username — ninsie

nickname — Ninna

activity rate — 8-8.5/10

name — Lee Kyungtae 이경태

nickname — 
// Tae - It´s just a normal nickname that literally EVERYONE uses for him
// The scary one - Because of his tattoos and like of dark clothing and colors Tae often gets called scary by everyone around him. Not by his friends, but by the people that don´t know him
// Gangster - It´s a common misconception on Korea that people with tattoos are gangsters and Tae hasn´t run free from that misconception. Therefore people who don´t know him will call him this.

birthdate (aGe) — 06/04/96 (23)

birthplace — Seoul, SK

hometown — Seoul, SK

ethnicity — Korean

language — 
// Korean - Native language

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

face claim — Kim Misung (Ulzzang - Minsung8809 on Instagram)

backup face claim — Kim Yu-kwon/U-Kwon (Block B)

appearance — Poor, poor this man’s soulmate whoever they are. Because they´re covered in tattoos like Tae himself is. If it wasn´t for his multitude of tattoos he could definitely be considered a pretty boy. Especially his finger, hand and forearm tattoos and the two small dots under his right eye get him quite a few stares whenever he´s out. He also has one right under his left collarbone, one on his right shoulder (the top of his shoulder - as in the area between his neck and shoulder) and one right behind his right ear (It´s literally the same ones his faceclaim has - a scroll through his Instagram and you can see all of them). However his legs, back, upper arms and chest are currently void of any ink. He has no piercings and he stands at 178 cm and 59 kg.

style — His style is pretty all over the place. It´s often laid-back but stylish in hoodies (typically dark colored hoodies) or sweatshirts, oversize with ripped blue or black skinny jeans. More often than not he´ll tuck the sleeves up to his elbows. He does also sometimes wear t-shirts and/or button downs but they´re usually tucked into his jeans and are also oversize. He also often layers his outfits with a jacket overtop if he´s wearing a t-shirt (sometimes a flannel instead of a jacket when he´s wearing a t-shirt) or button down and in the colder months may even do it when he´s wearing a hoodie or sweatshirt. He doesn´t accessories often but will sometimes throw a ring (see pictures to the left) or a chain necklace or a chain bracelet onto his outfits. He always wears sneakers. Generally his outfits tend to belong in the "comfy yet cute" category but he can dress up if he absolutely has to in a button down, nice jeans (you´re never getting him in slacks - EVER) and a blazer. (Again give a scroll through his Instagram for picture inspiration)

I am myself. Nobody understands me. I am different and special

traits — Self-aware, emotionally honest, creative, tactful, compassionate, sensitive, reserved, self-conscious, melancholic, self-indulgent, and self-pitying.

personality — Tae maintains his identity by seeing himself as fundamentally different from others. He feels that he is unlike other human beings, and consequently, that no one understands him or loves them adequately. He sees himself as uniquely talented, possessing special, one-of-a-kind gifts, but also as uniquely disadvantaged or flawed. He is acutely aware of and focused on his personal differences and deficiencies. He´s honest with himself: he owns all of his feelings and looks at his motives, contradictions, and emotional conflicts without denying or whitewashing them. He doesn´t always like what he discovers, but he doesn´t try to rationalize his states, nor does he try to hide them from himself or others. He´s not afraid to see himself “warts and all.” He´s willing to reveal highly personal and potentially shameful things about himself because he´s determined to understand the truth of his experience—so that he can discover who he is and come to terms with his emotional history. This ability enables Tae to endure suffering with a quiet strength. His familiarity with his own darker nature makes it easier for him to process painful experiences that might overwhelm others. Nevertheless, Tae feels he´s missing something in him, although he has difficulty identifying exactly what that “something” is. Is it will power? Social ease? Self-confidence? Emotional tranquility? —all of which he sees in others, seemingly in abundance. In reality Tae is unsure about aspects of his self-image—his personality or ego-structure itself. He feels that he lacks a clear and stable identity, particularly a social persona that he feels comfortable with. Tae feels uncertain about who he really is. The problem is that he bases his identity largely on his feelings. When he looks inward, he sees a kaleidoscopic, ever-shifting pattern of emotional reactions. Indeed, he accurately perceives a truth about human nature—that it is dynamic and ever changing. But because he wants to create a stable, reliable identity from his emotions, he attempts to cultivate only certain feelings while rejecting others. Some feelings are seen as “me,” while others are “not me.” By attempting to hold on to specific moods and express others, Tae believes that he is being true to himself. One of the biggest challenges he faces is learning to let go of feelings from the past; he tends to nurse wounds and hold onto negative feelings about those who have hurt him. He becomes so attached to longing and disappointment that he is unable to recognize the many treasures in his life.

While it is true that Tae feels different from others, he doesn´t really want to be alone. He´s socially awkward and self-conscious, but he deeply wishes to connect with people who understand him and his feelings. He longs for someone to come into his life and appreciate the secret self that he has privately nurtured and hidden from the world. But because such validation has remained out of reach, Tae has begun to build his identity around how unlike everyone else he is. He comforts himself by becoming an insistent individualist: everything must be done on his own, in his own way, on his own terms. His mantra is “I am myself. Nobody understands me. I am different and special,” while he secretly wishes he could enjoy the easiness and confidence that others seem to enjoy. He has problems with a negative self-image and chronically low self-esteem. He attempts to compensate for this by cultivating a Fantasy Self—an idealized self-image which is built up primarily in his imagination. As long as he believes that there is something fundamentally wrong with him, he cannot allow himself to experience or enjoy his many good qualities. To acknowledge his good qualities would be to lose his sense of identity (as a suffering victim) and to be without a relatively consistent personal identity. He could really grow by learning to see that much of his story is not true—or at least it is not true anymore. The old feelings begin to fall away once he stops telling himself his old tale: it is irrelevant to who he is right now.

However, Tae is not all bad sides. He is profoundly creative, expressing the personal and the universal in works of art. He´s inspired, self-renewing and regenerating: able to transform all his experiences into something valuable. He inspires himself. He´s also extremely self-aware, introspective, on the "search for self," and aware of feelings and inner impulses. He´s sensitive and intuitive both to self and others and can be described as gentle, tactful, and compassionate. As much as he holds on to negative feelings created by those who have hurt him, he also holds on to positive feelings created by those who have been nice to him. He´s also highly personal, individualistic and true to himself. He´s emotionally honest and humane.

background — Lee Kyungtae was born in Seoul, SK on 06/04/1996 to Lee Sangki and Lee Eunjin. He grew up an outcast and was bullied by his peers for his "pretty" looks. Especially the older boys would belittle him and call him names. And Kyungtae swore very early on that when he got old enough he would do something about his pretty looks. However as a child he found solace in art and drawing. He would draw at all times he possibly could and all the adults in his life would tell him how good he was and how nice all of his drawings were.
He grew up an only child which made school even more like hell for Kyungtae. He was bullied all throughout his childhood not only verbally but he would also often be kicked and punched and this caused him to become closed off. He learned to take the beatings and keep his mouth shut because as long as he kept his mouth shut the verbal abuse wouldn´t happen as much. And it was the insults that had been hurled his way that had hurt Tae the most. He learned to deal with the physical pain but the psychological pain he never learned to deal with. And so he used his ability to deal with the physical pain to shield himself from the psychological pain. However the physical trauma has left him with instability in his left shoulder.
As soon as he turned 19 Kyungtae immediately enlisted for his mandatory military service however he failed his physical exam due to the instability of his left shoulder and so it was decided that he would be exempted from military service.
For a while he drifted around not really knowing what he wanted to do. He didn´t have great grades from school and the only thing he was really good at was drawing. It was 2015 and Kyungtae was 19. The few friends he had from high school were either in university or in the military. And then one day he stumbled upon Seoul Ink Tattoo Studio where he met the owner and founder Kiljun. He took one look at Tae´s drawings and mentioned tattooing as a possible career. To Kyungtae it sounded like a dream come true. Getting to do what he loved for work? Yes please. Kiljun however wasn´t able to take him in as his apprentice and so Kyungtae went looking armed with his drawings. And he met a woman. Kim Jiyeon was her name and she was a pretty established name within the korean underground tattoo scene already. She could she his talent and agreed to take him under her wing as her apprentice. However when his parents heard this they couldn´t believe their ears. Their sweetheart of a son as a tattoo artist? Something illegal? No that couldn´t be. And they couldn´t accept that this was what he wanted to do and so they threw him out and disowned him. And while Kyungtae wasn´t necessarily happy, Jiyeon was once again there to rescue him. She let him stay with her at her apartment until he got back on his feet and when he started making money from actually putting ink in people´s skin he moved out and bought his own apartment.
He was 21 when Jiyeon approached him with a business offer. Until then the two of them had been working separately but she had taught him everything he knew however she had an idea. Start up their own underground tattoo parlor. Kyungtae was in and soon enough the pair opened the doors to Bound By Design. They got a second employee, Jaehyun and within a year their business was doing decently well. But Tae wanted more out of his life. He started applying to universities and even applied to the very prestigious Haebyeon National University, applying for a scholarship. He didn´t expect to make it in but he was one of the lucky few and he got a scholarship, mostly due to his extensive portfolio and obvious talent. Sometimes you´re allowed to be lucky in life.

trivias —
Likes:
// Drawing and generally art
// Spicy food - But please don´t give it to him because he can´t handle the spice. It´s nothing but pain for him but he´ll still eat it because screw the pain.
// Tattoos and tattooing
// Coffee - he´s addicted to caffeine
// Sleeping in - He´s not awake until 10 am even if he´s been up for hours beforehand
// Comfy clothes
// Horror movies
// His "part-time" job
// Dark chocolate
// Salted caramel

Dislikes:
// Bullies
// The cold
// Snow
// The rain
// Tea
// Airplanes and flying - It makes his eyes and nose hurt from the dry air
// Crispy bacon
// White chocolate


Hobbies:
// Drawing - He´s often seen with a pen in his hand and a small book filled with doodles and drawings
// Listening to music - He uses music as a coping mechanism when his shoulder is causing him a lot of pain
// Doing makeup - Typically he keeps it light but he finds makeup to be an artform in and of itself and he enjoys playing around with it from time to time

Habits:
// Touching and playing with his hair
// Drawing on any surface if he has a pen - including his own skin
// Smoking - He´s a smoker

// Moisturizing his tattoos even years after he´s gotten them 

Trivia:
// Has two Instagrams - one for personal posts and one for his tattoo portfolio
// His personal Instagram is @KyungTae_Lee
// His tattoo portfolio Instagram is @LeeTae_Ink - it has 32k followers
// He can cook but he doesn´t like doing it
// He´s a good all around artist but specializes in tattooing realism (in particular portraits) and dolls in b&g (black and grey)
// He has never tattooed himself - all of his tattoos have been made by colleagues
// He runs his business out of an underground tattoo parlour known as Bound By Design of which him and his mentor are the founders
// Bound By Design has an Instagram with 43k followers
// He´s biual
// He sleep on his right side and can´t fall asleep any other way
// His favorite color is black
// He swears a lot
// He uses a black IPhone Xr currently with a custom phone case that has the tattoo he has on his left hand on it (the mouth)
// He has his drivers license but doesn´t own a car. He does own a motorcycle though
// He´s a smoker and smokes pretty heavily
// He doesn´t drink often but when he does he can handle quite a bit (at least for his size being kind of a skinny guy)
// He has to be careful about carrying heavy things with his left arm because of his shoulder
// If he does carry heavy things with his left arm his shoulder will typically dislocate
// He takes prescription painkillers often because his shoulder causes him pain
// His parents are soulmates
// He´s not really a partygoer
// A rumor surrounds him that he´s involved with some shady business because of his tattoos and reserved attitude - He isn´t but people can´t seem to get it into their heads
// Most people around campus have heard of him but don´t really know him

I want you so bad...

soulmate name — Tae Sangmi 대상미

nickname — 
// Mi — It´s just your average nickname made from her name that gets used by her close friends.

birthdate (aGe) — 27/10/98 (21)
 

face claim — Jeon Jiwoo (KARD)

backup face claim — Park Jiwon/E:U (Everglow)

personality — Alert, insightful, curious, independent, innovative, inventive, detached, yet high-strung, intense, eccentric, nihilistic, isolated.
Sangmi wants to find out why things are the way they are. She wants to understand how the world works, whether it is the cosmos, the microscopic world, the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdoms—or the inner world of her imagination. She´s always searching, asking questions, and delving into things in depth. She does not accept received opinions and doctrines, and feels a strong need to test the truth of most assumptions for herself. Behind her relentless pursuit of knowledge are deep insecurities about her ability to function successfully in the world. She feels that she does not have an ability to do things as well as others. But rather than engage directly with activities that might bolster her confidence, Sangmi “takes a step back” into her mind where she feels more capable. Her belief is that from the safety of her mind she will eventually figure out how to do things—and one day rejoin the world. She spends a lot of time observing and contemplating—listening to the sounds of wind or of a synthesizer, or taking notes on the activities in an anthill in her back yard. As she immerses herself in her observations, she begins to internalize her knowledge and gains a feeling of self-confidence. She can then go out and play a piece on the synthesizer or tell people what she knows about ants. She may also stumble across exciting new information or make new creative combinations. When she gets verification of her observations and hypotheses, or see that others understand her work, it is a confirmation of her competency, and this fulfills her. Knowledge, understanding, and insight are thus highly valued by Sangmi, because her identity is built around “having ideas” and being someone who has something unusual and insightful to say. For this reason, she is not interested in exploring what is already familiar and well-established; rather, her attention is drawn to the unusual, the overlooked, the secret, the occult, the bizarre, the fantastic, the “unthinkable.” Investigating "unknown territory"—knowing something that others do not know, or creating something that no one has ever experienced—allows Sangmi to have a niche for herself that no one else occupies. She believes that developing this niche is the best way that she can attain independence and confidence. Thus, for her own security and self-esteem, Sangmi needs to have at least one area in which she has a degree of expertise that allows her to feel capable and connected with the world.

She has developed an intense focus on whatever she can master and feel secure about. This intense focus can thus lead to remarkable discoveries and innovations, but it can also create self-defeating problems. This is because Sangmi´s focus of attention unwittingly serves to distract her from her most pressing practical problems. Whatever the sources of her anxieties may be—relationships, lack of physical strength, inability to gain employment, and so forth—Sangmi tends not to deal with these issues. Rather, she finds something else to do that will make her feel more competent. The irony is that no matter what degree of mastery she develops in her area of expertise, this cannot solve her more basic insecurities about functioning in the world. For better or worse, the areas that Sangmi explores do not depend on social validation; indeed, if others agree with her ideas too readily, she fears that her ideas might be too conventional. However, if she isn´t careful she can become lost in the byzantine complexities of her own thought processes, becoming merely eccentric and socially isolated. Dealing directly with physical matters feels extremely daunting for Sangmi. Thus, much of her time gets spent "collecting" and developing ideas and skills she believes will make her feel confident and prepared. She wants to retain everything that she has learned and “carry it around in her head.” The problem is that while she´s engrossed in this process, she´s not interacting with others or even increasing many other practical and social skills. She devotes more and more time to collecting and attending to her collections, less to anything related to her real needs. Thus, the challenge to Sangmi is to understand that she can pursue whatever questions or problems spark her imaginations and maintain relationships, take proper care of herself, and do all of the things that are the hallmarks of a healthy life.
 

relationship —
History:
Tae has absolutely no idea who Sangmi is. The two have yet to meet at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. However Sangmi knows of Tae. The moment he stepped on campus the first time rumors started up that he was involved in all kinds of shady business and Sangmi immediately recognized the descriptions she heard of his tattoos from the ones that covered her own body. She had religiously been covering them from the moment they appeared on her skin and so the only people that knew of them were her parents and the other Delta sisters. So nobody except Sangmi herself and the Delta sisters that heard about Tae connected the dots that he was her soulmate. She didn´t want people to know. She felt nothing but contempt for this man who obviously cared so little for his soulmate that he wouldn´t have any qualms about covering his body in ink without any regard for his soulmate. She doesn´t really want to meet him. Tae on the other hand would absolutely love to meet his soulmate and longs to find them. He tends to write and doodle on himself, not just to get the attention of his soulmate but just because it´s what he does. However he always secretly hopes that his soulmate will answer him. She did at one point when she wrote in big capital letters "PLEASE STOP WITH THE TATTOOS" after he got the first ones but he´s heard nothing from her since. He doesn´t know Sangmi is his soulmate as of the start of the 2019-2020 school year.
He didn´t learn about her until somewhere during the 2019-2020 school year (I´ll let you guys decide exactly when it fits into the storyline) when he heard hushed whispers amongst the Delta sisters about Sangmi´s soulmate and his tattoos and whew that description certainly sounded a lot like him.

Interactions:
Generally Sangmi very much dislikes Tae and believes him to be a bad person. Tae on the other hand doesn´t know Sangmi is his soulmate and so he has no opinion of her as of the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year.

However in a relationship (both romantic and as friends) Both Sangmi and Tae bring a certain richness and special qualities of aspects of human development. Both are private and like depth, and they do not mind taking time to explore things deeply and to savor the richness of their own experience. They have different interests but they appreciate different perspectives and respect the other's intensity and commitment to following their own feelings and interests. Sangmi brings an inquiring, intellectual temperament, the habit of asking questions and of being interested in a wide variety of things and of being willing to break with old conventions. Tae brings an artistic and emotional temperament, the habit of introspection and sensitivity to feelings in himself and others and contributes an appreciation of aesthetics and of the effect that ideas and discoveries have on people: feelings and unconscious processes are powerful and are not to be taken lightly. Both are extremely creative and both love to share their findings with the other, making stimulating, wide-ranging conversation and open communication a hallmark of a relationship, both in the intensity of their conversation and in the sincere interest they bring to their listening to each other. They both bring a noteworthy sense of humor and love of the bizarre and the outlandish that can give their relationship a quirky and unique character all of its own. This is because they both share an "outsider" status. Sangmi draws Tae out by showing him other worlds and other perspectives, with a depth that he likes. Tae helps Sangmi stay in contact with her personal self and feelings. They have a mutual tolerance for whatever the other comes up with and neither is easily shocked. They generally find each other stimulating and are tolerant of each other's idiosyncrasies. Both inspire creativity in the other and give permission to the other to be themselves and follow their own inspirations.
The greatest area for discord between them would be that Tae is an emotional type and tends to push for more contact and intimacy, sometimes becoming overly demanding, whereas Sangmi is a thinking type and tends to push for more detachment and space in the relationship, sometimes becoming more reclusive and private. Tae sometimes experiences Sangmi as being too intellectual and feel that she´s analyzing him rather than sympathizing with his emotional needs and states. He can sometimes feel that Sangmi´s unavailable and detached, uncaring and unresponsive to his needs in their relationship. On the other hand, Sangmi sometimes sees Tae as a bottomless pit of emotional needs that drain her time and energy. She also feels that Tae´s emotionality reflects a lack of rationality or is a sign of immaturity that seems potentially dangerous and out of control. Tae doesn´t always seem safe because of his apparent instability. He tends to be easily frustrated with the quality of attention he gets from Sangmi (since she can be preoccupied with her mental worlds, not with the relationship), thus he tends to provoke Sangmi until he gets a response. He needs to appreciate the minimalist emotional style of Sangmi, while Sangmi needs to appreciate the Tae´s depth of feeling. A romantic relationships between them would possibly get very intense quickly and combust. Sangmi retreats first, feeling overwhelmed by Tae´s escalating needs and demands. Then Sangmi´s withdrawal triggers more clinging and neediness in Tae, more demands, and more endless analysis of the relationship itself. Emotional florid reactions confronting emotional detachment and rational analysis quickly get to an impasse that may spiral into a breakup.

trivias — 
// She´s a 3rd year undergraduate majoring in marketing with a minor in management and organization
// Doesn´t really know how she feels about soulmates - They exist but she´s unsure if she likes the idea of having a "special someone" who´s meant to be with her
// Literally hates Tae for all of his tattoos and the fact that they´re on her skin as well
// Covers the tattoos on her hands and fingers and the two dots under her eye with makeup every. Single. Day
// ALWAYS wears long sleeves to hide forearm tattoos
// She also covers the neck and collarbone tattoos with makeup whenever she goes out in clothing where they would be seen
// A Delta sorority sister
// All the other Delta girls constantly about the tattoos
// Her family owns a successful marketing company called Impact Marketing commonly known as Impact
// She´s an only child and is therefore the heir to Impact
// Her parents hate Tae for his tattoos and the fact that they´re on Sangmi´s body as well
// Her parents are soulmates

Bye for now

comments/suggestions — I hope you don´t think he´s too old to be an undergraduate uni student. He´s just had other things to do in his life than uni so... Also I really hope you like him. I find him to be a very, very interesting character and I really hope you guys do as well. Also in case it isn´t apparent in the personality section he very much longs to find his soulmate and absolutely very much likes the idea of having that "special someone" out there. Also for the password I honestly went more with a song that I feel describes him but his ACTUAL jam song would probably be WARNING! by DAY6 because this kid is a er for rock.

scene requests — I´m so bad at these...
// Maybe like Tae and his roommates being all awkward around eachother?

password — Clementine by Halsey

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