'I’ve always liked genre mash-ups; most of my books fall into this category, so after watching a load of K-dramas, I felt like I wanted to write my own,' says Zen Cho about her new book 'The Friend Zone Experiment'. Photo: Anna Rina
Author Zen Cho, widely recognised for her fantasy and speculative fiction, never anticipated venturing into the world of rom-coms. Yet, during the long hours of the Covid-19 lockdown, she found herself drawn to a new genre. The spark? A deep dive into K-dramas, with Crash Landing On You serving as her unexpected muse.
“That show was my gateway into K-dramas, which is such a fun, trope-filled way to tell stories. In Crash Landing On You, there’s a combination of geopolitical elements – it’s a love story between a South Korean heiress and a North Korean soldier – and it’s got humour and romance, plus corporate intrigue and there’s a bit of a military thriller,” says Cho, during a recent interview in Petaling Jaya.
The 38-year old author, who lives in England, was back in Malaysia for a series of bookshop promo events.
“I’ve always liked genre mash-ups; most of my books fall into this category, so after watching a load of K-dramas, I felt like I wanted to write my own,” she says.
The result? Her latest novel, The Friend Zone Experiment, out now.
As expected, her first foray into the rom-com genre is anything but a straightforward love story. Instead, she pitches it as “a second chance love story inspired by Crash Landing On You, with a splash of the 1MDB debacle thrown in” to Malaysian and Singaporean audiences, whereas for Western audiences, it’s “the TV show Succession crossed with Crazy Rich Asians”.
Set in London, where Zen Cho lived for nine years before relocating to Birmingham, The Friend Zone Experiment follows Renee Goh, the youngest daughter of a wealthy Singaporean family that runs a powerful conglomerate, and Yap Ket Siong, a gifted pianist whose middle-class family was forced to flee Malaysia after the mysterious disappearance of a close friend.
Alternating between Renee and Ket Siong’s viewpoints, the novel shifts between their past – a once-close university friendship that ended on a sour note – and the present, a decade later, where they discover that time hasn’t fully mended old wounds.
As the two explore their lingering feelings and come to terms with past mistakes, their priorities and loyalties are also put to the test – will they be able to preserve their renewed friendship or were they always meant to be something more?
Ins and outs of romance
Her debut novel, Sorcerer To The Crown (2015), is a lively historical fantasy set in Regency London, while her last book, Black Water Sister (2021), follows a woman haunted by her grandmother and a local deity in Penang.
The Friend Zone Experiment sent the affable author on a new adventure, into unexpected realms.
Cho admits that romance as a genre can be quite intimidating for those who haven’t really written it before.
Set in London, Cho's 'The Friend Zone Experiment' follows Renee Goh, the youngest daughter of a wealthy Singaporean family, and Yap Ket Siong, a talented pianist from a middle-class family that fled Malaysia after a friend's mysterious disappearance. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
“A lot of my books have featured a romantic subplot, but this is my first rom-com novel, so it was an interesting change from writing fantasy,” she says.
Though the new book is Cho’s take on a K-drama, its story structure is more like a conventional Western romance.
The difference between a romance novel and a novel with a romance subplot, says Cho, is that in a romance novel, the main focus of the plot is the development of a romantic relationship between the main characters, and it must end in a "Happily Ever After" (HEA) or a "Happy For Now" (HFN).
“I really enjoyed the technical challenge of writing a contemporary romance novel. Romance books based in historical periods, like Jane Austen’s or Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels, already have the social norms and etiquette of the time acting as the obstacles – needing to keep within the boundaries of propriety provided enough conflict and tension to keep the story exciting.
“So in a contemporary setting, how would I go about constructing a situation to keep the characters apart? Readers usually get the ‘ick’ at a poorly-executed miscommunication trope, so what I tried to do with The Friend Zone Experiment instead was to construct a collision of values between Renee and Ket Siong,” she explains.
Besides setting up the conflict that would drive the plot forward, another challenge for Cho was writing the intimate scenes – an essential ingredient in romance novels.
“Writing physically intimate scenes wasn’t easy for me at all, but they’re pretty much mandatory for the genre. So I really tried to lean into it and capture the emotionalism of it.
“What I enjoyed the most, though, was being able to indulge in the romance – those quiet, vulnerable moments, like in K-dramas, where there’s so much yearning in just staring at each other. For example, in the book, there are scenes of Ket Siong carefully blow-drying Renee’s hair, or putting a scarf on her because she’s cold,” says Cho.
Now that she’s completed her first rom-com, does she see herself writing another?
“Actually, I was contracted for two contemporary romance novels, starting with The Friend Zone Experiment. So I just turned in the first draft of the second one,” she reveals.
Based in the same “world” as The Friend Zone Experiment, the second yet-to-be-titled book is a rivals-to-lovers romance that also takes place in London and features a cast of South-East Asian and East Asian characters.
“Way back when I worked at a corporate law firm, I used to wonder what would happen if some of our homemade fraudsters came to the firm and asked us to represent them. What would I do as somebody who somewhat has a stake in it? That’s the scenario that kicks off the second book, which is set in a law firm,” says Cho, who hints that a character from The Friend Zone Experiment also makes an appearance in this book.
From the outside looking in
Subang Jaya-born Cho’s life has been anything but ordinary. At just six years old, her family won a green card lottery from the US government, leading them to move to the United States for a few years before eventually returning to Malaysia. This early exposure to different cultures has no doubt shaped her worldview and storytelling.
“We moved around a lot then, too. We were living in Penang at first, then we moved to Petaling Jaya. I went to five different schools,” says Cho.
Cho (right) pictured at a book promotion event at Eslite in Kuala Lumpur last month. Photo: The Star/Shaari Chemat
“I was always coming into a new group as an outsider, and I think it’s quite a common experience for writers and other creatives to have – to be someone from the outside looking in. It makes you see things in a different light, and influences the art you create.”
Cho credits her parents’ over-protectiveness as a key influence in her journey to becoming a writer. Their cautious approach to the world around her gave her the space and time to immerse herself in books and storytelling.
“When I was young, I wasn’t allowed to go out by myself much. So that just meant that I was sitting at home a lot, with the expectation that I would be studying. But instead, I was writing stories,” she says, recalling that she was a huge fan of author Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series.
“One of the stories I wrote was a Discworld AU (alternate universe) that I sadly didn’t get to finish. It’s a crossover between Lord Of The Rings and Discworld’s the Watch books where Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf are in the Watch. They despise each other, but they have to work together to solve the crime, and it becomes this buddy comedy. I wrote it ages ago, so I haven’t been able to find a copy of it,” she recalls.
When she’s not occupied with her writing, Cho is busy practising law – she currently works part-time as an in-house lawyer for the British government.
Now a mother of two young sons, ages five and two, she transitioned from a full-time corporate job to part-time work in 2021 to gain more flexibility.
“I work three days a week, and the other two days are my writing days. People often ask me whether I would ever consider writing full-time, and I tell them that while it may sound ideal, I don’t think it would suit my personality.
“Economically, it wouldn’t be very smart, as I only make about 30% of my current income from writing. Besides, I’m good at my job and it’s something that I enjoy doing, which I realise is a lucky thing,” she concludes.
