Wes Ellis./ a personal notebook
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Novel / Teen rom-com

Continue?

In 1994 Seoul, a sixteen-year-old finds out he can hit Continue on his own life, and he spends every credit trying to talk to one girl.

People walking down a neon-lit street at night in Seoul.
Status
Planned. First chapter not started.
Length
Nothing drafted yet
This draft
First draft, June 2026

Kang Tae-yang is sixteen, a first-year at Sangwon High and gloriously average. Then he finds out he can set a checkpoint in his own life and drop back to it later, memory intact, while everything else resets. He doesn't go after lottery numbers. He goes after Yoon So-ra, the sharp, funny girl at the top of the class he can't talk to without short-circuiting, and every perfect redo invents a dumber disaster than the last one.

The rules are arcade rules. He keeps what he learned, never what he gained. He can hold three checkpoints, and setting a fourth leaves a leftover version of him behind. And the national college exam, the one day that decides his future, won't take a coin. It turns out you can't speedrun being genuine.

THE PLANStory bible, June 2026
  • Set in 1994 Seoul: the Sanggye-dong towers, Sangwon High, the Cosmos Arcade, pagers, payphones and noraebang.
  • Cast: Tae-yang, So-ra, his best friend Baek Doo-shik, his mom, and Mr. Goo, who runs the arcade.
  • The rules are fixed: the checkpoint ritual, three credits, the lag, and the days that won't take a continue.
  • Touchstones: About Time and Palm Springs for the loop, Reply 1994 for the era.
  • The bible is canon-locked. The next step is an outline, and the final format is still open.

Nothing drafted yet. This is where they'll show up as I write them, so check back.

Version history1 draft

Current · June 2026

First draft

Not started yet. The story bible is done and the outline comes next.

This is the only draft posted so far. When the rewrite lands, this one moves down here.