Dark Tide

Author's notes

I never planned to write this sequel. 'Sea' was intended to be a chance encounter and one-night hook up story. When Twitter friends asked me to write more, and have them meet up in Seoul later on, I was so determined this wasn't happening that I decided to write off my girl character in the Itaewon crowd disaster of October 2022. I did this in the form of a poem, and that was that. (This poem is now the start of the sequel and bridges the two parts.)

But she kept on popping up in my mind, especially through the winter of 2022/23 when JK was so silent. Eventually a friend said, "Maybe she was only injured", and after that the floodgates were opened for a sequel.

Admittedly this story is probably more about the girl than it's about JK. Her feelings and her life took over my imagination, coupled with my imaginings about life for JK after the BTS enlistment stage had kicked in. I finally started writing on the plane to Seoul, because I felt that I needed an actual taste of the place to do this properly.

Remember, this is fiction.💜

'Sea' was a romantic encounter of two people trying to navigate through changes and circumstances out of their control.

This one is darker: because the changes and circumstances in their lives have careered further out of control. Approach with caution if you're expecting a nicey-nice romantic reunion with a happy ending.

I guess it needs disclaimers or trigger-warnings or whatever we might call them:

· Both JK and the girl have both slid somewhat off life's rails with what's happened to them both.

· I do touch on the theme of suicidal thoughts.

· There is an LGBTQ+ subtext for most characters which runs beneath the main story.

· There's reference to JK having some level of romantic involvement with another member, although I don't specify who. You can decide, because it doesn't actually form part of the plot, it's just referred to.

· It's littered with poetry. Only the first poem is actually part of the story.

· The bridging poem tackles the Itaewon crowd crush disaster in Seoul.

· The sex is probably more explicit in places than the first story.

· Also (and this one bothers me) this story was cooked up in the spring of 2023, when we all assumed JK would be last to enlist, were sure he would do a solo tour, all believed he would keep his hair long right up to enlistment and had no idea we would get a single in July. In actual fact, reality hasn't necessarily lived up to all of that, and the glaring continuity errors now really trigger my OCD, but it is fiction, so I've left much of it as it was dreamed up and written.

If that hasn't all put you off, then do please read on.

There's seven chapters and an epilogue to drop. I'll try to do one or two each week.