Nearly, Not Quite, Almost, Maybe

Chapter 1: Nearly

It doesn't take her long.

She's four when she realizes that she's not like everyone else. Her big sister likes dolls and princesses. Her brothers like football and beating each other up. Her mom wants her to like the same things her siblings do but she doesn't really like anything.

She likes reading books that are too old for her and thinking about the world.

She likes sitting in corners and watching other people.

She knows that her daddy's family don't think much of her mom and that her mom wishes her grandparents had stayed in Korea. Sometimes she sees her daddy staring into space wondering and she thinks that he's always wondering if he's doing the right things, if their small house in New Zealand will ever be big enough for all the personalities and problems that live in it.

Jisoo sits in the corner and knows that her brothers and sisters think she's stupid. She knows that her mom is worried about her and her dad doesn't mention her to his guys at the bar.

She doesn't know how to speak to them.

//

She doesn't really know how to speak to anyone until she meets Jennie Ruby Jane.

Her eyes are blue and her hair is blonde and when Jisoo watches her, she isn't mean to her. She doesn't yell or call her names or make fun of her; she comes and sits next to her instead.

She doesn't look at Jisoo like she's weird that she's reading books way above their grade level. She doesn't even really notice the book because she's too busy looking right at Jisoo's face instead.

"What's your name?" she says plainly. Her eyes don't dart to Jisoo's crazy curly hair or her glasses. She just looks at her and it's scary.

"Jisoo," she says and, when the girl doesn't say anything else, she continues. "Kim Veronica Jisoo but my ma calls me Jisoo."

The girl regards her quietly.

"I'm gonna call you Chu," is all she says.

And that's that.

//

Jisoo calls her Jen because that's what she said her friends call her.

Jennie is her friend and Jisoo doesn't know what to do because she's never had a friend before.

All the other kids tease them but she doesn't know why.

Well, she knows why they make fun of her, but they don't need to make fun of Jen.

Jennie was born in Allentown but moved to Philadelphia when her dad got a new fancy job. They used to live in Roxborough for a while but they had to move to South Philly when Jennie's dad lost his fancy job pretty soon after they moved. Jennie tells Jisoo that her mom and dad used to fight a lot and that it wasn't fun. She doesn't have any brothers and sisters and now it's just her and her dad because her mom left.

Jisoo doesn't ask her any of these things but Jennie just tells her anyway. In turn, she tells Jennie about her brothers and sister and her sad mom and disappointed dad. She tells her how everyone thinks she's strange because of her hair and her grown-up books. Jennie tells her they don't understand and that she's smart.

It feels nice.

//

Jisoo soon learns that Jennie is what her mom calls "a devil child."

That means that she's silly and wild and doesn't know how to behave.

Her mom thinks it's because Jennie's dad doesn't know how to look after a little girl. She offers to take care of Jennie while he's at work in the hopes of teaching her how to behave but, on the third time they take care of her, she calls Mrs. De Russo's son a "dumbass" which starts a fight and, on the fifth time, she jumps out of a tree because she thinks it'll be funny and breaks her arm.