Hi! If you want to see how "The Way the Wind Blows" ends, skip to the end of this comment.

I haven't updated this story in almost 5 years and nearly forgot about it until today. I started and stopped writing it when I was 13, the summer before 8th grade. I'm now a senior in high school and a very different person on the outside, but have been rekindling my love for writing. I missed the pure, non-pressured escapism that narrative and poetry writing provides compared to all the research I do for school. 

I cringed a little re-reading this, but overall was surprised by the quality and length. I wrote this story because I was in love with the characters and their interactions simply flowed out of my hands onto the keyboard, rather than me forcing out information for an essay and double-checking and citing every source. I still so vividly remember the feeling of sitting under that tin church awning with Min and Moonbyul. I remember Daiyu's solemn face and gray coat, and the alleys where they picked up trash, and the soft lighting of the rooms at the santuary, and the sound of Moonbyul's scream. 

Moonbyul's quiet faith was a way for me to write about my own faith, which I held and still hold very dear. Min and Moonbyul's close, deeply protective relationship was something I wished for at the time but thought was almost impossible. I am now lucky to say, though, that I have experienced this level of friendship and am incredibly grateful for it. I don't know if anyone will read this, but it gets better. You'll be fine.

I have written many stories. Several, including this one, had a strong cast of characters and plot and were quite lengthy. The Way The Wind Blows, however, is the only one that I started writing with an ending in mind-- a blessing rare to come by.

Mr. Koh helps Moonbyul grows stronger in guitar and Minhyuk discovers he is quite talented at singing. They start playing and singing folk music together outside the music shop for money and are discovered by a talent agent. They receive a contract to get education and continue making music with little agency interference. They make enough money to live on but don't blow up so much the fame goes to their heads. They are happy with their modest income and stay permanently at the sanctuary, with Ms. Seon as a mother/grandmother figure. 

Daiyu is adopted by Jihyun and her father. She struggles with trauma throughout her life but has a stable home. She learns to play the shiny saxophones and trombones she loved looking at. Sanghyuk earns a job as a mechanic and starts a relationship with Jihyun. Wheein studies her off for several more years and earns her place at a university. Mrs. Seon expands the sanctuary, with the help of Mr. Koh after his wife passes. Nobody other than Lifen and Mrs. Koh die, because they're young and I believe in happy endings.