Learn about the exact details of the events with an unbiased eye

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Hello, I am the author of the book you just finished reading, House of Kim. You can call me Maits! Think of this chapter as a little road down memory lane, where we go back and pick up on the various hints I left in each chapter. There are other subtle hints too, but I haven't included them because I solely wish to stick to the ones that matter the most. But, if you caught onto them, lemme know in the comments!

Keep in mind; even though all these characters are living, breathing people, the characters they portray are entirely fictional. Do not mistake that for one minute. This is fiction. In real life Namjoon is not a chauvinistic pig, Yerim is not a psychotic murderess, Joohyun is not a horrible gold-digging witch, Hansol is not a cheating asshole, Seokjin is not a cowardly bystander, Jungkook and Taehyung are NOT married to each other, Taehyung isn't a manipulative, vengeful assassin, Yoongi isn't sixty years old, etc.

Another thing, if you guessed the exact pattern of the murders by the twelfth chapter, I'm on my knees for you. After that, all information was intended to be shared. That's when it's "obvious". 

Let's divide this section of the book into three parts. Here's the index:

• Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Trivia (that no one asked for)

With that being said, let's begin!

CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER ANALYSIS

━━ chapter zero*

Kim Namjoon is the first character introduced, since he's the point where it all started. Yerim's misfortunes, Taehyung's humiliation, Seokjin's guilt, etc. are all due to his character's decision. We are immediately told that the people present in the scene are very rich, as concluded from the description. Joohyun is a mean step-mother and has Namjoon right where she wants him. Hansol is a weak character who cannot stand up for himself or his future wife and prefers to indulge his step-mother's obvious flirtatious remarks. Yerim is an oppressed soul who is burning with the desire to be free from her father's restrictions.

Hansol and Joohyun are the first to leave, which is foreshadowing. As revealed later, neither Joohyun nor Hansol do their announced work. Jimin comes in to serve more tea. When Namjoon asks him for more, he drops the potassium cyanide (it looks very white, almost like lump sugar) along with some sugar and Namjoon mixes it up in his tea. Nobody notices this because Namjoon and Yerim are busy having a heated conversation. Yerim exits the room with her mind decided about something. That something, as we all know, was Kim Joohyun's murder - whom she believes to be the root of all her suffering.

However, she realizes how disturbing her thoughts are (it's not shown in the chapter but slightly hinted) and decided to distract herself by doing some shopping and ends up spending the night in a hotel.

Kim Namjoon dies immediately as an effect of the potassium cyanide and the housekeeper, Son Seungwan discovers his body.

Title Analysis: 'When the wind blows the wrong way' ;; when events take a sudden, horrible turn

*to be counted as a chapter, not a prologue/intro

━━ chapter one

The Jung siblings aka the protagonists are introduced. They speak from an outsider's perspective about the case that has now fallen into their hands. Their responses are very different as we progress further into the chapter.

None of the members are in the mansion. Joohyun and Hansol are busy cheating on their respective others, Seokjin is dutifully out of town and Taehyung is in Busan (Jimin did the killing on his instructions).

Joshua's character is introduced. It's a very small part but quite important as it provides the Jung siblings with critical medical evidence. He's a childhood friend and treats them accordingly. It is then revealed that Namjoon was poisoned.

Title Analysis: 'From an alien's point of view' ;; from an outsider's perspective, someone who hasn't delved into the case at all, or someone who doesn't know the history and background of the House of Kim.

━━ chapter two + three

The siblings visit the mansion and ridicule its name. They meet Park Jimin, the manservant, who's visibly nervous behavior is oblivious to the two of them. Jimin is very scared just by looking at them from behind the intercom. This shows that he is very scared of what he's done and is questioning whether what Taehyung sent him was a truth drug. He, of course, didn't know since he was desperately in love with Taehyung and believed him. His answers to the siblings are practiced, as if he has been going through probable questions they might ask him.

Seungwan's character is introduced. Though she appears more than most of the cast members, I haven't included her in the main cast since her significance isn't as much as the rest of them. She gives Wheein and Hoseok a detailed analysis of the residents from her perspective. When Hoseok asks her about herself she refuses to answer and is saved by the bell. I added that bit to confuse the readers because I'm like that.
It's just foreshadowing of her robberies in her previous owners' houses.

The door opens to reveal Kim Joohyun, who is described as a very beautiful woman. She is obviously jubilant to hear about her husband's death because she knows of the enormous paycheck that comes with it. And she can continue to cheat on Hansol without anyone knowing. Her act of grievance is sub-par and the siblings see through it.

Title Analysis: 'Funny how bothered they are' ;; talks about the unaffected behaviour of Seungwan,
'Snakes don't walk into your lives, they slither into it' ;; talks about Joohyun in general.

━━ chapter four

Wheein and Hoseok interview the staff and their reactions are shown. During Mrs. Song's interview, a very subtle hint of Jimin's sexuality is given - of him being traumatized when Joohyun flirts with him. She doesn't realize the depth of her words nor do the siblings because of her light tone. (Note: I'm not trying to push the narrative that only gay or MLM men are traumatized when a woman flirts with them. There could be several reasons too - Joohyun being an obviously older woman or just generally crossing someone's comfort zone. All these perspectives or deductions are also pretty valid, even though they don't exactly apply here.)

 Everyone's pinning the blame on Joohyun since it's what seems obvious.

The first thing Jimin says is "I didn't do it!", a very obvious sign of guilt but an equally obvious sign of nervousness. The siblings unfortunately mistake it for the latter and go on with the interview. He answers every question honestly except about adding the potassium cyanide in the tea. Wheein and Hoseok are more focused on the conversation that might have happened instead of suspecting him.

A lot of the things in this chapter can go both ways (or at least, that's what I've tried to write).

They receive the results of the tests conducted on the food and come to know about the tampering done with the tea. Jaewook is an OC. They are arguing about something when they meet Hansol, who looks very ruffled. It's mentioned that someone's called for him (which is Joohyun btw). Joohyun comes down immediately, sees the policemen and says "Where is Yerim" instead of whatever she was intending to say. Hansol tries to cover it up too but realizes he might give the game away.
Hoseok and Wheein catch on something feeling very wrong.

Title Analysis: 'The Mouse doth hide secrets impossible to unearth' ;; talks about Jimin's behaviour in the chapter.

━━ chapter five

It's the day after Namjoon's death. The chapter starts with a scene in Taehyung's present life with Jungkook. Taehyung receives a letter from Namjoon (or so he pretends because he doesn't show the letter to Jungkook or to anyone). I have tried to focus on their relationship, trying to show how much in love they are.

As revealed later, Taehyung is so much in love with Jungkook that he hates his dependence on Jungkook and wishes dearly to earn his own living. Thus, the cold-blooded plan of drawing out the pattern and pinning the blame on Yerim manifests.

Yerim returns back home and is annoyed with Joohyun's behaviour. When she learns of her father's death and sees how obviously unaffected Joohyun is, her anger towards the woman as well as the situation rises. She has genuine grief for Namjoon's death and hates that she had to get her freedom this way.

Title Analysis: 'Is it love? Or hypocrisy? Or an act? Or all?' ;; talks about Yerim's reaction to the death of Kim Namjoon.

━━ chapter six

It's the next day. Seokjin is back in town and the siblings wish to have an interview with him. Seokjin asks Hansol to join too since this involved their firms and Hansol isn't pleased about the obvious subordination he's supposed to show.

Seokjin enters after the siblings and his character is introduced. He speaks of the gold mine he bought on Namjoon's advice (the very gold mine that Taehyung has set his eyes on). The siblings get a taste of his imposing behaviour and realize that he really does play by the rules.

Taehyung reads the newspaper and finds out about Namjoon's death. He fakes his grief for him (because he's an excellent actor). Jungkook doesn't suspect anything wrong and genuinely feels sorry for him.

The siblings receive the letter sent by Taehyung accepting Namjoon's fictional invitation to join the company.

Title Analysis: 'When the Prodigal Son arrived at the dead father's doorstep' ;; a metaphorical expression of what's going to happen in the next-to-next chapter, can also be used for the letter sent by Taehyung.

━━ chapter seven

Wheein ruminates about the case. Foreshadowing about Joohyun and Hansol is given. Wheein's suspicion on Yerim is described but that's just to confuse the reader.

The siblings meet Min Yoongi, an eccentric relation of the Kims. He is forever in his own room and rarely comes out of it. He is religious and feels no sorrow for Namjoon. Although he appears more than a lot of the main cast, he is not included solely because he's a spectator. Nobody tries to kill him because most of the people in the house think he's lost his marbles, thus he's harmless. He mentions some extremely important points and drops hints (because he suspects Yerim and falls for the classic murder trap).

Title Analysis: 'Motive? Revenge? Challenge? Boredom?' ;; Wheein's thoughts in the briefest form. I threw in Challenge and Boredom to confuse people.

━━ chapter eight

A very short chapter, but a very important one. Taehyung and Jungkook are picked up by the police beforehand so they can question them. I have stressed on the homophobia to show the general mentality and build up on Taehyung's angst. I will be elaborating on this in the character analysis.

They tell the siblings that they know about Namjoon's death and came here for the funeral (obviously Taehyung had an entirely different motive). Jungkook believes Taehyung when he says the reason for Namjoon to send the letter was because of his marriage to him and tells the policemen that. This offers them reason to believe Taehyung. Taehyung doesn't bother to hide his hate towards Seokjin.

Hoseok sees Taehyung look extremely angry and is visibly shaken by this. He mistakes it for rage towards Seokjin and Namjoon. However, we all know the true reason behind it.

Title Analysis: 'The sane may not always be the best' ;; references Wheein's statement and heavily foreshadows the end.

━━ chapter nine + ten

Mr. Han, the family solicitor (an OC) fills in the Jung siblings about the details of Kim Namjoon's will. However, after the interview, Hoseok has a feeling that the company may not be in a good state, financially.

Jungkook and Taehyung get ready for the dinner party at the House of Kim. Taehyung retells his traumatic past and explains why he dislikes Seokjin so much.

He keeps checking his watch (if anyone noticed) to time himself. He then steps out for a walk but actually grabs a taxi and goes to the House of Kim. He calls Jimin and beckons him to come outside. Jimin was expecting the call because he stumbles and sprints to pick it up. He has already put the quick lime in Joohyun's bath salts when he goes out to meet Taehyung. Taehyung then trips him, chokes him with his boot and hides his body in the bushes.

Seungwan sees Taehyung retreating but cannot tell if it's him. As mentioned later, Hansol is also in the same area so this detail is to throw the reader off.

Seokjin and Yerim have an argument and Yerim leaves the dining room. She catches Hansol and Joohyun cheating.

She has a crying fit in her bathroom and retouches her makeup. Then, she pretends as if she saw nothing but observes their behaviour and unlike Taehyung, impulsively chokes Joohyun to death at night. Then, she puts Joohyun's body in the bath and finds the quick lime in the bath salts and uses it to her advantage. The chemical reaction burns the skin and removes any traces of incriminating Yerim. She finds the sticky note in Hansol's bedroom and sticks it on the bathtub. She locks the bathroom from inside (y'know, the click-lock on the knob) and leaves.

Then, she makes up the entire act of waking up in the middle of the night and wakes up everyone by screaming that she was not being able to open the bathroom.
They discover Joohyun's body in the bathtub.

Title Analysis: 'The one closest is the kith, the one farthest the kin' ;; kith = friends, kin = family, friends = accomplices, accomplices = partners in murder/cheating,
'Cold as an ice-sculpture she lay' ;; foreshadows the end of the chapter.

━━ chapter eleven

I cannot stress enough about the importance of this chapter. It's perhaps the most important chapter in the entire book, and extremely difficult to write. In the final published version, there were many obvious hints here. I tried smoothening them out so it was more subtle. A lot of my early readers didn't catch onto it but a lot of the older readers did.

The police investigate the murder scene (it's fairy obvious it's murder). Wheein is annoyed that Joohyun is dead because she, like most of the readers, thought that Joohyun was the prime suspect. Hoseok isn't surprised because this confirms his suspicion that the Kim Enterprises may not be doing as well.

Seokjin calls Taehyung and informs him about the delay in the funeral because of Joohyun's death. He tells his husband this and his comments, if looked closely (after my fifth editing), will hint at his involvement. 

Yerim, too, is a spoiler in itself with her behaviour. Hansol is very disturbed because of the sudden death (not to mention that he was with her the previous night). Jimin's disappearance is made more prominent here. Yerim is very irritable and angry (with herself) and comments that Joohyun deserved it. She then realizes how wrong whatever she said was and is lucky that Hansol didn't pay attention to her. Hansol is nervous as well but for altogether different reasons. He is afraid that if the police caught wind of his affair with Joohyun, he would be a prime suspect. This, of course, is true only until the next couple of chapters. 

Seungwan fills in Wheein with the details of the dinner party and tells her she might have caught someone outside in the lawns (Taehyung). Wheein tells Hoseok that Jimin is missing (courtesy of Seungwan) and they discover the sticky note.

Title Analysis: 'A note from the lover or the killer?' ;; reference to the end of the chapter

━━ chapter twelve + thirteen

Wheein visits Yoongi to ask him some questions about Park Jimin. He tells her all he can. One very important thing he says is that he's friendly with the ladies but not a ladies' man. He was nervous and uncomfortable because of Yoongi's constant questions about his sex life. If news went out to Namjoon that he was gay, he might suffer the same humiliation Taehyung did (this is about the time when Namjoon was still alive). Again, other reasons also stand true - some people simply aren't comfortable sharing details of their sex lives.

Hoseok speaks to Jisoo and confides that he doesn't find any of them sympathetic. He finds them all very unpleasant. Then, Jaewook informs him about the finding of Jimin's body. They are very shaken by this death and are forever guilty of the fact that they didn't question him more seriously.

They search among his things and find lots of things peculiar about him. The postcard from Kim Juri stands out the most so they decide to investigate that front the most.

Hoseok fills Yoongi in and the latter tries to offer him some comfort. He then tells him what he thinks about who the murderer could be and drops a very important detail: Joohyun used to work in a talking bar. He also mentions that Namjoon met Joohyun around the time when Taehyung was thrown out of office. He recalls the incident in vivid detail. He stresses that they should find the culprit before the funeral because they might then get away scot-free (which causes Hoseok to hurry). Most importantly, he points out the pattern.

Title Analysis: 'When the Mouse is found before he can tattle' ;; speaks about Jimin's death,
'The spinster speaks' ;; Yoongi offering "clews"

━━ chapter fourteen

Seungwan tells Wheein about Joohyun's will. The siblings check it out and find out that Hansol is the sole benefactor. They call up the House of Kim and request for a meeting with all of the family.
They're all in the library when Hoseok and Wheein reveal the contents of Joohyun's will. While the rest of them are genuinely surprised, Yerim does an excellent job of acting as if Hansol's betrayal is a (most of it is kinda genuine because she's truly heartbroken). Yoongi asks Taehyung take her away to his room so she can rest.

Seokjin punches Hansol and Wheein restrains him. Hoseok's brotherly side is shown when he tells Hansol off towards the end.

Title Analysis: 'Like a paper house burning' ;; speaks about Yerim's heartbreak

━━ chapter fifteen + sixteen

Seokjin reminisces of the day Taehyung was kicked out of office. He tries to recall the person who delivered the incriminating photographs but fails to do so. In the first published draft, I had mentioned that it was a woman but this time I kept the sex obsucure to confuse the readers. 

Taehyung and Yoongi chat while Yerim is sleeping. Taehyung fills him in about whatever's happened in his life so far. Yoongi touches a raw nerve by asking him whether the life of a householder suits him or not.

Hoseok and Wheein do some digging in the family's financial problems and find out that they were in a bit of a fix until Namjoon died. Had Joohyun been paid out the money, they would certainly crash. But now that all the money would go to Hansol, they would still crash.

They confront Seokjin about this who clears all confusion (or adds more confusion?) by saying that Hansol won't get the money because according to the will, Joohyun ought to have outlived Namjoon by a month to call it her own. Since she doesn't, the money goes back into the firm. Hoseok then has a reason to suspect Seokjin since he is the one who benefits the most.

Title Analysis: 'A day in reminiscence' ;; Seokjin's flashback in the first few paragraphs of the chapter,
'Threading strands of an old sweater' ;; the Jung siblings begin to connect the dots, i.e, they are on the right path.

━━ chapter seventeen + eighteen

Jungkook gets worried when Taehyung decides to suddenly visit Seokjin in his office. He is afraid that he might do something rash. He confesses that it scares him but also excites him. They make out before Taehyung leaves.

Hoseok leaves for Seokjin's office so that he can peruse through Namjoon's files. As we later come to know, Namjoon has a habit of keeping records of all letters he has sent but there's no such evidence of him sending a letter to Taehyung.

Taehyung arrives in the firm and causes a stir with his presence. He meets Lee Chan (Dino of Seventeen) who's the replacement of Namjoon's (later, Seokjin's) secretary Ahn Hyejin (Hwasa of Mamamoo) and is amused at the lengths Seokjin would go to save money (by employing an intern). He finds Hoseok instead of Seokjin in his office and is thrown off guard. Hoseok casually inserts the detail about never finding Namjoon's copy of the letter he allegedly sent Taehyung. Taehyung slyly avoids this by suggesting that he might've not done it because Seokjin had a tendency to snoop. He manipulates the topic to himself by hinting that Seokjin's snooping caused his firing from the company.

Seokjin enters the room and Taehyung tries to goad him by saying that he might join the company. Hoseok assumes that it's for personal pleasure but it's actually to get his own way (note how he says in his outburst that Seokjin could throw in the "worthless" gold mine too). Taehyung leaves in a huff. Hoseok decides to do the same after asking some questions about Juri. Seokjin can give him no answers. Before he leaves, he hears Seokjin wonder who "she" was.

He thinks that it is of importance and interrogates Seokjin about it. Seokjin then tells him about the hooded person (later revealed, woman) who had delivered the package of Taehyung's photos.

Hoseok relays this information to Wheein. She fills him in on Hansol's release. There was actually going to be an entire scene about it but I felt it would be unnecessary to do so because it wasn't very essential to the plot. They make plans for going to Jeju Island. The chapter ends with them reaching their hotel room in Jeju Island.

Title Analysis: 'Conclusions, conclusions, conclusions, everywhere' ;; the right path seems a little too twisted because there are too many probable people who could've done it,
'Unlikely, unlikely, unlikely by the second' ;; the conclusions are a bit too unlikely because of the new evidence

━━ chapter nineteen

The siblings meet Lee Seokmin (DK of seventeen), who is the manager of the camp that Jimin participated in before he took up service in the House of Kim. Since their lead is that he might have met Juri there, they suspect that they might find some evidence related to her. They confirm this assumption when they check the registers and find a Kim Juri. Jaewook also informs them via text that a family member (which turns out to be Yerim) booked a plane ticket under the name Kim Juri.

After they leave the office, Wheein trips and spills the contents of her bag on the floor. Seokmin and Hoseok help her. Among those possessions, she also carries some photographs of the Kims (so that she can use it to ask questions). He happens to chance a glance at Yerim's picture (as it turns out) and finds it familiar, thus adding more evidence to arrest her. I tried to confuse readers by mentioning that Hoseok held the pictures of Bae Joohyun and Kim Taehyung, so it could be anyone from Seokjin, Hansol and Yerim. Plus, Seokmin says to Wheein: "You would know better, being a woman." This could be taken for a male or a female, depending on how you look at it.

Hoseok and Wheein have an argument on the plane because Wheein suspects (correctly) that Hoseok might jump the gun and arrest Yerim. As it turns out, she is correct and Hoseok ends up arresting Yerim.

Title Analysis: 'The Snitch, the Maiden, the Lover and the Forgotten' ;; snitch = Seokjin, maiden = Yerim, love = Hansol and forgotten = Taehyung.

━━ chapter twenty + chapter twenty-one + chapter twenty-two + chapter twenty-three + chapter twenty-four

No further explanations required (everything is explained in the chapters themselves), apart from a few clarifications:

Yongsun (Solar of Mamamoo), Byulyi (Moonbyul of Mamamoo) and Sooyoung (Joy of Red Velvet).

Yoongi's death is the prelude for the next book in the series, The Min Dilemma. Yerim gets a  fifteen-year sentence. I did debate on life imprisonment but this one seemed the most realistic, taking the way the current judiciary in S. Korea handles things (as well as my own country's justice system). Taehyung's capital punishment is pretty unrealistic because currently South Korea has an unofficial moratorium (temporary ban) of it since 1998. However, there have been several cases in the past decade of people being awarded death penalties for heinous crimes like mass murder, rape, child rape, murder in a case, mass arson, etc., the latest one being in 2019. It's extremely confusing so the current ending is a far more simplistic one. The reasons for this because I do not want my main characters in this book (apart from the Jung Siblings) to overlap in other stories, and also to remove the possibilities of a lazy revenge plot (mostly for me lmao). 

Title Analysis: 'The veil is lifted' ;; everything is clear,
'Memorandum' ;; note of final decision,
'Patching up fresh wounds' ;; speaks about Jungkook and Yerim's conversation,
'A last word from the spinster and a last wish of the Prodigal son' ;; spinster = Yoongi, Prodigal son = Taehyung,
'They're all unpleasant people' ;; no explanations needed.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

MAIN⬎

━━ JUNG HOSEOK

As I started to write the story, Hoseok was going to be the central character with Wheein aiding him whenever she could. I wanted him to be an intelligent but short-sighted character while being tactful enough not to brashly ask questions like his sister. However, certain scenes that I wrote with him in this supposedly more reserved personality, the more out-of-character he felt. The part about noticing the details was going to be all Hoseok. However, if he had to be a short-sighted character, it wouldn't really suit him. That's why, as the story progresses, more of his insecurities are revealed. His fear that the case might be the kind that never gets solved is brought up several times. Hence, I dialed down his prominence for the sake of the story and brought Wheein into the limelight. From chapter ten onwards, Wheein becomes more of a central character and by the twentieth chapter, it feels as if a balance has been struck between the two which is exactly what I wanted. Thus, Hoseok is still as important and Wheein has risen to the status of having the same importance as him.

━━ JUNG WHEEIN

The sibling parallel was never planned, until I decided I wanted to include a Mamamoo member too. I had already incorporated a Seventeen member and thought that it might be fantastic if all my ultimate fandoms were represented. It was a real coincidence when Wheein popped up in my mind and then I went: "Why do we need a romantic detective pair at all? Why not siblings?" From then on, any slight chance that there might be romantic subplots vanished. As per Lisa (chiminities), it would get more difficult to write an already complex plot with subplots in the mix. So I did away with them. Wheein was a sharp contrast to her fictional brother, though more likeable. She is witty, sharp-tongued and unafraid to say her opinions. She's (according to the police forces in my country since South Korea has a rather complicated police force), two ranks below Hoseok. I like to differentiate between Hoseok and Wheein like this:

Hoseok: Macro Economics
Wheein: Micro Economics

While Hoseok takes in the entire picture, Wheein will observe the miniscule details and make her conclusions.

━━ KIM SEOKJIN

Seokjin becomes more prominent towards the second half of the story. In my head, he was always going to be this forever-busy, nose-buried-in-contracts, shrewd man. I have mostly changed little about him: he is only more emotional than I would have liked him to be. He is not as cold as I had planned and is seemingly more likeable. I really wanted a super slimy character but I simply couldn't go through with that given that he is entirely innocent in the end. However, he is still pretty mean about money and loves to play by the rulebook. He is very smart and is the only one who notices the little detail about Joohyun's murder. Initially, he was going to be the oldest son of Kim Namjoon, a typical shoe-licker. For some reason, I thought that it would be a little weird writing it that ways and made him the close nephew, instead.

━━ KIM YERIM

Initially, I had planned for her to be this miserable, defeated individual who just went along with everything. Yes, I did want the blame to be pinned on her at first (that was always the plan) but I didn't really want her to be the kind of character that stood up for herself. That all changed the minute I wrote the first chapter. It was one of those moments when everything comes naturally to you and I just kept going until I reached the finale. I then knew that Yerim couldn't be a doormat and proceeded to rewrite her entire character which ended up changing the entire plot. She was never meant to murder Joohyun, in fact, Taehyung was supposed to stay over a night and then choke her to death. "Why do we need just one murderer?" I thought as I reached chapter seven. So it was decided that Yerim would be the impulsive killer who took advantage of the pattern without realizing that it was meant to doom her. Yerim and Taehyung were never hand-in-hand when it came to the murders and that is what I wanted. That's why Yerim was so shocked when she heard that it was Taehyung, of all people. From a weak defeatist, Yerim became this strong-willed passionate girl. However, she is still the scariest, in my opinion. Writing her episode of rage was particularly difficult because I didn't just want her to be sympathetic, I wanted her to be frighteningly scary.

━━ KIM TAEHYUNG

I thought long and hard about who I should pick to play this character. I thought my bias for BTS was showing enough, seeing that I had picked three members for the main cast by then (Hoseok, Seokjin and Namjoon). However I finally settled on Taehyung. He simply fits that alluring, mischievous personality that the second-youngest Kim has. Like Wheein is to Hoseok, Taehyung is a contrast to Seokjin. He is easy-going, audacious, attractive (personality-wise) and the kind to play with fire. Like Yerim, he's very emotional but smarter than both her and Seokjin. I did intend him to be worse but when I gave his main intention to murder Namjoon more thought, I realized that he had to be more than just the typical cardboard-cut-out antagonist. His story is possibly the saddest and writing the flashback was pretty difficult for me. I hope that all the readers understood the depth of his trauma, which doesn't translate to sympathizing with him murdering three people. 

━━ BAE/KIM JOOHYUN

I really wanted to avoid stereotypes but I guess I went all out with the mean step-mother trope?? The minute I was writing the character, for some reason I immediately thought that I had to make her the classiest bitch alive. I wanted to give a whole new meaning to the word "gold-digger" while writing her character. Joohyun is so much more than just a gold-digger. She's very smart; smart enough to get exactly what she wants. She catches Taehyung and uses it to her advantage. The reason why she bullies Yerim so much is because Yerim is the strongest resistance to her power over Namjoon (and as Yerim said earlier, Namjoon was quite fond of her before). I'm a little happy with how her entire personality turned out. Till the end, Bae Joohyun has remained the only character with little to no change since their initial creation.

━━ CHOI HANSOL

Picking a face claim for this character was particularly hard. Hansol's character was by far the most difficult to write and incorporate. I feel like I didn't do him enough justice. The people I first told the draft to really suspected him and I thought: "Oh, well, he might get some attention that ways from the readers." Of course, that wasn't the case because most of the readers instantly hopped on the Kim Yerim suspect train. Hansol was initially a weak (but not slimy, like Seokjin's initial makeup), small-minded and submissive man. Much of it remains in the final draft, only that his limited screen time (my bad) prevented from exploring his character too much.

━━ PARK JIMIN

I spent the least time writing his character but I'm so pleased. I really wanted to go as subtle as possible with Jimin, so that his murder (if not Joohyun's) would come as a real surprise. His entire being was the game-changer in the plot. I had written his original dialogue in the intro chapter: "I didn't do it!" But lots of people caught on to this so I panicked and changed it. Jimin is kind of in between the stereotype of a closeted homosexual man and my own imagination. I really wanted to keep the hints about his sexuality as respectful as possible but also couldn't think of lots of subtle hints of gayness. How did I do?

SIDE ;; (special)

I didn't really want to have a segment for the characters that weren't in the main cast but since these two became favorites among readers I decided to include then for the sake of the readers:

━━ MIN YOONGI

To be honest, his entire character was an afterthought. I really went: "Hey, let's have the brother/sister of Namjoon's first wife be a live-in non-paying guest even after she dies in the House of Kim."

I had originally intended it to be an old woman but finally I scrapped the idea and Min Yoongi was born. I really didn't expect people to like him so much. Wise and a bit senile, Yoongi is like a clue-book for the siblings, pointing them to the right direction. Nobody in the family takes him seriously because of his religious mania. Of course, he also gets muddled and falls for Taehyung's genius plan, thus slowing things down for the siblings. His accent is my interpretation of the "strong, Daegu dialect", but in English. My inspiration was the Scottish and Yorkshire accents, extremely generalized, as accents defer from region to region. 

━━ SON SEUNGWAN

She wasn't a favorite but quite some people suspected her. Like Yoongi said, she is shady but not for the reason you think she is. I laughed a lot while writing the final scene between her and Hoseok. She's efficient to the point it's scary, intelligent and cool. So when Hoseok found great satisfaction to see her lose her composure, I sympathized with him because such people can be a bit difficult to speak to and being a policemen, it helps your work if people are transparent with you. Apart from Seokjin, Seungwan is the most difficult character to crack for the Jung Siblings (especially Hoseok).

TRIVIA

━━ ONE ;; Kim Mingyu was the initial cast choice for Seokjin's character.

━━ TWO ;; Kim Yongsun was the initial cast choice for Joohyun's character.

━━ THREE ;; Jungkook was going to be the manservant and Jimin was going to be the husband but I decided to switch things up.

━━ FOUR ;; The scene with the gay bar was never included in the first script but it becomes the most important one in the entire book.

━━ FIVE ;; Joohyun was never meant to be the person who exposed Taehyung. It was always going to be Seokjin.

━━ SIX ;; Wheein was supposed to have this inferiority complex with Hoseok but I scrapped the idea for several reasons.

━━ SEVEN ;; Kang Seulgi's (the maid, Ms. Kang) testimony against Hansol and Joohyun was only included the day before publication of the chapter.

━━ EIGHT ;; The first draft had thirty chapters until I narrowed it down to twenty-five.

━━ NINE ;; All restaurants, hotels, bars, etc. were basically names of songs from the discography of either BTS, Red Velvet and Mamamoo. Never got a chance to represent Seventeen that way. So please stream all of Seventeen's discography.

━━ TEN ;; Every member appears in exactly three GIFs (excluding Namjoon who appears in two GIFS). I have tried to select pictures that are relevant to the mood and theme of the episode, or how specific that character/face-claim is to that particular chapter.

━━ ELEVEN ;; The introductory chapter also has GIFs that are relevant to the story (some are for the aesthetic):
↪ Jung Hoseok's is meant to represent his curiosity towards the case. Only his eyes are visible, shrouded by a bubble (which is the substitute for the veil that covers the eyes of the siblings). 
↪ Jung Wheein is shown with an unblinking stare, with the focus on her being zoomed in. While this was plainly for aesthetic purposes (look at how high quality the GIF is, oh my goodness), I like to think that it represents how close she gets to the unveiling the case.
↪ Kim Namjoon's GIF is, when zoomed out, one of him with a chemistry set. I just felt the outfit and general vibe of the GIF gave off a businessman vibe. 
↪ Bae Joohyun is easily the most relevant GIF. It is meant to show her luxurious lifestyle as well as her elegance. It is also a very "I'm-so-classy-and-beautiful" moment. 
↪ Kim Yerim's hair is down and slightly disheveled. Although she doesn't look as psychotic as I've described her in Chapter Fourteen, but it's the closest to her look in that chapter.
↪ Kim Taehyung's GIF is meant to show the fairy tale-like life he's shown to be leading. And next to it, is his dialogue: "We all wear facades".
↪ Kim Seokjin, like Kim Namjoon, is represented as a head of business here. 
↪ Chwe Hansol's GIF is purely for aesthetic purposes because finding anything CLOSE to his character in this book is extremely difficult. But look at how pretty he is!
↪ Park Jimin is shown to be hiding something, as if he knows something more. He is hidden amongst the shadows, with light playing on his features, all the while invisible to the Jung Siblings.

━━ ELEVEN ;; The word count for this entire book is 53,488. The word count for each chapter is written below every chapter. This is excluding the introductory chapter (HOUSE OF KIM), gallery, note of thanks, letter box, mail and this chapter. If we include those chapters then the word count will be 64,581.

━━ TWELVE ;; House of Kim was originally going to be called The Invisible Guest.

And that's it! If you have any questions, you can ask them in LETTER BOX. Thank you, once again, for reading House of Kim. For a sappier note of thanks, go over to the next chapter.