Afterword

For the greeting at the start of the afterword, I wrote “Nice to meet you” in Volume 1 and “Thank you for your continued support” in Volume 2, but for Volume 3, I wondered if I could be a bit more casual. Or maybe not… I got a little lost in thought, and here I am, Skyfarm, wandering in circles.

First off, just before writing this afterword, I received news that Volume 1 is getting another reprint! This is all thanks to everyone who’s picked up this book. Thank you so, so much!

Now, I’ve been given the go-ahead to write four pages for this afterword, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some behind-the-scenes stories about the making of the series up to Volume 3. As you may know, this work originally started as a web novel and won a Special Award at the 5th Kakuyomu Web Novel Contest, which led to its publication. The two main characters got together in Volume 2, but when I was serializing this story, I initially had no plans to write beyond that point. I was raised on the idea that a rom-com ends once the couple gets together, right? So, I figured once the main heroine and hero hooked up, it’d just be an epilogue and done.

But right after the decision to publish was made, during my first meeting with my editor, we agreed, “There’s something special about the lovey-dovey moments that come after they get together, so let’s write about that too.” Originally, the plan was to have them get together in Volume 1—basically reaching the end of Volume 2’s story in the first book. But I got carried away and packed in so much that it took two volumes to get to the point where they’re a couple. Finally, in Volume 3, I got to write about their relationship as an official couple, and that’s the journey so far.

That said, even though we’d been preparing for this from a fairly early stage, Volume 3 was, without a doubt, the hardest novel I’ve ever written. The image I had of the two in my head was that they’d face all sorts of challenges before getting together, but once they were a couple, it’d be smooth sailing. To shake things up and give them a chance to shine, we decided to bring in a new heroine. Enter Yuuki, the other childhood friend who’s been teased since Volume 1.

Since this is a novel adapted from a web series, the overarching story is already posted online, but the content of Volume 3 is completely different from the web version. What’s different, you ask? Yuuki’s character has been totally revamped. Originally introduced as “the guy friend who changed the shy Manami,” Yuuki in the web version was essentially a more powerful version of Manami, a character who confidently toyed with Kouki. But when we started putting together the book version, we hit a wall: the web version’s Yuuki felt like nothing more than a stronger Manami, lacking the charm to stand out as a new character. Volume 3 was already a struggle to write, and even after finishing it, we ran into this issue. After agonizing over it, I had a meeting with my editor and boldly declared, “Let’s ignore the web version! The first draft might go to waste, but I’m completely changing Yuuki’s character!” My editor graciously accepted this drastic change, even though it meant reworking a ton of already-checked material, and that’s how we arrived at the current version.

So, after all that, we ended up with a story I hadn’t initially planned and a character whose personality changed entirely after the first draft. It was quite a winding road, but I believe this allowed us to deliver the story in a really great way. Hidden eyes, huh? Love that vibe. She’s a secret busty character, too. I hope you enjoy her!

Last but not least, a huge thank you to Kuzumachi Aoru-sensei for always drawing the characters so charmingly. You came up with a design for the new heroine that exceeded my imagination, which really helped my writing flow. My editor, Kobayashi-san, was an incredible help, even with all the chaos of this volume. I’m also deeply grateful to everyone else involved. Thank you all so much.

And to everyone who’s picked up this book, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I’ll do my best to meet you again in Volume 4. Here’s to more adventures together!

Skyfarm