<I'm Only Shy in Front of You> Interview with Author Kim Hyun-ah
Meet the Trending Author
vol. 261
[I'm Only Shy in Front of You]
Author Kim Hyun-ah | NAVER WEBTOON
The warmth of sweetly blushing cheeks,
A fresh romance blooming along the lines of a clumsy heart! 🌸✨
An artist who illustrates the delicate tremors at the boundaries of relationships and emotions! 🎨🖌️
A story of fluttering feelings that finally arrived at the end of deep sincerity,
The interview with Author Kim Hyun-ah of <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>,
starts right now!
[INTRO]
Q. Author Kim Hyun-ah! Thank you for agreeing to this interview! Could you briefly introduce yourself before we begin?
A. Hello!
After completing <The Bully is Fierce> and <Reverse Run!> on NAVER WEBTOON,
I am Kim Hyun-ah, the author currently serializing the Monday webtoon <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>.
It's a great honor to do this interview. Thank you so much for reaching out to me!
△ Hello 🙌
[About Kim Hyun-ah]
Q. You are working under your real name rather than a pen name.
Is there a special reason why you chose your real name when you started your creative work?
Also, we're a bit curious if you had any candidate pen names in mind during your preparation process.
A. When I was serializing <The Bully is Fierce>, the webtoon company
first suggested that I use my real name.
Since a pen name is something irreversible once an aspiring author decides on it,
I definitely had thought of various pen names seriously at the time,
but it's been so long now that nothing comes to mind right away.
I just have a vague memory of wanting to use a unique pen name that wouldn't go out of style,
but since I actually don't have a good sense for naming, it probably would have been rejected anyway.
Thinking about it now, using my real name was definitely the safest and best choice.
Q. It's already been quite some time since you left a strong first impression on readers with your debut work <The Bully is Fierce>.
Compared to your mindset at debut, what experience or thought has changed you the most as a creator now?
A. At the time, <The Bully is Fierce> was my first work where many people worked together with the company's support,
and so many readers read and loved it back then!
Afterwards, in my second work <Reverse Run!>, where I was in charge of both the story and the art, I stood on my own as a full-fledged author.
During that process, I deeply realized how much I still lacked as an author.
In one way or another, I think it was the biggest experience that helped me grow significantly.
Results aren't everything in the world, but since creation inherently makes you want as many people as possible to read your work for a long time,
I had a lot of thoughts when things didn't go as I expected.
However, just like the lesson in <Reverse Run!>, I was rather glad to have experienced that hardship.
It was the biggest experience that made me who I am today!
△ You can check them out on NAVER WEBTOON 🥰
Q. Looking at your works, your artistic ability to convey emotions through the characters' subtle expressions and gazes definitely stands out.
What directing techniques or media do you usually reference and practice for such detailed emotional direction?
A. For referencing media, I don't think there's anything better than video.
Everything, including anime and movies!
Comics are a huge help too, of course, but you can't ignore the color palettes in colored webtoons.
In a way, I think a webtoon author is like a video director
who holds a camera and pans the screen to capture the subject's situation, emotion, and narrative.
Because of that, I definitely tend to reference media with clear visuals a lot.
Also, since facial expressions are the most effective and intuitive way to convey emotions, I tend to draw close-up scenes often,
but I believe that such emotions also have a destination they reach through changes.
And I think I particularly love depicting the sequential panels where those emotions change. I'm so glad you noticed!
Q. Do you have your own unique routine or creative method from conceiving a story to completing it?
A. When devising the stories for <Reverse Run!> and <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>,
I laid out the notes of materials I usually wanted to write about, set aside a day or two,
and just wrote without revising.
It's more like just going out and walking rather than looking for the optimal route to run!
I think this method had the best effect compared to the time invested.
Because I can always work out the details slowly enough later!
Q. You have been consistently creating narratives where the relationships between characters stand out, such as school life, youth romance, and idol dramas.
Is there a special reason why you are particularly drawn to 'relationships between people'?
A. Since I was young, I didn't really have a lot of people around me.
Because it was lacking, in a way, amidst countless dynamic events,
I always watched them like a bystander taking a step back, rather than being the main character.
Listening to other people's various stories from that position,
I came to think that the countless stories in the world, no matter how trivial,
ultimately stem from relationships with people.
Because friendship, love, opposition, conflict, and cooperation all absolutely require a counterpart.
While thinking that I couldn't progress a story as an author without this,
'Aren't human relationships the true essence of a story?' is what I came to think.
As a result, the value that this aspect must be solid to write a more interesting story
naturally settled in, and delving even deeper into it was a natural flow, in a way.
Fortunately, perhaps they thought highly of that aspect,
both <Reverse Run!> and <I'm Only Shy in Front of You> passed the editorial meetings right away!
△ The editorial department must be happy...🥹
Q. What kind of student were you during your school days?
We're curious if your experiences from school days or the emotions you felt back then are reflected in the youth stories of your current works.
A. During my school days, I lacked both sociability and social skills. Looking back, it's quite embarrassing.
There couldn't have been anyone who would approach someone first who barely spoke and didn't share their true feelings.
Because I couldn't do that, as a reaction to it, expressing 'kids who probably wouldn't be like that'
is what I'm doing in <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>, which is currently serializing.
While drawing comics, I often imagine, 'What if I had acted like this back then? Would things be a little different now?'
In a way, the protagonist 'Dan-a' from <I'm Only Shy in Front of You> is a character designed with that kind of feeling.
Q. You started out as an illustrator and have established yourself as an author who leads the entire direction and narrative.
When do you feel you achieved the most dazzling growth artistically and directorially?
A. I think it's probably every season when I start a new work, isn't it?
It was like that when transitioning from <The Bully is Fierce> to <Reverse Run!>,
but especially when transitioning from <Reverse Run!> to <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>,
I felt proud because it felt like my art style had settled to some extent.
(Although that has already become my past drawings, so I can't bear to look at them out of embarrassment now!)
Also, transitioning from <Reverse Run!> to <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>, I started fully introducing manuscript decorations.
It's at an insufficient level compared to other beautiful works, but as the decorative elements certainly increased,
the fact that I could express situations and emotions not just through characters but also through other elements
made me think it was greatly helping the work's atmosphere, so even though it added a bit more to the process, I really like it.
Q. We're curious about your studio! Could you introduce it to us?
A. For the script storyboard, I go out to a cafe and draft it using Samsung Notes on a Galaxy Tab S7+,
and for the actual drawing work, I only use dual monitors and one Wacom medium pen tablet!
Because I'm short, I fix the motion desk height at 61cm and use the chair (Sidiz T50) at its lowest.
Behind my desk, there's a bookshelf dedicated to comic books,
but due to real estate issues, it hasn't been long since I got the bookshelf itself, so it's still completely empty.
I want to fill it up with the comic books I really love, so I'm keeping an eye out for used comic book collections in my spare time!
△ 🌿🌟🧸💵 (All the good things belong to the author!)
[About <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>]
Q. The title <I'm Only Shy in Front of You> alone makes hearts flutter.
What made you come up with this title, and what is the core theme that penetrates the entire work?
A. The core theme and emotion are definitely <Shyness>.
Back then, when I only had a vague guide, it was just
'a cynical boy with many secrets being drawn into a naive, sunshine-like girl' that I had planned out,
but suddenly I thought, 'This boy will eventually blush at this girl,
so how much will he blush until he admits those feelings?'
When I thought of that, these kids, who didn't even have names yet, were just so cute!
From then on, I decided to set the theme in this direction.
I thought about weaving in various forms of <Shyness>, not just simple romantic shyness,
to craft the characters and story, and that's how the current <I'm Only Shy in Front of You> was created.
△ You're not going to read this?
The process of deciding on the title itself was truly eventful.
Ultimately, the title has to show the theme best, so whatever it became, I made up my mind to definitely include the word 'Shy!'.
Like that, among various candidates, I confirmed the current title, which is closest to the content I want to convey.
I mentioned earlier about the pen name that I lack naming sense,
but actually... the very early title candidate, meant to grab attention, was <I Wish You Were No-Dam (No Smoking)>...
Though it was scrapped when my younger sibling strongly talked me out of it, haha!
△ Nice 👏👏👏👏👏
Q. We are curious how the setup for the two contrasting protagonists—'Dan-a', a pure and transparent girl who grew up on an island, and 'Se-hwa', who keeps secrets and doesn't open his heart easily—began.
A. As I mentioned above, they are kids born by layering various elements first.
I started by assembling materials scattered like pieces, one by one.
I made up my mind to draw 'a story about a cynical boy falling for and being drawn into a sunshine-like girl',
and I wanted to draw it more colorfully by adding "special" elements to the protagonists.
△ You're not going to read this?2222222
In the process, my embarrassing school days came to mind,
and thinking 'How about a kid who probably wouldn't be like that?', 'Dan-a' was created.
However, in a world like today where you can't help but be conscious of trends and others,
to express one's thoughts and actions with principles, she had to be a bit 'unlike kids these days',
so I thought, 'Ah, in that case, it would be better to be a bit disconnected from the world,' and added the setting of a kid who grew up on an island.
Then, I figured I could capture 'purity', 'healthiness', 'specialness', and 'loveliness' as well!
While planning at the time, I went on a family trip and stayed a day at my uncle's house, who is a fisherman,
and the atmosphere and images I felt there were a huge help.
△ It's a pretty landscape that looks exactly like 'Dan-a' 🐳
'Se-hwa' was decided a little later.
Thinking, 'It'd be good to include settings I definitely want to use someday,' I built him up by drawing out his past settings first.
And then, as I wondered, 'If he had lived like this his whole life, what would it feel like, and what kind of personality would he have?',
the atmosphere I wanted naturally fell into place.
Along with that, as I molded the narrative episodes with Dan-a, he was given a narrative to drive the entire story,
naturally contrasting characters were made, and his personality came out exactly as I wanted,
so when I completed the character, I felt 'Done! This is it!'
△ Done! This is it!!! 📢
Q. The unfamiliarity and excitement Dan-a feels coming from the isolated yet pure space of an 'island' to the new space of a 'city/school' is impressive.
What kind of meaning do the spaces 'island' and 'school' hold for Dan-a respectively?
A. To Dan-a, the 'island' is a home, a shelter, and a hometown she can return to anytime.
The 'school' is a dreamy place that she longs for, enjoyable, and fun, but on the other hand, it is very unfamiliar and a place where things don't go as planned for Dan-a, for whom everything is a first.
△ Pat pat
We often have such thoughts, right? "If I don't do well here, my life is ruined", or "I'm doomed"...
However, because Dan-a had never attended school, even if things don't work out well at school now, it doesn't mean much to her.
It's just to the extent of 'I gathered my courage and took on the challenge, but failed— Ugh! I should just go home...', so while she might be a little disappointed, Dan-a knows very well.
That she has a warm home she can return to anytime, where her grandmothers and grandfathers who love her are.
That is the reason why Dan-a could remain strong and not act as if the world has ended, even if things didn't go so well at school due to various matters.
Unlike when she slipped her notebook into Se-hwa's bag, since it's not even her fault, what is there to fear!
When she returns home, all the grandmothers and grandfathers living on the entire island are solely on her side!
△ Overflowing with love 🥰😘💓💞💖
Q. Se-hwa feels burdened by Dan-a's straightforwardness but also blushes and feels his chest tighten, experiencing the literal emotion of 'shyness'.
When directing this complex and ticklish psychological change in the male protagonist, what aspect do you put the most effort into depicting?
A. I thought the top priority was to make sure the emotions that even Se-hwa himself is confused by could be well felt by the readers.
So I tend to put effort into the narration as well to make it easy to accept,
and at the same time, I pay a lot of attention to depicting Se-hwa's passive yet visible actions without overdoing it.
Like naturally sitting across from her in the cafeteria, or worrying that Dan-a might be hurt but not being able to show it, so
stealthily following her and subtly initiating a conversation!
△ No, you're not going to read this!!!!!!!!!3333333333
Q. In your opinion, what do you consider the most decisive moment Dan-a became attracted to Se-hwa, and
the most decisive turning point for Se-hwa to open his heart to Dan-a?
A. For Dan-a, as Se-hwa started expressing himself honestly in earnest,
the actions and words he had shown towards her so far made even her dull self feel
a bit that something was 'different'.
However, the issue didn't end there, but from when Dan-a thought 'Huh? Is that really it?' and
realized herself that she had started to secretly look forward to it. That was the moment Se-hwa became special within Dan-a.
In the early days of their meetings when Se-hwa started caring about Dan-a,
it was partly because Dan-a, who worried about him, reminded him of his mother whom he parted ways with when he was young.
But the turning point where he fully started harboring feelings for her was when he learned of Dan-a's deep inner thoughts in forgiving Seol-i.
Until then, he thought she was just a foolishly nice kid to the point of being incomprehensible,
but he realized she wasn't just blindly nice but held many thoughts inside.
The part where she sincerely accepted the fake favor he offered to avoid his own crisis
must have also come as quite a shock and a source of shame for Se-hwa. Just like what Seol-i felt when she was forgiven by Dan-a.
Such a girl, pure white to the core and constantly on his mind, called him cool, so
his heart fluttering for Dan-a is, in a way, a natural flow... I think, but did you feel it that way?
I hope it felt that way...
Like that, to Se-hwa, Dan-a properly transitioned from a 'frustrating and weird kid who bothers me'
to a 'kind and special kid who bothers me'.
It's not long until it becomes 'Like', but he can't accept it immediately and goes through a sort of denial phase.
How will Se-hwa change as he goes through his denial phase? Hehe... Please look forward to the upcoming developments!😉
Q. Besides the main characters, the chemistry with the supporting characters who breathe life into the story stands out.
Is there a sub-character that you unexpectedly grew more attached to while drawing?
A. Surprisingly, it's Kwon Gyu-bin.
This guy, sometimes when the story drags, sags, or doesn't go the way I want,
he appears and sorts out the situation right on! Not heavily or frustratingly.
He's a very thankful character. Drawing him also sticks well to my hand!
Once the amusement park episode ends, Gyu-bin's episode is scheduled to start soon.
I'm currently breathing details into him to see how I can make him a more attractive character!
(Please look forward to it~ whisper whisper)
△ The lovely lightness of unbearable being🧸
Q. The fresh sense of seasons and the atmosphere of school days, unique to the school romance genre, are well melted throughout the work.
Please tell us if there's a specific scene or season you put special effort into when setting the background and atmosphere in the work.
A. I wanted to express the late winter at the beginning of the semester and that sudden cold snap just as it becomes spring!
Since the timeline in the story progression is still early to mid-semester, at their first meeting,
the flowers or leaves couldn't be lush.
So I was a bit worried that the depiction might look too cold,
but I thought it was better to bring out the realism, so I pushed forward with it.
△ Still can't beat 'Dan-a', who is like a spring day 🌸
Currently, in the amusement park part, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom.
The characters are interacting in earnest, and the protagonists are starting to be conscious of each other.
It perfectly matches the fresh atmosphere, so I really like it!
△ Is it... starting now? Pit-a-pat pit-a-pat pit-a-pat 💗
Q. While serializing the work, was there a scene or cut that you didn't expect during the storyboard stage,
but turned out to be much more fluttery and beautifully expressed than you thought after actually completing it, leaving you satisfied?
A. It's the bus scene in Episode 32.
When the sleeping Dan-a leans on him, Se-hwa freezes in panic and
eagerly counts down the time to arrive, thinking, 'Ah, when will we arrive... please arrive quickly...'
However, looking at Se-hwa feeling empty after sending Dan-a off first in the later scene, he actually wished to arrive slowly in his heart.
At this time, in the background direction on the road, 'Slowly'a scene appears with the word written,
and surprisingly, this was not intended at all!
I remember being surprised like "Whoa?!" when readers let me know in the comments, and I also got butterflies saying "Oh my, oh my!" together with them.
It was a moment where I, the author, fell deeply into it as well because it perfectly matched the situation unintentionally!!
△ Crawl, oh bus 🚌
Q. When readers who loved your previous works encounter this new work <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>,
what new charm and differentiation do you hope they feel?
A. I certainly hope they feel the sweet romance.
Since my previous work intentionally excluded romance to some extent, I decided to fully let loose this time!
At the same time, I hope you watch the clumsy but wonderful growth of the kids in the work!
△ Going to the dentist tomorrow, my teeth decayed (from the sweetness)...
[Outro]
Q. Even if it's not your next work, if infinite time and capital were invested in you, is there a genre or story you definitely want to draw?
A. Someday, I definitely want to try a calm apocalypse genre and an action-packed shonen manga.
The passing stories of humans swayed by an unavoidable, massive environment,
or a manga that exhilaratingly unfolds dreams and hopes with fists.
Adding an ensemble drama and the interactions of various people, which I always love, into them!
However, my skills must improve before that, right?! I will work hard!
Q. What kind of meaning do you think the work <I'm Only Shy in Front of You> will be remembered as by you in the future?
A. It's a vague answer, but when looking back, I want it to be remembered with a feeling of 'Wow, this work was a really pretty work~'.
Only a very small part of the story has been unveiled so far.
Combining the overall theme, narrative, expression, and everything of the work,
I want it to ultimately remain as a warm story in the readers' memories.
So, wishing for that, I also want to remember my work like that.
Q. Later, once this serialization is safely completed, is there a break you want to gift yourself for your hard work or something you definitely want to try?
A. Becoming a veteran driver and going on domestic trips two or three times a month.
Taking reference photos of landscapes and broadening my horizons; I think it would kill two birds with one stone.
Q. Through the difficult serialization process, is there a message of thanks you'd like to share, taking this opportunity, to your family, friends, fellow authors,
or staff who have silently stayed by your side and supported you?
A. My family of five who always supports me!
And my friends and acquaintances who help ensure my daily life doesn't get boring by only burying myself in manuscripts...
To my assistants who have been with me all this time, thank you so much!
Thanks to you all, I'm taking care of my daily life and doing really well with the manuscript!
Q. Lastly, if you have anything you'd like to say to the readers who have loved <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>, please feel free to say it.
A. Thank you sincerely for reading <I'm Only Shy in Front of You>.
For choosing this quiet, gently flowing story among the numerous dopamine-driven media these days,
I am very grateful lately.
Following my previous works, this work is also being serialized on Mondays.
It feels like I'm joining the start of your week, so Monday itself has become a very meaningful day for me too.
The story is still only partially unveiled and there are far more stories left to progress,
so I hope you'll accompany me, Dan-a, and Se-hwa on our journey until then.
I will continue writing a good story so you won't regret reading my work! Thank you so much!