The Cute Yandere Next to Me

Well, that's it, guys! Volume 2 has officially concluded. I'm writing this afterword since I've got some things to talk about (and I love writing afterwords... lol).

Also I've decided to change the name to 'Gifted Academy: The Perfect Student'.

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First of all, thank you so much for reading. This book wouldn't be where it is right now without you, so you're just as important as me! (or so I'd say, but I'm a bit more important than you :P) On a serious note, I very much appreciate you following me on this long journey of mine (and also listening to me spiel for a few minutes)~

I think I ended the last volume on a pretty interesting note (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING THE LAST CHAPTER... I even wrote a summary). With some backstory on Kurosawa Hayao, the principal of National High School and Tachibana Kohei, the founder of the Ideal Human Project, I was able to express some of the ideas that I've personally considered before.

Ultimately, it's another 'Nature' vs 'Nurture debate, however, unlike some other books that I won't mention. I think I've been able to properly express the intricacies of the real 'Nature' vs 'Nurture' debate.

Other books like to share the idea of 'nature vs nurture, but it's actually nature vs more nature since the 'nurture' side also has 'ideal' genes.' Tachibana Kohei didn't choose Hasegawa-san and Mizuhara-kun because of their genes in any way. He simply took a liking to them (as shown in the first Ideal Human Project Chapter). This means that the children are (almost) completely nurture.

Anyways, enough about that.

I had lots of fun writing the first special exam. I actually wrote a plan for it years ago at school, which I never got to use until now lmao. I guess the younger me knew exactly how to organise his time (not). However, that was also part of the reason why the main girls were somewhat left out (since my plan didn't include them at the time).

The academic exam was also partially planned out ages ago for another book (Apathy at Gifted Academy). Still, the premise and plan were pretty complete, so I decided to just use it. It was a little more tedious to write, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

You'd be surprised, but the idea for the Chess Tournament Special Exam actually came to me when I was reading Blue Lock (an anime about soccer). In the end, it was a pretty good opportunity for me to pit some of the smartest students against each other.

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By the way, I was thinking back and forth about how on earth I'm going to incorporate this Yandere concept. I didn't want to talk about this in my first afterword, but I guess I feel like I should now.

The entire title was just me thinking about a clickbaity way to market this book. I had actually written a decent amount of this on Scribblehub and Royal Road beforehand, but the old title that worked over there wasn't really going here. I just thought, 'well, yanderes are popular'.

So, as a result, I didn't actually have any yanderes in this book with 'yandere' in the title (facepalm). I might include it in the future, depending on how the story goes. I just don't want to shoehorn it in and ruin the natural flow of the story.

Aside from that, I managed to get some good background developed for National High School during this volume. Mizuhara-kun was sort of just chilling throughout this volume which was a little bit unintended, but I think the nature of the exams kind of forced it.

Fujiharu-san and Kanako-san are going to share the main heroine role now (because I said so). However, the next volume will include an arc for Kinoshita-san (it may not end happily) since she is missing one. After that, much much more chapters with Kanako-san and Fujiharu-san (and some other girls).

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Now, I'm going to talk about my thoughts on the next volume, volume 3.

I'm planning on putting in way more character interactions and slice-of-life-y elements (more similar to volume 1) since we've been somewhat missing out on that. Of course, there'll still be special exams and such but just not as many.

I kinda clogged volume 2 with a few too many exams since I was shoving them in a bit too hard. Whatever the case, I needed to find a way to show the nature of the school, so that was just what ended up happening.

Anyways, there was a short cameo involving Mizuhara-kun's sister's name during the final chapter of the special exam. She'll be introduced properly soon (time not set yet).

Also, I just finished writing my chapters for the Mass Release Event. Well, I guess you guys are reading this a few days afterwards but hey. I've chugged so much coffee these last few days I've literally got insomnia (on the bright side, productivity has never been higher).

Actually, I've been wondering.

What are your thought on pictures/art? I've been wanting to commission one for a while since I've always wanted to get one of Mizuhara-kun and/or Kanako-san, Fujiharu-san or Tachibana-san. I might make a ******* or Kofi so I can raise some money for one. It all depends on demand at the moment.

If you want to see some art of them, comment here so I can see~

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Anyways, thanks again for reading thus far~ your support is the reason I can continue to write this novel (instead of doing my homework... actually, I should probably start doing my homework...).

This novel is far from over. There are many more volumes to come and many more characters to be introduced.

And we haven't even seen anywhere near the full strength of Mizuhara Ayato-kun yet~

Well, that's all from me. I'll see you in volume 3~

Thank you for your continued support, and I'll see you all soon! (Probably in the afterword of volume 3~)

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Leave me a nice review--I'll probably read it around 19 times~

<3