Chapter Text
From the moment Jisung took his first step into his childhood neighborhood in Seoul after spending years in Malaysia, his life took a drastic turn.
“HAN JISUNG? IS THAT YOU?” A yell carried over from behind him.
The voice was a familiar one, something he hadn’t heard in years and not something he had been completely looking forward to either.
With a yelp, his arms flailed around uselessly as he tried to determine his next move before ultimately dropping the box in his hand.
Luckily, it only had clothes in it. If it had anything fragile that broke on impact Jisung would be as good as dead when facing his mother’s wrath.
From behind him, light footsteps could be heard. Nonetheless, Jisung focused on diligently checking the box as he prayed that it was just his mother coming from the car (nevermind that it was fully taped shut and the clothes were definitely fine).
“Jeez, you’re just as clumsy as ever, Jisung-ah,” A voice sounding much too young to be his mother spoke up from behind him.
Reluctantly, Jisung turned his head and pulled a weak smile, “Hey, Lily.”
“I can’t believe you’re back! Are you moving in permanently?” Lily asked.
“Yeah, think so,” Jisung shrugged non-committedly.
“NICE! Come by sometime, we should hang out again,” Lily grinned.
“Sure,” Jisung replied, though his eyes trailed towards where his mother seemed to be picking up a heavy box from the car.
Noticing his gaze, Lily flipped around before darting over to assist Ms. Han, “HELLO, EOMEONI! It’s nice to see you again, let me help you with that, eomeoni!”
The woman jolted similar to how Jisung had before but managed to compose herself, keeping a steady hold of the box and put a warm smile on her face, “Hello, Lily-ah, it’s okay, I can do it.”
“No, no, you must be tired eomeoni! Let me!” Jisung cringed as he watched the girl pry his mother’s fingers off the box one by one before taking it herself.
“A-Ah, um, thank you, Lily-ah,” Ms. Han could only watch as the box was taken from her.
“No problem!” Lily grinned.
As the two watched her enter the house with light steps, Ms. Han commented, “Bang Lily… She’s um… energetic… as ever.”
Jisung could only let out a soft hum in response.
For the next few days, the girl continued to show up out of nowhere. Each time, Jisung could feel his heart inching closer and closer into failure as her loud presence would often cut into the peaceful moments of his relatively introverted family.
Case in point, the morning of his first day of high school, he helped set up the table as his mother prepared their meal. In the background, he could hear his father’s muttering as he sat in the living room trying to figure out how to install the new couch. All in all, the house had a peaceful silence.
That silence was soon broken the moment they heard a yell from outside, “JISUNG-AH!”
Thanks to the amount of incidents over the past days, Jisung managed to hone his reflexes just enough to stop himself from tossing the plate he was holding. His father, on the other hand, could be heard cursing as some concerning noises could be heard from the living room.
“Are you okay, yeobo?” Ms. Han asked, seemingly the only one that had become immune by that point.
“Yeah,” Mr. Han managed to reply (Jisung made a mental note not to sit on the couch in fear of it breaking as he heard a string of curses following his father’s response).
Looking out the window, his eyes zeroed in on the girl standing right outside his gate. She stared back at him with wide eyes and a grin, waving like a maniac.
“Why don’t you let her in, Jisung-ah?” Ms. Han told him.
Jisung made a face, earning him a stern look. Relenting, he moved to meet the girl outside.
“Morning, Jisung-ah!” Lily greeted cheerfully.
“Morning, Lily. Do you, uh, wanna come in?” Jisung replied.
“Sure!” Lily agreed easily.
As soon as she entered, Lily easily greeted his parents with the same enthusiasm, “Morning, abeoji, eomeonim!”
“Morning,” Mr. Han huffed, picking up the arm rest that Jisung swore had already been secured when he went down that morning.
“Morning, Lily-ah, have you eaten breakfast?” Ms. Han asked.
“Yep! I’m just here to pick Jisung up, we should walk to school together,” Lily told her before turning to the boy in question, “Where are your things?”
“Oh, uh, there,” Jisung pointed at the lonely backpack by his chair at the table.
“Well, come on! We gotta get to school early and make some friends,” Lily bent down to scoop up the bag and shoved it to him.
“Huh- I, uh, my breakfast-” Jisung blinked rapidly, words failing to form anything coherent.
But the girl was already heading back to the door, “Let’s go!”
Hearing the conversation, Ms. Han spoke up, “Hold on, grab a tupperware so you can-”
Turning around the woman realized the boy had already scurried off.
With a sigh, she turned off the stove, “That boy…”
Meanwhile, Jisung nearly tripped over his feet multiple times trying to catch up to the girl who seemed to be vibrating due to the sheer amount of energy being held in her small body. In the back of his mind, he was scared she might explode one of these days if he were being honest with himself.
When he finally caught up with her, she began to talk animatedly about… something (probably a movie she just watched judging by the amount of unfamiliar names going by his head). Jisung’s brain was far too asleep to properly process what she was saying.
He had spent the previous night laying in bed staring up at his ceiling, anxious thoughts flying through his head. Maybe it was the many dramatic high school movies he watched, or maybe it was the suffocating air he constantly felt from the moment he landed in Seoul. Regardless, Jisung knew that his school experience would definitely be different from the one he had in Malaysia.
Malaysia had been easy. Less harsh stares, more lax living style, and Jisung felt… free there.
Yet, that sort of reminded him of Lily. She hadn’t changed since they were young, still the same carefree girl. She didn’t crumble under the pressure of Korean society, unlike Jisung.
In a way, he admired her strength and, when they arrived at school, that strength proved to be useful.
Within the 20 minutes between them arriving at their homeroom class and the start of homeroom, Lily had managed to befriend not one, not two, but five people. Not just friendly acquaintances, actual friends that laughed and bantered with her as if they had known each other for years and not less than an hour.
That wasn’t counting the few others that seemed friendly enough already, other people that Jisung bet would be Lily’s friends within the day.
Meanwhile, within the very same 20 minutes Lily had, Jisung had barely managed to stumble through a few awkward conversations. Most of them asked about his experience living in Malaysia and anything beyond that entered awkward territory despite his attempts to keep a strong conversation going.
The best result for him had been two boys who were obviously already close friends who compared timetables with him.
“Wow! We have basically all of our classes together, can’t wait to hang out in class with you,” Jun, the shorter of the two exclaimed.
“Yeah! Yeah... sounds fun,” Jisung replied.
“Awesome!” The other boy, Juwon, matched the grin on Jun’s face that Jisung belatedly realized was only aimed at Juwon, not him.
Before Jisung could ask how they knew each other, Lily chose that moment to cut into their conversation, “Heya! I’m Bang Lily! You guys wanna all hang out later after school? There’s a new karaoke bar that just got renovated nearby.”
“Sure, that sounds great!” Jun replied followed by a similar positive response from Juwon.
The girl then turned her attention towards Jisung, staring at him with wide eyes as he hunched his shoulders and tried to hide, “Actually, um, I’m gonna go help my appa bring down some stuff from the garage today. Sorry.”
“That’s alright! No worries, mate!” Lily reassured him.
“Wait, are you Australian?” Jun questioned.
Lily laughed, “Half, but I’ve lived here most of my life. My cousin Chris is our sunbaenim and he spent some time over there though.”
Jisung perked up at the mention of her cousin.
It had been years since he last saw the elder and a part of him wondered how he was. He had always seemed like a cool big brother figure to look up to when he was in elementary, especially when Chan had taken the time to teach him to play guitar despite his clumsy fingers.
“That’s so cool! Can we meet him?” Juwon asked.
“I mean, why not?” Lily shrugged.
Later, Jisung would discover that Bang Christopher Chan was not too different from Lily popularity-wise.
“Hey, Chris!” Lily had called out from their lunch table, earning her a few odd stares.
“Lily! Hey, kiddo,” Chan grinned, saying a few words to the circle of people surrounding him before coming over.
“These are my classmates,” Lily told him as she pointed out each member of the table one by one (Jisung made sure to pay attention, trying to cram their names and faces into his mind).
When she finally made it to him, she asked the elder boy, “Remember Jisung? My neighbor Han Jisung?”
Chan levelled him with a short stare as Jisung offered a shy wave, “Hi, Chan-ssi, long time no see.”
Recognition flickered in Chan’s eyes as he visibly brightened, “Ah, Jisungie! Finally back from Malaysia. I heard you went to an international school, how was it?”
Seeing the familiar expression from the elder helped ease Jisung’s nerves as he replied easily, “It was great! But you might call me posh now.”
“No way, a British accent,” Chan laughed.
Just then, the same people from earlier called out for Chan as he waved them off for a moment before turning back with an apologetic smile, “Sorry, I gotta run off for a club meeting. It was nice meeting you guys though! Good luck with Lily.”
“Yah, what’s that supposed to mean, oppa?” Lily pouted, drawing another fond chuckle out of the older boy as he left.
“What club is he in?” Jisung asked.
Lily turned to him, lost in thought for a moment before replying, “Oh! He’s in the music club, duh. Oppa lives and breathes music.”
Jisung hummed in response before going back to his meal, letting the chatter flow around him. He was too hungry to bother socializing at the moment, preferring to replenish his energy first.
Little did he know, this was the start to his spiral.