#hence why tomorrow's chapter is 17k

[jenanigans1207]

Is Kotaro the fan favorite in the fic because he's also the fan favorite of readers? (myself included)

Honestly? Yeah, kind of.

I didn't have any idea how people would react to an OC being such an integral part of the story and so I wasn't sure how involved I was going to make him. But then when everyone received him so graciously, I decided to commit to his part in the story and kind of flush it out (hence his romance subplot now!) and it just sort of naturally evolved to him being a fan favorite in the fic.

I do try to base some of the comments in the fic off of the energy/theme of the comments that I get on the chapters to realistically depict everyone's reactions since the commenters in the fic are the same as the commenters ON the fic, you know? And so when people started commenting that they liked him and wanted to see more of him I just sorta... transitioned that into the fic.

But I say kind of because I also think, like, even if everyone hated him, he'd still get a little bit of fanfare in the fic because I just think realistically in a situation like that, people tend to love the random guy who only appears sometimes and clearly is too stressed to be dealing with any of the shit he has going on, you know? So I think to some extent it would've naturally lined up, but then it just fast-tracked to him now being featured in every cooking episode and also getting a subplot and lot of POV scenes because everyone was so kind to him when they got to know him.

(I'm truly so thankful that everyone likes him. It's a completely different experience to have people react so warmly to an OC and it really just melts my heart in the best way)