@SUBURBIA -> MINIMAESTRO

CHARACTER NAME : jo seokwon

Other names :

+ tide (조석) : a play on his full name, and also a reference to the fact he was born on an island surrounded by the ocean and, well, tides.

APPEARANCE : ~~imagine taehyung but like..... the farmboy edition~~ 181cm for 70kg, a mop of raven locks sit atop his head, usually messy but still considered acceptable. his shoulders are just a bit too narrow compared to the rest of his build, especially in proportion to his height.

style : just like a typical young adult male in south korea. jeans, chinos, shorts, t-shirts... the works. though he tends to wear neutral colors with an accent rather than sticking to the bright color trend.

Personality :

"his parents told me that he would practice the violin every day, even after his lessons with me. he was a very diligent student, and it showed."

— 정현숙, former violin instructor

"he's the kid that missed all those school days for recitals and horse shows, right?"

— 강동호, neighbor from birth to 2014

"he was super hot and cold, like, all the time. i mean, he was always hot, like, have you seen him? what i mean is that, like, some days he would be all over me, and then he wouldn't talk to me for, like, three days."

— 윤정은, ex-girlfriend

jo seokwon is the sort of person everyone's heard of—wholly for his achievements—but when asked what they know about him, what he's really like, each one draws a blank. all they see are the aced tests and blue ribbons for horse riding and violin recitals. but his personality? there's nothing there, according to them. not to say that he lacks a personality entirely in their eyes, because many have commented that seokwon is a cookie-cutter nice kid. he's friendly, likeable. but nothing about the way he acts is notable, just his accomplishments. but there's more to him than good grades, a dashing smile, and a nice personality. the jo seokwon people see on a daily basis, the young professional, is a façade.

the real jo seokwon is much like any other teenager, if not a bit subdued. it's as if teenagers are photos taken on their cellphones, while he's one edited on Instagram. not in the sense that he's better than them, he just has a different look to him. he's introverted, he makes sarcasm into a weapon. imagine stiles from the teen wolf tv series but like.... not dealing with the supernatural. but still so goddamn tired because life is kicking his .

#factsoftheday :

+ Is aromantic panual.

+ honestly loves starbucks?? too bad all the coffee and food are hella expensive so he can only have 'em once in a blue moon.
+ he participated in show jumping and dressage as a kid.
+ wants to start doing horse stuff again, but has yet to find a stable to keep his horse, let alone a way to get him there.
+ btw, his horse is officially named kallistratos, but seokwon calls him kali for short. kali is a friesan.

+ has yet to decide his major in university.

+ at the prompting of his parents, whom want to preserve the culture of jeju island, seokwon learnt some jejumal as a child. however, due to a number of reasons, he has since forgotten most of what he was taught, and instead speaks the jeju dialect.
+ his roommate picked his username for him, as a reference to what adults use to call him.

summertime :

My child-like creativity,
purity, and honesty is honestly
being crowded by these grown thoughts.
reality is catching up with me,
taking my inner child
i'm fighting for custody.

- "power" by kanye west

jo seokwon is the boy who has everything, the boy who knows everything, yet he can't help but feel a dearth of… something in his life. something vital. he knows it's linked to getting older, but in the duration of his teenage years, it seemed every platitudinous struggle of adolescence had washed over him… and perhaps it's as simple as that: he did everything his parents asked of him. he was the perfect child. and this left him with so many paths to follow that he can't decide, and at this rate, he doesn't even know if he wants to. he's crumbling under pressure, losing all motivation to do anything but rebel.

so maybe, just maybe, jo seokwon isn't as perfect and unique as he thinks he is. maybe he's just like any other teenager.

relations :

오민우, 19

oh minwoo was taught to never expect exactly what you see from someone until you've gotten to know them. so, having grown up admiring one jo seokwon for his violin skills, he did his best to hold his enthusiasm. and yet as he saw seokwon walk through the open doorway of their dorm, glance at him, offer a half-hearted wave, then flop face-first onto the unoccupied bed, the only feeling that comes to minwoo is "disappointment."

minwoo soon pieces together that seokwon was nothing like the magazines said. "hard-working?" impossible. seokwon wasn't motivated to do anything. he hated studying, but he wouldn't go out and party instead. no, he would just sit on his bed. he would sit there for hours staring at nothing. and without his parents telling him what to do, he sometimes woke up two hours late for his classes, or even six hours early. he didn't leave their room unless it was to get food, use the bathroom, or head to class (whether he was late, early, or on time, though the latter was rare), and even then, his food runs were weekly; he'd stockpile as much food as he could, minimizing energy consumption. minwoo came to the conclusion that seokwon was not a prodigy like the parents said, but rather a mess.

hating to see so much talent go to waste, minwoo decides to become his new parent. he is on seokwon's case every waking moment, whether it be in person or over text, telling him to make sure he's doing his homework and finishing his projects, snagging seokwon's phone when he isn't looking to set alarms so he knows when to get up. seokwon begins to see minwoo as a nagging nancy and wanted nothing to do with him, although at the same time he knows minwoo was the only thing stopping him from failing school.

배노을, 26

the (sort of) manic pixie dream girl to seokwon's (not so) brooding protagonist. she's a waitress at a noodle house minwoo drags seokwon to sometimes, and though he thinks the food is terrible, noeul makes up for it, given she's working at the time. she tells them about her dreams of traveling around the world, about escaping everything she's known up to this point in her life. seokwon admires her ambition and wishes some of it would rub off on him.

USERNAME : reinas

name : lucy

final comments : since the description of the summer situation is flowery af: seokwon was always a "gifted" child, and he never wants to leave that stage of his life. he sees the older kids struggling to find jobs after college, the pressure they feel to succeed. to be honest, he was one of them, doing everything in his power to make his parents proud of him. but the stress has finally gotten to him, and he just wants it to stop. all of it. so, he turns to what seems to be the only available option: going against everything he's ever known. and that includes debating about going back to school after the summer break ends.

ugh this just feels unfinished even though everything is filled out??? it feels more abstract and i don't like it but i wanted to submit a character because this idea is too great not to. the summer dilemma is pretty vague, so you can add on to (pls do)

and hopefully you don't mind me changing the text to lowercase; it just kinda felt like the app was yelling at me orz

SUGGESTIONS/REq's : i'll get back to you i swear

song rec : rip the neighbourhood and lana del rey are my go-to artists for this kind of atmosphere tbh