NAME: Jinhwan Marion Kim
D.O.B.: February 7, 1994
TRAITS: 155cm & / 5'1 &
HOMETOWN: Elsdorf, Germany
RESIDENCE: Itaewon, Seoul
OCCUPATION: Owner and Operator of Rock Star Wishes.
D.O.B.: February 7, 1994
TRAITS: 155cm & / 5'1 &
HOMETOWN: Elsdorf, Germany
RESIDENCE: Itaewon, Seoul
OCCUPATION: Owner and Operator of Rock Star Wishes.
that bomb shell moon in yet another lovely dress
Jinhwan's whole life has been dirty. Born to compatriots living in Germany to manage work that could provide for them and their children, Jinhwan knew only two things in life: hard work and getting by. Whether papa was coming home covered in grime or mama was coming home just to cook then sleep until her next shift at he hospital, things were never the simple relax of storybook childhood. But he had Quinton and, by the time memories began to collect he had Alfons, so what was the problem with parents who had to work harder than necessary just to scrap on by? Even the troublesome nature of the middle child came in short waves; tantrums as an infant, wanting to cling to his broken toys and torn up shirts as a child, life as a little collection of glass moments that were built to catch the light and glow even long after they'd passed away from him.
It was the secret moments that glowed best. The sneaking into their parents room to see the taste of lipstick, testing pencils on his skin, mocking the way their mother walked through one spray of her perfume into the air just to see if he could match her sent. They were simple secrets that he tried hard to keep under wraps, quick minutes of walking in heels, quick borrows of trying to add mascara before learning how hard it was to clear off completely. If all of Marion's little life in a small town was built around the menagerie of moments people strung together than his red crystal days were those stolen treasures where he could embrace a mother who was not there for the right answers and questions in his life.
But as three boys, life was also a kind of preordained strand to follow along. Every year got one year closer to being of age enough to work with their father underground. The dirt was nice, anyway, the old plants in their garden, the way grains of ground swirled in the palm and in the wet rain made mud, in the dry summer made quick ninja dust get-aways. Imagination had made it fun, a kind of thrilling fun that kept broken toys alive on odd days. Even with friends playing beach soccer was more fun than just sitting around or rushing to an arcade. For better or worse, Jinhwan was of the earth through and through. So, thirteen came and work was easy, a part time job working at a local feinkost for a few hours a day. And fifteen, it came much sooner, a swift two years before he was joining his older brother and his father working at the Hambach Mine digging through ages and leagues of soil.
Things turned out pretty well in the underground, though. Beneath ground level there was a whole new place to be. The secrets of his growing up were still there, not nearly as secret as he had ever imagined they were, but they seemed to suddenly go hand in hand with the work he got to do. Work of men, really, hammering away at ground older than he could imagine and making something of it all. He was able to sing his days away, able to work with his brother and catch sight of his father here and there, making friends with men older, his age, broader, taller; they were almost on a kind of standing ground together buried beneath the dirt. For better or worse it was a good thing, a kind turn of years that was put to an abrupt shift in gears.
Sixteen came difficult. It was late in the spring when Marion was out drinking and celebrating his still new ways of being able to get beer legally through the streets. Like everyone else: he was finally able to chant his way out of a bar and carry a bottle on his way back home. The taste was bitter and sweet on his tongue, the nights were captivating in their star dust, and the company was usually pretty fun. Even when he was out alone it was fun, except the secrets of his habits weren't lost on the world and it came to him in hard twist of reality.
The only dirt that has never felt kind was that, the dark alley as grimy hands pushed his face against a wall and his eyes could only focus on brick and garbage littering the ground around him. He tried hard to tune it out, to ignore the whispers of how small and pretty he was, like a girl, a pretty girl, but the stench of alcohol and the sound of the voice made too much sense. He was able to say it, clearly and sure even with a mind addled by cheap beer: Dieter, stop! It was enough, in some blessed way, and the fellow miner ran from the alley to get home. Marion went on his way, not telling a soul about it, taking the next day off as ill to try to cope. It was while Alfons was in class that Dieter came over, shamed and terrified that Marion was about to tell the whole town, have him arrested or worse — to tell everyone he wanted to screw a boy.
Secrets would be safe. For a price, he promised, a new kind of power and strength riding him high on insanity. Marion doesn't remember much of the original deal but he does remember when his hands came out of Dieter's pants sticky and the new sweater he had delivered to his house the next day. It began a little cycle, confused boy finding himself and little boy able to gather himself more secrets. Dieter became his closest friend in a way, the person who knew the most intimate truths of his through and through and in that way, he became confidant and protector. Because Marion did understand how small and pretty he was, how people would want to pick on him as he aged, how other men might not just be drunk, confused and stupid.
Things felt safe, for a couple of years. Good was too big a word for the work and labor going into things, for secrets dripping underneath his skin like the dirt caught under his fingernails most weeks. It was a little into his 18th year of living that the real curve of life came to be. The cave in was unexpected; of course all precautions had been taken for ages but digging that deep into the earth, it wasn't right or easy anymore. Side by side with his brother as they worked best the Kim siblings came under the crumble. The boom of it echoed far and loud, a sudden collapse, but the ground worked itself around them so suddenly that it was hard to explain to anyone what happened. Even as their baby brother was there to try and get to them, the ground was working for them so that when they managed to break through the rubble to get down to the siblings, they were both safe from harm.
Needless to say, work stopped. Not forever, not even for a long enough time to harm most of the workers beyond a week or so of discomfort. But Quinton and Marion weren't going to get cleared for work for too long. It would hinder their supplement finances from Korea to be out of work that long and that was just as normal injured parties. The boys were different, though. It started small, subtle, when there were flash reminders of how they all felt about the collapse. The three brothers together remembering at once did the most damage, the backyard suddenly a sinkhole before it sucked itself into solid ground again or the concrete of the buildings around them bending away like space was necessary before it rebounded.
Unnatural, absurd, insane things. Illusions from alcohol and illness, no doubt, until they were contacted by the Safe Haven in Cologne and told about their gifts. Told they had to train, to learn what was happening. They stayed as long as they could there, trying to get from Cologne to home with safety, with new understanding so they wouldn't screw the world around them, but it became hard. Money was tight and trouble came in their citizenship; without working the mines they had no reason to be there, healthy Korean males. So, the hard decision came then, a return to a home they didn't actually know beyond language and stories. But it was what had to be done, what was necessary, and three brothers tangled in one another could do that much for each other.
Arriving in Korea was as different as stepping onto a mountain top after being caught leagues beneath sea level already. There were no hard machines, no coal to dig at, no work they understood. And their names changed, to alterations that they hadn't really been used to before: Jinhwan. It felt odd on his tongue, a strange thing, but he accepted it. Because they had room and board and, eventually, they could find work. Their training was top priority for the first few weeks, but adventure was always close behind. Stumbling upon a fox friend who fell into their hole, trying to get into Seoul to find work with their odd accents and foreign tempers. But the city was alive and bright and stranger than anything they'd had before and eventually, Jinhwan fell in love.
That love is what gave Jinhwan back a better power than turning dirt into crystals and feeling their strength. It was on the streets of Seoul that he found a crowd to follow in his awkward, tiny way, stumbling into a club in Itaewon that woke him to the possibilities. A pretty boy, the manager had said, could make some money with the sway he was putting out on the dance floor without trying. Not all the words made sense, foreign on his still adjusting to Korean tongue, but it didn't take long for Jinnie to be born: a dress and some heels, makeup and wig adorned to be someone else on stage, coming away with money and chances. Chances like cash gifts, like a car he got to drive back to Safe Haven with the exaltation of how generous some people could be! Even with his secret hardly staying secret for long, it was the kind of duality in life that Jinhwan enjoyed; a place where he was both himself, quiet and hard working, and someone better, someone warmer and softer and more in charge.
Hardly a great life, but layered in top soil and rich earth underneath all the same.
It was the secret moments that glowed best. The sneaking into their parents room to see the taste of lipstick, testing pencils on his skin, mocking the way their mother walked through one spray of her perfume into the air just to see if he could match her sent. They were simple secrets that he tried hard to keep under wraps, quick minutes of walking in heels, quick borrows of trying to add mascara before learning how hard it was to clear off completely. If all of Marion's little life in a small town was built around the menagerie of moments people strung together than his red crystal days were those stolen treasures where he could embrace a mother who was not there for the right answers and questions in his life.
But as three boys, life was also a kind of preordained strand to follow along. Every year got one year closer to being of age enough to work with their father underground. The dirt was nice, anyway, the old plants in their garden, the way grains of ground swirled in the palm and in the wet rain made mud, in the dry summer made quick ninja dust get-aways. Imagination had made it fun, a kind of thrilling fun that kept broken toys alive on odd days. Even with friends playing beach soccer was more fun than just sitting around or rushing to an arcade. For better or worse, Jinhwan was of the earth through and through. So, thirteen came and work was easy, a part time job working at a local feinkost for a few hours a day. And fifteen, it came much sooner, a swift two years before he was joining his older brother and his father working at the Hambach Mine digging through ages and leagues of soil.
Things turned out pretty well in the underground, though. Beneath ground level there was a whole new place to be. The secrets of his growing up were still there, not nearly as secret as he had ever imagined they were, but they seemed to suddenly go hand in hand with the work he got to do. Work of men, really, hammering away at ground older than he could imagine and making something of it all. He was able to sing his days away, able to work with his brother and catch sight of his father here and there, making friends with men older, his age, broader, taller; they were almost on a kind of standing ground together buried beneath the dirt. For better or worse it was a good thing, a kind turn of years that was put to an abrupt shift in gears.
Sixteen came difficult. It was late in the spring when Marion was out drinking and celebrating his still new ways of being able to get beer legally through the streets. Like everyone else: he was finally able to chant his way out of a bar and carry a bottle on his way back home. The taste was bitter and sweet on his tongue, the nights were captivating in their star dust, and the company was usually pretty fun. Even when he was out alone it was fun, except the secrets of his habits weren't lost on the world and it came to him in hard twist of reality.
The only dirt that has never felt kind was that, the dark alley as grimy hands pushed his face against a wall and his eyes could only focus on brick and garbage littering the ground around him. He tried hard to tune it out, to ignore the whispers of how small and pretty he was, like a girl, a pretty girl, but the stench of alcohol and the sound of the voice made too much sense. He was able to say it, clearly and sure even with a mind addled by cheap beer: Dieter, stop! It was enough, in some blessed way, and the fellow miner ran from the alley to get home. Marion went on his way, not telling a soul about it, taking the next day off as ill to try to cope. It was while Alfons was in class that Dieter came over, shamed and terrified that Marion was about to tell the whole town, have him arrested or worse — to tell everyone he wanted to screw a boy.
Secrets would be safe. For a price, he promised, a new kind of power and strength riding him high on insanity. Marion doesn't remember much of the original deal but he does remember when his hands came out of Dieter's pants sticky and the new sweater he had delivered to his house the next day. It began a little cycle, confused boy finding himself and little boy able to gather himself more secrets. Dieter became his closest friend in a way, the person who knew the most intimate truths of his through and through and in that way, he became confidant and protector. Because Marion did understand how small and pretty he was, how people would want to pick on him as he aged, how other men might not just be drunk, confused and stupid.
Things felt safe, for a couple of years. Good was too big a word for the work and labor going into things, for secrets dripping underneath his skin like the dirt caught under his fingernails most weeks. It was a little into his 18th year of living that the real curve of life came to be. The cave in was unexpected; of course all precautions had been taken for ages but digging that deep into the earth, it wasn't right or easy anymore. Side by side with his brother as they worked best the Kim siblings came under the crumble. The boom of it echoed far and loud, a sudden collapse, but the ground worked itself around them so suddenly that it was hard to explain to anyone what happened. Even as their baby brother was there to try and get to them, the ground was working for them so that when they managed to break through the rubble to get down to the siblings, they were both safe from harm.
Needless to say, work stopped. Not forever, not even for a long enough time to harm most of the workers beyond a week or so of discomfort. But Quinton and Marion weren't going to get cleared for work for too long. It would hinder their supplement finances from Korea to be out of work that long and that was just as normal injured parties. The boys were different, though. It started small, subtle, when there were flash reminders of how they all felt about the collapse. The three brothers together remembering at once did the most damage, the backyard suddenly a sinkhole before it sucked itself into solid ground again or the concrete of the buildings around them bending away like space was necessary before it rebounded.
Unnatural, absurd, insane things. Illusions from alcohol and illness, no doubt, until they were contacted by the Safe Haven in Cologne and told about their gifts. Told they had to train, to learn what was happening. They stayed as long as they could there, trying to get from Cologne to home with safety, with new understanding so they wouldn't screw the world around them, but it became hard. Money was tight and trouble came in their citizenship; without working the mines they had no reason to be there, healthy Korean males. So, the hard decision came then, a return to a home they didn't actually know beyond language and stories. But it was what had to be done, what was necessary, and three brothers tangled in one another could do that much for each other.
Arriving in Korea was as different as stepping onto a mountain top after being caught leagues beneath sea level already. There were no hard machines, no coal to dig at, no work they understood. And their names changed, to alterations that they hadn't really been used to before: Jinhwan. It felt odd on his tongue, a strange thing, but he accepted it. Because they had room and board and, eventually, they could find work. Their training was top priority for the first few weeks, but adventure was always close behind. Stumbling upon a fox friend who fell into their hole, trying to get into Seoul to find work with their odd accents and foreign tempers. But the city was alive and bright and stranger than anything they'd had before and eventually, Jinhwan fell in love.
That love is what gave Jinhwan back a better power than turning dirt into crystals and feeling their strength. It was on the streets of Seoul that he found a crowd to follow in his awkward, tiny way, stumbling into a club in Itaewon that woke him to the possibilities. A pretty boy, the manager had said, could make some money with the sway he was putting out on the dance floor without trying. Not all the words made sense, foreign on his still adjusting to Korean tongue, but it didn't take long for Jinnie to be born: a dress and some heels, makeup and wig adorned to be someone else on stage, coming away with money and chances. Chances like cash gifts, like a car he got to drive back to Safe Haven with the exaltation of how generous some people could be! Even with his secret hardly staying secret for long, it was the kind of duality in life that Jinhwan enjoyed; a place where he was both himself, quiet and hard working, and someone better, someone warmer and softer and more in charge.
Hardly a great life, but layered in top soil and rich earth underneath all the same.
dreams & nightmares — 2021
After losing his brothers to trying to be brave warriors, Jinhwan buckled down on focusing on a shamble of a career. Though some of his beneficial friends went away he found his own lane, and a friend along the way. With his pets in tow, Jinhwan went about traveling the world. The shop became a teleportational device, one that latches unto his home and takes it where it wants, which means he's never away from his stones or his pets and that's a world of wonder. Canada seems promising, and nice, but there's so much of the world to see and so many Stars waiting for a rock to wish upon...
