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• • • background/history
trigger warning!!

► playing : “ my life - mark tuan”

Ryung’s life was more that of a trainee rather than a regular kid but what do you expect when your mother is the infamous Hak Gyeowool, choreographer to the greats. She wasn’t very motherly, and instead treated her children like she would her clients. They didn’t really have any choice in any matter. They were placed in dance and would be dancers, that was it. There wasn’t any other option. She had a reputation and her children would uphold it. Much like everything in her professional life, her children had to be perfect.

They followed life on a routine. When Ryung was at home, his free-time was spent dancing and practicing, thanks to his mother barking orders, and he attended a dance academy for schooling, so he was entirely surrounded by dance. Ryung and his sisters lived and breathed dance and that was it. Their mother was exceptionally hard on them and didn’t have time to actually be a parent. She was a Choreographer and coach and that was her role in their lives too, a dictator parent.

It seemed like Ryung could do no right in her eyes. He was the only son and she had big plans for him. His sisters were amazing from the get go, practically child proteges but Ryung wasn’t nearly as fantastic as they and his mother reminded him constantly. Your worth was how successful you were and Ryung was barely worth her time. He was forced to only practice all the time, and missed out on a normal childhood, like his siblings. Ryung spent a lot of time working himself to the bone just for one smile from his mother, one nod of approval would do it for him, but nothing.

Ryung would then cry to his older sister Dal, who always tried her best to cheer him up. Dal was pretty much his rock and his real mother. She hated their mom and always fought back with her. But, Dal’s saving grace was her natural ability to pick up choreography and perfect it like she was breathing. Gyeowool wouldn’t get nearly as angry with Dal because of this reason, and always tried to compare them. Even his baby sister was better than him, and had the attitude to match, and Gyeowool constantly put him down because of this. It wasn’t like Ryung was actually bad at dancing, on the contrary, he was amazing, absolutely breathtakingly phenomenal but his mother was such a tough critic. He always did well in routines at the academy, earning himself the attention and envy of other students, and yet that still wasn’t enough for Gyeowool. To her, Ryung could always do better, he could always practice more. He should be more like his sisters because right now, he was just a failure like his father - yet another one of her exe-husbands who Ryung doesn’t even remember.

Ryung saw many people come and go in his lifetime, mainly father-figures. Gyeowool had various exe-husbands that couldn’t meet her standards. No one was good enough for her, and she made that quite known. The only person that stuck for a while was mr. Lee. Mr Lee was nice enough, if not serious, but a polite man. He had an older son, LEE BYEONGCHEOL who was his prize. Ryung was enamored with Byeongcheol from the get-go because he’d never had a brother before and Byeongcheol was so good at everything. He tried to connect with the older boy to no avail. Byeongcheol didn’t want to hang out with little kids, or someone several years younger than himself, and to him Ryung was annoying.

Byeongcheol and Dal fought a lot because they’re both hard-headed but for the most part, she would always tell Ryung Byeongcheol was a good guy, a good person, just stubborn. It was also a plus in both of their eyes that Byeongcheol hated their mom and told her so often, always disrespecting her and pushing back until he was reprimanded by his father. That never stopped Byeongcheol though, he always was out to get their evil witch of a mother.

As Ryung got older, he tried his best to do everything to impress his mother. He wanted to be just as amazing, if not more than his sisters, but he always seemed too far away from that goal. It was nearly impossible to earn their mother’s respect and Ryung doubted that he could even do so. Although, instead of earning the respect and admiration of his mother, Ryung found that in someone else - a fellow student at the academy. When he was fifteen, Ryung was considered a star by academy standards, and that meant he had a lot of rivals and admirers alike. One of those admirers was a boy from his class.

Ryung never really cared about crushes or relationships, he was too busy focusing on everything else in his life. His sister though was secretly dating, and would tell Ryung about it, but other than that, he didn’t really know anything about relationships. That all changed when the boy in his class approached him after school and told about his crush on Ryung. Before, he never considered himself a certain way, but to be fair, he never felt an attraction towards anyone. It took the boy confessing to him and agreeing to date him to realize he was gay. Then everything kind of made sense. Why he had a pull towards other males and didn’t really feel much for females.

He decided to tell his sister about the discovery and of course, Dal being the best person in his life, accepted him with open arms. She was happy that Ryung was trying to date around, and was showing interest in someone. No matter what, she just wanted Ryung happy. For once maybe he could focus on something else rather than his toxic relationship with his mother. Soon after, Dal’s own relationship got pretty serious and she introduced the guy to the family. Ryung was cool with him, but his mother wasn’t impressed, which, no surprise there. She forbid Dal from dating a ‘loser’ in her own words, but Dal refused to break up with her boyfriend. And much to all of their surprise, even Byeongcheol stood up for Dalrae.

Gyeowool was furious that they all stood against her, except for the youngest, her golden child Geuroo, who was always on their mother’s side (the little -up). That was the last straw, and Gyeowool demanded that Byeongcheol leave their home. Of course, Mr. Lee was furious at Gyeowool for trying to kick out his son so the couple soon divorced and Byeongcheol and Mr. Lee moved out. Dalrae, on the other hand, was pressured even more to break up with her boyfriend but she again, refused to do so and soon had a court-house wedding and left, moving in with her new husband. That left Byeongcheol and Geuroo under Gyeowool’s roof.

Without Dalrae there, life got much worse for Ryung. Gyeowool felt betrayed by her eldest child and quickly disowned her, trying to make her other kids cut off all contact with Dal, but Ryung still talked to her in secret. Gyeowool took everything out on Ryung and he quickly started to drown under the pressure. His newfound relationship suffered, and his boyfriend broke up with him, and Geuroo got even more talented, basking in the praise and attention of their mother. Geuroo was the perfect child, and one of the banes of Ryung’s existence. She was a bratty little mean girl, the princess of her class and of their mother’s heart. She was a demon. Despite the huge between them, Geuroo made snide comments to Ryung and constantly put him down as a loser.

“She’ll be something someday, my greatest creation. My most prized production” his mother would say so fondly, and Ryung ached so badly for some of that attention on himself. He worked extra hard to impress her, taking on more practice and barely sleeping and yet, nothing. He still wasn’t good enough to her. Ryung got attention from the boys in school, and secretly had a few boyfriends from fifteen to seventeen but that all changed when his mother one day found out. During ‘practice’ at their private studio in Ryung’s home, his mother walked in on Ryung and his newest boyfriend making out and she was beyond horrified.

Ryung had never seen his mother so angry in his life, even moreso than the situation with Byeongcheol, or Dalrae marrying her boyfriend without inviting her mom. She flipped out, cursing them out, throwing around the room, and kicking the kid out. She then Ryung and the look of disgust in her eyes was one that he can never forget. It was only a month until his eighteenth birthday and she disowned him right then and there, slapping him across the face and uttering horrible insults and Ryung was destroyed.

She didn’t wait for him to get his things, she just physically yanked him to the door and kicked him out, telling him to never ever come back. She let everything out, all her hatred and displeasure, telling Ryung he was a disgrace. He’d never be anything, and she’d blacklist him from the industry. No child of hers would be gay.

Ryung went straight to his sister's place and broke down. Dalrae held him throughout the entire night and promised to never leave him. The next day, Ryung found out that his mother had removed him from the dance academy, from everything, even her own studio and Ryung had no choice but to finish high school at a local public school.

It was horrible, absolutely horrible. Everything he’d known was gone. Yeah, he hated his mom, but that was still his family. Now he was no longer considered such. It hurt so badly, but Ryung was thankful for Dal being there for him. He tried to get himself back on his feet at her place, going to his new school, and taking on part-time jobs to make money and help out the struggling couple.

Neither of them were making very much money, and Dal couldn’t afford to go to college after giving up dance and being black listed by their mom, just like Ryung. So they each had to work full time in order to make ends meet. Ryung couldn’t shake the feeling of needing to dance. His life had been all about it from the day he could walk, and suddenly he wasn’t doing it every day and it felt wrong. He felt lost. What was his purpose if he couldn’t dance? Thanks to their mom, he couldn’t apply anywhere despite his credible record and awards. He was successfully blocked out from the world of performing arts.

Ryung pushed those thoughts to the side for the next two years and focused on surviving. That was until his brother-in-law nailed a great job. The only issue was that it was all the way in Ulsan, about four hours from Seoul. Dalrae insisted that Ryung move with them, but he felt torn. On one hand, he loved his sister and living with her was great, but on the other, he didn’t want to intrude in their lives forever. He needed to do something, make something of himself. So Ryung declined the offer, and told his sister he’d try to find a roommate or something and stay in Seoul. Much to his surprise, Dalrae had plans for him. She’d already contacted their exe step-brother and Ryung could stay there with him in Seoul. Ryung was shocked, he hadn’t seen Byeongcheol in years and he didn’t know that he and Dal stayed in contact. But she insisted it would be good for the both of them.

So Ryung gave in and contacted Byeongcheol about moving in. Turns out that he had owed her a favor and this was it. He would let Ryung stay with him until he found his own path. So Dalrae and her husband moved to Ulsan and Ryung moved in with Byeongcheol. It was awkward, to say the least. He didn’t really know him and they felt like weird roommates. Byeongcheol likes to keep to himself and his schedules and Ryung learned he was an overachieving type. Byeongcheol had finished university and was now working at some entertainment company, Ryung soon found out. They hadn’t had much heart to hearts or even personal chats at all because Byeongcheol didn’t seem like the type who liked being personal with others so Ryung tried to keep out of his way for the most part, only interacting with him when they were both off and at home.

It took months into their arrangement for Byeongcheol to find out exactly why Ryung was living with him, about being disowned. Ryung was so worried that if he told Byeongcheol the truth that he’d kick him out, but Byeongcheol was surprisingly not like that at all. Instead, he told Ryung that his mom was bull and the whole ‘blacklisting’ was insane. Since they both hated Gyeowool, Byeongcheol gave Ryung a chance to get her back and get back to doing what he knew best. He extended Ryung an audition to Jellyfish, telling him that Ryung could only get accepted into the trainee program by his own merits and he wouldn’t help him any further, because he wouldn’t play favorites as a professional. Well, that was all Ryung needed. One last chance was everything. Jellyfish was the only place that would possibly accept him, and Ryung needed it like he needed air. That last chance helped him to finally make it back into the doors of the entertainment world.  

• • • LOVE INTEREST. 



fULL NAME. open!
BIRTHDATE. here
OCCUPATION. here

FACECLAIM. here

PERSONALITY. here

FIRST MEETING/BACKGROUND. here

DEVELOPMENT/LOVE STORY. check cheatsheet

ENDING. here
STATUS. check cheatsheet

TRIVIA. optional

BACKUP LOVE INTEREST. check cheatsheet