And so it begins... (1/1)

It’s hard to believe that less than a month ago, this project was only a half-baked idea that I’d had because of a song I’d listened to and thought...hey, this might be cool. But then El happened. And the idea changed and grew and became this awesome monster of a story that has completely consumed the both of us. I never imagined that it would turn into a real thing, but here we are, days away from sharing it with all of you. Which is kind of really blowing my mind. This experiment in storytelling is a labor of love (and of total insanity). We can only hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as we do. And since today marks the unveiling of the tumblrs we created, we’d like to say a few things to commemorate this moment.

i-feel-electric First and foremost, I guess I have to thank David Byrne of The Talking Heads for being born, lol. Because without him, the seed for this may never have been planted at all. I get a lot of ideas from listening to music, but to think this project would exist one day because of one song? I dunno, that’s pretty fucking cool.  Second, I need to thank Fanny (franticfiction/tabiyong) for sending me El’s fics in the first place. Otherwise we might not have met the way we did, might not have started messaging each other at weird hours to swap headcanons and theories and story concepts. And for that I am eternally grateful, because not only did I gain a friend, I found someone who spoke the same language as I did and that’s not a thing that happens very often. Which brings me to El herself - my sweet as pie partner in crime. Bless you for being you. Like, seriously. I can’t even imagine doing this with anyone else and every single day since we started I get these flashes of heart-pounding giddiness because your excitement matches mine. And because you make me want to work harder and be better and push myself. So thank you...for single-handedly pulling me out of my weird depressive funk and giving me this. For letting me vomit my feelings all over you on a daily basis. For having the best ideas. For making me laugh until I can’t breathe. For putting up with me when I send you pornfic without warning (I know, it’s so awful, right?). And for being my Drift compatible co-pilot. You are a treasure. Special shout-out to Google Docs for making this process a thousand times easier. And also to my dear friend Kyra for always being an endless source of encouragement (I’d be a mess without you). xoxo,Sam

ricebowls/ricebowling

There are several people and about a dozen inanimate objects I'd like to thank for helping me in the four weeks it took to set up the foundations of this project. I'd first like to thank EXO because their song Growl was actually my gateway drug into K-POP. Thank you to my darling Mina for being my personal enabler/cheerleader/fandom guru/feelings repository. I want to thank my couch, my mother’s half-dead laptop, my coffeemaker, Nong Shim’s instant jjajangmyeon, and all the cartons of Marlboros that were sacrificed in order to keep my sanity. A million thanks to Fanny for foisting Sam into my life and for being my favorite Twitter menace. Thank you, Internet, because without you, Whatsapp, Google Drive, Twitter, and Tumblr wouldn’t exist. To Kei, thank you for your sweetness and for being my first friend in fandom.  I want to dedicate this last paragraph to thank my co-author, Sam. Thank you for holding my hand and telling me “El, stop” when I get lost in my own head. Thank you for catching all the ideas I throw at you and sieving them, reigning them in, adding in gems of your own, and tying them all up in one neat ribbon. Thank you for teaching me never to check my phone during a mass. Thank you for making all this feel less like work and more like we’re a couple of kids with a pile of Legos-- sometimes we end up goofing off, laughing and flinging pieces at each other, sometimes I stumble and step on a block, but every time, we’re right beside each other, gradually building this universe of ours from the ground up. Thank you for sharing your brainchild with me and making me realize it puzzles in perfectly with something I’ve unconsciously been playing around with in my mind. Most of all, thank you for being my friend and for challenging me to work outside my comfort zone. This is the best gift anyone’s given me in a long time, and I’ll forever be grateful. Lastly, thank you to you, dear reader. For taking a chance on this unconventional writing collaboration, and on Sam and me. But moreover, thank you for reaching this point if you’re still reading this. You’re a trooper. You deserve all the cookies. Go have a cookie on me. Go ahead, you’ve earned it. xx your girl, El

TL;DR: The tumblrs for Jiyong and Seunghyun are live now! Which means you can explore their blogs and are welcome to interact with them. (But please keep in mind that the story itself doesn’t begin until April 9th, so the boys haven’t met yet.) Jiyong Seunghyun