Yang Xiao Chen, the physical embodiment of “looks can be deceiving”. Take one look at her artificially colored tresses, bright red lipstick, designer clothes and high heels. What do you see? appeal? Confidence? Maybe even maturity? If you thought anything along those lines, you weren’t looking close enough at the playful, insecure, child inside that she’s fighting so hard not to be. Despite being well on her way into adulthood as she nears her twenties, Xiao Chen is still very much a child at heart. Anyone that has ever met her parents see clearly her father’s enthusiastic sense of humor and her mother’s quick witted sarcasm. Yang Xiao Chen is her parent’s child and still so much more.

While she can’t honestly say she’s always held such astounding confidence, it shines clearly now through her vanity. Iman is not necessarily narcissistic enough to think she posses an Aphrodite level of beauty. She is not the most dazzling girl in the world or even the group but she is much too self satisfied with the body and look she’s worked so hard to attain to let it go by unacknowledged. In a way, it’s a thinly veiled attempt to both praise herself ( even if no one else will ) and disguise the physical insecurities that have haunted her since childhood.

However when her methods fail, the least she can do is illicit a laugh, at anyone’s expense to draw away the attention. Whether it be a well thought out prank or a semi harmless tease, there is little Xiao Chen won’t do to raise the room’s mood. However it is times like these when she is most like herself, instead of the Barbie doll image that has become a steadily built barrier over the years. This is when she is at her best. The most playful, carefree version of Yang Xiao Chen that she can be. One who’s smile lights up a room, who’s dorky and obnoxious laughter is contagious, who would do anything to see a friend smile. It reminds her of the earlier, less dutiful years of childhood when her biggest worry was whether or not boys truly had cooties. Though she doesn’t seem to mind that much now.

Despite the pure, innocent, untouched image that many women try to emulate Xiao Chen is a woman of experience in the ways to love. Not so much so that anyone would consider it her defining characteristic or anything of the like but enough so that if a handsome man were to kiss her, she wouldn’t revert into a catatonic state and mourn the loss of her first kiss.

Moreover she’s not very easily embarrassed and not in the least bit fearful of making her feelings about a person known, good or bad. She will just as easily and openly flirt with a man at a bar as she will tell the resident mean girl exactly where to shove her pom poms. It doesn’t help that the word tactful is mostly non-existent in her vocabulary. She says and does things bluntly and, unfortunately, without thought for the consequences until it’s too late.

Which is why it should come as no surprise that she’s found herself practically at war for her “I-Am-Who-I-Am” approach to life. It’s not often she finds herself in such a position as she usually proceeds throughout her day without much concern over others’ opinions on her but if she feels she, or a good friend, was truly wronged or low blowed by someone, the vain but playful Xiao Chen becomes a vengeful stranger. Even if it takes her a few weeks or if she has to bring out the most deeply hidden skeletons from your closet, she will not feel satisfied until you’ve felt just as hurt as she did. An eye for an eye.

Overall, Xiao Chen might be quite the handful but she will bring the brightest of smiles to your face if only you stick around long enough.

Expected World: Xiao Chen was one of those lucky children. While she wasn’t spoiled with material goods, she was spoiled with praise and acceptance, even when it was sometimes wrongfully placed. Her mother and father almost paralleled each other in every aspect of life and parenting. With her father’s carefree, good natured attitude and her mother’s tradition and tough love but the end was result was a happy, kind hearted kid. She was a typical girl, with a typical childhood until appendicitis turned her world upside down at age nine. Fearful that something she had done behind her parents backs was the cause, she hid it for as long as she could.

When her weight began fluctuating and the sudden reluctance to go out and play ( due to the pain ) became noticeable, a trip to the emergency room revealed her diagnosis. After minor reprimanding for keeping it hidden and assurance that she could be healed, Xiao Chen proceeded with surgery soon after and moved on with her life. At first, all was well but as she and her peers crept into their pubescent years and started taking notice of each other’s bodies, all hell broke loose. She was hardly overweight but with her short and previously petite frame, she might as well have gained 100 pounds with the way her weight stuck out on her. At least, that was how she perceived it.

When she didn’t have to deal with adolescent immaturity and cruel ribbing from her peers, she was being drowned in a sea of thin waist lines among her friends. In her eyes, there was only one solution. And following 16 months and an unhealthy drop in weight, Xiao Chen found herself in the hospital once again, this time: for starvation. It took years of close monitoring and therapy to get Xiao Chen back to a healthy medium between overweight and deadly skinny but it was a compromise most parties involved were satisfied with.

Idol World: When Xiao Chen got it in her head that she wanted to auditon, her family was spending the summer in kuala lampur. Her parents didn't seem to think rooting up the entire family and suddenly move to Korea very amusing nor were they about to send their daughter off on an adventure to a foreign country. In reality she was willing to settle for a career in foreign relations or teaching a foreign language, figuring she could still travel somehow with that. but a few months later her favorite sm artist posted a video on their fan channel announcing that sm was taking in new trainees and with a little convincing and her parents confirming that it wasn't a scam, she was allowed to send in a video audition.

her dancing could have used some help but her vocals and visuals got her a ticket to korea. the second round of auditions turned into a family vacation but when she was accepted into the company, the family gave her their full support and allowed sm to take working guardianship until her 18th birthday. the entirety of Xiao Chen's stint as a trainee was rough. first and foremost there was a huge language barrier. besides the little korean she'd learned online and what she picked up from dramas she knew practically nothing about communicating with her peers, instructors, or anyone really. she stuck like glue to any fellow foreigner she could find but within their little group as someone picked up more language skill they drifted back into the jungle of native trainees once they were confident they could hold their own. Xiao Chen was no different and eventually she too, learned Korean and made more friends but it did nothing for her self confidence as she envied the stick thin bodies of her peers. it was then that she fought an off and on battle against eating disorders, particularly an aversion to eating. following her first trip to the hospital was the first time her parents genuinely considered taking her back home.

it was a long and hard war in the yang household but Xiao Chen eventually proved she could and would handle the pressure of idol-ism better as well as got some 'help'. When it got tougher than she could take she'd look to her idol, lee hyori, who was very avid about not changing who she was or conforming to the images others expected of her. through that Xiao Chen learned to be more accepting of herself and the way she was and became a force to be reckoned with. But it was hard to move on when everyone in the company knew about her past transgressions, so she transferred to JellyFish the first chance she got.

IDOL WORLD. Among the gltiz and glamour Bang Seon is still not much for the lime life. Seon is freshly debuted soloist and aspiring songwriter for SM Entertainment in this world. In all honesty, neither of them can recall how or when they met or became aware of each other. In the sea of SM employees and trainees, it’s easy to notice someone without taking notice. It was thanks to a momentary bout of absent mindedness and a not so unusual spell of over achieving on Xiao Chen and Seon’s parts, respectively, that brought them together one evening. In the maze of corridors, practice rooms, and recording studios that shape SM Entertainment there is hardly ever a time when all is quiet. It wouldn’t be unheard of for some hardworking trainee to remain well into the night. However certain areas off the building become off limits after hours, so when Seon stumbles upon Xiao Chen tearing apart one of the locked studios, in the midst of a frantic search, he is livid and hell bent on telling the proper authority figures. Xiao Chen spent the entire walk from the studio on the sixth floor to the security office on the first trying to explain herself and/or possibly bat her eyelashes to get herself out of trouble.It was only when she mentioned having left her journal in there, that he actually heard her. He knew the worry that came along with losing something so precious and personal. He spent the next hour and a half helping her search for it. It wasn’t until the next day that they found out it was in the same security office that Xiao Chen dodged a visit to the night before, waiting for her in the lost and found. Xiao Chen could feel the glare burning into her skull from Seon's direction but by then their fates were practically tied together.

EXPECTED WORLD.  Here he's just plain, pretentious college student Bang Seon. They met in University. They didn't run in the same circles or take similar classes, Xiao Chen hadn't even been there long enough to choose a major when they met. It was during the Remix event. A campus wide event during freshman week when all school sponsored organization came together to entice young, fresh meat into their respective clubs with colorful booths and lively presentations. To Xiao Chen, he was the freak kid that seemed to be involved in everything while Seon recognized her as the girl who came to his booths to steal candy and use his flyers to spit out her gum. But it wasn't until he found her throwing up behind some bushes in the dead of night that they actually spoke. It was a stupid sorority thing, stuff the pledges with disgusting food at a party to see who lasts the longest. Xiao Chen was the first to fall flat and Seon was the only one still in his right mind and able to take her to urgent care for a thorough stomach pumping.Their first few hours together consisting of barely anything more than trying to get her information and making convesation but they never stopped noticing each other after that.

BOTH. Their interactions and his personality will be the same in both worlds, so I'll put that here.

PERSONALITY: If there was ever a self righteous twenty year old who thought he was above childish nuances and expected to make a name for himself or change the world, it was Bang Seon. Though he had the maturity, determination, and old-fashioned politeness and respect towards your elders that parents worshipped in a daughter’s boyfriend, he was a long way from universally sociable. At first glance he is blunt and stale and everything he spews from his mouth has been dipped, rolled and fried in sarcasm. He has little patience for those he deems childish or one dimensional.

But if you, by some celestial force, manage to earn his respect and approval you’ll be shocked at what you find. While he’s no less snarky or serious, he is much more thoughtful than one might imagine. The type to go out of his way to bring you medicine when you catch a cold or put his precious schedule on hold to treat you to dinner after a rough day. Though he won’t hassle you any less. Seon is almost parental in that way. He’ll scold and reprimand you for stupid, avoidable mistakes but he’ll also be right there to help fix them. A very tsundere type of man whom you wouldn’t believe spends his free time writing sappy love songs and playing the cello or piano. He aspires to be one of this generation’s most renowned composers and lyricists. He claims that everything he’s done since he was a kid has been towards that goal and the passion with which he talks about it makes it impossible to believe otherwise.

RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC: If you were to ask Seon about his “relationship” with Xiao Chen, he’d attribute it to something akin with having to take care of a pesky sibling. Though it wouldn’t be too far from the truth as Iman spends a good portion of their time together bothering and trying to draw him out of his sarcasm guarded shell. Any other time is spent with her arguing her capability and lack of need of his assistance. Which then leads to her carrying out some ill conceived plot to prove herself and him having to clean up the aftermath. After one too many of those he finds himself off handedly giving in during such arguments just to avoid trouble later. And then there are times when he views her as a muse and makes various attempts to draw her in to his trap of Beethoven and higher thinking. Which she makes a genuine attempt at until it bores her to sleep. He’s yet to be able to play for her without it ending in snores.

Xiao Chen's opinion of him doesn't vary much from his of her. She says it's like trying to tease an old, grumpy snapping turtle out of it's shell. But she's built up a sort of immunity to his callous bluntness, for the most part. Or at least, she tries not to show it. Occasionally, she'll go too far or he'll hit too close to home. Their pride is much to strong to allow either one to admit when they're bothered or apologetic. Instead they opt for simple gestures to remind each other that they've become too much of a fixture in each other's lives to let go.