𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐧 𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥

* background ,

it was a shame that her story couldn’t have ended as perfectly as it started. the glittering eyes that stared back at her mother’s loving eyes turned dull. the father holding back his tear of happiness to the birth of her daughter, now a cut out face or the missing corner of a torn family picture.  everything just started out so perfectly. and maybe that was the first sign that should have make her suspicious of her own fate.

age four, whenever she would call for her dad, every word was wrapped in adoration. of course whenever someone would ask her who she loved more her father or her mother, she would say she loved them equally. as is right and proper. but perhaps it was a lie and she liked her father just a tiny bit more. truth to be told, she did feel bad for lying to her parents. looking back at it now, she feels stupid. after all it wasn’t like her father never lied to them.

age five. she calls for her father. this time her words wrapped in desperation. “please don’t leave.” who did she love more, now ?  it was still her father.  but she stayed with her mother. she didn’t ask why her father left. she couldn’t. not when her mother was barely holding herself together. not when she still believed he would return.

age six. the word dad hadn’t left her lips since then. maybe she loved her mother more now. even when she still hadn’t told her the reason why he left. how could she when she didn’t know herself ? overworked as she was, her energy was spend on several jobs and somehow nayeon had to grow up.

age seven. the hours stretch until her mother would return. the food she had prepared with clumsy hands sitting on the table turning cold. nayeon didn’t mind. she knew the sacrifices her mother made for her. on the brighter side, the hours where she didn’t have to cook her own meals, iron her clothes or cleaning the house; granted her a glimpse what a normal childhood would’ve been like. her classmate would knock at her door and take her to the outdoor rink, so she could at least pretend that she was normal for a couple of hours.

and on one of these days a lovely couple is watching them, they’re on a short trip to jeju, stealing the attention of nayeon as she couldn’t help but think how they resembled the way her parents used to be. a few seconds too much to reminisce about the past and little nayeon falls on the ice. it wasn’t a particularly dramatic fall but her weak bones and thin legs hidden beneath oversized jeans couldn’t take it and she wept in pain. from this moment everything happened so quickly: ong jungnam rushes to nayeon and takes her to the hospital with his wife. they call her mother but she only arrives the next day, looking even thinner and more sickly than her own daughter does. nayeon didn’t know who they pitied more back then and sometimes she wonders if they had a little bit more food at home none of this would have happened. whoever they felt more sorry for, ong jungnam and ha soohye make a suggestion as things didn’t look good for her mother anyway. they would take her in, adopt her and treat nayeon as their own daughter. in the end she agreed, asking nayeon to be a good daughter to them.

a few months later and song nayeon is only part of a faded memory. people call her ong nayeon now and often she wouldn’t react to it, that’s how mismatched the name appeared to her. for the first half year she didn’t talk at all. she didn’t feel the need to connect to the people who labelled themselves “her family” and still believed she’d return to her mother soon. months passed and now she was acting up. the ongs want her to take violin lessons but nayeon would ignore the teacher, deliberately fail her tests and once even picked a fight with some classmate. if she wasn’t a good daughter, they’d finally leave her be.

her attempts, however, did not fruit. so she tried to do something for herself and rekindled her love for figure skating. it wasn’t something the ongs wanted her to do and for once she wouldn’t spend all her energy to spite her own family.

age sixteen. nayeon had become a professional figure skater. although she attributed her success to her talent and efforts, people also couldn’t stop her to label her as ha soohye’s daughter. again nayeon felt like the ong’s have taken something from her which belonged to herself. ha soohye’s always mentioning her adopted daughter in tv, pretending to help her with her career when to nayeon it only seemed like another thing she could boost her own image. still, she had no choice but to be patient just a little longer.

age twenty-three. she had made enough money to live on her own. go ahead with her plan to cut off any ties with the ongs. but her plans were crushed before she could even get used to the feeling that she was her own person instead of another trophy that could be shown off as. only recently she’d found out that her parents paid some of her competitors to deliberately make some mistakes to make it easier for nayeon to get to the top. shame mixed with the feeling of losing control, triggered a chain of bad decisions and it didn’t take her  too long when she finally snapped, thinking she’d at least get revenge by deliberately getting into scandals with the plan to ruin her mother’s public image.

* personality ,

unlike what some of her family members might think of her, nayeon does not enjoy making the people around her bad. however, she is guilty of acting upon her feelings rather than thinking rationally over her actions and how they might impact others. indeed, she is rather simple minded and sometimes assumes people are the same as her and the motivation behind their actions are as simple as her. she is that kind of girl who tends to categorize the world in black and white, good, and bad.

* background ,

she poses, wearing a necklace -which has 57 carats of baguette sapphires and diamonds, reportedly worth $885,000-, penetrating eyes focused on the camera, she looks almost like a 90′s vision in desaturated frames and distant sounds. some are afraid to take the risk, too timid to make the first move. in the end they choose to continue living in a daydream. undeniably, she too was afraid. sumi is a girl who followed a destiny she laid squarely in her own hands. now as a singer-songwriter/model/producer, no one would think a better brand on her other than a queen.

i. girl’s like her with skin red as the sun spent time loitering around with ther sibling and neighbour kids. Getting scolded by the old maids with long faces, who told her she would break a bone if she fell from that tree. then, galloping back to the mansion that stood on the hill. she ate lunch and chewed until her cheeks became sore, such an impatient and reckless child she was. everything negligent and careless to her own surroundings as mother urges her to “slow down!” and she continues yelling in her shrill voice that for once, makes her briefly think, “the food’s not going anywhere!”. she perceived the world to be hers. everything at her fingertips, all right there.

and so it all started in her backyard. curiosity is the forgotten shed that sits by itself underneath where the trees and stones meet. her sibling and friends give it too many stories to retell, all phony and horrific, perfect for the campfire yet saved for halloween.

sunlight enters the small window. there’s nothing much to be found other than old furniture. aging books and scattering toys, clouds of dust frolicking into the air that make sneeze a couple times. the cobwebs are unbearable, but there’s a pile of untouched riches in the center of the room.

vinyls, cassets, cds. and yet more than half of them are broken, without a proper case and cover art. many of them are in english, but she’s able to make out some of the names. bill evans. miles davis. john coltrane. charles mingus.

that night, father is half amused and half frustrated, “i’ve always told you not to go inside! now, what if the shed collapsed on you? what if you were killed? kidnapped?”

kidnapped? father forgot the shed was in the property.

blue in green plays smoothly as ever without any skips on dad’s old record player, a gift from grandpa.

ii. she is a strange creature. a strange creature who is folded twice over her own soul with layers and layers of sunrise. her smile is wide and effortless. the dry heat of the summer could be layered onto the hill and yet she would be going at it for days. a weary traveler, a foolish and gentle spy. running barley through her hands, sneakily filling her stomach with strawberries that her sibling managed to “steal” from the kitchen, dancing while listening to music and feeling the east sea’s water hit her toes were among her favorite things. a young sumi lurks through life like it is an old house, teasing the wallpaper until it falls down. layer by layer, story by story. motions to people with the edge of her voice, with a change of expression. they say her talents overflow.

the mango is more delicious when in season. the splotchy skin of green, yellow and orange overlaps each other in a clay bowl.

“mom thinks it’s good that i want to study music.”

father stops picking at a single strawberry. his gaze seems more concerned than disappointed. “okay,” he inhales. “just do your best, alright?”

iii. the subjects being taught differ day to day. sometimes she struggles with which notebooks and books to pack for the following morning. teachers ask to see homework assignments for credit, she turns up to class empty handed with infinite woes. the pre-calc worksheet was shoved away in her english notebook and here she is, in korean history i, with her biology paper looking to make an excuse for her disorganization.

she wasn’t necessarily the brightest out of the bunch, but she did her work diligently and studied well for impressionable marks. she was a good student, above average.

in a huddled co-ed group with her friends, they all bicker and yell over picking each other’s schedule for the next semester.

“i need to take statistics if i want to go to yonsei university, so..”

“Sora, take world history with me!”

the late spring air is warm enough to start wearing summer uniforms instead of last season’s. “band and orchestra, sumi?”

“yeah.”

she’s always wanted to apply, but the seating’s always limited. either she was too slow, or too late, or too intimidated by the musicians in the class, but she’s decided to put her name up against a long-contemplated elective.

autumn of that year is spent in and out of the practice room. hoisting an upright bass taller than herself.

iv. “how’s boston?”

“it snows a lot during the winter. but it gets really hot during the summer as well. it also tends to get cloudy quite often, in which i don’t mind, but.. for days at a time in a week it’ll be rainy and cloudy. it kinda sucks.”

“and school wise?”

“school’s been great. i just finished my first final today.”

“in what class?”

“counterpoint.”

“we’ll all be waiting for your return in time for christmas. good luck on your studies.”

v. BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC.

mini-interviews by: james clark.

sumi moon is an international student from seoul, south korea. her major is music production and engineering, she is expected to graduate this summer.

q: if there was one thing you would have to say was the absolute hardest to overcome, what would it be? a: making appointments to see advisors in the financial aid office. heh, i’m kidding, maybe that was an exaggeration, but i think most of us have been in and out the office more than twice. technically speaking, i struggled a lot in my first year, since college offers so much flexibility and freedom, i felt like i didn’t make good use of my time, you know? high school was so much more constricting, so i knew that things had to be accomplished within a certain amount of time, but as soon as i came here i was putting off so many things. not a good look.

q: do you have any plans after graduation? a: kind of, yeah. maybe, get booked. do some gigs. attend jam sessions. spin some records. we’ll see.

she read this month’s school paper with a straight face. after all, she’s not really one to have her business out there.

vi.

life is so full of opportunities, you miss some and you gain some. the music industry requires you to be fast, readily up on your feet for the next challenge that lies ahead. but, connections: alas, connections are also what helps word of mouth get through.

demand and engagement are all it is. she finds happiness with stability for such a fast-paced career. she never would have imagined she would be conquering the fashion world as well. yes, new york is wonderful and alive and spontaneous, it complements her lifestyle, but not quite.

in the heart of new york city is where the studio apartment she calls “home” is located. but her heart still resides on the hill where little aspirations of turntables, engineering equipment and dreams of creative freedom come in to forms dreams.

* personality ,

* background ,

in total, hyeri spent a good 29 days in the 90’s before the 2000’s rolled around. eun hyeri was born on december 2nd, 1999 and she was born into a very ambitious family, she was born to dean parents and was the second (and final) child. from the second she came into the world, she had high expectations of her. however, regardless of how high those expectations were, she had it slightly easier than her older brother had it - she witnessed just how strict they were to him, compared to how they were to her. because of that strictness, she never really rebelled against her mother and father in fear of retribution. she learned to shut up and deal with it.

because of that, she was deemed a ‘goodie two shoes’ by some of her classmates when she was in both middle and high school - she never went against her teachers or complained to them. however, in high school, the teasing seemed to get much worse. it led up to her putting her foot down for the first time in her life and sticking up for herself. needless to say, she managed to graduate in peace - she never heard from the female again.

growing up, she always loved watching people performing on stage and would always sing along with them. from there, her dream of becoming an idol began. however, knowing just how strict her parents were about what they wanted her to become, she expected nothing less when they rejected her dream of becoming an idol for the university life. her dream officially began to die out when she realized just how scared she was of public speaking.

she realized that she wouldn’t have made it a day doing it and simply pushed the dream aside to do university instead.

currently, she’s a 'classics’ major.

* personality ,

eun hyeri. where do we begin?

for one, she’s a bit of a shy female but not all the time. when it comes to being the center of attention, she’d most likely run - which makes being in a family like hers hard for her to keep up with at times, seeing as they’re a big deal around yangcheon. when you break down that wall and get to know her, she’s quite a friendly female. hyeri has a sense of humor - she loves to laugh and have a good time. you can see how truly charming she is. one thing about her is that she’s hard working - being in a family like hers, she has to be able to keep up with things like school and studying.

sometimes, she can be a bit too selfless and forget to put herself first, especially when it comes to things like school work. it’s not like she can’t take care of herself, it’s just that she wants to do her best to make her family proud. with her being quiet, sometimes people can forget that she’s in the room. she’s the type of person where if she doesn’t have anything to say, she’s not going to say anything. if provoked, hyeri will fight back. she’s quite conflict - averse, which means she likes to avoid them at all costs but if the choice comes back to where there is no other way, she will fight back. she can be quite sarcastic at times. she knows that sometimes, hiding your feelings for too long could make for a bad time.