sunhak | say you like me: the commentary
Hello!
Never thought I’d do something like this but I think this fic deserves one, just because it’s my first fic since my little break and also because it’s my first-ever sunhak fic! (as the main pairing that is)
Let’s get started.
Idea
The initial idea came to me in 2014. I wish I was kidding. It was an idea meant for a Mark x Jaebum fic during my Ahgase days… But I rediscovered it and rehashed it for Sunhak in 2019 I believe. That was when I first started liking TBZ!
In 2014, I was still in high school so I went to a lot of camps too and I’ve always wanted to explore the dynamics between camp instructors. As I grew older, I had friends who were full-time camp instructors. It’s honestly a tiring job and I imagine, you must have unlimited amounts of energy and a certain liking for the wilderness for you to do this shit full time lol.
Anyway, I picked this fic up again in 2021 and I think it’d be a cute little summer fic.
It was originally meant to be short and sweet at 3k. Meant to be posted in June for the full summer experience.
But boy, was I wrong about that…
Execution
So yeah, due to changes I made to the plot. I’ve decided to make my job ten times more difficult by making sure that everyone dates each other.
Initially, I wanted to write bbangnyukyu as the ot3 but I figured, they have more than enough fics under their tag anyway. I did put Chanhee and Changmin together though. Plus, I was really into bbangmil and kevric when I wrote this, hence, how I arrived at my final decision!
Sangju is a given. Like, if I don’t include them, I might pass out.
Whoa, not gonna lie, I went a little crazy writing this fic. It was right after my hiatus that I decided to work on this a little more and it’s really hard to write when your mind tells you that everything you put out is trash.
But thankfully, I felt the motivation to write again.
Plus, this fic is almost entirely self-indulgent and I think I owe it to myself as a writer, to write things that I’d like to read.
Challenges
So. Many.
I struggled a lot with Sunwoo’s character here. I wanted him to be an asshole but not too much, and some lines I wrote earlier were like straight-up assholey! He was gaslighting poor Hak at one point…
But I really like how he turned out. How he’s an adorable little baby just in need of love and affection from the right person. His character is really endearing to me.
Also, writing Hak’s character was easy, only because he’s already so likeable in real life. I did make him a little more sensitive and volatile in here though.
Favourites
I really enjoyed writing the Treehouse and Hestia’s Night scene! Though I did feel like I was writing a Camp Rock fic at one point.
For the epilogue – I loved how it ended! With clueless Juyeon and loud-mouth Hyunjae. These are some of my favourite ways to write about them ^_^
Special Thanks
Anyways!! Big shout out to Stella for plotting this fic with me and to Ash for hearing all my incessant rambling while you beta the fic for me <3 I appreciate both of you so much.
Also thanks to @hourly_sunhak for providing me with the content I need to write this fic. Every time I see their tweet, I immediately opened up the document….
Hope this commentary made sense! Please check out the fic if you have the time~
Thanks for reading lovelies!