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HAN GENG : HIS ORIGINS

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Some things you just can't help. As much as you want to change things, to try to improve, it's hard and you know it. Hankyung wishes he was born in Korea sometimes - that would have made things easier. People wouldn't look at him so strangely when he spoke, or judge him before even getting to know him.

Yes, things would be so much easier.

Hankyung always knew there was racism in this world, but he never thought a continent could contain racism against its own kind. South Korea and China were both in Asia, so why did Koreans treat Hankyung with such scorn? Didn't they understand that he was trying? He didn't want this accent, he didn't want to sound so odd to everyone.

But reason is always lost, somehow.

They ignore him. During dance class, no one bothers to explain how the moves go, and Hankyung has to figure it out through watching others. During vocal lessons, no one corrects his pronunciation until he's up on stage and everyone's laughing.

He constantly asked to go back home, where he was popular and everyone loved him and called him Han Geng - his Chinese name, his real name. Where, when he danced, people would watch in awe instead of pointing and laughing. Where, when he sang, people sat and listened as his voice filled the room, and they would applaud him instead of pointing out his mistakes.

Because every moment he spends in South Korea, he loses more and more of his willpower. He wanted to become Hankyung, a Korean man. He wanted to get rid of everything he was just to fit in, even if it meant losing the one thing that made him stand out.