Wow. It's really complete. This is the first time I've finished a full-length novel, and I'm still amazed that it's over now. Alas, all stories have to come to an end eventually.

I really wanted to write a story where the two MCs (mostly) communicated well with each other and had a healthy relationship, and I think I succeeded, so I'm rather happy with the overall result.

Thank you so much, my dear readers, for joining me on this journey, especially to those who read my update every week and leave me encouraging comments and votes. You guys motivated me so much to keep going!

I started off as a total newbie in Wattpad with no following, doing tons of R4R while desperately trying to keep up with weekly updates, and having 5K reads was a huge achievement at that time, so seeing my story steadily rise in organic reads is absolutely incredible. It really shocked me when it first started happening.

To my OG readers who have voted and commented: I will always remember you (to the very best of my ability) for taking a chance on my ongoing story while it still had 30-odd chapters. THANK YOU! I love you all so much! (ෆˊ͈ ु꒳ ूˋ͈ෆ) Know that I recognize your username and truly appreciate the support you've given me.

First, I'll address the question of a sequel: I have plans for it as a novella—aka not a full-length novel like this one—but it's not coming out so soon. It will eventually be out, though! Probably while I'm still working on my new story because I don't want to take too long to release the sequel.

The sequel will cover their college life, where Nolan and Chelsea experience challenges that crop up in their relationship now that even more time has passed and how they overcome them. It also definitely covers the question of their growing 'age gap', which I'm sure people are going to wonder about. (Maybe Nolan's condition isn't irreversible.)

I'm really busy now with work and various writing projects, but I do still reply to comments when I see them/don't forget! Your comments bring a smile to my face. Some of you guys are so hilarious you make me actually snort and/or giggle in real life.

Aside from its sequel (for obvious reasons), You Are the Shell to My Tortoise will be my first and last 'supernatural' work because, well, as you've read, that's not the main point of this story anyway. It just happens to have it. Reading shoujo manga as I grew up meant that I really liked the tsundere types when it came to fictional guys. The bubbly girl MC would accidentally befriend the cold/tsundere guy MC who would slowly warm up to her and by the end of the manga I'd be swooning at how cute the two of them were. That's actually how I started writing this. Fun fact!

Through learning how to let his guard down again with Chelsea, Nolan eventually learnt how to forgive his father, in the process stepping out of the shadows of his past. This is something quite close to my heart because I related strongly with Nolan, albeit his situation was worse than mine. It was like playing a violent tug-of-war with my own mind when it came to forgiving/dealing with my parents. It was only with God's help that I could finally let go, after years of working on it, so the struggle was real (but now I'm free!). That's also why I'm not sure what functional and loving families are like, and Chelsea's interactions with her family are my best attempts at guessing how attentive parents would speak.

Anyway, thanks for reading my ramble. You can tell I'm long-winded from how long this afterword is PLUS the 160K+ words I took to write this book LOL. I'll be going back to edit bits of the book as and when I see mistakes/parts that need to be polished.

NEXT!

[SELF-ADVERTISEMENT WARNING]

I have a new story that I'll start updating soon! The first episode of Training Wheels: Boyfriend Edition is already up on my profile, so if it interests you, you can add it to your library to get updates whenever I post a new episode!

It's romance, of course, and it focuses a lot more on humor than You Are the Shell to My Tortoise. TWBE will probably get you staring at the characters like "wut", but in a good way (I hope). As usual, it'd be friendship and slowburn galore!! I plan on updating it the way I've updated You Are the Shell to My Tortoise, once a week.

[END SELF-ADVERTISEMENT]

If anyone is interested, I'll be working on You Are the Shell to My Tortoise bonus chapters (kind of similar to the extras I posted here for my 5k and 15k milestones) that will be exclusive to my Patreon. I'll have another part up as a table of contents for that, and I'll update it as I go along.

Thank you for coming on this journey with Nolan and Chelsea! It's been a pleasure. ( •ॢ◡-ॢ)-♡

I LOVE YOU GUYS! ♡