Saturday, February 03, 2018

Seong Yi vs. Jumin Han (Part I)

Somehow, I imagine Jumin with a girl with glasses
even if guys don't make passes at girls who wear glasses
(according to Marilyn)
Meet Seong Yi. I found this image in Google image search and sadly I've already lost where I found it, so I have no idea what it is from or who made it (sorry, anonymous artist). Yi, incidentally, is the Korean equivalent of Lee (my family name) and Seong means to succeed...or a number of other things, depending on the hanja. She should probably have a two syllable surname, but sue me. I can make her whatever I want, right?

(If you came here just looking for the shmexiest pieces, check out Part V)

She's going to see if she can win Jumin Han's heart. I had fun creating a character for Yoosung, so I thought I'd do the same for Jumin, even though Jumin is the one I would probably find the most easy route to get through on my own seeing as how he's the oldest and he likes cats so much. Heck, I've written a book with talking cats.

So, obviously, Seong likes cats too, though she doesn't have one as she moves too much. But she's been thinking about getting one. She's 27. She's tried a number of different jobs and is currently working as a freelance writer on everything from grants to restaurant reviews to industry articles to ghostwriting business books. She's used to working alone by herself and had recently moved to the city (whatever city Mystic Messenger is set in) and doesn't know anyone. That didn't really bother her as it's mostly her laptop screen that she sits and stares at all day anyway. She's barely unpacked and most of her things are still in boxes. She hasn't dated at all in two years. Maybe three? She's lost count. She also hasn't missed it. If she had to admit to it, she'd say she hasn't even tried to meet anyone or date or...anything. She's been coasting. The RFA is the most exciting thing to happen to her in, well, ever. The interactions in the messenger app are the most she's talked to anyone in months other than idle chit chat with the local barista.

Her younger sister (she's the oldest) would say that she's too stiff and picky. She doesn't think so. She just hasn't liked anyone she's met well enough to get past formalities. They all seem boring and young and silly, at least all the guys that she'd been set up with on blind dates. None of them ever made it to a second date. She's never been in a long term relationship. At university she studied. That pressure of being the oldest. She moves a lot, saying it's to explore different places, but she tends to not get out very often. She drinks a lot of coffee. She's pretty quiet. She has a slightly odd sense of humour but she's not at all frivolous.

We'll see how she does. I'm going to attempt to do this without a walkthrough. We'll see how long I last doing that. Maybe I'll just look up things if it comes to a point where neither one of the choices make sense for Seong. As with Yoosung, I'm going to update this as I go. I wish I'd done this with Zen. Maybe I'll go back and play his route again someday if I can summon the patience for it.

Day One, night: She was curious about Jumin after the last chat so she called him partly to even see if he would pick up the phone. She finds his stilted, slightly self-absorbed bluntness to be very interesting. He's very different from any guy she's ever talked to before. Zen seems very...flirty and full of himself and she's not comfortable with that at all, but she's determined to be polite to everyone. Well, she's never not polite. Yoosung seems very, very young and clueless but sweet. She's not sure about Jaehee yet, though she's glad there's another woman around otherwise it would feel very strange. It's not too bad though, since it's all via the messenger app. It's not like she has to see all these random guys in person. Seven seems like someone her younger sister would be interested in, if she weren't already married. Yeah, that's right. The younger sister is already married. Boy, do the parents like to bring that up every time they call. It's possibly why she doesn't call home as much as she should.

Who do you miss, Jumin?
Day Two, morning: Seong couldn't sleep

(I think I've got the lurgy again and was up at 5 scrambling for tissues and wound up chatting with Jumin early/late -- supposedly 2 AM his time)

and found herself sitting in the dark in the still unfamiliar confines of Rika's old apartment, Jumin's deep voice rumbling in her ear. She asked him about what he thinks about before falling asleep. A random question, but she was thinking about it herself, lying there sleepless, a confusing swirl of thoughts in her head--about the RFA, about what she was doing, about this new place, about what was next, what she should do. She somehow expected his answer to be more prosaic, more business-like. She wonders if it is Rika that he misses, which makes her feel a bit uncomfortable. Who was this woman? Yoosung obviously worshipped the ground she walked on. Had Jumin too?

The discomfort was due to what she'd found earlier that day. Seong had spent much of the morning sorting out the apartment, wondering about the former occupant the whole time. She couldn't leave it as it was; she couldn't stand to have a mess. She cleaned out all the dust and cobwebs, the packets of food past expiration date. Opened the windows and aired everything out. She put away all the files and books. She made a space for herself to be there. And she had...found things. The glossy magazine, with the eyes of every picture inside it cut out so exactly and precisely. Spooked, she'd thrown it away. The book she had flipped through to find words crossed out or circled or scratched through, ripping through the page. And some pages completely coloured in, black as night, looking somehow angry even though you could see nothing but blackness. There were no pictures. No photo albums. Even she, with her constant moving, had mementos. But this Rika hadn't left anything like that behind. There weren't even any clothes.

Today she planned to go to her own apartment and bring back some of her things. Not everything, but enough that it didn't feel like being in someone else's space. She wasn't sure that she was going to stay, but for now it was okay. The apartment was in a much better part of town than the temporary place she had been staying at. The view of the city was good. Perhaps it had been luck that had brought her here. She wasn't sure yet.

(Update, mid afternoon...why are there so many super-random-neither-looks-reasonable choices in Deep Story? Jumin called. They talked about movies. He gives her a long treatise about vitamin D and asks her if she eats 3 meals a day. Her choices were to say "oh no, I want to lose weight so I'm only going to eat one meal a day" or "input complete" like some kind of weird robot. How is either of those a valid option? Especially knowing the importance all the characters put on eating properly. So I wound up picking the robot answer, which I suspect might have been wrong, but what else was I to do? Neither choice was right.)

Day 3: Seong wonders why everyone seems to be so obsessed with romance. It's making her think about it more too, which she isn't accustomed to. Maybe it's just that this has been more communication with others than she's had in a long time but at the same time it feels rather anonymous and therefore safe. She's not sure. But she finds herself thinking about all of them more than she would have thought possible. She even let herself flirt a little with Zen, thinking it would be harmless and he doesn't seem serious anyway. It was only a phone call. But she finds herself saying the strangest things to Jumin, if only to keep him on the phone a little longer. She wants to see if she can change the tone of his voice, maybe get a reaction from him. She's not sure what's come over herself.

(I know what's come over her -- MM only gives her the randomest things to say...ugh.)

Seong isn't sure why, but she's finding herself defending Jumin to everyone else. Sure, he's rich, but that doesn't mean his life is perfect. She feels like they are ganging up on him for something he can't do anything about. He doesn't feel to her like he's particularly happy. Like he's missing something. She wonders if he is also going along with life like she is, just on a different scale. Maybe that's what all his cat business ideas are about.

Day 4: The day starts off well. It's almost starting to feel routine to Seong now. She finds herself reaching for her phone frequently just to check to see if anyone is on. And when the phone rings, dare she admit that she answers it right away? And that there's one particular person that she hopes is on the other end?

Seong goes out to the store to get something to make for dinner and winds up splurging on a small steak and a bottle of wine. It's not something she would normally buy for herself and she doesn't usually drink alone, but she has this vague thought that maybe she'll call Jumin during dinner and it will be almost like eating with him instead of by herself. She feels a little silly even thinking that but what he'd said earlier stuck with her and keeps repeating in her head.

(Woot! Seong Yi made it successfully onto the Jumin route. I was a little worried. I kept getting 707 hearts by accident.)

Day 5: Just when she feels like things have started to settle down, Unknown or someone has hacked into the messenger. She can't help but think it is connected to whoever led her here, but she just can't understand why. What is it about this slightly silly, random group of people that would make anyone want to hack into their conversations and eavesdrop? For heaven's sake, most of the conversations are about LOLOL and cat wine and selfies. She's concerned, but not overly worried. After all, there's no reason for anyone to be after her, is there? She's going to stay calm. In fact, she's a bit worried about Jumin after the weird phone call this morning. At first she thought he was concerned about the hacker but he kept talking about a woman with plum coloured hair. She feels a twinge of something. She's not sure what. It certainly can't be jealousy. She's never even met this man in person. He's just interesting. That's all, right?

(This is getting really long, so let's continue it in another post...)

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