Jin-hwan Park

[Jin-hwan "Jen" Park]

The Basics

Name: Jin-hwan Park (Hangeul: 박진환)
Nicknames: Jen (by most people), Jinhwannie (by his elder sisters)
Age: Sixteen (December 29th, 1996)
Orientation: Androromantic androsexual (genderqueer)
Desired Rank/Job: Student
Powers: Confection Generation. Jin can use the sugars and compounds in his body to produce various types of candy. Generation can only occur between two closed fingers of either hand (he doesn’t walk around producing syrup from his forehead, fortunately). Consistency of the candy depends on his available resources (glucose level, hydration level) and concentration. Hard candy requires the most concentration and is the most physically draining, as it has the highest sugar content. As a general rule, he can produce about twenty average-sized hard candies before he becomes physically incapacitated. Jin is able to manipulate some naturally-occurring acids in the body to produce artificial flavors, although sometimes his experiments go awry. Since Jin makes candy from glucose instead of sucrose, the candy tastes slightly different than store-bought candy. Unless he uses a candy mold, the syrup he produces dries into odd lumpy shapes (no swirly peppermints here, sorry). Side effects include common symptoms of low blood sugar and dehydration such as dizziness, weakness, headaches, nausea, shaking, and fatigue, as well as the harmless-but-annoying sticky hands.
Play By: Sang-gil Go

The Details

Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Dark brown
Any Piercings? N/A
Any Tattoos? N/A
Any Scars? He has a small scar on his left eyebrow from falling off of a kitchen chair at age four (he was trying to reach the cookie jar on top of the fridge). It's somewhat obvious – the scar tissue interrupts a small portion of hair at the end of his otherwise healthy, well-groomed eyebrows – but he usually fills it in with a makeup pencil.
General Appearance: Jin-hwan has thick, naturally straight, shoulder-length black hair. He often sweeps it into a half-ponytail for the sake of convenience; even the smallest strand tickling his face will break his concentration, and Jin-hwan is very serious about concentrating. He has full lips and a small, slightly flat nose. His jawline is somewhat effeminate and lacking in prominence; when he was younger, he was often mistaken for a girl, especially in the company of his elder sisters.

Of particular interest are his eyes, which, when unaltered, are shapely but small. As a child growing up in Los Angeles (and the only one of his siblings to be born in the United States), he felt growing resentment at not having double eyelids like the majority of his grade-school peers. As a pre-teen, he began experimenting with his oldest sister’s makeup in an attempt to make his eyes appear bigger. His mother, however, was horrified – boys don’t wear makeup, after all – and quickly forbade him from touching a kohl pencil. After he found himself in the relative safety of the Hammel Institute, he reinstated the old practice, but with more finesse than before. Now, he regularly wears double eyelid tape to get his desired look – sister’s eyeliner not required.

Jin stands around 5’8” at full height, although he’s not done growing quite yet. He has a fragile, spindly appearance, which is exaggerated by his affinity for wearing tight pants with high-topped boots and baggy cardigans. His wardrobe consists almost completely of neutral colors, and one might understandably be amazed at his ability to make at least one hundred unique outfits using only black, grey, white, and brown. It could fairly be said that he does this to avoid standing out, though his propensity to over-accessorize generally negates this.

When the mood strikes him, he wears one of several pair of non-prescription glasses. The lenses inside of them provide neither help nor harm, being only regular glass, because his vision is perfect in both eyes. When asked, however, he won’t admit to this – he’s much more likely to make up a hasty story about reading glasses and contacts than he is to admit his vanity.


Personality: Many of Jin’s most prominent traits stem from being the youngest child in a competitive family. He learned early not to expect a lot of first-hand items – the majority of his toys, books, CDs, and DVDs were handed down to him. His interests, however passionate, were effectively drowned out by the accomplishments of his elder sisters. The result was a fierce determination to succeed that rivals even the most studious of his peers; indeed, it might fairly be said that Jin tries too hard, although never to his face. Contrary to the popular stereotype of the spoiled younger sibling, Jin-hwan is marvelously efficient at simple household chores and, if left to his own devices, is also perfectly capable of entertaining himself without outside assistance. His sisters made a lot of mistakes in life, and Jin did them the courtesy of learning from them without making too much of a mess himself. First impressions might indicate that he’s very mature for his age, which is true…. Closer inspection, though, will reveal the sting of resentment at being constantly overlooked and a rather short temper for someone who looks so utterly harmless.

Ever the perfectionist, Jin-hwan is constantly reading and re-reading everything from schoolwork to personal projects in hot pursuit of pesky errors. On one hand, it’s been a blessing for him; his dream is to go to New York to study graphic design, and his nitpicky nature enables him to tweak his work unflinchingly. He has a good eye for both color and presentation. It’s not uncommon to catch him reading fashion magazines solely to look at the advertisements – he’s probably one of the only sixteen-year-olds around who finds typography fascinating.

On the other hand, though, he does have a tendency to micromanage the work of others. This often-unwelcome extension of his own discerning personal standard means that he has very little tact – if he doesn’t like something, he’ll say so, and he won’t bother to sugar-coat (ha!) the matter. He doesn’t mean to be mean, of course; really, his heart is in the right place almost all of the time. It’s just that he needs things to be right, and if he has to bruise a few egos to achieve his goal, so be it. He might regret it later, but in the heat of the moment, feelings are only collateral damage.

He’s in search of the perfect world, and sometimes feels as though the responsibility for creating it rests solely on his scrawny shoulders.

Although many things about him could be considered unusual, Jin-hwan is deeply traditional in a lot of important ways. As the only one in his entire family to be born in America, the nature of his upbringing is often at odds with the nature of his present existence. Even though he speaks much better English than Korean and is more likely to be caught eating a cheeseburger than a bowl of kimchi, he is acutely aware of social differences between himself and others. Because of this, some people might find him unusually polite or unpleasantly distant. He is unfailingly respectful to his seniors, a fact that might unnerve someone who is used to dealing with rowdier adolescents. And then there’s his world-wise sensibility – the practical and careful method by which he lives his entire life – which makes him seem more like a penny-pinching old lady instead of a sixteen-year-old boy.

Overall, though, Jin is approachable and almost always friendly, under the right circumstances. He’s neither talkative nor solemn, and has a healthy level of tolerance for most people, provided they aren’t too stupid. Complimenting his outfit is sure to win you a few points, and complimenting his eyes… well, that might earn you a smile.

Your Vices

Likes:

• Science (chemistry especially)
  
• Organization
• Reality television
• K-Dramas
• Manhwa
• Cats
• Snow
• Mountains
• Shrimp crackers
• Thrift stores
• Handheld video games
• Dark and neutral colors
• Soccer (watching, not playing)
• Fashion
• Graphic design
• Mandarin oranges

Dislikes: 

• "Oh my God, are you Japanese?! Ko-nee-chee-wa!"
• Pickled radishes
• People who call instead of text
• Sand
• Temperatures over 85°F
• Dancing
• His eyes
• Bright colors (super tacky!)
• Loud noises
• Loud people, with exceptions
• Chewing gum
• Milk
• Lazy adults
• Bad kerning
• Cooking

Strengths: 

• Chemistry. Jin’s affinity for science, and chemistry in particular, largely has to do with his ability. He has a very analytical mind and finds himself adhering to the scientific method almost instinctively. He loves experiments, too, although he doesn’t like to publicize the fact due to the large potential for failure. (If he makes a really disgusting candy, he’ll eat it anyway, just to know that he successfully destroyed the evidence.)
• Beauty. Appearance is everything to Jin-hwan, and this is evident in everything from the way he dresses himself to the careful exactness of his handwriting. He might not like to wear bright colors – he doesn’t like to think of himself as a walking advertisement – but he knows how to work with them. If you need help with anything from making a cover letter to dressing for a date, Jin-hwan is a good person to consult.
  
• Critical Thinking. Jin is detail oriented and a ruthless problem-solver. This trait has both simple and complex effects: he’s wonderful at puzzles, and equally wonderful at having very uncomfortable conversations in which other people’s motives are on the line. It’s usually an asset, but it occasionally gets him into trouble – either way, he can think his way out of a hole in the ground.
• Emotional Intelligence. Jin-hwan became a good listener somewhat against his will; it’s incredibly difficult to not be a good listener with two loquacious older sisters. His experience has made him very perceptive, and he can almost always read a situation accurately. Whether or not he does anything about it, though… well, it depends on the situation.
• Self-Control. Jin is a very disciplined individual. He doesn’t spend money that he doesn’t need to spend, eats at very regular intervals, and always does his homework before he watches television. Playing before working doesn’t make any sense to him, and he’s a little resentful of people who do it.

Weaknesses:

• Vanity. If Jin-hwan had less than half an hour to get dressed in the morning, it’s best to just avoid him for the rest of the day. He probably won’t be great company.
  
• Obsession/Compulsion. Jin is both neat and a perfectionist, although this has more to do with his personality than with OCD. His obsessions – the real, unhealthy ones – revolve more around his self-image, and greatly affect how he presents himself in social situations. Since he has a very active mind, he is more prone to intrusive, disturbing thoughts than the average person. It especially affects him in moments of quiet, and so he tries his best to keep busy at all hours of the day – until he collapses from exhaustion.
• Insecurity. This is the real root of Jin’s temper. Since he has a rocky relationship with his mother and was frequently passed over in favor of his sisters, he often feels a need to prove himself. This can surface at inopportune times, such as vulnerable moments like dates or serious conversations.
• Cynicism. Jin-hwan is permanently skeptical, especially of perpetually-happy people. It’s a quiet skepticism, of course, because he’ll do anything to avoid making a scene. If you were to ask him, he’d doubtlessly tell you that all people were ultimately concerned with their own benefit. It is this mentality that drives him to be concerned with his own benefit, first and foremost, before he thinks about anyone else. (There exist, of course, rare exceptions.)
  
• Distance. Jin has friends, but he has a little trouble with the idea of best friends (although he has them anyway – some people just kind of stick). He also has a difficult relationship with the concept of romance, and so tries to avoid the idea as though it were a pit of molten lava. The idea of getting too attached to any one person really bothers him; he doesn’t want to think of himself as needy. Breaking through his walls certainly takes persistence, although what can be found on the other side is likely well worth the effort.

Fears: 

• Aging / Dying
• Failing to realize his dream
• Guns

Secret: He has begged his mother to let him have blepharoplasty (double eyelid surgery) over the years. She has repeatedly denied. He puts half of his allowance per month in the bank, and plans to have the procedure done with his savings as soon as he turns legal. 

Family Ties

Father: Min-ho Park (deceased - b.1965 d.2005).

Mother: Si-yeon Park (44).

Siblings: Ji-sun Park (24). Ha-neul Park (21).

Any Other Important People: David Myers (16). Childhood best friend, although he and Jin-hwan no longer speak.

History

It was December 29th, 1996.

The temperature in Los Angeles was a balmy, overcast 63°, which didn’t matter, because the Park family had been inside all day. The temperature in the maternity ward waiting room at Cedars-Sinai was a nice and neutral 72°, but the hairs still rose on Min-ho’s arms. The peaceful eggshell-green color on the walls and the appealing paintings, no doubt placed by some well-paid interior designer, did little to soothe his inner turmoil.

It had taken far too long. Soon, he would run out of things to tell his daughters, five and seven. Worry rose inside of him and licked at the back of his throat like fire, but he dared not let it show on his face.

The temperature in the delivery room was pain. Si-yeon’s due date wasn’t for another two months, but she’d been rushed to the hospital when the convulsions had started. There was a crowd of blue-clad professionals around the bed, their serious expressions hidden by surgical masks. Their gloved hands were a blur of needle-priming and rigid, efficient teamwork. There was a mask over her face.

She slept.

Min-ho had never loved a woman other than Si-yeon, although when he saw the frumpy middle-aged nurse emerge from the surgery with her mask around her neck to reveal her relieved smile, he came very close. She said that mother and baby would need to be kept for some time. He said okay. He asked her if he could take his daughters to see their brother.

She led him to the neonatal intensive care unit.

As a Buddhist, Min-ho didn’t believe in miracles. He was a firm subscriber to the idea that the good things you did in life came full-circle – one reaped what one sowed, as the saying went. He’d built his life, and his family’s lives, on that principle. It had made him very successful in business. He carefully studied the baby’s impossibly tiny pink hands – even the girls hadn’t been so small when they were born.

He took one fleeting moment to wipe at his eye while his raven-haired daughters peered into the incubator with wonder and wondered himself, with a love so intense that it made his chest hurt, what he had ever done in his life so well to deserve something as wonderful, as precious, as beautiful as Jin-hwan.



Forward…



It was May 3rd, 2001.

The playroom had been decorated in a princess scheme from top to bottom before Jin-hwan had been born, and he didn’t mind. His sisters amused themselves endlessly playing with his long hair, which his mother only tolerated because he screamed like a four-year-old banshee every time someone got near him with scissors. His childhood was largely composed of tiaras and sparkles and plays written by his sisters which featured him as the female lead.

He never minded – it felt natural and fun. It never occurred to him that he could mind, until the day that his mother had come in with the groceries with that look on her face. It was the first time his mother ever slapped him. His eyes, which Ha-neul had said were very small and ugly and he believed her because Ha-neul had never lied to him, were the widest they had ever been.

Not nearly as wide, though, as his mother’s had been, when their well-meaning neighbor had congratulated her on raising ‘three beautiful daughters.’



Forward…



It was March 15th, 2005.

Night had all but fallen, and Jin-hwan was the only student left at hapkido practice. This was very distressing to him, because everyone knew that hapkido practice ended promptly at six-thirty, and his mother was never late. The instructor, a kindly man named Greg in his late sixties, asked for Jin-hwan’s house phone number.

But there was no answer.

That night, he picked at the end of his red belt so much that the end began to unravel. Eventually, Greg took pity on him – or maybe he took pity on himself – and offered to drive Jin home. It was a relatively short drive through the heart of the city. Jin remembered the pink tinge in the sky and the exact way that it had faded into cornflower blue, like a gradient, which was a word he had just learned, behind the black silhouettes of the palm trees.

He also remembered, forever, the flash of the blue lights in front of his house against that gradient sky. They made the family home look harsh and unwelcoming, like a bad, jarring carnival ride. The neighbors were outside. His sisters were in the driveway. His mother, her eyes puffy and small in the strobe-like lights, talked to Greg instead of him.

He spent the night at Greg’s house that night, and never set foot in the old house again. Ji-sun had told him, a few weeks later as they sat in their new shared bedroom amongst piles of boxes in the dark, that their father had blown his brains all over the living room wall because the accusations of embezzlement had made him ashamed.



Forward…



It was October 31st, 2007.

Jin-hwan was angrier with his mother than he had ever been, and the feeling was definitely mutual. His Halloween costume – Jack Skellington, from the Nightmare Before Christmas, which his mother had never seen – lay strewn across the living room floor, where it had been angrily hurled at different points during the argument.

No matter what she said, he wasn’t going to take off the eyeliner. He wasn’t. It was smeared now, not much more than a grey-black smudge above his wet cheeks. His voice was hoarse from the crying and screaming.

But he wasn’t going to take it off. He wasn’t.

His friend David had invited him to spend the night that night, but his mother had refused to take him as long as there was makeup on his face. It was a standoff several years in the making; his ten-year-old defiance, largely unprepared, managed to hold its own against years of cultural conditioning that his mother had received long before he’d made his debut in the universe.

You are not the son I raised, she said.

Good! he shouted.

And he spent the rest of the night in his room alone, his mother’s words echoing in his skull. Something steeled inside of him, then, something irreversible and deeply rooted. He thought about his friend David, his best friend, the one person he probably loved most in the entire world. He thought of his mother, and all of his mother’s commands, and how much he hated the control, and the scolding. He hated hapkido and he hated piano, he hated his tiny eyes and he hated the fact that his sisters could wear eyeliner and form-fitting clothes but he could not.

Most of all, in that moment – the first of many – he hated his mother, and he was sure that his mother hated him right back.



Forward…



It was January 5th, 2009.

He was holding David’s hand. It had been a recent development in their friendship, a largely unspoken progression of their innocent affection for one another. They led each other around this way, in the lunchroom, at recess, and even on the way home, although only where Jin-hwan’s mother couldn’t see. David’s mother was very nice – she didn’t mind. When Jin visited David’s house to do his homework and eat snacks, she didn’t scold them at all.

It happened very suddenly. He hadn’t even realized.

What’s on your hand?

The boys untangled their fingers, and Jin-hwan inspected his hand critically. It was sticky. He pursed his lips. He hated having sticky hands.

I don’t know.

He wiped the mysterious syrupy liquid onto his pants, where it dried instantly in dark streaks like clear nail polish. He ignored it and laced his fingers with David’s again.



Forward…



It was January 18th, 2009.

His mother was way too visibly excited about the entire thing, in his opinion. There was a gleam in her eye that he was having trouble identifying, but he knew that he didn’t like it. The man, though… he seemed nice, and his offer seemed nicer. Jin looked past him and out of the window, where the city bustled in the distance.

He’d never really liked it, anyway.

He packed his things that night and was ready to go by morning. His mother cried; he was pretty sure that in English, they were called crocodile tears. She told him that she would miss him.

He pretended that he would miss her, too.



Forward…



It was December 29th, 2012.

It was the first time in a long time that he’d thought of David. He’d been flipping through the latest issue of Vogue, and the model in the glossy center spread had the exact same hair color. It was fake, of course; he’d never seen that color naturally on anyone except David, the shining peach-gold that he still remembered after years and years.

He tossed the magazine aside and sighed heavily. He slid one long, slender leg off of his computer desk and pulled himself upright. He leaned toward the full-length mirror on his wall and began pulling at his eyelids with his ring finger. The sprawling Hammel grounds were visible over his shoulders, mountainous and white.

He was sixteen today, but he felt fifty-five.

Still, the day was young – he reasoned, as he let his hand fall back to his side, that he could possibly work up to feeling seventy by nightfall. He made faces in the mirror, mostly to amuse himself, but also for want of anything better to do.

Then he stopped, because he didn’t like the way they made his eyes look.

Ha-neul had called, but his mother hadn’t. He didn’t mind. He’d been invited to the movies in the evening, and he was planning to wear a little eyeliner for the first time since the Halloween he was ten.



Forward…

Roleplay Example

Amos Freeman

Wren O'Hara

What About You?

Name: Kelly
Age: 22
Experience: Satisfactorily Experienced Thank You Very Much
How Did You Find Us? RPG-D
Ready To Play? Please forgive me. I'm so sorry.

[Dryope *]

ACCEPTED!

Fantastic!