Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

1 month she’s been asleep. 7 years missing from her memory. 2 hours it took to summarize her life.

7 years ago, everything was perfect. Her father's business was rapidly growing. Her mother was just promoted to faculty head. Kris was on the path to becoming valedictorian (even though he still had 2 years to go). She would graduate at the top of her year. They were the ideal family. The one everyone was envious of.

Two years later, her parents got a divorce. She moved to Guangzhou with her father while her brother stayed in Vancouver with their mother. She decided to take her maiden name, and he became Kris Wu Yifan. Kevin Li Jiaheng and all he stood for, no longer existed.

Graduating from a private high school in Guangzhou, courtesy of her father, Yu-ki decided to move to South Korea and attend Seoul National University to get her degree in Fine Arts majoring in Photography and Multi-Media.

This past May, Kris joined her in Seoul after receiving his degree in English from the University of British Columbia. Using his degree, he currently teaches English at a local middle school. The two of them live together along with their other roommate, a Korean boy who goes by the name of Kim Minseok.

Yu-ki sat in silence taking it all in. It felt weird. She was having her own life told to her, as if she wasn't the one who lived it. Unfortunately, Kris’ story had some holes. Following the divorce, they had lived on opposite sides of the world, it wasn't until recent that they lived under the same roof. As a teenage girl, there would be some things she kept secret. Things she would never divulge, not even to her brother.

There were many questions she wanted to ask. Why did she choose South Korea? Why move away from home once again especially when there were many exceptional choices in Guangzhou and even Vancouver. What made her decide to get a degree in Fine Arts much less major in Photography? For her entire life, she had wanted to pursue a career in writing. The complete other end of the artistic spectrum. One dealt with words that could move fluidly, while the other was stagnant and seen through a lens. When had she decided to chop off all of her hair? Ever since she was allowed to make decisions for herself, she refused to cut her hair more than a few centimetres. At its peak it had gotten down to her waist. Now it sat just below her chin, framing her face. There were many more questions she had wanted to ask, but no one knew the answers other than herself. 

Even with the limited history her brother gave her, one thing was very clear. Never in a million years could she have imagined living by herself on the other side of the world. For her entire life, she was brought up around literature and grew to love the stories they told. Yu-ki grew up to be someone very different from who she wanted to be.

Right then and there, Yu-ki made up her mind. She would give herself a year to figure everything out. A year to make things right. A year to find out who she truly is.