Face Claim: Ziyang Mu
Kenichi is ridiculously tall, and finally stopped growing at 6'2" (188cm), and weighs an average 175 lbs (79.5 kg). He's got some muscle from his active work life, but nothing extreme. He keeps his hair relatively short but still a little shaggy, and though naturally black, he dyes it often, currently keeping it at a mid-brown. He has brown eyes and naturally tanned skin. His ears are pierced once, but he also loves wearing ear cuffs. His fashion style is mainly fashionable, but he's more interested in Asian fashion than American.

Kenichi has the confidence of a potato is outgoing in most situations, and rarely ends up hostile or rude. However, he gets extremely annoyed by the people who call him Ken "because it's easier." He has an interest in all things art - he likes drawing, and he like reading, watching movies, and watching theater productions. When he visits Seattle, it's almost guaranteed he can be found looking at a random art stall in the Market or at the Seattle Museum of Art. He has a fascination with learning about his heritage, and has taken both Japanese and Chinese language classes, though he's not fluent in either language (and is more comfortable in Chinese now).

He likes art, and tea, and coffee - but only at the cafe he works at, and star-gazing. He also absolutely adores his puppies, and every other dog in the world. He also likes cats and snakes and birds, but not as much as his puppies. He also likes Chinese food - the real stuff, not American Chinese food - and likes most Japanese food but is still warming up to real sushi. He's very biased when it comes to bakeries since he grew up on his parent's pastries, but that French bakery near Pike Place Market in Seattle almost beats his parent's. Almost.

His strengths are that he's friendly, easy-going, and open to new things. His weakness is his confidence, at some point he needs to pick it up off the floor, especially when it comes to intellectual topics. He also doesn't talk about his family much, mostly because he's still sorting out his feelings himself, especially towards his sister. He has some anxiety about being around people he deems smarter than him, and so a part of him is actually dreading Julian's existence in the house.

His aspiration is to "make it" in the art world. After making the chalk signs at his cafe for over a year, a regular customer noticed and paid him to make something for her, but that was only one time, and he only charged her 50 dollars, half of it going to the canvas she wanted. Still, it was a start.

MOTHER
Name: Yuko Saatoshi-Qiao
Birth Year: 1970
Occupation: Bakery Owner
Feelings Toward: Loves her more now that he's away from her, and finds they get along better this way.

FATHER
Name: Lichen Qiao
Birth Year: 1968
Occupation: Bakery Owner
Feelings Toward: Loves him more now that he's away from him, they still have a couple things to work through though before Kenichi would really say they were getting along better.

YOUNGER SISTER
Name: Hana Yunyi Qiao
Birth Year: 2001
Occupation: College Student @ UW (3rd year)
Feelings Toward: Resentment. He can't remember the last time they got along (though there are pictures that prove he could at least fake it at one point in time).

Kenichi was born on Bainbridge Island to two loving parents. His parents were successful bakery owners, despite neither one of them ever having gone to college; his mom not even finishing high school. His childhood was relatively average, or at least until he was nearly seven, and the family welcomed his little sister into the world. It took less than a year for her to be deemed as a genius, and his parent's attention shifted from their average son to the prodigy daughter. After failing that year in school, his parents realized what they were doing and tried to give thier kids equal attention (and making sure he passed his classes in summer school). His childhood continued pretty averagely, as long as he ignored his parents lectures about not getting as good of grades as his sister.

It was the summer before he started middle school that he began piecing together his sexuality. A little nervous about it, he told his parents. Though they didn't straight-up disapprove, they didn't seem to like his confession either. In eighth grade, after finding out he brought a boy home while his parents were out (his sister blabbed), they forbid him from bringing "his lifestyle" home. It was around this time his sister was starting to get an attitude. She thought her title as genius and prodigy meant she was better than others, especially her stupid older brother who was taking the same math class as her and couldn't get straight A's if he tried.

He didn't want to admit it, but his sister's attitude was a blow to his confidence (though more annoying than anything), partially because his parents rarely defended him or said she was wrong (He later found out they didn't realize she did it so much, and is working to forgive them - his parents, not his sister). Everytime he'd try to bring up something even remotely intellectual, she'd shoot him down, so eventually he just stopped. He focused more on his art, having loved drawing since he was a kid but only really honing in on it once he entered high school. He never got praised for his smarts, but his parents loved his artwork (even though they constantly told him 'artist' wasn't a real career choice). Once he graduated high school, he was given the opportunity to move to Cedar Beach, and he leaped at the chance. He already took Mandarin in high school (another point for him - his sister took French), but he wanted to also learn Japanese, and so he set foot on a college campus to do so, going to CBCC. He's not fluent in either language, but he is happy to have that little bit of knowledge over his sister, and in general, his heritage fascinates him. He's had some heart-to-heart talks with his parents, and so he's been in process of forgiving them for their transgressions as he was growing up, but it's still taking a bit of time.

With permission from Martin and Jordan, he got two Pomeranians (okay, they said one dog, but the other quickly won them over) (white one is Xiao Wei, orange one is Wan-kun, both mean "woof" in Chinese and Japanese respectively). He loves these dogs and rarely goes anywhere without them (work and other food places are the exception to this as he's had food safety drilled into his head for far too long to allow it).

When he found out he'd be getting a roommate, he set about trying to make the room two-person compatible. He was really nervous about sharing a room with Jordan's younger brother - mainly worried for a repeat of his little sister. Luckily, Julian is nothing like his little sister, but now Kenichi's awkward around him for a completely different reason (has a massive crush).

Hello! My name is Redeim!
I was born in 1989.
My pronouns are he/him.
This profile is complete.