Hi reader! If you are coming from Chapter 39, I have structured my Afterword so that you can read the explanation (because I know how curious people tend to be) first and the rest of the Afterword you can read after you have finished the rest of the book.

Take this as a warning: spoilers ahead!

When you see this symbol ~*~ please stop reading unless you want to ruin all the surprises that are still ahead of you.

If you are reading this and you have finished the book then, you are welcome to continue on.

EXPLANATION ON CHAPTER 39

So I told you all in my author's note that I will explain why Our Little Dorm Mother suddenly took a dark turn.

The best way to explain this is through Mirei's/ Nami's/ Little Umma's characterisation. Throughout the book, I have been dropping hints as to what sort of person Nami is (I will refer to her in this name). Hopefully, you have managed to pick up that she is an independent, self-efficient and stubborn person. While this is her strength, it is also her weakness.

Nami thinks that she can do everything herself and with her skills in judo, she thinks that she doesn't need to rely on anyone. As she mentioned to Chanyeol during the retreat, "I'm not a damsel in distress" which annoys him. Because of her arrogance, she ends up in a compromising situation which was chapter 39.

The idea behind that event was to show that despite her tough exterior, she was still vulnerable and that she needed to learn to rely on others. It wasn't explicitly mentioned but Nami didn't consider being in any trouble because she trusted Ryuk. However, I did hint during Chanyeol's and D.O's conversation that they were somewhat reassured that Nami was tough and that she could 'handle it'. The problem was, Nami was just human. In spite of everything, she was liable to getting hurt and her independence led to her demise.

In all honesty, I was on the fence about writing that chapter. I wanted to keep this fanfiction as light-hearted as possible but, at the same time, I wanted to show you that not everything is sunshine and rainbows. I wanted to write a fanfiction that was quite close to what could happen in reality because some of the fanfictions I've read, were so far-fetched that, I found it hard to relate with the main character.

I wanted to show you a different side to Nami too. It was the only way I could give her a more well-rounded personality. Furthermore, this event adds to another twist in the story which you will (or have already) read.

So in short, I apologise for the sudden turn to suspense thriller. I did feel pretty bad writing it but I promise you, it was necessary. Hopefully, you weren't too distressed.

~*~

CHARACTERISATION

In this part, I'm going to discuss how I characterised the EXO members and other important original characters.

Mirei

See main explanation above. The only thing I can add is that I'm sorry for the confusion with so many names. Even for me, I got really confused on who calls her what and so on. In my original draft, the MC was going to be called Nami throughout the whole book. But then I thought, "Hey, if I was going undercover, why would I use my real name?" and that trail of thought led me to invent her an alias.

The funny thing is, 'Minami' was actually a typo that flourished into an important motif. I was also playing around with her full name which was Na Mirei or Mirei Na. As you can see, Nami can actually be taken from her full name.

Also, I have a feeling that you guys might be wondering where Nami is ethnically from. Well, I was pretty vague about her ethnicity because I wanted you to decide for yourself. The only thing that is certain is that she's not Korean (despite her Korean name). 'Mirei' is just a variant of the name 'Mirae' which means 'future.' Why did I choose that name? Easy. Because of chapter 67. And it was taken from the K-drama, 'Marry Him If You Dare' (I was a Jung Yong Hwa fan so I watched a lot of his dramas back in the day).

And no, she isn't based on me as the author. Yes, her characterisation was influenced by my experiences but other than that, we're two different people. Although, I will admit that I do wish I was like Nami (but I'm guessing all fanfic writers are like that about their MCs).

Nikka

Originally, Nikka was meant to be a female reporter that didn't actually appear in the book at all. I had planned for her to be the best friend that Mirei turns to when she needed advice or be her work rival etc. but that idea got scrapped when I decided to turn Nikka into a guy. I tried to keep Nikka's gender a secret until chapter 18-- which was the big reveal-- because I like surprising you guys. Plus, I didn't want to make his purpose too obvious until later on in the book.

I realised, after snooping around Wattpad, that the whole 'male best friend' thing was an ongoing cliché that was prominent amongst sooo many books. (Yeah. Great.) So I decided to spin it and make him a gay best friend that was actually straight. I think by doing that, it added more depth to his character and, it added to the drama in chapter 61.

By the way, did you guys like the heart pillow reference? I thought it was a nice touch. But damn, did it hurt for poor Nikka.

Overall, Nikka's purpose was to show you a different side to Nami as he was her connection to the past and what she is really like. I was hoping that by introducing him, you will get a better understanding of her character and her past experiences with love etc.

Richard

Not much to say here really. He's a dick. End of.

Hyemi/ Mrs. Park

These characters don't really appear in the story but they play a minor role in shaping the plot. Both characters form the reason why Nami ended up going undercover.

Hyun-suk

One of my favourite characters. Yes, he's a true friend to Nami and he is gay. I wanted to give Nami someone she could talk to that didn't have any ulterior motives (well he wanted to get on with Sehun but that's not important). Hyun-suk acted as Nami's advisor and provided her with his opinions on very critical moments in the story. He's pretty sassy and did ruffle Chanyeol's feathers when they first met.

Okay, I'll admit, Hyun-suk purpose wasn't originally to advise Nami. He was also there to confuse you as to who the 'mysterious stranger' might be. But, I decided to give him a better role since poor Nami was literally friendless when Nikka left South Korea.

Stylist-noona/ Manager-nim/ Manager-hyung/ Manager-noona

They're just secondary characters, hence why I didn't bother with giving them names. They do play a part but not as significant as the rest.

Suji

I had fun creating her character. So another cliché in K-pop fanfics is that the female antagonist is always from another K-pop group. I think the most common ones are Girls Generation and Black Pink (just why?) and I didn't want to fall into that category so I made Suji up.

Yes, her personality follows the rich girl trope and I bet you guys thought that Our Little Dorm Mother was going to be just a catfight between Suji and Nami over one of the EXO members. Well, nope. Not really, anyway.

Suji was created as part of the complication that happens between Chanyeol and Nami. She's your typical prissy princess but other than that, she's pretty harmless. Of course, her main role isn't realised until the fourth arc. I guess you can say that she's a silent but deadly character (just like Nikka). And I thought that it would be best to create a character that you can openly detest and doesn't exist in real life because I know how powerful characterisation can be.

Cameos

I added quite a few cameos in the story and so that you understood who I was referring to, I tried to feature them in the previews so that you get a visual representation.

Leetuk from Super Junior

Seohyun from Girls Generation

Kim So-Hyun

Lee Sooman

Park Yoora

And other names were mentioned...

BTS

Because Nami was a BTS fan, I thought it would be unfair not to let her meet her biases (plus it was really exciting to write those chapters too!) The characterisation of the BTS members was influenced by my ARMY friend, DV, who I asked for advice since I had no idea what BTS was like. I did watch some shows but I couldn't get into it... I'm not one of those extreme EXO-L anti-fans and I actually really enjoy BTS' music but, I found it so hard to get into the ARMY feel. So, I'm sorry to all those ARMYs who think that my characterisation of the BTS members is unrealistic. In truth, I couldn't be arsed to watch dozens of videos on them since they only appear in three chapters. I will do better next time, though.

Former EXO Members

In my original plan, I had wanted to include Kris, Luhan and Tao as part of the story. But because it was just hectic trying to distinguish everyone's personalities and characterisation, I decided to axe them and make this story into an OT9 story instead (sorry former EXO members). Nevertheless, I still mentioned them a lot and made references to them whenever I could.

Suho

He ended up being naggy most of the time. In some fanfics I've read, others have characterised him the same way so I just stuck with that.

Lay

Doesn't appear much in the story but that's because he was away in China. This is pretty accurate since he's been doing loads of individual activities lately (has anyone been watching 'Idol Producer'?) so I only brought him back when I felt it was time. Admittedly, his role in the story was improvisation on my part. I didn't feel it was right just to bring him back to substitute Chanyeol so I let him in on the undercover secret. From what I've researched, Lay's pretty 'laid back' and he's a darling so... I think my characterisation of him is good.

Sehun

I got more creative with Sehun's character because in what shows I've seen, he's so... plain. Sehun tends not to speak much in interviews and such so I found it hard to discern what kind of personality he had. Because of that, I ended up making him perverted (I'm so sorry Oh Sehun, I know you're not like this really... or are you?) and as the maknae, I wanted to give him a mischievous outlook. He's pretty much the comedy guy in the story since Chanyeol was out of action.

Kai

I paired Kai and Sehun up as a comedy duo because I really liked their chemistry in 'EXO Showtime'. If you remember in chapter 21, Kai and Sehun bought Nami some 'not burdensome' things. That was a reference to the episode with Chanyeol's birthday. That part made me laugh so much that I decided to reference it in this story. Kai's character was therefore pretty child-like and simple-minded which made him and Sehun a great pair. Also, I tried not to overdo the chicken reference.

Chen

The ultimate wingman! Chen was one of my favourite characters purely because there was so much about him I could write. The relationship between him, Baekhyun, Xiumin and Chanyeol meant that there were so many ways he could react. To elaborate, Chen and Baekhyun belong to the subgroup, CBX, but with Chanyeol, they're known as the 'beagle line'. I had fun characterising Chen because between him and Baekhyun, he seemed like the most sensible one and the one most conflicted with who to root for. He's pretty close with Xiumin and acts as his advisor and his role only came to be more profound because of the Xiumin complication (see Xiumin's explanation). Honestly, I like him a lot as a sassy character.

Baekhyun

I think he was the easiest to characterise because Baekhyun is just generally playful and extroverted. When he walked in on Nami in chapter 3-4, that was actually a reference from EXO's guest appearance on 'Knowing Brothers'. Like Chen, I like to write about his interactions between Chanyeol and Xiumin. In this story, however, I tended to push Baekhyun more with Chanyeol since Xiumin already had Chen. Either way, he's just your general fun guy that lifts the spirits of the group and of course, let's not forget that he's EXO's love doctor (although I'm not really sure where this reference came from.)

Xiumin

Okay, so I'm guessing some of you were very disappointed when Xiumin and Nami didn't get together. I'm sorry! I too was feeling pretty bad about that. But the truth is, I never planned for Xiumin to get with Nami in the beginning. The idea to add Xiumin into the race was given by my friend, CL, who I was discussing general EXO stuff with.

I had just written chapter 7 and I somehow managed to give Xiumin a bigger role than I originally planned. During the editing process and after speaking to CL, I came up with the idea of making Nami fall for Xiumin first. Why? Because feelings were strange like that.

Originally, Nami was meant to get on with her life as EXO's housekeeper without falling in love until the start of the second arc. But then I thought, "Hey, what if Nami was on the road with Xiumin before that happened?" and then, boom. The drama was born.

In the original plan, Xiumin was going to be a brother figure for Nami and somewhat support her in her love trials with Chanyeol (pretty much Hyun-suk's role) but then I scrapped that idea and went with this complication instead.

But what I didn't anticipate was how attached I'd become to Xiumin. In all honesty, I started hating on Chanyeol when I wrote Xiumin's heartbreak scene. I was just sooo sad. Like, why? Why author-nim? Why did you do this to me? But then I realised that I was the author and had to get a grip.

Chanyeol

Okay, so Chanyeol's characterisation was taken from 'EXO Next Door'. I had just recently watched this incredibly cheesy show and was inspired to make Chanyeol the 'supposed' main lead. I didn't want him to come across as a total ass, don't get me wrong, he was borderline during the first arc but, I wanted to make him seem more playful instead of being a downright twat (yes, 'twat' because we don't use 'jerk' in the UK).

Chanyeol's character was pretty much a big tease. He's a charmer that doesn't show his affection easily but demonstrates it through his actions. If you've noticed, he's pretty protective and he's always constantly in denial about how he feels about Nami. This was mainly because of the whole 'bet' theme and we all know how that ends.

Honestly, I was developing a crush on Chanyeol up to the lead up to the second arc. Chapter 11 and 21 were my favourite chapters of that arc. And after that, Chanyeol was hardcore bias-wrecking me up until the lead up to chapter 39. In truth, I have a preference for guys with deep voices and ohmigod does Chanyeol's voice sound heavenly! In short, this character was swaying my resolve to keep faithful! So imagine my distress when I had to break him and Nami apart... it really broke me (which was why I had to go on a brief hiatus).

D.O

Like Chanyeol's explanation, I based D.O's character from what I'd seen on 'EXO Next Door'. To me, he seemed like the quiet, shy type and he pretty much fits the second male lead trope. In my original plan, D.O was meant to always be the main lead. In fact, Chanyeol's and D.O's roles were reversed.

To put it simply, D.O was meant to be getting on with Nami but, does something stupid and she goes off to Chanyeol but, ends up getting together with D.O again.

Yeah, it was going to follow that cliché formula.

But, I decided against it and changed the line up since I was tired of seeing the arsehole always getting the girl. It just happens too many times.

I sidelined D.O a lot throughout the whole book because I wanted you guys to think that Nami was going to get together with either Xiumin or Chanyeol. Well, surprise! D.O was the ultimate champion. The hardest thing to do was to make sure each of them had enough screen time and that D.O didn't fade away. It would have been difficult if it weren't for the fact that they always had cooking sessions together, which was probably the only time they ever interacted in the dorm.

Why did I choose D.O to be the main lead? Because of his name. I know it's stupid but when I was thinking about the ending of this book, I was ultimately swayed by the idea that I had to call D.O's and Nami's kid, Do Reimi. I hope you got the reference. It was like destiny because Nami's real name was 'Mirei' and D.O's surname was 'Do'. This was what kept me motivated to keep writing till the end, I'm not going to lie.

And, if D.O does end up getting married and having a daughter, I swear to God, I would be sooo happy if he ended up naming her Reimi! (Just so you all know, it was me who you heard it from first!)

Reimi

I wasn't going to write anything for Reimi (since she only appeared in the last chapter) but I thought I should explain a little about her. In my original plan, D.O's and Nami's daughter was meant to be a boy. No reason why, it's just that most fanfics always had girls (if they had happy endings). I was going to write about a little Kyungsoo (because guys, have you seen his baby pictures? They're so adorable I couldn't help cooing!) but I didn't know what to call him and I ended up thinking about the name, 'Reimi' and that's why I changed it into a girl. The funny story behind how I came up with this name was because of watching EXO's guest appearance on 'Weekly Idol'. This was when there were 12 members instead of 9. Chen, Xiumin and Baekhyun were having a 'do re mi' contest on who could sing the highest note. And then something clicked: "'Do Reimi'?, my gawd, it's perfect!"

As you have read from how I've characterised Reimi, she's quite feisty like Mirei. I tried to echo a lot of themes from the previous chapters in the finale and I must say, it made me a little tearful since it's such a beautiful way to end it.

Also, I feel like you guys might be wondering if Mirei will give birth to another daughter or whether it will be a son this time. If you remember, in the fourth arc, Mirei said that she wanted to have one of each gender and she wanted a son first. Well, she ended up having a daughter first and who's to say whether she'll get another one?

SO, WHO'S YOUR BIAS?

I would say that D.O was my bias (as you can guess from the ending of the story) but in reality, I don't even know anymore. After writing this fanfic, I've been bias-wrecked left, right and centre by Xiumin, Chanyeol and D.O that, I don't even know who I stan anymore.

Let's just say that I like EXO as a whole.

I didn't want to reveal who my bias was until this Afterword since it would have been a dead give away.

EXO REFERENCES, IN-JOKES AND RESEARCH

I did a lot of research when I was planning for this fanfic. I watched a lot of shows on YouTube, read a few articles and mostly spoke to my senior EXO-L friend (because she's been in the fandom much longer than I have). I referenced a lot of in-jokes and real-life events in the book which inspired the plot of this story.

For example, Taeyeon and Baekhyun's break up; Chanyeol starring in 'So I Married An Anti-fan', Kai and Krystal's break up and D.O's film, 'Pure Love'. These were events that happened in 2016. Granted, the timescale for this story is very inaccurate. But the events that I wrote about happened roughly around 2016- 2017 so that's the time frame of this story.

I tried my best to stick to an accurate timeline but it was so hard. Some parts were just sped up for dramatisation so forgive the unrealistic timescale of shooting a movie within one month (yeah, I know it takes longer than that but oh well, just a minor blip.)

The things I referenced are things that I use in my daily life. For example, Skype, WhatsApp, YouTube etc. and for some reason, some fanfics totally disregard the power of social media. I had to think objectively when trying to avoid plot holes and I nearly fell into one when I was trying to work out Nami's departure (hence why Suji took her phone).

Research was a big key to writing this fanfic and I've referenced a lot in my chapters so I hope that if you were curious about what I was on about, you Googled it.

INSPIRATION FOR 'OUR LITTLE DORM MOTHER'

I want to talk a little bit about my first draft because that's how this story came about.

So in my very first draft, the MC was a teenage girl who went to live with EXO as their housekeeper. She was just a student, uneducated, didn't know anything about K-pop (despite being Korean) and was dating a fictional trainee at some unknown talent agency. Then, something dumb happens and she and her boyfriend breaks up and she falls for one of the EXO members even though it was forbidden to do so.

Gawd, that plot sounds so awful now that I'm seeing it in front of me. But yes, this was a simplified version of my very first draft, and it's so cliché, it makes my skin crawl.

When I was starting out on Wattpad, I hadn't read any fan fictions. I didn't know what existed and how to write good fan fiction. This is actually my first ever completed fanfiction and novel. So when I started reading and snooping about, I finally learned what worked and what didn't and ended up scrapping my original story. The plot was bland, the characters were bland and the whole story was just underdeveloped.

It was only when I had watched 'So I Married An Anti-fan', 'EXO Next Door' and the episode with Chen, Chanyeol and Suho in 'Happy Together' did this story click. I thought, "Hey, what if my MC was a reporter? What if she went undercover and lived with EXO?" And then, just to top it off I thought, "You know what, let's make her a BTS fan!" And that was pretty much how this story came about.

I based Nami's background as a British reporter because there simply isn't enough fanfics where the MC is from the UK. Almost everyone has been to or somewhat lived in Canada or the US. Understandably, K-pop is much more prevalent in those areas since, in the UK, the Hallyu wave hasn't really infiltrated the music industry. I mean, we don't even get K-pop concerts *cries* so I decided to base my characters in the UK just to be different. I'm sure there are other K-pop fans out there that are British too. I just haven't met any of them in Wattpad yet (if you fall into this category, let's be friends!)

Fun fact! I came up with the first line in chapter 1 while I was in the shower: "My boss is a dick."

WILL YOU WRITE ANOTHER EXO FANFIC?

I probably won't. I spent a lot of time writing this story and in the process, I got really attached to all my characters. I'm not like other fanfic authors who can re-use and re-set characters to suit each of their stories. I have this policy that when I create or think up a story, I never use the same names twice. Each and every one of my characters must have a name that belongs solely to them, which is probably why I struggle to come up with names for many characters.

But my point is, I can't undo what I've built. I mean, it would feel so weird for me to write D.O as a total idiot in my next fic because I spent so much time crafting his character to be shy and caring. I will probably still do cameos but, EXO as main characters, nope.

Having said that, I did consider writing a sequel to this story or maybe a spin-off. Maybe something along the lines of Reimi growing up and having an adventure of her own. I'll let you in on my thought process. I was thinking about writing the sequel based on Reimi's life as an adult and perhaps being a manager of a famous band or something or other. But when I thought of this, I found it hard to imagine since that meant that the EXO members would be a lot older than they are now and I would have to juggle the time frame a little to accommodate existing K-pop artists as opposed to imaginary future ones. I did think about pairing her up with NCT (since they're still pretty new) but the age difference and pairing was just so... ugh. So I scrapped that idea. It would be too weird to write about the EXO members past their prime but at least there would have been cameos.

I'm pretty satisfied with how this story ended since it's quite wholesome so I won't write a sequel to it. I mean, why ruin something that turned out well? In short, I don't want to milk it (if you guys understand what I mean).

TRANSLATIONS

If you enjoyed this story and wish to translate it, please private message me or write on my board. Normally, I'm willing to have my works translated as long as you properly credit me as the author and you notify me. Just please don't plagiarise: I poured my soul into writing this story and it would hurt me if someone just rips it off with little care.

THE SECRET BEHIND FAST UPDATES

So if you've been keeping up with my update schedule of every day then, you're probably wondering, "How is she managing to find the time to write?"

Well, the answer is, I have too much time on my hands (at the moment). But also, I pre-write these chapters ahead of time and publish them every day after re-reading them again and adding minor changes. Since I am my own editor, I have to read and re-read several times for typos and spelling mistakes. Each chapter you've read, I've read at least five times before publishing. Of course, I do make mistakes but hopefully, by doing this system I have been able to bring out the best versions of each chapter and deliver them to your library!

I also planned very well when it came to this story. In fact, my plan took me roughly two months to create. I kid you not, two months. It worked in my favour though, because it meant that when it came to the writing process, it was a lot easier and more free-flowing. My plan was pretty much my book written out in simpler form. It was so detailed that it even included dialogue (gasp!) So I've essentially written this book twice.

Of course, I planned and changed things along the way but the main story roughly stayed the same.

My advice: make sure you plan well. Don't start writing until you know how your story is going to end.

Also, did you guys like the previews? They were my favourite part of writing because I always made them after I finished writing a chapter. The idea actually came about when I was writing chapter 10 and I thought, "Damn, I like that paragraph, let me make it into a picture..." and then I was like, "Hey, why don't I start making these into previews instead? I bet my readers would love it!" and that's why I started making them.

Please feel free to download them and share them on social media or to your friends. Also, out of interest, which one was your favourite? (This isn't a rhetorical question so please feel free to answer!)

FAVOURITE CHAPTER

This is pretty tough. But the chapter that stood out to me the most was probably chapter 15. Why? Because I improvised that part. I was also pretty proud of the references I added and this chapter is why Chen became my favourite character.

Of course, I love my book as a whole. There were many moments when I cracked up because of my own joke (which sounds sad, I know) and I was actually caught up with my characters' dilemmas and feelings too.

KISSING SCENES, ROMANCE AND SMUT

This is my first time writing a complete romance-comedy so I'm totally inexperienced. I struggled a lot writing the kissing scenes because I'm inexperienced too. I had to ask my more experienced friends for help and they described to me how kissing feels like (I know, it was damn awkward).

In terms of romance, I was able to muddle through because I'm a shoujo veteran. What is that you ask? It's someone who has watched a lot of shoujo anime during their teens as well as Chicklit and Rom-com films: you name it. I love romance-comedies and I was able to capture what the maiden heart wants (because I too, am a maiden waiting for my Prince to come-- jokes, I'm a strong, independent woman.)

Smut. Hm. Well. Since I struggled with kissing, smut was totally out of my depth. But as a romance writer, it's kinda important to know how to write the more 'heated' scenarios. I think you can tell from some of the chapters that I like to tease and raise the tension but nothing actually happens... well, I'm still working my way there so eventually, I will write a smut scene but just not in this story-- not yet.

Just so you know, I blushed a lot while writing those kiss scenes and overly romantic scenarios. I'm still an innocent girl at heart so I'm taking baby steps to writing!

SPELLING AND GRAMMAR

I'm very particular about spelling because I absolutely hate it when something is amiss. It really irritates me. Having said that, if you use American English, I feel sorry for you because my British spellings must have caused you some internal twitching.

I'm going to confess, I struggle when reading some fanfics that have been written using American English spelling. Don't get me wrong, it is fundamentally correct, however, I can't turn off my internal auto-correct which notices these things all the time. And, it doesn't help that the auto-correct on Wattpad sometimes changes my spellings into the American version (just no, please no.)

Some of these words include the occasional omission of a 'u' and 'e'.

For example, 'behaviour' = 'behavior' (I can't even...) and 'programme' = 'program' (please make it stop!)

It tortures me. So I understand if it tortures you seeing things spelled the British way.

In terms of grammar, I tried to keep things consistent. If you see commas everywhere where they shouldn't be, apologies. I suck at commas so I tend to use them like sprinkles on a doughnut.

Also, I tried to stay neutral with some of my word choices and idioms. I'm aware that some of my readers are from different countries and may not understand the idioms I used so I had to double check them a couple of times to find a more well-known phrase. Please pardon the British version though. Since I am a British writer, I will often use the British equivalent (that's a no-brainer) and so, I hope you don't mind it too much.

For example, 'trousers' instead of 'pants'. Although I do use 'ass' instead of 'arse' only when the EXO members are speaking (I feel like they would use American English more than British English which was why I did that).

My favourite example would be 'skeletons in the cupboard' as opposed to 'skeletons in the closet'.

Guys, what's a 'closet'? Like, is it where you put your clothes or your miscellaneous items because, in the UK, we use 'wardrobe' for clothes and 'cupboard' for everything else. But you get what I mean. There are variances in language.

Fun fact! The only Americanism I use is 'mom'. I don't like using 'mum' because that just sounds silly to me.

ABOUT ME

Brief history

I made this account in 2012 when I was still a teen (I'm in university now) but I only became active in writing in January 2018.

During my teens, what put me off of Wattpad was the One Direction fanfics: they were rife. Like, I had a friend who was a proper Directioner and she was reading these fanfics non-stop. I wasn't much of a reader in the past, I was always more of a writer and I didn't really understand the concept of fan fiction. I get it for fictional characters like Twilight (another reason why I didn't go on Wattpad) but for celebrities, I always found it so bizarre.

So in short, I never thought I'd see the day when I start writing fan fictions of my own. It's pretty weird really. I think my teen self would have slapped me in the face for stooping down to the fan fiction level because I had always been more of an original writer kinda girl.

In the past, I couldn't understand why people marvelled at 1D (I liked their songs but I wasn't gaga over them) and it puzzled me why people were creating stories with what life could be like with Harry Styles or Niall Horan. Maybe it was because I live in the UK which was why I didn't see the fascination. And I guess the grass always seems greener on the other side, which was why I ended up writing about EXO (I finally get the fangirl life). But hey, they were my muse.

Bunch of facts

I have second-guy syndrome: I always root for the second male lead.

Shoujo-veteran: no real experience but a lot of romance-related knowledge acquired from anime, films and books.

Prolific writer: I can't write short stories. I mean, look at this book!

I hate the whole point of view thing. I wrote my story as I would write original stories. I really hate it when there's that whole first person POV thing and it switches from one character's POV (in first person) and another's (in first person). I find it confusing. Hence, why I used a combination of first person and third person (it also helped since you can differentiate between when she refers to herself as Mirei and when others refer to her as Nami).

FINAL AUTHOR'S NOTE

If you're reading this then, thanks! I know this was just a long chapter with a bunch of ramblings but I wanted to write a commentary on my experiences and thoughts about writing this fanfic.

I don't about you, but as a writer, I like to know what other writers are thinking when they create their own work. What was their inspiration? What was their motivation? Why did they characterise a person like that? So if you're one of these people too, then I hope that I did you a service by explaining everything as much as I could.

Since this is my first fanfic, I don't expect a lot of votes, comments or anything. I mean, I'm just starting out as a writer so I'm practically new blood. However, to those readers who have been supporting me and have reached out to me, thank you very much. I almost did give up writing but because of you guys, I carried on. I had a lot of fun writing this fic and I went on an emotional roller coaster while doing so and that was an interesting experience. I feel kind of sad it ended, in a way...

I just wanted to let you know that I will write two more fanfics before I leave this genre completely.

Like I mentioned before, I never thought I'd get into fanfictions so this book was actually meant to be my first and last. However, two ideas started blossoming during the writing of this book so I want to give them a chance to shine before I move onto writing my original stories, which have been on hold for too long.

These two fanfics will be alternate universe stories starring two different K-pop groups with possible cameos from EXO. All I can tell you is that one is a historical fiction and the other has a high school theme. Also, I am going to follow the same theme of surprises so that the male lead won't be confirmed until the very end and if you enjoyed this story then, I hope that you will read my next projects too.

Since they are still in the planning phase, I will be on hiatus until I completely finish my plan. Please anticipate further updates on my board and of course, if you don't want to miss out, then you can always follow me (but I don't mind if you don't).

Lastly, if you have the time, can you answer these questions for me? I'm going to use your answers as feedback for my next project. You can comment as an inline comment or private message me if you prefer. This isn't compulsory but it would be nice to receive some feedback so that I know where to improve.

To say thank you to my readers, I wanted to give you a special gift. Now, I know some of you are dissatisfied with how Xiumin and Chanyeol didn't get their happy ending. Well, you're in luck. I wasn't going to do this but I decided to write their alternate endings.

Don't get too excited, I'm not writing a whole arc just for them (I mean c'mon this book is already sooo long) but I am going to write alternate chapters of what could have happened.

I will write three of my What if? chapters. These are best explained by these questions:

Scenario 1:

What if... Nami's cover wasn't blown by Chanyeol? What would have happened at the private party after the Gayo Daejun concert? Would Operation Cupid's Arrow have been a success?

Scenario 2:

What if... Chanyeol hadn't been stopped by Manager-nim and Suji on his way to his date with Nami? Would they have gotten together? Would he have finally told her those three words and eight letters?

Scenario 3:

What if... Mirei never went undercover as EXO's housekeeper and she went to Seoul to do the BTS interview she was looking forward to doing? Would she still have met EXO? Would things have turned out differently if it was Hyemi in her place instead?

Since I have my What if? chapters left, I guess this is somewhat like the penultimate author's note that I will be writing.

Once again, thank you very much, reader, for reading this book and voting (if you have been) and I hope to meet you again in my upcoming projects. Of course, if you are my future reader and you're reading this once the whole book has been completed, thanks too, for sticking around until the end.

Like I wrote in my first author's note in chapter 1, I hope that I was able to make you laugh, cry or at least smile once throughout this book. If I have then, great! I am pleased to know that I was able to move you with my writing. If I haven't then, darn. I'll try and do better next time.

And as a parting gift here's the first preview...

See you again, tomorrow!