Identity Crisis (LOONA X Weeekly Fanfic) / 개릭터 붕괴가 (이달의 소녀 X 위클리 팬픽)

Backstory of 'Identity Crisis'

Backstory of 'Identity Crisis'

First Posted On: 28th December 2021

Last Updated On: 28th December 2021

T/N: I just wanted to say thank you for supporting my moderately successful return to fanfic writing.

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The Hardest Decision

Living in a pandemic makes you bored and desiring to try something new. Or in my case, return to doing something I found joy and decent succes in. Fanfic writing at the age of 25 may be a strange decision, especially when juggling with other commitments. Obviously, given I left 'Sister Hide And Seek' on an indefinite hiatus due to its unusually poor reception for the series, I really didn't feel motivated to write again after February 2019.

I thought many of my readers had moved on to different kinds of fanfics on Wattpad. The era of oneshots and long-narratives was no more and those 'y/n' style chapters clearly written from a smartphone became the popular fanfics. Those fanfics just were not my preference.

Along the way, some groups faced unfortunate conclusions like GFriend and Lovelyz; the main characters of 'Sister Hide And Seek'. Meanwhile, the 4th generation have taken over as main characters in these fanfics. Inevitably, in my return to KPop listening and Twitter ranting, I also became huge fans of Weeekly and LOONA amongst other groups. Yes, APink as well towards the end of the year, but the former 2 were the true stars of 2021.

By early June, the successes of Weeekly and LOONA made me wonder how I could reciprocate my love for these 2 groups. Sure, tweet threads, video edits, and memes were what I was capable of doing to fit in with these younger fandoms. But with LOONA's comeback dawning, I wondered if fanfic writing might be the best solution at this stage.

I was having a fanfic reading renaissance after finding some decent (non-KPop) fanfics. The ideas I found from them inspired me to try something I left behind for 2 years (except for that 1 time I wrote an encouraging note of Ilhoon). I had to think of a storyline fast because, in addition to LOONA's comeback with 'PTT', Weeekly was about to celebrate their 1st debut anniversary. But then again, when have tight deadlines stopped me?

Famous last words...

Making the Changes

Tested and proven successful in the past, the plot of long-lost siblings was the path this fanfic will take. However, given the complications of the plot progression of the 'Long Lost KPop Siblings' series, I made the radical decision to start afresh.

Incorporating some plot ideas from my last completed fanfic 'Betrayal Turned To Affection', I intended to do an alternate timeline. Therefore, dates of MVs, debuts, comebacks, music shows, and variety show appearances will remain, but interactions will be my interpretation. The biggest change of course is the family trees of the main characters; we are assuming they were only children.

Now the elephant in the room was picking the idols and their groups to feature as main characters. I had a huge pool of KPop groups to incorporate, but there are criteria about long-lost siblings that must be maintained:
- They needed the same surname...
- ...and a reasonable age gap. I can't have a plot with a sibling who is 5-10 years older right?
- Personalities can be different, but being similar is preferred.

Park Chorong and Park Soeun have a way too huge age gap. Son Naeun and Son Hyejoo (Olivia Hye) have the same problem, but their personalities and looks are a perfect match. Even though Jeong Eunji and Jeong Jinsol (Jinsoul) almost made a perfect couple, I had to make the hard decision to exclude APink as a candidate (at least for this fanfic).