The King Likes Men

Acknowledgments & Commentary

Well, congrats. You have finally reached the end of this story. It's been a long journey but I've managed to write this whole thing in less than a year and I've had many people love and support this story so here's the part where I thank you all, even though most of you probably won't read it, haha.

I started this story back in July of 2018 thinking no one would read it, boy was I wrong. This story got so much attention. I've said it before but honestly, this story was one of my least favorites to write (bottom of my list actually), yet it was the one story that got the most reads and hit 2M reads in less than a year and I'm still baffled as to why it all happened but I'm glad so many people enjoyed it.

To answer a question that I'm probably going to get a lot: No. I will not write a sequel. I really believe that some stories should be left as they are and this one is one of them. This is really the end.

To answer another question: No, I am not Korean. I also do not study Korean culture as a career or anything. I just like doing my research well when I'm writing about a specific culture. Asian cultures have always been an interesting thing to me so I've done some investigation of certain things in the past.

And probably the question I get the most: No, I will never write a story that's not Namjin centric. I consider there are enough fanfics with popular ships out there and I just want to write about my OTP and my preferred side-ships.

Another thing is that there is to be mentioned is that at the very beginning of every one of my books there is an intro. In the intro for this book, I clearly stated that the side ships will not always be what you think they're going to be. So for those of you upset over them, I did tell you and if by now you still do not understand why the pairing ended up how they did, then reread the whole book. With an open mind this time. Some readers are even nice enough to comment on their own perspectives and I find them truly smart observations.

Every character had a huge importance and each one had their own roles. I'm really glad how everything turned out and can say I'm satisfied with the end result. Since this is a section where I can finally speak up though I just wanted to comment about certain aspects of this book.

First off, although so many characteristics and scenes are taken from BTS, I want to remind you that these characters are not the boys. These are fictional characters that I've used to create my own little Bangtan Universe. So to continue I want to mention that there were many topics covered in this book but I want to talk about the characters themselves and what they represented. I'll be going by them individually.

Kim Seokjin
Many of us force upon ourselves a certain role. We think that we need to always do things for other people and we forget about ourselves. Maybe you're the type who listens to other's problems but no one listens to you. Maybe you're always there but no one is there for you. In this story, Jin thinks too much of others, thinks too lowly of himself. At a turning point, he gets mad because he fell too easily for a guy and gave him his heart only for it to be broken (even though it's a misunderstanding). He realizes something, he needs to reach a point where he can be content with who he is before he can be content with another person. And he builds up this confidence (which starts off as just fake confidence till he himself believes it) to get him through every situation. That's Philautia—selflove.

Kim Namjoon

Oh god, Namjoon in this book. I love him. He is so broken, so confused, so unknowing of who he is and how to separate himself from something he is forced to be. I feel that at first Namjoon represents Ludus — Playful Love. He feels those butterflies in his stomach, he does crazy things such as escaping with Jin during their date and honestly he's basically high off of dopamine that he really can't think straight. It's so cute. I've said it on twitter but this Namjoon is inspired by the whole RM/Kim Namjoon identity crisis that the real Namjoon has gone through and I just felt like I sort of understood him while writing this. Namjoon's Ludus is destroyed when Seokjin 'dies'. If you recall, in the beginning, Namjoon was super flirty but after Jin came back his mood changed and he became more serious and honest with his feelings. So he shifted to a Pragma — Enduring Love where he is really committing himself to Jin rather than just talking about it. He moves hell for Jin rather than letting himself be pushed around by the court or his own grandma. I also believe Namjoon's character has a lot to go more into depth on, but honestly I'm getting tired hehe.

Min Yoongi