The life of girl who only has brothers and the life of the girl who only has sisters contains different episodes even under the same sky. Although it can be simply assumed based on just human instead of family relationships, as long as the ingredients of the stories themselves are different, the specific stories will definitely be different as well. If you are a person who only has brothers, you would have, at least once in your life, been envious of the ‘friend-like sister’, just like how other girls have fantasies about ‘older brothers’. The usefulness of being able to share clothes or cosmetics, even sanitary pads during emergencies, the deep closeness of being able to talk about things you can’t say to your friends, and being able to cry your heart out. More than anything, even as you get older and your friendships start to drift away, she is the same-gender existence who will be there by your side. The majority consists of memories of an enemy-like sister with whom you fight by pulling each other’s hair, to a person who leaves far away from the existence mentioned above, it is just a fairytale fantasy that makes them scoff.
To Jessica and Krystal, they are adapting what is a fantasy to someone else perfectly in their lives. Could the affection and naturalness of being able to say ‘I love you’ at the end of every phone call be a result of the influence from the country they spent their childhood in? Either way, these two whose closest friends are each other are exactly as the saying goes: even just looking at each other’s gaze, they are able to know what the other person is thinking about. Different from their peers, from young they spent their days undergoing the same training and waiting, which further strengthened their sisterly love. Perhaps in the mind of the director who casted them Jessica and Krystal after meeting them when there were 12 and 7 respectively, bells were ringing. Afterwards, the two of them spent their trainee years while travelling via a school bus together, and the result is as everyone knows, the formidable ‘Jung Sisters’ who are in front of our eyes today.
“There aren’t many pictures where Soojung is smiling. But when she’s smiling sincerely, she’s the prettiest. Although Soojung’s current face has gender neutral aspects, when she was young her face was rounder and she exactly extremely pretty like a little girl.” When asked about the prettiest side of their sister that they discovered when taking pictures of her, they both similarly mentioned [the other sister’s] smiling face.
“Even my mum says that I’m good-looking¹ (laughter). Unnie has a laughing expression that comes one when there’s something really funny. As for the specifics, I want to keep it to myself. That side of her is very cute.” While saying this, Krystal was snickering to herself while looking at her sister. Who said they were ice princesses? The two of them laugh easily/a lot. Krystal, especially, is a woman with two faces. When she’s in front of the camera, she easily changes mode to a cool but deep expression that’s every bit as a good as professional model, but during conversations, she laughs like a teenage girl who giggles at even a falling leaf².
t/n 1: good-looking is more often used to describe males
t/n 2: korean expression to say that she laughs at every little thing
A few years ago, the sisters filmed a reality program on cable TV called <Jessica & Krystal>. The fans called the two ‘Je.Keu’. As they did not have the images of easy-going and familiar celebrities, from searching for a make-up remover in their hotel room to visiting different famous restaurants and expressing awe, these little aspects of their daily lives were enough to entice viewers. Jessica and Krystal were special from the beginning, even with just their names. It was inevitable, as amongst the many pretty and cute idols, they exuded a unique vibe. Adding to that fact that the two existences were part of the same family, its the formula to becoming multiple times more special.
Girls learn a lot from their mothers, be it consciously or unconsciously. Jessica and Krystal’s mother frequently said, “Women have to be a little chic.” To Jessica, her mother was a cool woman whom she wanted to be like.
“Mum is probably one level above us? There were also times where while the three of us were speaking, we said ‘mum is really amazing’. As our mother knows that we are, at our foundation, good and kind, she was able to teach us that women need to be chic at times. If I have a daughter, that’s how I will teach her too.” Jessica and Krystal were unable to think of a secret that the two of them share without their mother knowing. Krystal explained the reason for that. “We share everything with our mother.”
Before the close sisters, the tight bond between the three women came first. Although we don’t know how mothers who have daughters full of star DNA—such as Beyonce and Solange, Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning, Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid—were like, we found out that when Jung Sisters’ mother, who did rhythm gymnastics when she was younger, was pregnant, she ate a lot of oranges and bibimbap. “Ah, both Krystal and I are back-of-the-head beauties (laughter). Our mum changed our positions every few hours when were babies, so that we didn’t lie in one position for too long.”
Krystal recently finished filming <Prison Playbook>. With her long, curly hair from her previous work, <Bride of the Water God>, where she appeared as a goddess alongside Nam Joohyuk, cut into a neat bob. In an especially slow-tempo drama teeming with male characters in prison uniforms, whenever Krystal appeared, the screen became brighter. “There still isn’t a time where I feel that acting is easy. As long as I do my best, there must be some [knowledge] built up throughout the time of the experience, whether I know it or not. Although I may not know it now, it could be possible that that point catches my eye when revisiting my works after time has passed.”
Jessica released a 10-year anniversary album last year, and it has also been 4 years since the launching of her fashion and cosmetics brand. “I always have good people around me. That is my luck and my strength. Apart from New York, there are now branches in Hong Kong and Seoul as well. In the beginning, it was trial and error, but now I can see [the brand] growing bit by bit in front of my eyes, so work is fun. It’s all thanks to my team, which is filled with good people.”
While they are working hard at their individual business and acting, Jessica and Krystal now both carry the similarity of having broad spectrums of activities. As such, both the person whom can relate to their difficulties the most, and the person whom they can share their pride and happiness with, is each other. Recently, the younger sister shared her worries about a choice she made to her older sister. “Nowadays, even if it’s not work-related conversations, we tend to talk a lot about human relationships. As I’ve lived for 5 years more than my sister, I can see who are the good and the not so [good] people around her. While Krystal seems like she’s not really listening when I’m talking [about it], she never seems to ignore my advice. As we know, very well, just how cautious and hard-working the other person is, rather than saying it out specifically, we are the type that quietly cheers the other person on.”
This is something said when looking at Jessica and Krystal. In the many lives of treating family as family, and treating colleagues as colleagues, having your family member as a colleague is not something that is definitely happy. However, for the Jung sisters, it is, at least, a fortune. This could also be felt between conversations, when the two of them, through exchanging a glance that only each other would know the meaning of, share a happy communication.
translations by hamsoonie
please take out with full credits
함수니 