ethan kim － 김서진 (kim seojin)

august 2, 2000

aual demiromantic

college student (business major) － part time record shop employee

none

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethan's life had been a rather boring one, and at most, a series of mildly unfortunate events (half of which he has probably forgotten about).

He was a black sheep in a family of doctors, lawyers, and Ivy League graduates. That much was obvious when he showed no interest in studying ever since he was in grade school. His academic career mostly consists of frequent trips to the principal's office for being "a nuisance in class", but it was nothing bad enough to warrant suspension or expulsion. The only subject he excelled in was PE, so he ended up joining the school's basketball team in elementary and middle school. His parents weren't pleased about it, but at least he might get an athletic scholarship to an Ivy League school in the future, right?

Wrong.

He stopped playing basketball completely during his freshman year in high school. Why? The answer was simple: he just lost interest in it. He gained a newfound interest in music － or more precisely, becoming a SoundCloud rapper. He knows a couple of people from school who dropped out to start their music career (he doesn't know where they are now, but he sure hopes they are well!), so why couldn't he sacrifice his studies for an advanced start in building his career? At least he's still in school.

Ethan had never understood why he was considered "the family's disgrace" (as his parents would put it), but when he failed to go viral for his "sick beats" even after two years of uploading his music on SoundCloud, he began to understand.

Frankly, it was depressing at first. He didn't know what to do with his life, and the Ivy League pressure was starting to hit him. But he snapped out of it and worked only a little bit harder to get into a university near Hollywood. Granted, it wasn't an Ivy League school like what his parents had expected from him, but at least it looked like he has a plan for the future (he doesn't).

He worked as a record shop employee on top of studying (and attending parties), but it wasn't enough to pay his bills, so his aunt offered him a housekeeping job at her apartment for an additional fifteen dollars per hour.

Aunt Karen was a hardworking defense attorney residing in floor 21 of the newly built Bellevue Apartment in Hollywood Heights. She was so busy with work that she did not have time to clean her place, so she hired her only remaining nephew in the area to do the job for her. It took away his remaining free time and left him terribly exhausted at the end of the day, but at least he did not have to worry about making ends meet every month.

That's right. The apartment wasn't even his to begin with.

So how did he end up here, you ask?

Long story short, Aunt Karen wasn't just a hardworking defense attorney. She was a corrupt hardworking defense attorney and somehow (Ethan doesn't know enough about law to know the exact details) she was found guilty of multiple charges of forgery, which resulted in two and a half years of incarceration. Fortunately, the house wasn't seized and Ethan still has spare keys to the place. He grabbed the opportunity to move into the apartment and bathe himself in luxury at practically no cost for the next two and a half years.

He's heard quite a lot about the apartment's tight security (and fears it a lot), so he spent the next few days trying to come up with a plausible story for himself. To the residents of The Bellevue Apartment, he is Ethan Kim, an aspiring producer looking to set up a new record label, hunting for potential talents to sign.

 

 

 

Ethan presents himself as a carefree, happy-go-lucky young man who's a little too naive for his own good. He gains interest in things as fast as he loses them, which explains how he went from being a basketball school athlete to a SoundCloud rapper throughout his school years. There aren't a lot of things that can tick him off, as he adapts well to people's personalities and tolerates even the most difficult people well.

Despite being rather gullible (especially with conspiracy theories), he is capable of lying and will not hesitate to do so to save himself. His life motto is "fake it till you make it", and as a result, he finds himself struggling with impostor's syndrome. Staying at The Bellevue Apartment has only made it worse, but he's determined to keep up his act until a) Aunt Karen comes back, or b) he gets exposed for good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

hyuk choi － best friend.

jaehyung kim － best friend.