[M] Prologue (1/1)

Writing and reading had always been my favourite things in the world. I can’t even recall a moment of my life that I wasn’t doing one of them if you ask me. Back then, when I was just a little boy, I used to ask my mom to read the same books to me over and over again. You know parents tend to tell stories to put their children to sleep, but I was brought up differently, as I was always wide-eyed, fully concentrated on whatever story it was, never able to go to dreamland unless I finished it.  I was a fast-learner when it came to reading. Not that I’m smart or anything, it’s more like I’ve always been too curious for my own good. Knowing the outcome of a plot was my biggest priority as a child, however, since my mom wasn’t able to read stories to me anytime I wanted, I had to learn how to do it by myself. Otherwise I wouldn’t survive. My imagination grew wide picturing those scenarios on my mind, adding traits to the characters and details to their backstory. It became an obsession before I even knew what to call it, therefore my mother wasn’t surprised that, when I learned how to write, first thing I did was trying to create my own universe. I read a lot of comic books at first so that was pretty much everything I would write about - in a very simple manner, since my vocabulary used to be extremely restricted. Not that it’s wide now, but I like to think I’ve gotten better. I would always try hard to improve my way of developing plots, I started to read different genres of stories to see which one would fit my writing style better. Each book was a new discovery as usual and my reading improved to the speed of the light, but nothing seemed to amaze me to the point I’d want to write a story about, which started to make me frustrated. It appeared to be impossible to conceal what I wanted and what I got.  But then destiny happened. I was a fifteen-year-old bookworm when chick-lit came into my life and I’m sure it was love at first sight. One day, by mistake, the librarian rent me Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding instead of a Stephen King book. I got addicted right away, it was a light and funny love story which pictured a single woman on her thirties and her daily struggles. It made me crack up so many times my mother would enter my room asking if I was alright, receiving a never been better in response. After that I watched all the movies, listened to the soundtrack daily and, at last, found what I was looking for.  As soon as I finished the book I decided to start a research on the chick-lit genre. The books were almost always funny in a witty way - my favorite way of being funny, if you ask. I became best friends with the characters of Marian Keyes, Sophie Kinsella, Megan McCafferty and many other women authors. More than getting attached to them, I wanted to be like them. I got so hooked up I even wrote about it in my college’s final thesis (I have a literature degree, but I don’t think at this point this is really surprising information), but back then it was only a passion, not a major. I wanted to write romantic comedies that made people’s heart flutter just like Helen Fielding did to me, so I started to write my own story when I was 19. Why? Well, why not? I was never one of those kids that dreamt about becoming doctors or lawyers to earn money for a living. I didn’t care about ending up broke at all. Everything that mattered was that I could never see myself working at anything that wasn’t literature related, however, becoming a teacher didn’t seem right as creating new worlds was always more appealing. Thus I made my decision, not so sure about the steps I should take, I just went with the flow. I was just a beginner so I had to do a lot of research and time was not always on my time due to obvious reasons - college ruining my life, mostly. Writing chick-lit made me realize the hopeless romantic I am. See, I’ve never actually experienced a real love story, to be honest, I barely had the time to think about having an affair, but I’ve always loved how those things work in fiction. You know, plots like meet-cute, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers… Everything was always so dreamy it made you want to be in the main character’s place so that you can live adventures like that along with the love interest. I wanted to make people feel this amazing sensation- the sensation of falling in love without actually doing it, the thrill of getting to know a whole new world only a good book has to offer. Even though I’ve never had a steady relationship (only a few one night stands then and now), I think romance just comes naturally to me. I’ve always been good at giving advice and arranging people together, just like a cupid, so it wasn’t hard at all to come up with a plot and develop it. You just have to think of a simple formula and add the details that will caught people’s interest. My story got influenced a lot by my personal experience. It’s about a sensitive woman, Lee Hyejin, that can easily tell when people are soulmates, therefore she always tries to make them end up together. The problem is she has never found love herself, until she meets Kang Daejung, a (not so) cute psychologist who doesn’t believe in love and falls for him, struggling to change his mind. There are a lot of ups and downs as the story goes, but a happy ending after all.  I ended up pretty satisfied with how it turned out, the characters weren’t what you expected them to be and the humor compensated drama. Plus, I had so much fun writing it didn’t even seem like I was taking things seriously, I’d simply write it whenever I could to pass time and review right after. Of course you have to be patient when writing a story because inspiration doesn’t come easily, sometimes I had to face I couldn’t even write a single line, but you have to keep trying instead of letting things unfinished. Took me almost four years to finish up my story and fix the little details; although it may seem a bit romanticized seeing I’ve struggled at some points, in the end I loved every bit of it until the last paragraph. My mother and my sisters too, they were pretty supportive when it came to pursuing my dream and thought I was on the right path. I was also pretty sure I was, but of course nothing possibly goes that smoothly. I got my plot twist just like every character does - the good ones, at least. During coll