"It's so beautiful here," she says.
Name: Jung Sooyeon, Jessica
Nickname: Sica, Jess
Band/Solo: SNSD
Journal: timelights
Aim: #road of the queen
Age: 23 (born 1990)
Year: Senior, graduating in February 2014
Sexuality: It's a long story.
Fraternity/Sorority: None; almost pledged KD
Major: English
Clubs/Sports: Newspaper
Biography:
"My name is Jung Sooyeon"
It's always the fault of someone else, little Jung Sooyeon learns soon enough. Someone else's fault that Daddy's business failed, someone else's fault that they move from Seoul to San Francisco when she's three, someone else's fault that Daddy has to do overtime every day at a struggling trading firm, always trying to make a fresh start when all he wants to do is write and draw and play with his children.
"I'm Jessica."
Jung Sooyeon knows that her Mummy only means well, and so she tries her best in school, where she is "Jessica" and not "Sooyeon". Jessica works hard, makes (some) friends, and grows up used to being the skinny Asian girl who's supposed to be good at Math. And she is, kind of, good at most things, even if she doesn't know why she works hard.
"Je m'appelle Jessica."
Jessica fights the move back to Seoul with a stubbornness she never knew she had. Leave her friends? Enter a Korean school? Everyone knows the only things Korean students do are studying and bullying each other! No, she doesn't care, even if it means a promotion for Daddy. (Ok, yes, she does. It sucks, being a beloved only child.) And she fights and fights, even when she's enrolled into a competitive foreign language high school on the strength of her English.
It's only when she meets Mme Lee that she stops fighting. In a way.
Mme Lee is, despite her title, young enough to be attractive and old enough to be glamorous. She's studied in France, she has a voice husky from cigarettes and late nights, and she pays attention to Jessica. Jessica, who isn't very popular with her female classmates, and who hates the exam grind, is pathetically grateful for someone like Mme Lee, who painstakingly corrects her accent and spends time with her, telling her about her life in France. Mme Lee is low tones and the late nights, deliberate cool words and menthol cigarettes.
Mme Lee offers a way out of the exam grind-- skip the sooneung entrance exams by taking the direct French entrance exam for Yonsei's foreign language faculty. Like her classmates, Jessica has been eyeing the English-language entrance exam, but the odds of getting in with that are lower. With nothing to lose, Jessica stays behind for extra coaching in French.
It is the first time that her heart has beat faster for someone else.
"Je m'appelle…My name is Jung Sooyeon, Jessica."
It doesn't work out. Of course it doesn't, Jessica thinks to herself, with the fatalism of youth. Mme Lee leaves when she's 17, to be married, or so the school says (Jessica doesn't believe it, doesn't believe it at all, she wants to believe that Mme is free, and not trapped by some husband somewhere), and Jessica is by herself again. She hasn't learnt enough in French to do well in the exams, she knows, and the words sound bitter and hard on her tongue now, anyway.
There is nothing left to do but dig in and work. Jessica still doesn't know why she studies so hard, except to get into a reputable university, one that leads to a better life. More space, she thinks to herself, I need more space. I need to get out. And so she finally sets her mind to it, forcing her way up the class rankings, until finally, after an exam season that is a feverish blank to Jessica, the reassuringly thick letter from Yonsei arrives in the mail.
Jessica enters Yonsei in 2009, to study English. ("What a cop out," her classmates mutter, but Jessica doesn't hear them.)
"Jess…?"
College life is a struggle.
Jessica struggles with her inclinations, right off the bat. There are dates with boys, texts from boys, but somehow…it doesn't feel as right. Jessica is too scared to own up to what she feels, so scared that she doesn't pledge for KD despite rushing for it, despite the fact that KD is perfect for her. Sisters, she thinks, I wonder if they'll understand? But KD's sapphic-friendly reputation hits too close to home, and Jessica folds at the final stage, choosing to remain an unpledged student in the dorms.
(And then there was the struggle of wondering if other courses are more suitable for her, the right major for her. She's taken so many introductory classes just to see if she should stay with English: Psych 101, Sociology 101, Marketing 101…She'll be the first to admit that Introduction to Korean Poetry was a mistake.)
It gets so bad that after her second year, Jessica takes a semester off. She leaves Korea to find herself, returning to San Franciso (I'm a walking cliche, she thinks).
Jessica slinks back to Seoul after the semester away, a little shamefaced. Turns out that Seoul has become home, however badly-fitting after all. It's still not easy--Jessica doesn't have the nerve to date, but at least, at least, she doesn't wake up feeling sick to her stomach. She manages to focus on English as her major, joins the Glee club (Sondheim, she grudgingly accepts as the heir to Rodgers and Hammerstein, but she stops her ears to anything after them), but then quits it in favor of focusing on the campus newspaper, where she writes a weekly English-language column. (To her horror, she is asked to write about modern love at first--what does she know about love, but her failings in it? Thankfully, Jessica manages to convince their editor that writing only about love in English would be too limited. She gets away with weekly musings liberally sprinkled with quotes from men and women whom she gratefully acknowledges are wiser and wittier than she is.)
Personality:
How do you solve a problem like Jessica? (Jessica doesn't know how, or if she has a problem.) How do you...you get the drift.
To pin down Jessica, you can call her the misunderstood ice princess who shut down and shut up to protect herself in high school. You can also say that she's comes out of her shell in college. (Jessica is the sort of girl who knows there's a joke about coming out of the closet from that, but only laughs quietly to herself about it.)
Jessica has friends. Around them, she shrieks with laughter, hits them, forgets to apologize for hitting them, and then retaliates with a wail that pierces walls when she's smacked in return. She tells them what she thinks, isn't afraid to snark, and may even cry in front of them. Jessica is also prone to zoning out around both friends and strangers. If you're a stranger meeting her for the first time...well, she lets her mood dictate exactly how she treats you.
She's honest, or maybe it's complacency masquerading as honesty. Jessica isn't afraid to admit that she's lazy and passive, and that she'd rather be a cat than a dog. Ultra-feminine in her tastes, Jessica takes pride in her appearance, and appreciates a woman who looks good. (What? It's just looking.)
Nickname: Sica, Jess
Band/Solo: SNSD
Journal: timelights
Aim: #road of the queen
Age: 23 (born 1990)
Year: Senior, graduating in February 2014
Sexuality: It's a long story.
Fraternity/Sorority: None; almost pledged KD
Major: English
Clubs/Sports: Newspaper
Biography:
"My name is Jung Sooyeon"
It's always the fault of someone else, little Jung Sooyeon learns soon enough. Someone else's fault that Daddy's business failed, someone else's fault that they move from Seoul to San Francisco when she's three, someone else's fault that Daddy has to do overtime every day at a struggling trading firm, always trying to make a fresh start when all he wants to do is write and draw and play with his children.
"I'm Jessica."
Jung Sooyeon knows that her Mummy only means well, and so she tries her best in school, where she is "Jessica" and not "Sooyeon". Jessica works hard, makes (some) friends, and grows up used to being the skinny Asian girl who's supposed to be good at Math. And she is, kind of, good at most things, even if she doesn't know why she works hard.
"Je m'appelle Jessica."
Jessica fights the move back to Seoul with a stubbornness she never knew she had. Leave her friends? Enter a Korean school? Everyone knows the only things Korean students do are studying and bullying each other! No, she doesn't care, even if it means a promotion for Daddy. (Ok, yes, she does. It sucks, being a beloved only child.) And she fights and fights, even when she's enrolled into a competitive foreign language high school on the strength of her English.
It's only when she meets Mme Lee that she stops fighting. In a way.
Mme Lee is, despite her title, young enough to be attractive and old enough to be glamorous. She's studied in France, she has a voice husky from cigarettes and late nights, and she pays attention to Jessica. Jessica, who isn't very popular with her female classmates, and who hates the exam grind, is pathetically grateful for someone like Mme Lee, who painstakingly corrects her accent and spends time with her, telling her about her life in France. Mme Lee is low tones and the late nights, deliberate cool words and menthol cigarettes.
Mme Lee offers a way out of the exam grind-- skip the sooneung entrance exams by taking the direct French entrance exam for Yonsei's foreign language faculty. Like her classmates, Jessica has been eyeing the English-language entrance exam, but the odds of getting in with that are lower. With nothing to lose, Jessica stays behind for extra coaching in French.
It is the first time that her heart has beat faster for someone else.
"Je m'appelle…My name is Jung Sooyeon, Jessica."
It doesn't work out. Of course it doesn't, Jessica thinks to herself, with the fatalism of youth. Mme Lee leaves when she's 17, to be married, or so the school says (Jessica doesn't believe it, doesn't believe it at all, she wants to believe that Mme is free, and not trapped by some husband somewhere), and Jessica is by herself again. She hasn't learnt enough in French to do well in the exams, she knows, and the words sound bitter and hard on her tongue now, anyway.
There is nothing left to do but dig in and work. Jessica still doesn't know why she studies so hard, except to get into a reputable university, one that leads to a better life. More space, she thinks to herself, I need more space. I need to get out. And so she finally sets her mind to it, forcing her way up the class rankings, until finally, after an exam season that is a feverish blank to Jessica, the reassuringly thick letter from Yonsei arrives in the mail.
Jessica enters Yonsei in 2009, to study English. ("What a cop out," her classmates mutter, but Jessica doesn't hear them.)
"Jess…?"
College life is a struggle.
Jessica struggles with her inclinations, right off the bat. There are dates with boys, texts from boys, but somehow…it doesn't feel as right. Jessica is too scared to own up to what she feels, so scared that she doesn't pledge for KD despite rushing for it, despite the fact that KD is perfect for her. Sisters, she thinks, I wonder if they'll understand? But KD's sapphic-friendly reputation hits too close to home, and Jessica folds at the final stage, choosing to remain an unpledged student in the dorms.
(And then there was the struggle of wondering if other courses are more suitable for her, the right major for her. She's taken so many introductory classes just to see if she should stay with English: Psych 101, Sociology 101, Marketing 101…She'll be the first to admit that Introduction to Korean Poetry was a mistake.)
It gets so bad that after her second year, Jessica takes a semester off. She leaves Korea to find herself, returning to San Franciso (I'm a walking cliche, she thinks).
Jessica slinks back to Seoul after the semester away, a little shamefaced. Turns out that Seoul has become home, however badly-fitting after all. It's still not easy--Jessica doesn't have the nerve to date, but at least, at least, she doesn't wake up feeling sick to her stomach. She manages to focus on English as her major, joins the Glee club (Sondheim, she grudgingly accepts as the heir to Rodgers and Hammerstein, but she stops her ears to anything after them), but then quits it in favor of focusing on the campus newspaper, where she writes a weekly English-language column. (To her horror, she is asked to write about modern love at first--what does she know about love, but her failings in it? Thankfully, Jessica manages to convince their editor that writing only about love in English would be too limited. She gets away with weekly musings liberally sprinkled with quotes from men and women whom she gratefully acknowledges are wiser and wittier than she is.)
Personality:
How do you solve a problem like Jessica? (Jessica doesn't know how, or if she has a problem.) How do you...you get the drift.
To pin down Jessica, you can call her the misunderstood ice princess who shut down and shut up to protect herself in high school. You can also say that she's comes out of her shell in college. (Jessica is the sort of girl who knows there's a joke about coming out of the closet from that, but only laughs quietly to herself about it.)
Jessica has friends. Around them, she shrieks with laughter, hits them, forgets to apologize for hitting them, and then retaliates with a wail that pierces walls when she's smacked in return. She tells them what she thinks, isn't afraid to snark, and may even cry in front of them. Jessica is also prone to zoning out around both friends and strangers. If you're a stranger meeting her for the first time...well, she lets her mood dictate exactly how she treats you.
She's honest, or maybe it's complacency masquerading as honesty. Jessica isn't afraid to admit that she's lazy and passive, and that she'd rather be a cat than a dog. Ultra-feminine in her tastes, Jessica takes pride in her appearance, and appreciates a woman who looks good. (What? It's just looking.)