From the bitter cold of December to the warmth and blossoms of March.
We stayed with Yuan Su and Pu Yu through each other's birthdays, crossed into a new year, and finally welcomed a spring brimming with life.
Two people standing at the edge of a cliff drew each other a little closer to solid ground. Through their very presence, they told each other: Look, I'm here too. We're both still alive. We can still love, and once the rain stops, we can still wait for spring.
Pu Yu gave Yuan Su a reason to keep living.
Yuan Su gave Pu Yu the confidence to keep loving bravely.
While serializing the first volume, I often found myself soaking my keyboard with tears as I wrote.
Was this the allure of bittersweet stories about two people saving each other?
Being pulled back and forth by fate was so agonizing.
But I still had to write.
Because I loved them too much.
I loved Little Rain, who staked everything on saving herself from suffering. I loved that awkward fool who clearly wanted to walk someone home but pretended he was just passing by. I loved the rainy days in Small Town, the high school campus, the shabby inn, the starry skies over North Mountain, the hope in Dongzhou, the wind and snow of Rinzhou, the puppy, Little Rain, and all of you.
Interestingly, they spent two years apart, but all I put in my outline was this: "Parting in summer, reuniting in bitter winter."
At first, I hadn't deliberately planned out the specific events before and after their reunion.
How would Pu Yu find him? How would Yuan Su face her? After they reunited, could they ever return to the way things had been?
I didn't write a detailed outline. I only