Rick Woo and Jenna Chu

Rick Woo and Jenna Chu’s relationship is a long-distance romance whose early portrayal emphasizes Rick’s commitment to staying connected across the distance. Before Ever knows him well, his promised call, daily contact, and small gift for Jenna establish a relationship that complicates Ever’s first impression of him and shapes how she reads his later kindness.

Establishing the Relationship

When Rick arrives in Taiwan, he is already late calling Jenna: he explains that he promised to phone as soon as he landed and needs to find a pay phone. Sophie’s suggestion that he date Ever prompts him to clarify that Jenna is his girlfriend. The exchange establishes the relationship plainly, before Ever has any reason to understand Rick as a possible romantic interest.

Rick then shows Ever a photograph of Jenna on his phone. Ever sees a professional portrait of a woman with heavy black hair, a slender face, and a sapphire-set class ring on a fine gold chain. The image makes Jenna present in the scene despite her physical absence, and Ever compares Jenna’s polished appearance with her own childhood experience of being called a porcelain doll. Her startled impression underscores that Jenna is not an abstract name or a casual attachment: Rick has brought his girlfriend into the conversation by showing her to Ever.

Maintaining Contact Across the Distance

Rick’s attention to Jenna recurs in small, concrete acts. He carries a carved bird tied with a red ribbon, a gift he says Jenna likes, and touches its carved head while talking about her. The gesture presents him as attentive to her preferences and as someone who has brought a token of affection with him to Taiwan. Ever responds by imagining him as a devoted boyfriend, in contrast to the less committed figure she had initially assumed him to be.

The relationship also interrupts Rick’s interactions with the group. When his phone rings with a Taylor Swift song, he answers eagerly and calls out to Jenna, even as Sophie reminds him that calls are not allowed. He hurries away toward the dragon drums while talking to her. The brief scene makes their connection audible and immediate: distance does not keep Jenna from claiming his attention in the middle of the group’s activities.

Sophie later says that Rick calls Jenna and sends her a postcard every single day. That account gives the earlier actions a pattern: the landing-day call and the keepsake are not isolated courtesies, but part of regular contact maintained while he is away. Ever takes this consistency as evidence of Rick’s goodness and revises her judgment of him, noting that he had taken her home when she was drunk despite barely knowing her.

Separation and Rick’s Longing

The separation remains emotionally present late at night. When Ever asks why Rick is awake, he says he could not sleep and, after a pause, explains that he is thinking about Jenna. Ever reads this as missing her and recognizes the romantic quality of the moonlit moment they share. His confession shifts her view of him again: she sees not simply a dependable boyfriend but someone whose attachment to Jenna weighs on him while they are apart.

Together, the repeated calls, postcards, photograph, and carved-bird gift give the relationship a distinctive shape in the story. Jenna is largely encountered through Rick’s acts of remembrance and communication, while Rick’s devotion is legible in the way he keeps returning his attention to her. For Ever, these details complicate an emerging attraction: the boy whose kindness she is beginning to notice is already committed to someone else, and his longing makes that commitment unmistakable.