Heart of Ice

Hereafter

Letter #17

Dearest Yewon,

Let me use this letter to write out the end of our story.

We will remain married. One day, you and I will have to take reign, and you will sit on that throne with me at your side. We will rule over our people, promoting peace and prosperity. We will build up our broken country from the ashes, and we will make it thrive under our reign. You have it in you, your highness, to lead with both power and grace. You have it in you to make the people love and cherish you, swear their eternal loyalty to you.

And by the end of our days, we'd have plenty of children. You'd be an old lady sitting with her grandchildren, telling them about how I used to be a bitter man with a heart of ice. You'd tell them about how you came into my life and melted that ice and made me see light in my darkest days.

We will both die together as an old man and woman. We'd have left heirs well-trained to take reign and continue our legacy, continue building the dynasty we started together.

That will be the end of our story, Yewon, and it will be a story remembered for generations to come. A story that ends with us living happily ever after, just like in the novels.

Love,
Seungcheol

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VERY LONG EMOTIONAL AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So... it's done? It's over. It's finished. I've been with this story for nearly two whole years now. I can't believe it's actually over... ? ahhH

Thank you so much for sticking with me until the end. Really. I've greatly enjoyed talking to you all and listening to your thoughts and comments and theories.

AhhhhH I'm so emotional right now.

Anyways, there were supposed to be two chapters left, but I decided not to post the chapter before this because I didn't think it was necessary. It was also kinda badly written so I just dropped it to work on it later. Soooo... you might be able to read it later when I publish this story.

YES, it might be published! I already sent it to literary agents and there is interest, so it really might end up being my first published novel ;; ...Not soon though, because I have to go back and change the names and rewrite and rework it, and deal with some inconsistencies add some things and remove others... Also, there might even be an alternate ending in the one I publish. But yes, look forward to Heart of Ice in your local bookstores haha. (I hope lol. Pray for me!)

I also just want to tell you guys something about this story that's quite important. I know it sucks that Seungcheol is dead and never came back, and I know it hurt, and I know a lot of people didn't like it and lost interest in the whole story after it happened, but I want you all to know that his death was not arbitrary or random and not only there for shock effect. I actually put a lot of thought into it and I was planning it since the start. If you even look at the foreword, you can see it: "Also, Seungcheol is one of the main characters in this fic, but I'm still not sure he'll be the main character, if you know what I mean." SO YES, THAT IS WHAT I MEANT.

Not gonna lie though, in the middle of this story, I strayed from the original plot I had in mind, and I decided to not kill Seungcheol, because everyone loved him so much and it hurt me to kill him off. But then I stuck to my plan, and I'm glad I did. I think it made the story more meaningful to me.

And really, his death had a lot of meaning. I don't know if any of you noticed, but the main idea behind this story and the concept that drove and inspired me to write it is the distinction between what I called "passion" and "politics." This idea was so central to the story since the beginning, and each character represented a part of that passion/politics dichotomy: Wonwoo, Haein, and Jihoon are the politicians. Yewon, Soonyoung, Yulhee are the passionate. Seungcheol hovers between both extremes, and he ends up falling through the pits in his attempts to reconcile his passion with his politics. And so, he died. The point was that the two cannot be reconciled, and if you try to do so, you will always fail. That the was meaning behind his death, and it's why I felt it was only right to kill him. There's sooo much more I can say about this passion/politics theme that ran throughout, but I'll just leave it up to your interpretations lol. Just wanted you all to know that I thought about this a lot!

Anyways... I want to say thank you to everyone who stayed with this frustrating story and who continuously supported me and my efforts. Thank you all for making it this far and for encouraging what must be one of the most prized achievements of my entire life... that is not an understatement. It's probably my greatest achievement ever;;

I really don't know how I'm going to part with this story. It's literally been on my mind every single day for two whole years. I always thought about it, and I feel like I won't have anything else to think about now that it's over. Ah. It hurts :(

So now I have two big seventeen OC fics under my sleeve: That Stupid List and Heart of Ice. I plan to continue my legacy and write a third one as well (I literally can't imagine my life without writing a big svt oc fic lol), so look out for it! I already have ideas! But before I go on with that, I would like to take a little break.... so maybe in a few months?

(Update: I started writing one! Check out "Before Her Very Eyes")

If you're interested in that, or if you wanna get updates about the publication process for Heart of Ice, you can check out my Twitter account @NuNeenFic where I update people about things like this.

Also, to all of you who made it this far, even if you were a silent reader before, I would really truly greatly appreciate one final comment. Just so I can thank you properly on an individual basis!

Anyways... idk how to sign off this story and end this author's note. so I'll just do what I did in my last story and tell you all to stan NU'EST!!! :P

BYE, until next time...