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hi there friendos!!! i am thrilled to be joining you since i've been wanting something simple on tumblr for awhile now!! also so happy to be bringing my underappreciated queen umji to the party! the muse she's the face for is one of my faves to write; lee seonah, aka ramona lee is a new york born saxophonist with a cool demeanor and a love for cucumber melon. more info is listed below the cut, so if you're interested in any of her plots or would like me to swing by your ims to say hello or to plot something, you're invited to leave a like on this post!
trigger warnings: m*rder, robbery, implied g*n v*olence, grief
BACKSTORY
as briefly mentioned above, seonah was born in staten island, new york on august 7th, 1998.
her parents, originally from daegu, built a life stateside in the early '90s, so they were already pretty blended into the american routine by the time they had seonah.
in new york, seonah often went by her english name ramona, often shortened to mona. the name was derived from an old jazz singer and pianist her mother loved.
one of the main reasons seonah's parents even moved from south korea was so that her mother could try her luck at the new york jazz scene. she was a gifted pianist with quick hands who had always ensured seonah's life was filled with music.
those very sessions with fellow musicians she worked with were the catalyst for seonah's obsession with the saxophone. a musician seonah would always call uncle franklin would come and play the sax at their south shore townhome, while the small child watched and danced along.
he was actually the one to gift seonah her very own saxophone at age ten, by which her younger sister seoyeol had been born and was clinging to seonah's legs while she struggled to play the instrument.
the characteristics of her music were very much shaped by the staten island jazz scene, and the city's famous festival was a tradition for the whole family.
from her father did seonah inherit a love of gardening, building terrariums and making sure a healthy amount of green was present in all her decorating. she and her father would spend hours carefully placing moss, stones, grass and water in small glass containers until they resembled miniature nature scenes.
she spent a good amount of time in her dad's store as well, helping him stock and clean up throughout her childhood. the value of hard work was an early lesson for seonah and it would likely stick with her permanently.
that store, however, would come to be the site of a horrible tragedy that would uproot many lives.
TRIGGER WARNING AHEAD
her mother and father were working the late shift at the store one night when a masked gunman entered, demanding cash. her parents were both killed during the exchange, leaving seonah and her sister to grieve them at far too young an age.
as the two had no other blood relatives in the area, their parents' friends franklin and his wife delisle were named in a will to take the children in and raise them as their own.
it was an extremely tough transition, but the pair, along with another of their parents' closest friends adam made sure the sisters never went without love and encouragement. they refused to let the children's view of the world become twisted due to what they had gone through, and they were a huge part of why the two made it through that period of their lives.
END TRIGGER WARNING
now being raised by franklin, seonah was kept occupied by saxophone lessons, camping trips, walks through the city — any and everything she loved simply to keep her mind off the tragedy her family had faced.
despite her new guardians' best efforts to make her childhood fulfilling, seonah couldn't help but feel somewhat aimless after the passing of both her parents, and even a bit disconnected from them. she developed a fairly unbothered demeanor that some would even mistake for just not caring, though that was the furthest thing from the truth.
as she finished out her primary schooling and prepared to apply to the manhattan school of music, she floated the idea of possibly traveling to her parents' home city of daegu after graduating college to franklin and delisle. they met the idea with approval, thinking it was an excellent chance to reconnect with a past she'd never really gotten to discover.
after training up her musical talents to her instructors' satisfaction, it was finally time to say farewell to her family. she couldn't have said thank you to franklin, delisle and adam more times if she'd tried. seonah looked upon her now teenaged sister with slight guilt, feeling as though she were abandoning her for her own selfish reasons. seoyeol simply threw her arms around seonah and promised her she'd seek out universities in daegu so they could see each other soon.
and that was it, she was off to daegu with a graduation present of a one way flight and some won to run on until she found work. thankfully, that didn't take too long, as she found a pretty fancy restaurant looking for jazz musicians of her caliber.
seonah made a vow to herself that she would only speak in korean and only use her korean name until she felt that familiar connection to her parents once more.
she soon found a home in the confines of sueunju sharehouse, and though it's filled with strangers, it reminds her of the blended household she lived in back in staten island and even makes her oft expressionless visage falter into a smile. though she is still very much getting used to living in daegu two years on, her life is in a place of contentment for the time being. she continues to chase memories that have long since passed her by, barely conscious of all the new ones she is making in the process.
PERSONALITY
some would call her an ice queen, but she's more like a snow angel. like she's definitely composed, doesn't like to argue and sometimes comes off as though she's silently plotting your demise in a corner, but there is a warmth to seonah that is unmistakable. she can be so cold to the touch but also reach directly into your heart and make you melt. she is a mess of contradicting thoughts and feelings and words, but she could be ur mess of contradicting thoughts and feelings and words, u know???
only really loses her cool when it comes to music she's excited about, if her heart's a little bit broken or if she's lost something near and dear to her (her saxophone goes missing, one of her terrariums get broken, etc) and it's sad, but also kind of funny cmvnbvncb!
she's very inquisitive, especially about the daily routine in daegu. she desperately wants to know more about the lives her parents lived before they moved to america, and being that she's only been in south korea for two years, she isn't as in touch with things as she feels like she should be. stop her if she's asking too many questions — she just gets into a flow of seeking information and doesn't realize it sometimes!
a girl of many hobbies: gardening, camping, building terrariums, hitting up the thrift store, smoking on roofs, seeing performances at masquerade, noraebang, etc. and she loves doing these things with friends! partake in any of these activities with her, and you'll earn a special place in her heart and the slightest aura of a smile just for you.
sometimes she just??? disappears. sometimes her social energy simply runs out and she needs some time to recharge it. she's not trying to ghost, she promises! she just needs a couple days of mirror glaring and deep rumination before she's ready to have company again.
a wanted plot of mine (!!!!!!) but i also hc her as recently single with a lot of regretful and reluctant pining for her ex lol. she's in her slightly reckless era in an attempt to forget them, so pls forgive her for any messy moments 😘
