haven - zb1

ending note

The one thing i love more than writing stories is writing ending authors notes because i get to look back and see what a hot sexy mess this was.

I'm pretty sure it's obvious, but they were ranked by their debut ranking. Zhang Hao, Hanbin, Matthew, Ricky, Gunwook, Taerae, Gyuvin, Jiwoong, Yujin. How were they grouped? Well, I started writing this before I started stanning them. So I simply gave my sister (an avid zb1 stan and a passionate boys planet follower) a blank paper and asked her to group them for me.

Unfortunately, since there are nine members, I couldn't equally focus on them all. So, if you could tell, I focused on my favourites, or those who I felt could have the most growth or the most interesting story. When i started the story, i had only small plans, a vague idea of Jiwoong being sick, i knew i wanted Zhang Hao to be the strongest and all rounded and Quanrui was going to live up to his impression of a cold, slightly mean guy.

I wanted to showcase how the different elements are emulated through the nine. Fire is strong but not flexible or adaptable, unlike water, which is fluid and can change easily. That's been shown mainly through Quanrui and Zhang Hao.

Quanrui:

From the start, he was snarky and cold, a little bit mysterious and seems a little mean. He seems to think he isn't his cousin, Jiwoong, nor does he care about him. But honestly, even though he was raised to be strong and focused on his skills, he truly cares about Jiwoong. I wanted to show how when Jiwoong was unwell or in danger, his cold facade drops and all he cares about is ensuring his cousin is alright.

He is very proud and likes to be strong, so by giving him air, not only was it completely against his nature, being "weak" and uncertain threw him off, which is why he struggled.

I feel like you might be able to tell he was my favourite during the writing of the book.

Gunwook:

I'm not sure if it was too painfully, blatantly obvious, but I made Gunwook have similar characteristics to fire users, instead of an earth user. From Quanrui's comment, to the gold details on his own bow, I wanted to kind of make it obvious that Gunwook resembled a fire user, more than an earth user. And I wanted him to have that internal, subconscious conflict which was exacerbated when they exchanged powers. It seemed that he was well-suited to fire, until its consequences got out of hand. This is where he needs to learn and grow more, not just as a user but as a person.

Zhang Hao:

This guy had one role to play and that was being the best. He felt pressure to perform as the best, especially from the stress brought by Quanrui. I think maybe I could have developed him more but then again, this was all for fun.

Jiwoong:

I wanted him to be someone who carried a heavy burden from his past and is carrying one in the present, believing himself to be the one with the most experience and hence had to step up the most. But when his strength and body started failing him, he had to step away and let others take over. I thought it was interesting to have such a disparity between him and Quanrui, and I think his backstory further enhanced this interesting thing. He wasn't this weak previously, but because of his injury his strength was lowered drastically.

Yujin:

His growth was plain and obvious, he matures from a naive young boy to a more mature teenager/young adult. Was it executed well? Maybe not. Was it there and in your face? Probably lol.

Gyuvin:

I executed his character weirdly and poorly, i'll say. The idea was an overprotective older brother who was scared and young but fiercely loving. Did it work? Im not too sure.

Granted, those that I neglected the most are undoubtedly Hanbin, Woohyun and Taerae.

I think the only aspect of Hanbin i really pushed was his role as a leader. That was mostly because as the story was progressing (where Jiwoong the unofficial leader was going through it), hanbin had been announced as the leader in real life. And i pounced on that immediately. But evidently, he became almost of an echo of Zhang hao and even Woohyun.

Woohyun was a tough one to work with. I wanted to showcase how he felt inferior to his peers of the House of water because he was deemed the weakest out of the three, despite the fact that he was ranked third overall. But i think i didn't do a good job on that LOL.

Taerae breaks my heart because he was my bias-wrecker turned bias. But after all those strong personalities like Quanrui, Gunwook and even Zhang Hao and Jiwoong, it was hard to make him standout. I admit he became a sort of comedic relief and someone to occasionally keep Gunwook in check, but I did want to show how caring and thoughtful he could be as a person.

Also, if the last section confused you, i'll explain. In my other book, the gifted, i wrote a txt x itzy fic where the ten of them had powers, kinda similar to x-men. It was a book with lots of flaws and issues, but ultimately, i loved the setting and had to do a spin off. I thought of Taehyun and how he was the only one who had an uncertain relationship with everyone, good and bad. You don't have to read the gifted to understand this plot, it was meant to be confusing and unexplained because the zb1 boys were just as confused and lost. And i did change the scenario, because taehyun didn't want everyone to relive his experience. He just wanted them to see it through his albeit warped viewpoint and come to their own conclusion, of whether Taehyun's decision was justified.

Also, if it wasn't clear, here are the Houses special techniques.

Water: summoning rain. While it might not seem difficult, the idea of having to draw water from the surroundings and have to create a whole storm is both taxing on the user and impressive for the viewer, which is why the House of water always ranks so high

Fire: the ability to turn the ground (or most solids, really) into lava. Its impressive but not as complex as water, which is why Quanrui is almost on par with the water users but stil below.

Earth: this one was probably one of the least explained, but the House of earth's technique is a bit like toph from avatar, when in contact with the ground, they're able to see their surroundings even without looking. Here i showed that while Gunwook was physically stronger, because of how hot-headed he was, taerae was better at this technique that required focus and patience. This technique is difficult but doesn't look as impressive as water or fire, hence the earth heirs rank lower. What makes theirs the most difficult is the multitasking aspect when they had to keep track of their surroundings while manipulating earth and stuff.

Air: i didn't touch this because that made the morals of the House of air, but i intended for the house of air's technique (if you could tell from my hints) was like the air benders in avatar where you could literally suck the air out of the lungs of a person. This is so lethal that it would make the air heirs top the rankings if they were to master it, which is why, like the air benders in avatar, the air users chose to be peaceful and gentle.

If you made it this far, super glad to see you. Writing this was a huge stress reliever during the tough school year, so thank you for your support. I had a lot of fun. All the views and votes encouraged me a lot.

I'll probably stop writing for the time being to focus on my studies. I will see you again. Bye~