( what you see : here we are on level one; jeong se’s surface. jeong se’s surface is what the outside world sees in everyday life and what she shows off to those around her. facial wise, she doesn’t seem like a very harmful person, does she? she looks like any other generic asian university student. completely harmless. but! there is something a bit off, isn’t there? the biggest giveaway is jeong se’s eyes. jeong se usually carries a blank expression on her face but glares and eye rolls are quite frequent. she isn’t one to verbally express her emotions, rather, she does in indiscreetly through her facial expressions. now, let’s talk about her shoulder placement. jeong se walks with her shoulders high, even though her shoulders aren’t very broad. her posture is very composed and rigid, showing that she has a lot of confidence in herself and cannot easily be taken down. jeong se hold her head up high showing that she is the highest of the high, the very important person. she makes it a point to show to others where her standing is in life. )

( what she sees : we now travel to jeong se’s eyes; the window to her souls. jeong se’s eyes are the most alluring feature of her body; they’re different colors. she is diagnosed with heterochromia iridum, a discoloration of part or the whole eye. even without heterochromia iridium, jeong se would have had an abnormal eye color nonetheless. jeong se was born with a lack of pigment in her eyes making them appear grey in color while her parents and siblings all have brown colored eyes. her left eye is slate grey while her right eye is a gunmetal blue with a slight gold center. her eye color plays a big part in her personality, seeing that she has three colors. slate grey eyes are said to show cold, solid emotions and it is said  those who have grey are usually cold hearted and quiet. jeong se’s natural eye color is slate grey and it defines her character quite well. her abnormal eye is darker than her default eye color but still around the same shade. gunmetal blue eyes are said to belong to hard-edged men and women. this shows jeong se’s more dangerous and ruthless side.  within the blue, there is a small golden center. gold color balances off jeong se’s rowdy side, being a color of warmth and sincerity. )

( clean slate : now we have reached my two most favorite segments of this trip, putting jeong se’s eye color into play. if you haven’t caught on already, there are two sides to jeong se. in this segment, we will be focusing more on the side most seen by other people: her cold side. jeong se isn’t one to voice her opinion to strangers unless asked or forced to. she believes that her opinions are right and other peoples’ opinions are wrong; she always hates class discussions because she can’t stand the ignorance of some people in her class. this is quite peculiar especially since she’s in a psychology major and if you think about it, opinions play a big factor in this. jeong se likes to keep people at a distance, guarding her emotions and creating a barrier between herself and others. jeong se isn’t a serious person when it comes to grade; overall, she doesn’t take life seriously either. being the pessimist she is, she always find the negatives in others and in herself. she isn’t thankful for the things she has accomplished in her life and shuns away every opportunity that is opened to her. the way jeong se sees it, “the glass is half empty. all arguments are invalid.” )

( rowdy with good intentions : in this segment, we will be focusing on the side jeong se reveals to a small number of people: her human side. by ‘human side’ i mean the side that makes her seem more like a human rather than a statue. jeong se is still quiet around her friends but she does talk to them a greater deal than she does with other people. when jeong se is with her friends, she comfortable with them allowing her to somewhat open her heart a little. of course, it is in jeong se’s nature to be narcissistic so obviously, with her friends, she makes many comments about herself which they laugh at since they know she’s joking. once you get to actually know jeong se, you’ll find out that she has a great sense of humor though, it’s not in the way you would express it. actually, her humor isn’t really intended; she’s serious but people don’t take her seriously. she speaks with sarcasm with a bit of narcissism around her friends. for example, if one of her friends were to complain about how they feel really ugly, she’ll say something like, “honey, we all know not everyone can be like me.” )

( i don’t like that : in our last class, the students prepared a list of some of the things they disliked. today, we will be going a few things that she dislikes and backing up as to why she might not like them. first on our list is the color pink. just by this simple color alone, we can already know what her weaknesses are, and what she longs for. by knowing jeong se’s most disliked color, we can figure out the areas in her life that she felt has given her the most pain. pink is a color that symbolizes love and compassion. as expected, jeong se is someone who longs for acceptance into society and to be unconditionally loved. it is a known fact that jeong se holds many insecurities in her life, especially since she looks different from most people. her appearance is what blocks her from getting anywhere in life. she denies the fact that she is self-conscious which makes her [ unintentionally ] more conscious. she lacks feminine attributes and is terrible when it comes to her romantic senses. this leads on to her next dislike: aegyo. jeong se is someone who loathes aegyo and is very stolid when it comes to someone performing aegyo to her. she’s invincible to aegyo. but why does she dislike it so much? the reason behind her dislike for aegyo is because she herself is not any good at it. like i said previously, she lacks the girlish actions of her fellow gender mates. )

( pros and cons : we have come to the last segment of our tour where we discuss the pros and cons of our subject’s personality. jeong se is a strong-willed individual as well as someone who sticks to her own opinion so she is definitely someone who is independent. the problem with that is it limits the kinds of people who can approach her and who can get along with her. this is a big problem especially since she doesn’t enjoy being wrong. it is really up to the person to decide what her pros are because maybe the most annoying point of jeong se to one person could your most favorite point. i dunno. )

jeong se’s life is pretty complicated so it’s best if i start from the beginning. way back to the beginning. jeong se, believe it or not, is not the eldest child in her family; she is the middle child after her older brother, seo jinyoung. when jeong se was six, jinyoung died in front of her eyes. no, she isn’t anything special to have that happen to her. her parents weren’t involved in a gang or anything, it was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time. jinyoung and jeong se were at school at that time. it was after school and students were all crowded in the courtyard waiting for their rides home. it was a big school since middle school and elementary school were joined together so there were many people of different ages. there was a shot fired somewhere in the middle of all that commotion causing people to panic. jinyoung quickly found jeong se and tried to get out only to find themselves standing in front of a locked gate. guarding the gate was one armed man who non-hesitantly shot jinyoung. jeong se didn’t know what else to do but run. there were a few deaths and injuries but among those gone was jinyoung.

jinyoung played an important role in jeong se’s school life. he was always the one who would protect her from the bullies who would make fun of her discolored eyes. they would call her mean names and call her color blind even though she could see perfectly fine. jinyoung confronted the bullies when jeong se was in second grade and they didn’t bother her for a few years. after jinyoung’s passing, the bullies came back to make fun of her misfortune. they would call her weak now that she had no one to help her.a year after the shooting, jeong se’s little sister, jinmin was born. jeong se hated her little sister. she couldn’t stand how everyone loved jinmin and paid attention to her more because she was the ‘normal’ child. she also hated jinmin because the day she was born, it was like everyone forgot all about jinyoung. her personality began to change over her elementary school years. her heart grew darker and she grew distant from her friends. she was completely alone when the class moved on to middle school.

in middle school, she made a few new friends. they were people who she knew from previous years but she never really talked to them until then. do kyungsoo and byun baekhyun were her seatmates and eventually  they became more comfortable around each other. jeong se quickly opened up to the two friendly boys and was really happy when she found out their towns were really close to each other. there weren’t many events that happened in middle school. it was pretty much like elementary school except she wasn’t bullied anymore because baekhyun and kyungsoo wouldn’t allow that to happen.

the trio all graduated middle school and went to jungnam high school. there, they were faced with many difficulties and challenges especially since they were starting all over. the upperclassmen there were jerks and most of the freshmen were bullied by them. there was also bullying within the freshmen but not to an intense extent because no one really knew each other well enough. jeong se met many annoying girls in her life, especially those who went around with their aegyo kissing up to upperclass ‘oppas.’ oppas. that was the one word that would throw jeong se off. jeong se used to call jinyoung, “jin oppa” when she was younger and hearing it brought back that terrible memory.

she failed family life class because she always had emotional breakdowns or refused to participate at all. jeong se made many trips to the school counselor, not by will, but because she was forced to. she never said anything to them, she would keep shut. among the freshmen, jeong se got the worst of the bullying but if it weren’t for kyungsoo and baekhyun, she would have been worse off. kyungsoo and baekhyun encouraged her to go try out for a sport or join a club since they were in clubs themselves and didn’t want her to wait in the library by herself until they got out. they told her that it would be a great opportunity to make new friends and maybe even develop a new hobby. they joined her in looking for a club and even went with her for moral support in cross country try outs. she made it onto the cross country team and quickly became the team’s best sprinter and distance runner. she was able to persuade kyungsoo and baekhyun to join her in winter and summer track even though they weren’t the greatest runners.

academic wise, jeong se was a pretty average student. she didn’t pass with flying colors and sometimes she just barely made it. her grades were a variety of marks. she didn’t graduate with many academic awards but was presented with many athletic awards. jeong se is now attending university with a double major in pharmacy and biology with a psychology minor.

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