Hey, guys!

Thank you for reading Decoupled till the end. 💖

(P.S: I know you're already attacked by the header image because I AM 🥵🥵, and I hope your ignore his mischief all along and enjoy reading this part)

First of all, the growth of this book has been phenomenal in terms of numbers. Never before have any of my ongoing books even reached 2k reads, let alone 12k reads, despite the fact that I always provide regular daily updates on all my stories right from my first book.

I'm immensely thankful for all the love and support from every single reader who has been following the updates and reading this story. Thank you so much for supporting my work and encouraging me at all times. 💕

Now, I've been asking for feedback periodically, but how about you guys tell me about Decoupled here? It could be your review, your thoughts, anything that you loved or hated, things which you felt were great or lacking, just about anything. Even if you have been a silent reader all along, open up now. I want to know your thoughts, and I'm very interactive, plus, no one here judges anyone else. So pour out!!

I do have some behind the scenes stories for Decoupled, as I have with all my other stories.

But before that, TAEHYUNG WITH THE PINK ROSES!!!! ASKSJDHDHHDAHDUSJDJSJHFJDK
😫😫🤧🤧🤧

DON'T TALK TO ME. I'M CRYING.
😭😭😭

Okay, so let's start now.

1. I started writing this story with Yoongi as the main male lead. Jang-Mi was the wife, and Areum the daughter.

2. In the original plot, Yoongi and Jang-Mi mutually decide to split up, and there is no infidelity involved at this point. After their decision, with their mutual consent, they go ahead and try to find someone who would suit them, and that is when Yoongi attends his high-school reunion and meets his old crush there. I didn't have a name for the crush back then.

3. Meanwhile, Jang-Mi attends a charity concert with one of her friends, and there she happens to be instantly infatuated with Taehyung, who is the singer performing at that concert. They hook up and have a one-night stand while Yoongi and his crush end up sleeping together too.

4. But they both feel so guilty afterwards and realize that they can't really move on with another person, and so they decide to reignite the spark in their marriage. They start doing little things which they did in the early stages like going out on dates without the kid, movie nights etc... and eventually their marriage works.

5. I had titled this story Way Back Into Love, inspired by the song Way Back Into Love from the movie Music and Lyrics. (The song is one of my absolute all-time favorites)

6. But then I felt the story was too plain and clichéd.

7. Meanwhile, parallely, I also wrote a smut one-shot with Taehyung. It was titled Cheater, and that is the scene in chapter 40 where he goes to meet Maya after his divorce initiation.

8. After writing that one-shot, I somehow felt that there were way too many complex emotions involved in it to just let it pass as a one-shot. That chapter is actually a lot more than just the sex even though many readers were irritated by the fact that he went on to have sex with Maya when things in his marriage were crumbling to dust.

9. So, I decided that the Yoongi story can be blended into this one-shot and elaborated further. Thus, both were mixed and underwent a lot of me'tae'morphosis and evolved into Decoupled. Once again, I failed in my attempt to write a story without Taehyung as the main male lead. I mean, just look at him! 👇😫

10. Many times, I felt the story might be too raw and bold, and I even contemplated toning down many things and writing it in a more subtle, softer and cinematic way. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

11. So many touchy, taboo and sensitive topics that include falling out of love, and lack of communication in a marriage, divorce, infidelity, cheating, marital rape, post-partum depression, life and emotions of children in a divorced family etc., are not being discussed enough in many stories, and I wanted to talk about all these in my own way.

12. The characters were also written as human and as flawed as possible because that's how everyone is in real life. Like, I could have let Maya stay away from Taehyung when she learned about his marriage. But she gave in to her desires, and she didn't want to leave him alone when he was struggling.

13. Many families that I know personally in real life have faced issues with someone in the otherwise 'happy' family cheating on their partner. It always made me wonder why they would do it when everything about the family seems okay to the world.

14. This book is also extremely personal to me, so much to the extent that some parts of it are straight out of my journal.

15. All these thoughts combined together, along with inspirations drawn from some movies, dramas etc., finally shaped up into whatever you have read till now.

16. I hope this story helped you understand the importance of basic communication, being attentive, emotionally available and responsive to your partner when in a relationship. It is also important to learn from mistakes, be willing to work on them and fix things and not to abandon things and flee.

Taehyung has a message for the world.

17. Most importantly, I would like to repeat this again that I do not glorify or justify infidelity and cheating, by any means. It IS WRONG, no matter how strong your reasons are, yet, right and wrong are also very abstract concepts to me. I'm torn.

18. I wanted to include some scenes like Taehyung giving Jang-Mi a parting hug before he drops off Areum that night, and I also thought about giving Jang-Mi someone to show her true love in her epilogue (yeah, I had Jimin in mind) But somehow I couldn't write them that way because the hug would have been so much more painful for Jang-Mi than for Taehyung, and also her finding another man in Taehyung's place IS JUST NOT HER! I hope I gave them all closure the best I could, aligning with their nature. What do you guys think?

19. Some readers were upset that Taehyung got only happiness when he actually cheated and did so many wrong things in his marriage, whereas Jang-Mi has only been suffering all along. But that isn't true.

Jang-Mi is successfully running a play-school and keeping herself busy, and she's also happy with who she is now, only that she is finding it hard to get over the beautiful memories she made with Taehyung in the past.

Taehyung is leading a successful life too, and he has made peace with his memories and moved on to start a family and live a life where he implements all his learning.

Maya, undoubtedly, has been feeling guilty all along, and Areum's confession just brought it all out. But she has also made peace with her mind and chooses to live her life and take it as it comes.

Areum got her closure too. Her heart has come to terms with the fact that her mind digested a very long time ago, and she has accepted the choices made by her parents. When she was younger, she wasn't aware of why her parents separated. But in the end, we clearly know that she has learned how Taehyung sought Maya's company even when he was still married to Jang-Mi. She has attained enough maturity to accept and love them all for who they are and feel thankful for the blessings she has received despite the hardships she had to face all along. She has attained a state of peace.

Most importantly, many readers felt that Taehyung actually moved on too easily without batting an eyelid. But that isn't true. If you read carefully, towards the end of Chapter 37 where he cries alone in his car—his thoughts are so troubled. He cheated, made a huge mistake, a terrible choice, fell out of love with his wife, but he knows his heart still has a place for Jang-Mi. Yet, going back to her and leaving Maya isn't even an option for him because that would be so unfair to both the women. And at that point, even if he chooses to go back to Jang-Mi, she definitely wouldn't have accepted him.

So he keeps telling himself, more like he keeps convincing himself that he doesn't have any residual feelings for Jang-Mi, and that he has fully, consciously moved on. But the part in Chapter 57 where he narrates the story to Areum, he reminisces the beautiful moments of his life with her and breaks down, and it is then that he is actually coming to terms with his past and truly moving on, giving himself a closure. He isn't such a horrible person, after all. Don't totally dislike him.

As with Jang-Mi, Taehyung had been a bad husband at many times, yet, an apology wasn't what she wanted from him. Never. She still loves the man she first fell in love with. They have both changed, but her heart isn't allowing her to let go of the Taehyung from the past, and the closure she was looking forward to was the assurance that the past she shared with him was true and real, and not a total lie. She got that assurance and her closure when Areum tells her about how Taehyung too cried while telling her the fairytale.

She knows that the love they had for each other was true, and that helps her accept the reality.

20. I actually thought I would publish Veiled before Decoupled because it had more chapters written out, and I was writing Veiled in such a flow too. But suddenly Decoupled just spread its roots deep and strong and rattled up everything, didn't let me sleep and made me publish it ahead of Veiled.

21. I'm actually really happy and satisfied with this book and how everything came together here, and I'm even more happier because I've completed yet another story. *pats myself* 🤧🤧

So, I guess that's all I wanted to say.

As always, I'm low-key depressed because I have reached the end of a book, and now I don't know what to do with my life, but now that Decoupled is completed, please look forward to Veiled, which is my first Jungkook fanfic that I will be starting on the 15th of July. The prologue is up already, and do check it out in case you haven't yet done it.

I hope to meet you guys there, and I hope to receive some love and support on that story as well.

Thank you all, you guys are truly amazing.
사랑해❤
보라해💜

Lots and lots of love,
Candy 💖

*dead*
Is he saying Ma-Mi?
👀

BYE!
🥵🥵🥵🤤🤤🤤

Published on : 06/13/2022