Since you asked for intellectual questions, here's one.

So, say we have this one character who is an author. The stories that he writes are mostly cute, romantic comedy stories with a sprinkle of drama. But because his works aren't getting as much attention anymore, he decided to try out a new genre: the tragedy genre, where the protagonist is about someone who is from the real world and was transported into another world without prior warning.

The story skyrocketed and became super popular, winning awards for best novel of the year etc. After finishing that work, he shortly decides to work on another story, but he was suddenly transported into his own novel's world just like the novel's protagonist. Remember when I said this story is a tragedy genre story? Our protagonist goes through a lot of difficulties and loses a lot of his loved ones during this novel, and it ends with a bittersweet ending.

Our author, who decided that he might as well save the protagonist, helps him and gets him out of trouble, pushing the story into a whole different direction which in turn makes the story unpredictable. The monsters and villains in the story get more and more powerful and tough, while the author and the protagonist technically can only trust each other (especially since the author knows that almost everyone near the protagonist is just using him or betrays him in the end).

You know how authors usually have a soft spot for their stories and/or characters? Our author really likes the cold but actually kind protagonist and secretly wishes he didn't have to write him suffering so much. His previously existing like for the protagonist developed into love, and he's conflicted with his feelings because although the author is currently the protagonist's only confidant, he's also the one who had let him go through all those suffering before he changed the storyline.

Time's running out and they should be focusing on stopping the monsters, but the author is distracted and preoccupied with his thoughts. Should the author confess his love or let their story have something similar to the original storyline- the bittersweet ending?

It should be noted that the protagonist definitely would get upset if he learned of the truth. The author is technically the God who let him suffer (with remorse).