logical and rational that someone important dies, and I figured that it should be the main character because they shouldn’t receive slack just because they’re a main, right?

Unfortunately, as I wrote and tried to piece the chapters to match the planned ending, I went through what some authors would understand: I got attached to my characters. Especially Mirai.

I felt so bad for her, and I hated myself for giving her the life she had.

So, when the chapters concreting her death came close, I put a halt on it. My heart didn’t want to publish the already-four-to-seven written chapters that had outlined her death and the ending, but my brain (the one that did the logical piecing of everything) told me to go on as planned.

Now, I didn’t like that I was butting head with myself, and it was very much a stalemate. It was also very unhealthy. It became mentally and emotionally unhealthy to the point that seeing its picture on my stories list would actually make me feel anxious.

It was like that for a year.

At the same time, I was also writing “Yuna Inspired: Our Virtual Family,” and I felt saved when I did, so I decided that I should take a break from Mirai and finish the aforementioned story while coming to a conclusion myself about Mirai’s ending. One year became two, two years became three, and well, three became four.

It wasn’t so much a hiatus because I did think of Mirai and what to do with it. I just didn’t write new chapters. I did mental brainstorms.

Toward the middle of my third-year hiatus, my private life had major changes one after another, both good and