2021 fic roundup!

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this year i wrote a total of (counts on fingers) 7 fics with 101,659 words in all published fics/flashfics/tweefics! which is kind of a lot for me considering real life usually gets in the way + i tend to write over 10k per fic. this year (mostly bc of the pandemic) i somehow found my way back to kpop stan twt and writing. bad decisions uncontrollable brainrot etc etc...anyway. i thought it would be fun to do a fic roundup to see how my writing/preferences have evolved this year. i have been known to ramble (especially about my writing process) so...sorry in advance for whoever decides to read this <3

✍ fics

FULL-LENGTH FICS

ITZY

muse 🎨

muse; yeji/ryujin (14.6k)
1 Feb

Ryujin doesn’t understand what the big deal is about school athletes, or why they’re so popular. She’s just trying to figure out what to paint for the annual art exhibition at the end of the semester. Then Hwang Yeji, the school’s star baseball player, enters her life with her cat-like eyes and pretty smile, and upends her world.

so...i remember around this time i had just gotten into itzy and ryujin and yeji were haunting my brain and so i had to write something for them. more specifically it went something like—"fuck i'm not going to start writing kpop fic again" > "but where are the itzy fics" > reads ryeji dance au > "yeah my heart is content i don't need to write fic" > ryejiau DEACTIVATES before i can finish reading > "fuck i'm gonna have to start writing again".

i was looking for inspiration on what to write and came across alby's adorable art of baseball captain yeji x supportive gf ryujin <3 and coincidentally around that time i'd been watching and rewatching videos of yeji pitching at isac bc...hot. and i think i just looked at alby's art and bits and pieces of the story just came to me. ryujin looked like someone who didn't care much for anything in that nondescript hoodie/jeans/sneakers combo, and i thought it would be cute to write grumpy introvert x popular it girl whom everyone adores but secretly only has eyes for said grumpy introvert (who, in turn, doesn't give a single fuck about the popular kids). additionally something about ryujin's fit just screamed art student with paint-splattered clothes to me. so then the secondary plotline of ryujin and her art exhibition formed alongside the main storyline (yeji's baseball finals). and then what was 5k became...15k.

since this was my first full fic in i think 3 years & also my first fic for a fandom i was writing like satan himself possessed me. i remember being out with friends / at work and then scenes and specific lines would start coming to me and i would just start spacing out or writing it down in my phone (i have a terrible memory when it comes to remembering what i intend to write so yeah it needs to be recorded)...needless to say i did not get a lot done that week (except for this fic). after like 2-3 full days of planning i wrote 14.6k in a week, revived qaisal, and once again doomed myself to kpop fic writing :/

comments that stuck in my head

• an anon coming into my cc and saying they listen to my fics like a podcast when they do their assignments and later revealing themselves and drawing this beautiful comic <3
• "i've had a hard time today but it changed when i've read your work. thank you for saving me."

give us a chance (please) 💫

give us a chance (please); yeji/ryujin (23.9k)
6 March - 10 April

Yeji’s waited her whole life to meet the person whose words are inked on the inside of her wrist. She isn’t prepared for a soulmate who wants nothing to do with her.

ahh...(inhales) soulmates au...

i remember going into this i was like "i want to write an angsty non-traditional soulmates au" :^) but then as i wrote and planned more of it it became less about writing angst for the sake of it and more about what transpires between two very different people with very different mindsets when you dump them together and tell them they're destined for each other; how they grow both together and individually. for yeji, to stop looking at the world of soulmates through rose-tinted glasses & to put herself first more often. for ryujin, to slowly build that trust with yeji over time, to learn that it's okay to be open and vulnerable with someone, to unlearn her initial prejudice. for both of them, to look beyond labelling each other as soulmates and simply being with each other because they want to.

writing chapter 1 was nbd; writing chapter 2 was a more interesting experience...firstly bc i had cc anons coming into my inbox asking for the update in all caps KSDJDS...i was more flattered than stressed by it honestly but i was also a bit baffled bc at least in all the other fandoms i've been in, 10k+ in a month is considered...fast esp with rl commitments? LMAO also secondly bc i put minju in my fic and asked my wizone friends whether i should write minjoo or minju and half of them said minjoo while the other half said minju...i think i spent at least 2 days deliberating on this (help).

once i hit ryeji's "fight" everything was smooth sailing from then onwards, i think i wrote the stargazing part (3k? idr) in 3-4 hours at 1am again probably possessed by satan...good times. it was a lot of fun searching up the constellations; i'm a hoe for greek mythology so i had to put a story or two in (in ryujin's unique storytelling voice, of course) as well.

comments that stuck in my head

• "reading this part felt like i was slowly climbing the stairs to heaven with soft music playing on the background and then suddenly i stumbled over a rock and went straight to hell." [lettie]
• people telling me they hated soulmate aus but tried mine bc they saw that i wrote it out of spite and it made them like soulmate aus
• "I had a fight with my gf and was at a loss at what to do and this helped me a lot. Made me realize I should be a better person for her and never give up on us. Thank you so much."

other things

• andy made a playlist for this fic after reading the first chapter (with a few additions from me, lettie, kristie, and some cc anons) and it's something i'll always be grateful for <3
• lettie made a taylor swift playlist for this fic as well <3
• all the long ass comment threads other writers were leaving on this fic... ;-;
• ygtcomfs screaming at me for 2h straight after reading each chapter
• all the beautiful art for this fic (like...my first fic was inspired by alby's art and then my next fic inspired alby to do art i was very honoured and flustered that day bc we weren't friends yet...spammed them with at least 30 hearts)
• someone translated this fic into russian and then started translating the comments they were getting for me as well and some of them were essays....i was really touched ;-;

there's a demon in my home (and it's here to stay) 🌩

there's a demon in my home (and it's here to stay); yeji/ryujin (16.3k)
27 June

Yeji and Ryujin have been fighting for the first place in their year for as long as Yeji can remember, until one day, Ryujin vanishes.

A few days later, Yeji finds a scruffy stray cat wandering the hallways and takes it in, but she can't help but wonder what might've happened to the infuriating classmate who has always gotten on her nerves.

oh god okay so...before writing this i had the most terrible writer's block :') i don't think anyone knows this but the title is a reference to my ult of ults kim jiyeon...i was trying my best to write itzy but wjtb had just dropped easy and i was completely consumed by wjsn brainrot...this was just not a good time bc work was getting busier and itzfest had just started and i'd ambitiously claimed 3 prompts (which i would've finished with ease had it not been for my muse shifting and work fucking me in the ass) and also i was feeling the pressure to put out another give us a chance equivalent since it got so much traction...overall just the worst case of pressure & writer's block.

one day i was just like i'm gonna write a small cute ryeji tweetfic (5-10 tweets long) for ella's birthday! simple and easy! and then in classic ao3 user qaisal fashion it became 3k, then 5k, then i was looking at 16k in my drafts wondering how the hell it ended up that long.

(pictured: my chat with lettie)

the worst thing was: this wasn't even one of the prompts i'd claimed for itzfest but you know what it helped me get past writer's block so...worth. the title contains a jiyeon reference bc she had taken over my life at the time & also i literally put myself on a jiyeon tweet ban in order to get the last 8k out. ryejists you better thank her.......kim jiyeon paved the way :^)

despite all this this was still a really fun fic to write!! i was pretty relieved i successfully? pulled off the rivals to lovers here (considering before this i was writing mostly meet-cutes and strangers to lovers), i've always wanted to write an enemies/rivals to lovers and ryeji fit that dynamic really well. writing the gradual progression of their relationship was fun: from "i hate your motherfucking guts" to "god i guess i have to help you again...wait why am i helping you" to "i still hate you but maybe you have rights" to "school would be boring without you" to "why do i kind of want to kiss you right now".

reading/writing fantasy has always been my shit, it's soooo fun to write about magic. i did consider making this a hogwarts au but decided i wanted more freedom with the magic so the inspiration started to come from wjsn's save me save you setting instead <3 the magic itself was inspired by a lot of different things: the misdirection hex from dragon age, the potion ingredients from skyrim, catching lightning in a bottle from the witcher...the rest i just made up as i went along (the fun thing about writing AUs with magic).

comments that stuck in my head

• lettie putting a jiyeon gif at the end of her comment bc she Knew my struggle
• "pls write more i'm a big fan of himbo/simp yeji and hard-to-get ryujin"

other things

• wei wrote a scene from this fic in ryujin's pov <3
• this fic inspired sosososo much beautiful art i'm still partly in disbelief...super grateful everyone liked it this much ;-;
• also the funny thing is i had this idea for a while (i brainrotted it even before muse) and then mary tweeted in june "what kind of cat would ryujin be?" when i was writing it bc she wanted to draw ryujin shapeshifting into a cat in yeji's arms (which was basically my fic...) so i dmed her being like hwat is this about!!! and we ended up building off each other's ideas and releasing my fic and her art at the same time <3 we were terrorising everyone bc we wanted to tweet about it but didn't want to spoil it so we were censoring everything...(screenshots from andy) WHY DID SHE CENSOR MY NAME TOO? I'LL NEVER KNOW

till my lips are red and my lungs are blue 🥀

till my lips are red and my lungs are blue; ryujin/chaeryeong (14.3k)
19 September
written for ITZFEST

Chaeryeong swipes down the screen numbly. There are, apparently, only three possible options for someone suffering from Hanahaki disease. (Four, if you count dying.)

Compared to the other two, this one sounds like a piece of cake. Get over her stupid feelings for Ryujin. Easy.

Or, Chaeryeong starts coughing up blue petals that look suspiciously like Ryujin's favourite flower.

THIS WAS SUCH A TIME...it was kind of hilarious to see all the qrts yelling about the angst + a couple of people saying they knew instantly it was me from the writing style. i think this was the one i watched the most itzy content for in preparation / did the most research for because i felt like i didn't know ryuryeong intimately enough to be writing for them like that & also because i was writing a canon-compliant fic? which resulted in the bibliography in the endnotes. and yes i realise i was writing about respiratory diseases and making jokes about the bubonic plague in the time of a pandemic revolving around a respiratory disease. i kind of tweaked my writing style a bit here in certain places just for fun....people still knew it was me anyway tho :/

i've always wanted to try writing a hanahaki fic and i wonder if i could've done more here if i hadn't written the bulk of this fic in a week (procrastinated terribly...was late for my own fic fest deadline...had to go on jiyeon twt ban again) but that aside angst is always super fun to write. a classic: when there's angst bc they're both stupid <3

comments that stuck in my head

• every variation of "i knew it was qaisal who wrote this"
• also every variation of "qaisal wrote this???? no wonder"

because i guess i didn't know i had a signature style until itzfest happened. posting this made me feel like one of those glow-worms with a huge glowing beacon on my ass telling everyone who i was.

WJSN

in this moment now (capture it, remember it) 📸

in this moment now (capture it, remember it); seola/bona (15.2k)
19 December
unfinished

Hyunjung blinks. Beside her, Sojung’s fingers close around her elbow in a deathlike grip. “She’s not looking at me…right?”

“Um,” Sojung says. “I think she is.”

“There’s no way she’s looking at me.” Hyunjung twists to see who’s behind her—it’s two loud, excitable fans, looking the other way and brandishing signs that read Yoo Yeonjung. Hesitantly, she turns back around.

Bona is still smiling at her.

Or, Jiyeon is an idol and Hyunjung is her fansite.

NOW...i was dragged into this fandom kicking and screaming...i distinctly remember LETTIE (derogatory) spamming me with eunboreum gifs unsolicited when i was trying to write give us a chance chapter 2 just bc i said they were hot. and then wjtb dropped easy and i no longer had a choice. unfortunately even lettie did not foresee the degree to which i would spiral over wjsn and fall into kim jiyeonism but she really only has herself to blame. that said it's genuinely one of the best decisions i've made this year...stanning wjsn and learning more about them and the unhinged shit they do and bingeing their content reminds me of when i first discovered snsd. i genuinely did not think i'd be this stupid for another kpop idol aside from when i ulted taeyeon but...here i am...mentally ill. don't stan wjsn it's bad for your health

anyway. i posted this a week? ago...had to do a shitload of html formatting...wrote custom css for the text convos so they wouldn't look so messy...yeah :') i was actually working on a bunch of different wips trying to find something to settle on when i got brainrot out of nowhere; i remember tweeting on priv "what if i dropped everything to write an idol x fansite au like i've been wanting to for an (unspecified number of years)" and people started liking it so i took it as a sign from the divine powers above to continue.

when people think seolbo they usually think exes (and i do have that on the drawing board) but i just really wanted to write something soft/cute/pining for them to begin with. flustered grumpy mess hyunjung x charming mischievous jiyeon...[vague microwave noises] i ended up reading a lot of interviews with fansites for this fic & also playing around with DSLRs & film cameras which was really fun. (tmi but before this i started getting into film photography because of the wujus—in particular exy film) it's also very fun for me to write grumpy characters...and ofc nothing beats the experience of writing main himbo-slash-genius chu sojung and menace to society kim jiyeon <3

when writing this i was kind of worried that people wouldn't like reading the semi-unconventional format (text conversations mixed in with narration) but i also couldn't make it a socmed because a. i didn't want to b. the narration still made up a bulk of the fic anyway and there were things here and there that would get lost if i made it a socmed AU. which was why i was wrestling with css and manual html formatting at like 2am before posting this to make it look neater and more compact...thankfully people were saying they liked it!!

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i really didn't have to do much research for this fic other than fansite/fansign experiences because everything came pretty naturally inspired by real-life things: wjsn's obsession with photography (especially film), exseo himbos, sojung's unlimited stash of tears (as j. would say), hyunjung's obliviousness and frequent bouts of gay panic (which we got a nice healthy dose of when she went to seulgi zip), jiyeon being sweet to nervous fans at fansigns, jiyeon being on stan twt irl, jiyeon avid ^__^ user, bits and pieces of canon lore here and there. this was one of the fics i enjoyed writing the most due in part to the text messaging conversations (even if they were a pain in the ass to format), the double persona of jiyeon/idol bona that hyunjung was falling for, and the subtle yet glaringly obvious slip-ups jiyeon would make that hyunjung would miss completely. (to be fair to her...even with all those hints would you believe your favourite celebrity was secretly talking to you)

also please don't ask how the first chapter became 15k because i don't know either...i thought the whole thing would be 15k tops but i guess i got carried away again. the title is from fearless but i also listened to gold rush and superstar on repeat while writing some of this!

comments that stuck in my head

• (talking about hyunjung being an ex-SNSD fansite) "L M F A O HAG" [wei]
• (talking about hyunjung's wjsn spiral & searching for 30 different bona fancams) "drawing from personal experience i see" [wei]
  • "i was like fuck cat really loves bona" [t] and all other variations of me being called a simp for kim jiyeon bc of this fic
• "PUTANGINA CATTTTT" [t]
• "obsessed with your Jiyeon Is A Little Shit cinematic universe" [j.]
• (talking about following jiyeon's pm style in text convos) "fuck you copied her so well im so surprised" [t] / "the bona messaging tone is so on the nose i'm screaming" [j.]
• in-depth discussion between me and j. on our favourite jiyeon hairstyles and the difference between her 2016 & 2019 blonde following this fic
• "i'm not a wjsn stan, but when i saw that you wrote another story i had to read it because you are one of my favorite writers and now i'm obsessed with their songs so... thank you hahaha"
• actually i've had 3? 4? of these anons come into my cc and say they weren't a wjsn stan but they started listening to their music because of this fic nothing made me happier honestly ;__;
• "It has been so long since the last time a fic made me feel things...I wanna eat my arms rn bcs HELLO??????? I FEEL LIKE A PRETEEN GIRL THAT HAS FOUND A NEW CRUSH AND IS SCREAMING LIKE A BITCH. the butterflies in my stomach no joke. iT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I FELT THAT INDEED. maybe eating my arms ain't enough i need to jump of a tall building and crush my body under a truck because WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL FUCKING GAY PEOPLE I HATE ALL OF YOU FOR MAKING ME FEEL HOPELESS AND SINGLE LIKE WE GET ITTTTTTTTT" [x]
  • i'm sorry i found this comment hilarious so i had to include it

other things

• kim jiyeon stared my writer's block in the face and laughed
• i had a scene in this fic where hyunjung's sleepy ass accidentally got onto the same escalator step as jiyeon & it was inspired by the legendary yoona/fansite escalator incident....i couldn't find the video to link it but wei my beloved trustworthy hag sone immediately knew what i was referring to when they read it in the fic and found the video for me
• some of my midzy readers read this fic as well which i could not be more grateful for ;__;

MISC

yeah...not going to say much about the 2 other fics i wrote this year iykyk :^)

some things i guess

• i wrote both of these in record time...i think one of them (~6k) was written in 11h which. beats muse's record
• the funny thing is my friends read these without knowing it was me (and some of them suspected it was me) and then after they knew it was me they wanted to beat me up. to this day my wellbeing is still being threatened
• i was first to post in the [REDACTED] tag which is now very on brand for me

SMALL FICS

• eunseo/bona — in which juyeon runs a flower shop and pines after the playgirl who buys her flowers to give to girls she’ll just forget the next day.
  • i posted this eunbo pic on priv and ANDY (derogatory) commented on the differences in their fashion styles...and it just spiralled from there and i ended up putting a very short fic on main that i might or might not continue in the future
• yeji/ryujin — ryujin is a barista at a coffee shop and always screws up yeji’s name on purpose.
  • people were sending me screenshots telling me i was in the coffee twitter topic after this HELP...caffeine enthusiasts looking for their daily fix but getting this gay ass kpop shit instead im sorry
  • i don't really foresee myself continuing this i think it ended in a good place & also i simply do not want to write academic settings and coffee shops anymore
• rings (exy/seola)
  • might continue this bc i really want to write 2jung friends to lovers one day!! might fuck around and make it canon compliant who knows
• heart (eunseo/bona)
  • my life was threatened multiple times for this one
  • this and the 2jung one were part of those 30-day otp prompt things that i only do when i'm in a writing slump...was fun doing the one-word ones bc of the freedom it gives you with interpretation and all <3
  • my writing exercise things are also usually only for priv i'm sorry! (if we're mutuals on main you're free to req though!)
• seulgi/bona
  • yeah i know.
  • kat posted a side-by-side of jiyeon and seulgi and asked for an au and who am i to say no?
  • mechanic x ex-babysitter au
  • also only for priv, sorry!
  • if i end up posting a 15k wujuvelvet fic to ao3 for 5 kudos maximum in 2022 don't look @ me

💭 drafts & stuff i want to write

ITZY

• werewolf yeji x vampire ryujin (yeji/ryujin)
  • will i ever write this? who knows! the idea is nice tho
    • i actually do want to write this...guess who was peak brainrot era for me and andy
    • half of this was brainrotted with andy already so if i do write this one day it'll be because of her
• guardian angel au (yeji/ryujin)
  • she's cute...maybe someday
• assassin au (yeji/ryujin)
  • OKAY...i brainrotted this in april after seeing the mitm teaser and then forgot about it until i saw itzy's mama stage and now if i don't write assassin ryujin x yeji i will simply die on the spot

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WJSN

• new year's kiss (eunseo/bona)
  • draft: 4k
  • based on eunbo's accidental new year's kiss onstage for the world to see
  • canon-compliant; ambiguous relationship; friends to lovers
• seolbo exes au (seola/bona)
  • draft: 1.6k
  • because....seolbo exes
  • canon-compliant; exes to lovers; pre-debut till...wjtb?
  • this idea was originally lettie's but she said she was never going to write it so i adopted her brainrot baby
• exbbo bartender au (exy/bona)
  • i had the most terrible brainrot after wjtb's maps photoshoot...i think i went straight to lettie and said "exy is the biker chick at a gay bar who gets bitches every night and everyone wants her to take them home on her harley davidson waiting outside the bar but exy only has eyes for the pretty bartender bona"
  • this was...when i wasn't even an ujung yet GOD and also when i was still calling them exy and bona when brainrotting aus...just down terrible during wjtb promotions in general
• eunbo mermaid x pirate au (eunseo/bona)
  • THIS ONE...EXTREME BRAIN ITCH
  • i get very distracted when i look at this particular set of eunbo pics like why do they Look Like That and why do they look so good together
  • the chat pictured in the tweet is andy's bc i subject her to a lot of my brainrot i'm sorry andy
• seolbo hades x persephone au (seola/bona)
  • [CAR CRASHING NOISES]
  • andy created this very nice set of edits that include sojung as zeus and juyeon as apollo...SEXIEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN I L*VE YOU ANDY
  • i feel the same way about this as i do the eunbo mermaid x pirate one i am going to write this if it kills me
• seolbo struggling poet x rebel chaebol (seola/bona)
  • draft: 540 (but the brainrot extends far beyond)
  • at some point in time lettie had a hyunjung pfp on priv while i had a jiyeon pfp and lettie was like "omg wait our icons look so sexc together. struggling poet kim hyunjung + rebel chaebol kim jiyeon"
  • soon enough you will also realise that lettie is the source of all my problems

RED VELVET

• hello, miss officer (seulgi/joy)
  • draft: 6.1k
  • police officer seulgi x seductive thief sooyoung
  • this fic has been marinating at 6.1k for 3 years and at this point i don't think it's ever getting finished. i was thinking of repurposing it into a seolbo easy mv cheeky criminal x obstinate detective...we'll see
• how to befriend your local naiad (seulgi/wendy)
  • unfinished: 24.2k
  • chapter 3 draft: 5.4k
  • naiad seulgi x human seungwan
  • hahahAHA....i am so sorry wenseulists
  • OKAY...the story is basically already done this is just a cute little epilogue that i will...finish soon...it's hard bc my writing style has changed quite a bit since then so returning to this draft just seems weird for me
  • i feel especially bad bc when i came back to stan twt this year somehow naiad au readers found my itzy stan account hjdskjdf and left very sweet messages in my cc about the fic...i promise i'll finish it eventually <3
  • [+99, -8] no matter how much i think about it, this is all wjsn's fault

other fics i've been wanting to write can be found in this thread!

💌 ships i wrote for

will only be talking about the ships i wrote full fics for since this is getting pretty long already!

ITZY
yeji/ryujin

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i've talked about why i like ryeji's dynamic many times in cc asks but in case cc dies again i'll dump the gist of it here: ryujin constantly pretending to be disgusted by yeji's affection and taking every opportunity to tease her but also from time to time being quietly clingy and affectionate with her and doing things for yeji like coming back to the dorm a day early and bringing food for her when she couldn't go back for chuseok...and when ryujin in turn gets scared by trivial things like bugs or haunted houses or the fucking csi slide yeji doesn't take that opportunity to tease her and her first instinct is to just protect her. ryujin being all ewww grOSS when yeji shows affection but when ryujin wants to be clingy yeji just LETS HER.

right now i think the pairing that comes the most naturally to me and the pairing i'm the most comfortable with / used to writing would be ryeji (probably because i've written 3 >10k fics for them). which is also why i started writing for other pairings too, because it's just fun exploring other pairings and dynamics as a writer. i also realise all 3 of my ryeji fics happened to be...academic settings...kind of tired of it now...the magic school one has rights tho!

something i've realised this year is i tend to gravitate towards ships where at least one half of the ship pretends to be like "eww gross" towards the other half. like...just look at the pairings i've written for this year. + if there isn't at least a bit of tension in the dynamic it won't be as fun to write (personally).

ryujin/chaeryeong

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aaaa ryuryeong...a lot of people say that ryuryeong is (objectively) the best ryujin ship because of their dynamic and the way their different personalities mesh. i think both ryeji and ryuryeong—especially ryuryeong—work well with tropes like enemies/rivals to lovers and any au that involves that initial dislike/disdain. writing ryuryeong for the first time, i was kind of nervous i wouldn't get the nuances of their dynamic right. i'm honestly still not too sure if i did...definitely need to consume more itzy content and fics to be sure i think. but i adore ryuryeong and their banter and would love to be able to write them proper when i get the time!

WJSN
seola/bona

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AH SEOLBO (DEROGATORY). yeah...you know i had to use this gif

jokes aside i unfortunately really enjoy writing for seolbo...for any pairing in wjsn, really, bc of their unhinged asshole personalities + half the shit they do doesn't even seem real sometimes. on the surface it seems like seolbo don't breathe in each other's directions in front of the cameras at all but at the same time there are so many moments where one of them will bring up something randomly about each other that most of the other wujus won't know (e.g. "hyundong", jiyeon not liking fried food...). they normally don't do fanservicey stuff with each other in front of cameras unless held at gunpoint by starship but at the same time we get little tidbits here and there (e.g. "bona came to my house and opened the fridge door but why don't i remember anything else?"; us finding out that jiyeon learned she was allergic to cats when she went over to hyunjung's house pre-debut and met YANGMAL; both jiyeon and hyunjung yelling at sojung to stfu when she let loose that they went to drink alone together 2 weeks after debut and jiyeon slapping her hand over sojung's mouth...etc.)

they both have a lot of mutual respect for each other—jiyeon is literally obsessed with hyunjung's voice, hyunjung's complimented jiyeon's voice to a song she composed as well. (for a nice summary please see this video t very nicely compiled from clips i was spamming her with). jiyeon looks up to hyunjung a lot ("unnie has always been a cool person to me since the first time i saw you when i was 19"; jiyeon saying "unnie has a soft dancing style" in idol road i think? and saying she suits dances like love shot; "the actress was really pretty. she kind of looks like bona") that being said kim jiyeon will be kim jiyeon and she also lives off teasing hyunjung every now and then ("seola unnie...won't you know she can't do it just by looking at her?")

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finally...a very fun part of seolbo is how the wujus themselves are seolboists (everyone whipping out their phones to take a picture of them hugging and soobin panicking because she didn't get a picture in time; exseo acting like frat boys when they were forced to play this fruity ass game together; "hehe...quickly take the pics"). it's also kind of funny how they freak out around each other sometimes (the unnatural pair dance behind the scenes fiasco; seolbo dying bc they had to hug each other and hyunjung just flat out forgetting yeoreum who was next in the hug relay). from a writing perspective it's also just fun to play around with that kind of tension (and ofc the seolbo exes fandom joke).

i haven't written full fics for any other pairings in wjsn yet but i'm hoping to at least include eunbo, exbbo, and 2jung in my 2022 roundup <3

🌸 wrap-up

at the start of the year two things happened:

1. i started a midzy writers' gc by going around dm-ing midzy writers to ask if they wanted to be part of a community with fellow writers
   • this gc is lovely and wonderful but i genuinely have no idea what possessed me to do this. this is probably the most extroversion i have displayed in like 5 years. tbf i wouldn't have done it if not for the fact that i suggested it to a moot (with no intention of carrying it out) and said moot suggested it to someone else who was like yes please...which gave me the courage to go around dm-ing people i guess. again i'm so glad this gc is a thing bc i got closer to a lot of other writers through it but also what the fuck it doesn't seem real that i did this
2. lettie and i started itzy's first fic fest <3
   • we ended up saying we played ourselves because there were deadlines and both of us were just miles deep in wjsn brainrot at the time (i say at the time like i've recovered from it. unfortunately i have not.) but we were also saying we don't regret anything because we grew closer together through it and lettie is now one of my closest friends on twt <3 that unhinged motherfucker
   • i am very thankful for lettie nation's editor because i do not know my way around photoshop past gif-making. psd 是什么可以吃吗？
   • also thankful for lettie because she was like 90% of my impulse control during the fest (nearly ungreyed my own prompts bc i forgot i claimed them, etc etc..)
   • despite all the chaos around managing ther fest and writing our own fics and rl commitments...it was really cool we successfully put together a fic fest. and itzy's first one at that!!

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i think all in all i'm pretty happy with what i posted this year...probably my only regret was that i didn't give in to the wjsn brainrot earlier and write those easy mv aus i so badly wanted to in may. hoping to branch out into more pairings and au settings in 2022! i also kind of want to stay away from academic settings for now...they used to be one of my favourite things but i've written too many of them and they just kind of bore me now. (for now!)

another thing i've noticed is i keep feeling the need to put out fics that are >10k...i'm honestly trying to be more comfortable with writing shorter fics so i can write a variety of things (like. short cute established relationship fics! ficlets that let me explore a variety of settings that i'd be lazy to write full fics for!) but they just keep getting so long rest in pieces.

my favourite characters to write this year overall were: kim jiyeon (coy, charming, cheeky, brat, menace to society), shin ryujin (cheeky, asshole, menace to society...wait), and chu sojung (EXY of WJSN is a himbo but also simultaneously a genius she once deleted her entire thesis because she forgot to press save but she's also written songs for multiple groups and composed some of my favourite WJSN b-sides in this essay i will—). out of these 3 the only one i haven't written a full fic with her as the main character for is sojung but! hopefully that will change in 2022 hehe.

another thing i really need to say is i'm extremely extremely grateful to all the friends i've made this year who brainrot with me and shower me with love and encouragement but also kick my ass into gear when i need it. all the long, sweet, unhinged commentaries of my fics you guys have left in my messages and ao3 comment threads no matter the fandom/pairing, yelling plot ideas at each other, making art/fic remixes/playlists/edits off each other's works, sending me things to say "this reminded me of your fic"...if not for you guys i probably wouldn't have written as much as i did this year. you know who you are! ♡

and thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone (though they probably won't see this) who's left a comment/kudos/dm/cc on any of my fics, you have no idea how much it helps with motivation! if you made it all the way to the end or at least read some parts of this thank you so much for reading my thought dump!! ♡ (sorry it was kind of messy)

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR IRURI 2022 ROOF HIT LET'S GO

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