[Author’s Afterword]

Nice to meet you, or good evening, or it’s been a while.

This is Shikimoto Hono.

There’s a personal-rambling section again this time, so first, some thank-yous…

Thank you so much for sticking with “A Yuri With My Next-Door Childhood Friend Is Just Too Convenient!” (going by the shorthand “Convenient Yuri” this time around) all the way to the end!

To everyone who made it all the way here, and to everyone who read even just a little bit — my heart is genuinely, completely full of gratitude!!

If you enjoyed it even a little, bookmarks and star ratings would make me incredibly happy!

You can leave a rating through the review section at the URL on the front page.

⭐️ I’ve gotten pretty shameless about begging for these at this point.
But I figure doing it is definitely better than not… right?? Right!!
(To everyone who’s already sent in a review — truly, thank you so much!!!! I’m endlessly grateful!!!!!)

And if you don’t mind, please consider following the author too! Your support is what keeps Shikimoto Hono going!

I’ve currently got two or three works in the concept stage!
If you’re interested, following along and waiting patiently would mean a lot!

Thank you again, truly, so much!

↓↓ Below is a personal-rambling corner I’m writing mostly so I can look back on my mental state later. Genuinely just for people with way too much time on their hands. …Should probably just write this in a diary instead?! Yeah, fair ↓↓

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I ended up writing this afterword near the very end, with about 4 episodes left!

My third work, “Yuri Friend Yuri,” got a genuinely huge response — as of writing this, it’s already past ⭐️650…
I’m honestly still kind of stunned.

Riding that high, I was making a bunch of side-story content, and once all of that wrapped up — end of May, I think? — I figured I’d take it easy for a bit…
And then I made the mistake of stumbling across a yuri contest!!

Figured, why not, let’s throw something into the yuri × romcom category, just for the experience!
Got fired up and started around the beginning of June. Started actually posting around late July, I think? So under two months, all told…

The “short, lighter-toned story I randomly thought of the other day” I mentioned in my last work’s afterword — this was it. Ended up jumping the wheel and doing it first.
And it wasn’t even short in the end!

Man, it was rough. It was really, genuinely rough.
Poured every scrap of my private time into finishing it in time, and honestly felt like I might just explode.
With my third work, I nearly died from not being able to produce anything. This time, I nearly died from being way too up against the deadline…!

And it’s just — hard! Like, genuinely too hard!
Serious respect to everyone who can consistently make things entertaining…

That said, compared to my third work (10 months versus roughly 2 months this time), getting it done this quickly, and making it all the way to completion without second-guessing what I wanted to do — that was a real win for me personally!

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For this one, I actually thought of the final three episodes first.
Basically sci-fi at that point. Honestly, I kind of reverse-engineered the whole story just so I could get to write those.

Normally I stress about the lead-up to the “spicy part” dragging on too long — like, that’s the part people skip in adult videos, right? — but this time, even the “main event” felt more like foreplay for what I actually wanted to write, so weirdly, I could let that worry go with a pretty calm heart.
(Really, I shouldn’t even have shoehorned the spicy part in at all… but, well, you want to, right?)

Lately my character naming’s gotten a little pun-brained.
Sukue Yotsuka — from “square” and “yotsu-kado” (four corners) — a square/quadrilateral motif.
The love interest was originally going to be named Endo Rena — “en” (circle) and “zero” — going for a circle motif…
(Most of the other side characters follow similar patterns too. Though a few are just named whatever, honestly.)

And then, while I was mulling all this over, I got to thinking — “too convenient” is basically deus ex machina, right?… and looked into it, and it clicked.
“Sukue,” read backwards, is basically “-eks-u”! Coincidence!!
Patting myself on the back for that bit of genius, I renamed the love interest to Uzuide Makina — a whirlpool (“uzu”) motif, close enough to a circle without straying too far, and close enough to “deus” and “machina” too!
Amazing!! I got the whole “deus ex machina” thing to line up!!
I remember getting absurdly hyped about that, all by myself, like it was just yesterday.

I really wanted to write that down somewhere.

My goals for this one were:
First — try writing a ton of dialogue!
I wanted to practice back-and-forth banter.
Started thinking that watching characters bounce off each other is honestly what I personally enjoy most.
Also, writing good, polished narration prose is hard! So this was partly just… running from that.
How’d it turn out, I wonder… might’ve ended up with a bit too much dialogue.
But this one was meant to be a light, easy read, so hopefully that’s fine.

Second — and this one I already mentioned — finish it as fast as possible!
Don’t overthink it, just get it out there!
The one thing I was determined not to repeat was what happened with my third work.
Ended up exhausted in a different way instead, though…

That’s about it for this one, I think.
Looking back, the lead-up to the actual “just the two of them living together” part probably ran a little long, or maybe the impact was a bit weak, or maybe the problems go even further back than that — plenty of little regrets, honestly, but getting it done in time for the contest deadline was the absolute top priority this round.
(If there’s anything here that felt off, please do let me know! I feel like I’ve been losing the ability to judge my own writing objectively lately.)

And then, once I actually started posting, purely by the contest’s submission window — the story ended right before the “spicy part” even began!
What incredible timing!!!

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As for what’s next (might overlap with what I already wrote in a status update before, but):
I’ve been mulling over a school-set yuri story for ages now — like, forever — plus a working-adults yuri idea I randomly thought up recently. Two or three ideas total, and I plan to get to them eventually.

That said, my pace is about to slow way, way down!

Because I’m exhausted!

Also just because work’s about to get brutally busy, and — something I’ve said forever — I want to get back into drawing, and 3D art too, and I want to actually watch other people’s content for once (still haven’t managed that at all), and I’m just tired.

Oh, also — this is in my status update too, but — I got the sudden urge to play FF7. So I’ve been playing through the original, the Remake, AND Crisis Core!!!!
Sorry!!!
Took a month to finish Remake, and now I’m deep into Rebirth!

I’ve got to save the planet, guys… I really do…!

…Once that’s done, I promise I’ll be back, so please, bear with me with warm, understanding eyes…!

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Okay, truly, finally.

I say this every time, but — is there really anyone out there who reads this much unhinged personal rambling??
If you are… I might just end up falling for you!!
Let’s start writing letters to each other or something.

Truly, truly, thank you so much.

If you don’t mind, I’d love to hear from you in the comments too.
Every single support comment I’ve gotten has made me so happy. Honestly, at this point, comments are just pure power. Yeah.

I’m definitely going to put out more work someday, so I hope to see you there too!!

See you again!!!!!