withering bloom | TXT

final note.

now that withering bloom has officially been completed, i'd like to address some hidden details/behind the scenes type of things :D

1. the disease of the sunflower (FICTIONAL)
this disease that i made up was based on the tale of hanahaki, which is another fictional disease. of course, this disease of the sunflower is due to a lasting friendship where a victim in the friendship coughs petals when the friendship grows more and more. beomgyu, being the chosen one, had a significant role in this book.

2. why beomgyu remembered them and the rest had no memory of the friendship was the plot twist of the story. it wasn't expected that beomgyu would remember them, which was the climax. if i made the others remember each other, even after the surgery, i don't think it would have been nearly as interesting. it was inevitable that at some point, their friendship would have to end. none of them would be able to last long enough with the broken friendship

3. inspiration for this book.
i went off of a story based on friendship. i wanted to write a story about a broken friendship with people who felt broken inside, even when they all forced a smile across their faces.

4. bittersweet ending.
i thought it would be interesting to wrap up the book by how the book first started. i introduced soobin's character as the artist, inspired by his best friends. they inspired him to continue to do art, even after the flood, when he was at his lowest. so, to end the story with soobin's art hung up and the others seeing how far he got with a smile on their faces, (even though none of them remember the friendship other than beomgyu) it felt bittersweet. though they're now strangers to each other, they saw each other for the first time, a little older. the friendship grew and continued without even realizing.

5. symbolism behind soobin's painting.
soobin had painted a flower in a hospital room with four patients. if you read nameless flower, you may recall it was soobin who had mentioned that the flower was made up and he had explained the meaning behind it. no, this book isn't a sequel to nameless flower, but i wanted to incorporate a lot of similarities between the books for my avid readers to notice <3

6. different ending.
originally, the ending wasn't supposed to be this way. the book in general wasn't, lol. it was supposed to be that beomgyu remembered none of them and they had to build the friendship back from scratch. although, i thought it would be boring, i thought it wouldn't have any shocking parts in it, so that is how this book soon changed everything about it lol.
at the end, they were all supposed to meet up a year later at the arcade, like in the first chapter. although, when i thought about it, i felt that this ending was a better and bittersweet ending for a sad book.

7. walking symbolism.
i thought this would be worth mentioning. multiple times, i wrote that they would often go on walks to clear their minds, etc. honestly, this was because i wanted to include a piece of myself in this book. soobin's character does art, like me, for example. but for me, walks are calming and i really enjoy being able to simply take a walk around the town. although i would love if i lived in a town like theirs haha. it makes me smile when i see how much you guys love the towns i describe in my stories.

8. winter ≠ spring symbolism.
if you recall, yeonjun wanted to protect all of them and make sure they could stay strong when beomgyu had his surgery performed. yeonjun said, "please stay with us, at least till the end of winter/start of spring." when beomgyu woke up, it was still snowing even though it was spring. he kept his promise, but at the same time, the winter feeling was kept when the sunflower began to grow inside of them each.

9. sunflower choice.
sunflowers bloom in the summer/late spring. sunflowers are happy and joyful, although with their yellow color, they cannot always give off such happy energy. the sunflower withered inside of them during winter because during such cold and harsh weather, flowers tend to wither and die. hence the name: withering bloom.

i hope you guys enjoyed reading this as much as i did writing. it was a great outlet for me, as well as the comments and messages you leave me when you finished my book, really warm my heart. thank you so much for reading, i love you all and i cherish each and every one of you. stay safe and happy~

- @ minieberry_