FULL NAME: Lee Tae Ri
NICKNAME(S): Little Italy; Italian Stallion (see Triva for explanations)

AGE: 25 (International); 26 (Korean)
BIRTHDAY: 90.12.31
BIRTHPLACE: Bergamo, Italy
ETHNICITY: Korean (Nationality: Italian-Korean)
HOME TOWN: Bergamo, Italy
LANGUAGES: Italian (fluent); Korean (fluent)

HOW THEY GOT INTO THE UNDERGROUND SCENE: Even though Tae Ri and her parents moved back to Seoul when she was 15 years old, she continued to follow the Italian hip-hop scene, especially Emis Killa and Hyst. Once her family became settled in Seoul, Tae Ri felt out of place; people would either look at her differently because she was a person of mixed descent, or they would feel uneasy and unsure out how to be around her given her alternative style. She listened to some mainstream Korean rappers, but it wasn't until she discovered the underground hip-hop scene at 18 that she truly felt that there was a place in Korea for her. It started with simply going to the popular nightclubs and listening to whomever was performing on those nights; however, once she got found the right connections and was able to delve deeper into the culture, she was able to find her home in the underbelly of the khip-hop scene.

HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN IN THE UNDERGROUND SCENE: Tae Ri has been apart of the underground scene for 7 years, but she has only been performing for 5. When she was 20, one of the more well-known rappers of the club, Hana, aka Han.LA, she frequented offered to take Tae Ri under her wing and be her mentor. She had shared some of her raps and some of the songs she created on her laptop with Hana and Hana believed that while she showed talent, she had a ways to go and offered to help get her there if she was willing to put in the work. Being one of top female rappers in the underground, Tae Ri jumped at the chance to be mentored by Hana. They worked together and Tae Ri performed at open-mics and in rap contests for a couple years before she actually debuted in the scene as "Little Italy."

FACE CLAIM: Kim Eunyoung (Cheetah) :: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
BACK UP FACE CLAIM: Kite :: Gallery

HEIGHT: 153 (cm)
WEIGHT: 40 (kg)

APPEARANCE: Tae Ri has three piercings in her left ear and two in her right ear. She is the type of person who only gets tattoos when they mean something so as of this moment she only has one tattoo and it lies under her left collarbone. The tattoo is of one of her mother's EKG readings (the heartbeat line) because her mother was always her source of strength and life and even though she's gone, Tae Ri wants to feel that life and that energy that her mother gave her for the rest of her life.

STYLE: Tae Ri's style is very much androgenous. She enjoys blurring the lines between conventional feminity, what society deems as appropriate, and masculinity. There are some days when she will wear sleek black dresses and heels, days when she shows off her small waist with crop tops and low-rise jeans. There are also days (and these days are more frequent than most when she is just relaxing or going for a casual day) when she adopts a more "masucline" look, wearing baggy graphic t's and basketball shorts. No matter what she's wearing, however, her signature staples to her look are her cat eyeliner and painted nails. Some of her androgenous looks can be seen above, as well as what is listed below.

TRAITS:
(+) Quirky, Practical, Intuitive
(o) Competitive, Folksy, Sarcastic
(--) Blunt, Clumsy, Impulsive

PERSONALITY: Tae Ri is a quirky person; even though she has this very edgy appearance, she geeks out of things that others might think are a bit weird. For instance, she really loves puns and period jokes (I don't know how people have with women while they are on their period. It's bloody nuts if you ask me *slaps knee*). She doesn't take life too seriously; she never has, but her mother's death only cemented how short life is and that you can't spend your life trying to fit into a designated box because it makes others' lives more "convenient." She is also a practical person; she tries not to make things too complicated and because of her practicality, she tends to be very blunt and say things as they are and not everyone can understand that despite her bluntness, she's coming from a very warm and caring place, and thus they cannot handle it. Tae Ri is also a very intuitive person. She relies on her intuition and what her heart and gut tell her is the right thing to do; however, because she tends to rely more on emotion and gut feelings, she can make impulsive decisions and actions without fully going through each and every possible outcome and it can sometimes hurt her.

Tae Ri is a competitive person; she's enjoys a healthy competition between friends and rivals and always strives to prove herself and improve herself to be the very best that she can be. Despite her rougher, somewhat intimidating exterior, Tae Ri is a folksy person; she is laidback and chill with people; she's not pretentious and no matter the acclaim she receives, she is still humble and down-to-earth, which can be quite a feat in an industry that can easily drag you down and morph you into something ugly that you never thought you could be. Going along with her quirky personality, Tae Ri is also pretty sarcastic. Much like her bluntness, her sarcasm isn't always malintended. She finds humor with her sarcasm and her wit, but it could rub some the wrong way. Finally, Tae Ri is a clumsy person; she is always tripping, falling, or injuring herself in some way. Often times, she'll wake up find bruises and cuts on her body that she doesn't remember getting; San E always jokes around saying that he can't take her anywhere without putting her in a suit of bubble wrap.

IS YOUR CHARACTER OKAY WITH PARTYING?: Does a bear sh*t in the woods? Hell yeah.

DRINKING OR SMOKING HABITS?: Tae Ri tends to enjoy a drink or two...or twelve. She drinks in moderation when she's at home, having only a beer or two whenever. However, when she goes out clubbing or partying with friends, she tends to drink a lot; when she's partying, she wants everyone to have fun and usually that involves getting them to drink in order to loosen them up, to relieve some of that tension, and what kind of friend would she be if she made them drink alone, right? As for smoking, she doesn't smoke actual cigarettes, but she does vape.

LIKES:

+ Period Jokes
+ Snakes
+ Adrenaline Raising Activities (bunjee jumping, sky-diving, etc.)
+ Blogging
+ Video Games
+ Peppers
+ Running

DISLIKES:

- Thunderstorms
- Waking Up Early
- Mayonaise
- Hot and Humid Weather
- Baby Corn (It's an abomination, I swear it!)
- Cooking
- Driving

HOBBIES:

+ Wakeboarding
+ Muay Thai
+ Composing
+ Producing
+ DJ-ing

HABITS:

- Popping and Cracking Knuckles
- Bouncing her Knees When Sitting
- Smoking (Vaping)
- Saying "Jesus ing Christ" to Express a Myriad of Emotions (happy, sad, anxious, disbelief)
- Says "Gross" to anything displeasing/unpleasant, rather than to actually gross things (e.g. A: "I have to go to my retail job to earn real money to pay the bills." TR: "Gross.")

TRIVIA:

+ Her nickname "Little Italy" actually started out as an insult; when she moved to Korea, kids in her class would mock her, in a sense, because she was a foreigner and because she talked about her life back in Italy so much (seeing as that was part of her life and those were experiences she had to compare with those of her peers). Because of this, her peers would snidely call her "Little Italy" and as she grew older and became more secure in herself, she adopted the name for herself as a way to say she overcame their discrimination. Plus, she's a fan of puns, as stated before, and her name Lee Tae Ri sounds like "Italy" and she's quite little, both in stature and overall size.
+ Her nickname "Italian Stallion," came about as a joke between her and San E. They were on their way to the gym and they were talking about MMA fighters and how they sometimes had these odd, descriptive names whenever they were introduced before a fight. Tae Ri made the mistake of asking him what he thought her name would be and jokingly he said that since she was so ferocious, it had to be something really intimidating and fear-inducing: The Italian Stallion. He wasn't serious, of course, but the nickname became an inside joke between the two of them because the irony of a booming announcer voice introducing "The Italian Stallion, Lee Tae Ri" and this small 5'0 girl coming out from behide the curtain was too hilarious to pass up.
+ When her mom died, Tae Ri wanted to withdraw into herself; she had lost someone incredibly important in her life and the loss left a hole inside her that could never be filled. However, she had to keep herself strong for her father, knowing that the loss was just as hard on him and that he needed her more than ever. So, instead of withdrawing, she pushed herself more into her music and focused on composing and producing a mixtape dedicated entirely to her mom and their relationship; it was the first mixtape that she ever put out and it's her most prized.
+ Her favorite junk food is white cheddar cheetos.
+ She has a pet snake, a ball python named Winston. Winston loves to wrap up around her neck and sleep, resting his head on Tae Ri's chest or shoulder while she goes about her day. When she's home alone, she'll even let him sleep in bed with her.
+ She can wiggle her ears.
+ When she sleeps, she has a designated "hugging pillow;" it seems as if she cannot sleep properly if she's not hugging onto something.
+ She was raised Roman Catholic and visited Vatican City with her parents a few times every year when they lived in Italy to see the Pope.
+ She collects shoes and snapbacks.
+ While she's an underground rapper, she also does small modelling gigs for a few of her friends that are clothing designers.
+ She is afraid of thunderstorms and lightening.
+ She loves to wear boxers and boxer briefs.
 

BACKGROUND: To better understand Tae Ri, it's important to understand how her parents ended up in Italy in the first place. Ironically, her mother and father were childhood friends; they were very close and there were even talks, by their parents of course, that they would get married one day. The two dated casually during high school and when graduation rolled around, they decided to travel abroad to continue their education. They settled in Rome where Tae Ri's father studied accounting and business while her mother majored in Christian Studies. After graduating from the university, they had grown accustomed to Italy's vibrant culture and decided to stay, but relocated to Bergamo. It was only after Tae Ri's mother was diagnosed with cancer when Tae Ri was 14 years old did the couple decide to relocate their family to Korea once more.

Growing up in Bergamo, Tae Ri didn't have many problems. Her parents had raised her speaking Italian primarily in the home so that she could excell in the Italian schools she would later be enrolled in. Her parents had adapted aspects of Italian culture into their exisiting Korean one and Tae Ri never really had a problem as a young child trying to fit in. It wasn't until she moved to Korea with her parents that she realized just how different the two cultures were and how different she would be treated. Because she was born and raised in Italy, Tae Ri's main cultural influences were that of Italian society. This made her a bit of a stand-out among her Korean peers and those first few years were the most significant in terms of bullying for Tae Ri. At first, the bullying bothered her, made her want to run away and escape back to Italy, but the more she endured, the thicker and tougher her skin became and she was able to block out the nonesense of the peers that didn't understand her and just be herself.

Tae Ri's mother was diagnosed with cancer when Tae Ri was 14 years old. The doctors all had varying opinions, varying methods, and the family was desperate to try anything that gave them a little bit of hope. Tae Ri, who was forced by necessity to mature faster than her peers due to circumstances within the home, fast-tracked her high school education and graduated a year early so that her mother could see her graduate. Though she had to maintain the appearance of calm and collected on the outside, there was a dark, swirling tornado that lived within Tae Ri's mind after her mother's diagnosis. While music was a big part of her life already, it played an even more vital role of keeping Tae Ri sane in her early teen years. She kept a journal, writing down anything and everything she couldn't express out loud in the form of bars. Much like how the movies became an escape for Americans during The Great Depression, the underground rap scene became an escape for Tae Ri. On nights where things were particularly difficult at home (e.g. hearing her mom getting sick down the hall from the meds), she would go to the club and get lost in the stories put out in front of her on the small stage. Things seemed to be fine for a while; Tae Ri was able to focus on school and use her writing as an outlet to keep herself going. But, when news rolled in that her mother was terminal, writing was no longer enough. Rage and despair consumed her and the only way to get it out was to verbalize it; that's when she started to perform in the underground scene. She needed a way to say everything she had been holding in for years, and the only place she felt she could truly do that was on a stage in front of drunk strangers. It was a this point that music was no longer just a part of her-- it was her. Every bar corresponded with her breath; if there was no music, there was no life for Tae Ri anymore. Had it not been for the underground, she would have self-destructed; writing and performing kept her head above water, kept her breathing. Unfortunately, when Tae Ri was 21 years old, her mother lost her battle against the cancer and passed away and the underground was the only thing she could lean on, as her father slipped into his own pit of despair.
 

FAMILY: 
 
(Im Sunkyung | mother | 45 | deceased | warm-hearted, supportive, unorthodox | cause of death: cancer)

 
(Lee Mingkyu | father | 49 | living | intelligent, escapist, dependable | works as the chief financial consultant for a law firm; threw himself into his work after Sunkyung's death)

FRIENDS:


(Han.LA | close friend and mentor | 23 | silly, fun-loving, talented | took Tae Ri under her wing and helped her realize her dreams)

(Hwang Suji | close friend and fashion designer | 28 | unique, dramatic, freethinking | runs the clothing business that Tae Ri models for; helped Tae Ri establish herself within the community and get more connections and friends)
 

LOVE INTEREST: Jung San (San E)
BACK UP LOVE INTEREST: Kang Gary 

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Courting
AGE: 85.01.23 (30 years old)

PERSONALITY: San E is someone who is very open and outgoing. He doesn't really hold anything back and is very open about his life. He is similar to Tae Ri in that he doesn't sugar coat things just because it's more convenient for someone else to not hear the full truth. He's very outgoing as well in that he will go out and talk with everyone. He is a member of different large social circles and gets along with nearly everyone. He is a goofball. He is always joking around or pulling jokes on his friends and family. He enjoys having fun and making people laugh.

San E is someone who could be viewed, at least in some way, as a couch potato He enjoys going out and partying, but he gets equal enjoyment out of just staying home, on the couch, with a box of take out and a beer. He enjoys doing active activities, such as going to the beach and playing basketball, but he hates working out formally. He finds it boring to go to a gym to run on a treadmill or lift weights. Tae Ri has been known to drag him out to go for runs and has managed to convince him to go to boxing and martial arts-centered gyms with her.

Behind the jokes and the goofball mentality, San E is actually a romantic and protective guy. He doesn't always go all out and full romance with the candles, rose petals, and waiters in penguin-suits (tuxedos)-- in fact, he's the type of guy that would take his girlfriend out to eat and have the waiter wear a literal penguin suit. However, he believes in the small acts of romance-- texts letting her know he's thinking of her, suprising her with lunch on a busy day, sitting together with her head on his lap, just reading together. He's also a protective person; when Tae Ri says that she'll text him when she gets somewhere or call him when she gets home and she doesn't, he tends to get a bit worried until he knows she's alright; he doesn't do it because he's a worry wart or he wants to control her. Rather, because he knows Tae Ri is someone of her word and when she says she'll do something and then she doesn't, his wild imagination takes over and he wants to make sure she's alright; he is like this with everyone that he is extremely close to (it's something Tae Ri teases him about).

HOW YOU MET/WILL MEET: When Tae Ri turned 19, she went out with Suji and a few of her friends to a club in Hongdae, a typical "foreigner" spot. Tae Ri sat at the bar, nursing a glass of iced whiskey, listening to the live music as it played. San E sat next to her, ordering a Jameson on the rocks. He struck up conversation with her, first about the music, and then where she was from. The two bonded over the fact that they were both, at least in some way, foreigners. San E had been born in Korea, but had moved to the United States with his parents and went to school and college there before returning back to Korea. The two exchanged numbers and have been friends, some would say best friends, since then.

INTERACTIONS: San E and Tae Ri are in the "Nahh, we don't like each other; we're just best friends (but we really do like each other)" deny, deny, deny stage. It's quite clear to everyone else around them that they are interested in each other and should they think they should just date already. The pair show a lot of skinship around each other without even really thinking about it. For example, they might be sitting next to each other, Tae Ri will lay her head on San E's shoulder or she might rest her legs over his lap. They'll hold hands and there are times when San E would wrap his arm around her waist when they walk around. It comes so naturally between them that they don't even think about it anymore.

The two are always joking around with each other. They both have a similar type of humor. They will tease each other and poke fun at the other's expense. For example, if San E misses something obvious, Tae Ri would be like "Of course you can't see it; your eyes are so tiny," knowing that her own eyes are small. Another example would be of San E joking around saying that he could speak Italian and put on a fake accent and say, "Pizza. Spaghetti. Lasagna." There was one instance when he had done something and Tae Ri whined out, "Jung Sannn," and San E responded with, "It's not Jung San," put on his Italian accent, "It's a-me, Mario."

Despite their usual fun-loving, jokester attitudes with each other, their relationship is deep. They're each other's best friend and they confide in each other; they both know each other's deepest insecurities and are always there for each other. When Tae Ri's mother died, San E took a hiatus from his own career to make sure that she was taken care of; when she would just lay in bed and stare at the wall, he would just lay beside her and hold her. And when San E's girlfriend cheated on him, Tae Ri took him to the movies and went to all his favorite places with him as a way to take his mind off of everything and to show him that even though he was in pain at that moment, there was a lot of good in the world.

TRIVIA:

+ They each have a small, desktop cork board that is filled with polaroids that they've taken together.
+ Whenever they have new songs or new compositions that they've been working on, they show each other first before showing anyone else.
+ There have been many an article about San E and Tae Ri's closeness and how the two were in a relationship together; however many of San E's fans vehemently denied this saying there'd be no way for San E to be with her.
+ San E is actually afraid of snakes. Whenever he comes over and Winston is out, roaming the apartment, he freaks out; even when Winston is sleeping around Tae Ri's neck, he always makes comments that one wrong move and Winston could squeeze the life out of her.

STAGE NAME: (Little) Italy

STATUS: Presently unsigned; hopes to either get signed or run into the funds to start up her own label

SINGING CLAIM: n/a
RAP CLAIM: Cheetah 

SONGS:
+ Coma (2015; originally by cheetah)
+ Love is War (2010; originally by gilme ft. outsider)
+ Expectation (2015; originally by cheetah)
+ A Guy I Know (2011; originally by clover)
+ My Number (2015; originally by cheetah)
+ Queen (2015; originally by miryo)

SCENE SUGGESTIONS:
+ warning: cheesy. San E is over having dinner and hanging out with Tae Ri at her place and there's a thunderstorm; since Tae Ri is afraid of thunderstorms and lightening, San E has to comfort her, possibly by pulling out his phone and his ear buds and making her listen to music (probably his, because he's that big of a dork) while holding her in order to drown out the storm.
+ San E is kicked out of his apartment complex because they were converting to business offices. Tae Ri is always there for her friend, especially her closest, best friend, and invites him to stay with her; they grow closer, romantically, with all the sparks and hidden tension that's flying about.
+ Tae Ri officially getting signed to somewhere (Amoeba, DPR, AOMG, etc.) would be pretty dope, haha 
+ New Years Eve group gathering (or really any gathering used as an excuse to get lit and play games like shot tic tac toe)

QUESTIONS/ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD KNOW: Not at this moment; I can't wait for your feedback and to read the story.

PASSWORD: cheetah or gilme