hello everyone! my name is em and i'm so very excited to be here with you all! this intro feels a bit incomplete n nonsensical if im honest tbh and i know im missing something!! what? im not sure yet sdnmsdm but without further ado, here is miss riley! <3
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒.
name : riley giselle ryu . date of birth : march 25th , 1997 . age : twenty seven . birthplace : chicago , illinois . hometown : lincoln city , oregon . nationality : american . ethnicity : korean . gender : cis woman . pronouns : she / her . orientation : bisexual & biromantic . languages : english , korean , and some french . occupation : fashion designer . element : fire . natal chart : sun in aries & moon in cancer . temperament : sanguine .
𝐀𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒.
scribbling the phone number of someone you don’t like in a dinky old bathroom stall , smudged eyeliner from the night before and calling it smoky eye , vivienne westwood pearls stained with hair dye , never leaving the house without a lighter , a smile brighter than the sun , standing at the edge of a building just to feel alive , the flickering of neon lights pouring over your head , being compelled to do scandalous and illegal things for no reason other than being bored , cheers - i’ll drink to that , attending a party fashionably late - drunk with an entourage of uninvited guests , the calm before a storm , the sound of gravel crunching beneath the soles of your shoes , the knot that forms at your throat when you're about to cry , wearing star shaped sunglasses to hide your dilated eyes . pinterest: here
𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃.
riley's mother, amie ryu, was the lead guitarist of renegades, an american rock band popular in the late 90s. she was known by the press for being aggressively off her rocker, but to fans, she was capable of bringing people together through the power of music. the announcement of her sudden pr******y as shock to those who eagerly watched her tear across the globe while on tour. no one, including amie, knew for certain who the father was and that in itself was something that drove people insane with curiosity.
having a kid on the way was probably one of the most disappointing things that happened in amie's career, but it was a disruption that she took with stride. to no one's surprise, riley was born on the road, exactly one hour after a concert in chicago. even though amie felt resentment toward riley for a really long time, she still tried her best to be as decent of a mother as she could be. unfortunately, old habits die hard and amie continued with her rock star antics with a chocolate haired nameless baby on her hip. some saw it as undeniably feminist while others thought it was careless. regardless of public opinion, amie made it work.
the first half of riley's childhood was as messy as it could get. the lack of structure was enough to create a hurricane of a child, the backstage chaos and unpredictability of life on the road was not a place to raise a child. so when riley turned five, her mother gave in to the advice of her band mates and made the impossibly easy decision to send her off to oregon to live with her aunt and cousins. riley was still young enough to be fooled into believing her mom would come back within a week, and well until she was ten, she was convinced the arrangement was only temporary.
except once she turned twelve, riley started to realize her mom wasn't coming back for her. there was more to the abandonment than just circumstances. her mother loved life on the road more than she did her daughter and it was a hard pill for riley to swallow. as such, it was only natural for her to start hating her mother. if it wasn't for the music videos and the live interviews on the television shows, she would have completely forgotten what her mother looked and sounded like. and no matter how much riley claimed to hate her, there was always going to be a deep seeded love for her that felt like a second skin she could never peel off.
the rest of riley's childhood was pretty normal for normal's sake. happy because she had an aunt who cared for her like she was one of her own, but forever awkward because riley knew she was adopted and it was never going to be the same. with this in mind, she did her best to do with what life had given her and became an expert in the art of masking her feelings. she learned there was strength in laughter and rarely ever opened up out of fear of making people worry. she fronted as a happy kid because she understood there was no point in anything she did to bring her mother back. she fronted because it was easier to live like that.
when riley began school at st. marys, she did pretty well academically (math being her favorite subject because there was always a solution) and began to surround herself by people considering how mischievously chatty she was. always the one to stray from the conversation, it was never a boring day when riley raised her hand to talk in class. because of all of that energy that sometimes burnt out in front of the wrong people, riley was encouraged to try out for the track team by one of her teachers who could practically see right through her. and for the shits and giggles, riley did just that. except, running turned out to be pretty fun when she felt she was running from confronting her own life for her whole life.
it was in the track team that she met chris wilder. their friendship wasn't quite a friendship at the beginning, but their bickering eventually became the biggest source of getting to know each other. slowly, they became friends and over time, they started going on morning runs together. their friendship was forever cemented when chris caught sight of her falling face first on the gravel. it was the first time he saw riley with tears pouring down her face and he realized she wasn't crying about the blood pouring down her nose but rather because of something she had never let out. after that, chris started looking out for riley as a big brother would and riley started pulling away out of embarrassment. he never did let her stray, though.
looking back, riley regrets how she treated chris and felt even more remorseful when the dare took chris away. she remembers thinking it wasn't a big deal, remembers looking at the lake and thinking it wasn't that shallow. she remembers laughing with him and cracking jokes about how doggy paddle. she remembered it all. and it is something that haunts her well after ten years. riley knew she should have said something when the news broke out of a missing teen but she was swayed by the fear. immediately after, riley began to step away from her friends and when graduation rolled along, she left st. marys without a word.
riley wasted no time in running off to college right after, as far away from oregon, st. marys, and the memories that haunted her still. she studied fashion design and started working in new york as soon as she graduated. nepotism helped propel her designs (inspired by her mother's fashion sense in the 80s) into stardom as soon as her work and name was recognized by the eyes of big designers who were old friends with amie. for six years, life was full of glitz and glamor. she went to therapy to process the grief, did the work as best as she could.. she might have developed a problem (she swears is not a problem) with party pills and alcohol due to everything she believes she is over, but it was all she had to numb the memories of the lake and the dares and chris.
she had no plans of ever going back to lincoln city, ever... at least, not until she saw the fated post. it was like all the work she had done came undone, like pulling a loose string on a knitted sweater. the guilt, the shame, the embarrassment all packed tightly into a ball hidden in the back of her skull.. it rolled back and there was nothing stopping the force of the impact. riley ryu is back in town after going full incognito and she's not exactly sure how to go about the situation. all she knows is she has to do something right.
𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒
im game for going with the flow but here are some ideas i would be interested in exploring/writing :
childhood friends <3 that one high school best friend who she kept in touch with via texts but never bothered to see in person..... maybe college classmates who went to new york too..... old party friends.... unrequited feelings from high school that are threatening to resurface..... someone she had a falling out with leading up to the party..... someone who is a fan of riley's mom but bcos riley absolutely hates her they're always bickering about it..... someone she was hooking up with in high school n they've fallen back to old habits,...... old teammates...... ummmmmmmmmmmm, anything really! <3















