this is NOT a corny american teenage story
prompt by ket @wanpup on twitter: wenlisa bffs crackheads/bandgeeks falling for the popular jocks
Out of all the clubs and organizations at the high school, the glee club was the last club she wanted to join.
Like, she swore she’d never be caught singing acapella and twirling like a damn idiot, but here she was.
Well, it did take a series of unfortunate events for her to get here.
One, her dad suddenly resigned from his post as head chef of a 5 star restaurant in Thailand to open his own restaurant an ocean away - in California. Apparently, her dad also had a big fight with the big bossman of the restaurant and he just couldn’t stomach working there anymore. The move wasn’t completely of his own volition and void of consideration for her feelings, so she tries not to be too bitter about that one.
Two, all of this happened after the school year had already started on her sophomore year. So, she has to start school in a whole new continent, where she has to speak a whole new language when all the kids already had cliques and knew each other.
This one was hard to not be bitter about because of course - of course - the universe would fuck with her like this.
But the third circumstance was the one that she absolutely hated the most.
Said third circumstance was standing in front of the whole glee club right now with the brightest smile, holding sheet music, and making a pep talk about how the glee club is home for the misfits, refuge for those who don’t fit in.
And her name is Wendy Shon.
A five foot tall Korean-Canadian spazz whose eyes shine a little too bright and who is never without a kind smile.
Okay, Lisa is being a little unfair.
Wendy Shon, afterall, was her only real friend in school right now.
See, it started on her first day - it was the thirteenth, on a Friday. The signs were enough to convince her to defer starting school to the next monday, but no, she had to go “it’s okay, I can start right away,” to her parents and the principal.
Wendy Shon greeted her on the first day of class, introduced herself as the senior rep and glee club president and proceeded to show her around.
Apparently, Wendy Shon had also been new to the school only a year ago, too, and wanted to help ease her into adjusting. Lisa thought of two things then: how amazing it is that a new kid already managed to be involved in so many extra-curricular activities and how truly kind it was of her to volunteer to be Lisa’s first friend.
But then that Friday the thirteenth started rearing its own ugly head and before even the lunch bell rang, a bunch of volleyball jocks had “accidentally” dunked a slushie (apparently that’s what they called those colorful convenience store drinks made of crushed ice) over her head.
Wendy was horrified that she’d experienced that on her first day so the glee club president became Mother Theresa incarnate and took care of her.
Lisa went home that day in Wendy’s nice-smelling gym clothes.
But before that, Lisa had asked Wendy if there was any dance club she could join, and Wendy shook her head with a cute pout, bottom lip jutting out. But then a light bulb seemed to go off in Wendy’s head and she told Lisa, “we do have a glee club, though, and we dance there, too!”
And as much as Lisa didn’t really want to sing and dance like some High School Musical extra, she couldn’t say no to Wendy’s puppy dog eyes, especially in view of the fact that the girl had been more than accommodating and caring towards her.
Three months later, she’s sitting in one of the chairs in the band practice room, listening to the glee club president - her default best friend because she can’t speak english fluently just yet and no one else really talks to her - Wendy Shon belt out Air Supply’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”.
Cheesiest song, ever, Lisa thinks.
She and Wendy walk home together after practice that day - like they do every day.
Because as luck would have it, they live a block away from each other.
(Yes, when Wendy found out about this, she appeared on Lisa’s doorstep with “Welcome Neighbour!” cupcakes. Of course, Mother Wenresa also bakes. Of course.)
Don’t get her wrong, though, Lisa is grateful to have Wendy.
It’s just that she wished she wasn’t just left with Wendy because she had no one else to hang out with.
And one day as if the universe answered her wish in a twisted way, she bumped into someone as she ran in the hallway, rounding a corner, trying to beat the bell before class, and spilled all the contents of her chocolate milk.
The frothy, sticky, brown beverage splattered everywhere, leaving nothing in her immediate vicinity unmarked - the hallway, the lockers, and the biggest casualties being the uniform of the person she bumped into and her friend.
Uniform, registered in Lisa’s mind immediately after.
When she looked up from under the fringe of her bangs, she saw the shocked faces of two of the most popular volleyball jocks in school; Korean-American senior and volleyball team captain Kang Seulgi and her best friend, Korean-Australian sophomore, Roseanne Park.
Fuck. Lisa swore in her mind after she realized it’s the same girls who dunked the slushie on her head on the first day.
Kang Seulgi had looked so shocked, but it was Roseanne Park who was quick to recover.
“Ugh!” Roseanne groaned then directed angry eyes at Lisa. “What the hell?! Watch where you’re going!”
Roseanne huffed and took an angry step forward.
Then Lisa was sure she’d just accidentally signed her death warrant.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Seulgi held the sophomore back. “It’s okay, Rosie.”
Rosie grumbled but eventually she and Seulgi walked away, with her trying to squeeze out the sticky stuff from her blonde hair.
Seulgi spared Lisa a glance but said nothing.
Apparently Wendy had witnessed everything and happened to be in the hallway, too. The kind glee club president rushed to her and - for the second time - offered to lend Lisa her nice smelling gym clothes.
Only then did Lisa realize some of the chocolate splattered onto her, too.
Weeks after the incident, Lisa became hyper-aware of the presence of Roseanne park and Kang Seulgi. She discovered that she shared nearly all of her classes with the sophomore volleyball player, except for English Literature since she had to take an English-as-Second-Language course first as prerequisite since she’s a foreigner.
(She had outstanding grades in math and biology and the principal had allowed her to be in the advanced classes, too. Apparently, Roseanne Park wasn’t any other dumb jock because she was on the sophomore honor roll, too.)
Lisa was convinced that Roseanne Park threw her the stink eye during class and sometimes turned around to throw glares at her.
Wendy argued that she was just being paranoid.
“Seulgi and Rosie aren’t the mean jocks that you think they are, Lis.” Wendy scoffed one afternoon as they were walking home. “This is real life, you know, not some american teenage tv show with an awful plot.”
“I’m telling you, Wendy!” Lisa argued back. “They really hate me! Especially that Park girl.” She shuddered. “I told you they were also the ones who dumped the slushie on me on my first day of school.”
Wendy just shook her head.
“The slushie was a total accident, just like the choco milk was, Lis.”
“If I go missing one day like what happened in Pretty Little Liars, it’s YOUR fault for not listening to me.”
And of course - as luck would have it, and as all those cheesy american teenage shows have shown - Lisa ends up being partnered with Roseanne Park in biology.
They were supposed to dissect a frog.
“Okay, now go team up with your respective partners!” Their biology teacher clapped once, and all their classmates dispersed and grouped themselves.
Roseanne Park approached her. Lisa gulped and thought about how she’s going to get murdered and die while she’s in a dumb Amercan high school at the hands of a pretty blonde while she’s in GLEE CLUB.
Roseanne put on the lab coat and the surgical gloves and sat beside her.
Lisa dared a sideways look.
And damn, even with just her side profile in view, it was easy to tell that the blonde girl was indeed pretty.
Suddenly the “well, mark me down as scared AND horny” meme came to her mind.
Her brain really didn’t need to be thinking about that!
Beside her Roseanne pulled out her textbook and cleared her throat.
Lisa nodded. The two girls both got to working.
Lisa learned after that fateful day that perhaps Roseanne Park wasn’t all that scary.
Apparently, the blonde volleyball player was really afraid of frogs. She put on a brave face, of course, but when the frog almost leapt out of Lisa’s grip, she went screaming and flailing to the other side of the room.
The whole class erupted in laughter, even the teacher.
Rosie had looked embarrassed and she came back to their table with her head bowed and ears tinged pink.
Lisa felt bad for her so she just smiled at the jock and offered to do most of the work.
Roseanne had declined, but Lisa insisted, and with a smile, comforted her. The transferee gripped the frog tightly and showed it to her partner.
“See? Harmless.” Lisa said.
Rosie just gave her a look then and said nothing.
They finished the rest of the activity without much of an event.
In the cafeteria, the next day, Wendy was really into whatever story she was telling Lisa when her eyes suddenly widened and she snapped her mouth shut.
When Lisa looked at her confused and asked, “what?” somebody behind her cleared their throat.
She turned to see Roseanne Park and Kang Seulgi standing behind her - Kang Seulgi with the brightest, goofiest smile and Roseanne Park looking down at her feet shyly, both in their volleyball uniforms and carrying lunch trays with food.
“Y-yes?” Lisa asked with apprehension as two things ran through her mind: what the fuck are they doing here and how the fuck did queen of bitch face Kang Seulgi somehow look like a teddy bear when she smiles?
Seulgi elbowed Roseanne. Roseanne glared at her friend then cleared her throat.
“Mind if we eat lunch with you guys?” Roseanne Park asked a beat later.
Lisa was too stunned, so Wendy took it upon herself to answer.
Seulgi, still smiling, took the seat beside Wendy. Roseanne sat beside Lisa.
Lisa heard nothing but her heartbeat drumming in her ears. The scary pretty jock was sitting beside her.
And then said scary, pretty jock put a lunch box in front of her.
“I made this as thanks for your help yesterday.” Roseanne explained without looking at her.
Lisa was too shocked to move. Wendy stared at the scene in front of her with comically wide eyes and jaw hanging loose. Seulgi unwrapped a sandwich beside the glee club president and bit into it without a care in the world.
When Roseanne realized Lisa wouldn’t open the lunch box, the blonde jock took it upon herself to lay out the food in front of her.
It was a beautiful Korean-style spread in a pink little bento-style plastic container. Inside it was a small serving of japchae noodles, six pieces of gimbap, three pieces of pan-fried dumplings, and cabbage kimchi and korean radish giving it the pretty and bright splash of color and flavor.
It looked mouth-wateringly perfect.
“I-” Lisa was too surprised to form words. “Wow,” was all she could manage.
Roseanne reached over and grabbed the sandwich and soda she’d gotten from the cafeteria.
“I’ll eat your lunch in exchange.” Roseanne simply informed her.
Seulgi just beamed and chuckled. Then the volleyball captain turned to the glee club president beside her.
It was Wendy’s turn to blush and stammer.
Seulgi nodded then held out a hand for the other senior to shake.
“I’m Seulgi! I guess we never really met since you’re in all of the advanced classes because you’re way too smart.”
Wendy blushed a deep shade of red and shook Seulgi’s hand.
“I- you’re too kind. And of course, I know you. You’re Kang Seulgi, the ace volleyball player and captain.”
The words rushed out of Wendy’s mouth and Seulgi scrunched her nose and laughed.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, then, Wendy.”
It didn’t seem physically possible but Wendy blushed even more.
“Yeah, nice to meet you, too.”
Wendy and Seulgi hit it off after that day.
In between classes and as she walked the hallway, Lisa sometimes saw Seulgi talking to Wendy at her locker.
Seulgi was relaxed and leaned against the locker beside Wendy’s. Wendy would be hugging her bag or her books to herself.
Then the scene became a daily thing and Wendy’s stance relaxed bit by bit.
And since Wendy and Seulgi were suddenly becoming closer, Roseanne Park became a regular fixture in Lisa’s life, too.
Neither of them really offered to walk with the other, but since they happened to share most of their classes, Lisa and Roseanne ended up walking to and from their classes together.
Sometimes the duo would pass by Wendy and Seulgi.
Each pair would smile at the other and wave, Wendy yelling after Lisa and telling her that they would walk home together., as if she needed a reminder of their routine.
Lisa thought Wendy did that just because she gets shy being seen with Seulgi.
They’d gotten paired up again for another biology activity.
Roseanne put her books away and Lisa approached her.
“Hey, so when do you want to work on the project?” Lisa asked. She was more comfortable around the blonde jock now.
As comfortable as one could be when around the really pretty girl they had a crush on.
“Um, whenever you’re free?” Roseanne absentmindedly answered.
“How about this Saturday?”
“I’ll text you the address?”
And that was how Lisa had unknowingly, accidentally casually asked for Roseanne’s number.
The blonde jock smirked at her like she knew something Lisa didn’t and that was when Lisa realized what she’d actually done.
“Okay, give me your phone.” Roseanne said.
When the blonde returned her phone, Lisa saw that the name she’d saved for herself was ‘Rosie❤’.
Lisa couldn’t fight off the grin that erupted on her face then.
Friday, Lisa and Wendy hung back at the glee club room talking about what song the glee club should perform next, when Seulgi and Rosie suddenly walked in.
“Hey!” Seulgi announced, coming up to Wendy immediately and standing close. The volleyball captain looked like she was going in for a hug but stopped herself at the last second.
Wendy licked her lips and shyly looked down.
“Hi,” the glee club captain greeted back. “What brings you two jocks to the loser side of the school?” she asked.
Seulgi blew out air and waved her statement off as if it was the silliest thing.
“Oh, please, Wan, if I wasn’t on a sports scholarship, I would be here, too.”
Lisa looked confused for a moment and Wendy noticed.
“Wan?” Lisa asked. Seulgi looked at Wendy confused.
“Oh, that’s my Korean name, Lisa.” She explained. “My Korean name is Seungwan.”
Lisa’s mouth formed an ‘o’ and her eyes widened, coming down with the realization that the three people in the room with her all had Korean blood.
“I didn’t know that.” Lisa said.
“Yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you.” Wendy looked sheepish. “I didn’t think you’d ever need to call me by it.”
“That’s fine. And you’re right.”
That was when Lisa started to suspect Seulgi and Wendy had something more than friendship blossoming between them.
Saturday, after Rosie left Lisa’s house, the transferee’s phone rang showing Wendy’s caller ID.
“Can I come over?” Wendy sounded anxious.
“I have to talk to you about something.”
Five minutes later, Wendy was at Lisa’s door.
Ten minutes and a lot of Wendy pacing back and forth in her room after that, her friend turned to her.
“I think I have a crush on Seulgi.” The girl confessed.
Lisa couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“Girl, that’s been so obvious, why are you telling me this like it’s news?!”
Wendy punched Lisa’s shoulder.
“Shut up, Lisa! Can you take me coming out seriously?”
Lisa just laughed louder. Wendy pouted.
The Thai girl threw her arms around her best friend.
“You silly, talented, brilliant, kind, dumbass.” Lisa said with affection. “I’m proud of you.”
Wendy buried her face in Lisa’s shoulder and shed a few happy tears.
A few beats later, Lisa added, “I’m pretty sure Seulgi likes you back.”
Wendy disentangled herself from Lisa and punched her again.
Wednesday, as they walked home together, Lisa turned to Wendy suddenly.
“I have a crush on Rosie.” She admitted to Wendy.
Wendy just rolled her eyes.
“Duh, as if that wasn’t the most obvious thing.”
“HEY!” Lisa stopped walking. “I was really supportive when you came out to me and now you do this to me?!”
Wendy just cackled and ran away before Lisa could grab her or punch her.
Rosie and Lisa were walking together after biology. They spotted Seulgi and Wendy from afar.
And then suddenly they both stopped in their tracks and their jaws dropped.
Because Seulgi suddenly leaned down to capture Wendy’s lips in a kiss and Wendy kissed her back.
“So, you guys are dating now, huh?” Lisa wiggled her eyebrows at the couple sitti across her.
The four of them were in the cafeteria, at what has become their usual table.
Seulgi just grins and Wendy blushes.
Lisa knew that they were holding hands under the table.
“Yep!” Seulgi piped up happily.
“It’s about time.” Lisa snorted. “I was sick of you both making heart eyes at each other in the hallways and being too much of cowards to act on your feelings.”
Wendy sent her a glare. Seulgi threw the wrapping of her sandwich at Lisa.
“Says the idiot who can’t admit her feelings.” Wendy shot back at her.
It was Lisa’s turn to glare.
“I’m just looking for the right timing, okay?”
And suddenly, Rosie spoke up, eyebrow raised and smirking.
“Oh really? When does the timing become right, Lisa?”
“Well, uh,” Lisa stammered. “Well, I guess you just know when it is!”
“Oh yea?” Rosie challenged. “Well, I’m telling you there isn’t a right timing and you should just go for it.”
And then Rosie got up and stormed out of the cafeteria.
Seulgi and Wendy looked on with wide eyes, surprise and confusion mixed with interest shining in them.
Lisa was stunned for a few seconds before she got up and ran after Rosie.
“Rosie, wait!” Lisa called after the blonde. “Slow down and let me catch up!”
“I’m tired of waiting for you to catch up, Lisa!”
Lisa sped up, pumped her legs and feet against the hallways of the school.
“Wait!” Lisa screamed again, gasping for breath.
Rosie didn’t stop. Lisa propped herself up with her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath.
So with the last gust of air left in Lisa’s lungs she screamed loud enough for the whole school to hear.
“ROSEANNE PARK, STOP WALKING AWAY SO I CAN TELL YOU I LIKE YOU, DAMMIT!”
And that’s when Rosie stopped walking and turned around.
“It’s about time you said that!” Rosie shot back.
The blonde jock ran towards Lisa and nearly tackled her down.
And with a smile she whispered her confession low enough so that only Lisa could hear.
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