Face Claim: Bo Yuan

YunJin is about 170 cm/5'7" and relatively slender. He works out when it occurs to him, but mostly just isn't very good at keeping weight on even when he probably should. His hair is naturally black, and he rarely messes with it, though he did some in the past. It tends to end up short and stylishly messy (though not necessarily intentionally). He has very dark brown eyes. He has piercings in both ears, but he sometimes only wears an earring in one or the other, and sometimes forgets them completely. They've been pierced since he was about thirteen though, so they aren't in danger of closing since he usually remembers.

Yunjin sometimes doesn't give up even if it would be a good idea to, but this trait has served him well in getting through the custody battle with his parents for Taijia, and in finishing college with his nephew, who was a toddler at the time, in tow.

He is very very dedicated to his friends and chosen family, and it takes a lot to break his loyalty. His parents are some of the few people who have managed to do it when they basically disowned his older sister over her having Taijia, then basically disowned him over fighting to be Taijia's guardian. His two best friends and Taijia have basically taken over the center of his loyalty now. That has been expanded to Theo, Thomas, and Teagan, and to a lesser extent with Jiuk as Hwangjung's partner, and it also shows with his students in general.

He tends to be rather tentative with getting to know people, and cautious about things that might be a risk in general. This is partially because he tends to throw everything he has into things once he commits to them, so he has learned to be careful what he invests himself in.

Yunjin loves music. He plays four instruments (guitar, piano, violin, and flute) and is a pretty well trained singer. If he liked being on stage more, there was a good chance that he would have wanted to become a performer of some sort, but he's not that into being on stages. He also really likes working with friends, and between that and speaking three languages fluently (English, Korean, and Mandarin), he decided to become a teacher. So far, he's pretty happy with that decision, and he really enjoys working with high schoolers, though he sometimes secretly feels way too young to be good at it.



He has some major issues with authority figures, especially ones that he sees as not using their power well. A lot of this comes out of his history with his parents, but it also comes from teachers and authority figures who were disapproving of him when he was younger. In general, he hates it when people make assumptions about others, be it the fact that he has a kid who seems "too old" to be his (his nephew, but that isn't what people assume), or about things to do with his sexuality or that of his closest friends.



He is extremely tenacious, and he also multitasks well. Which is part of how he managed to finish college while also raising a toddler with only the assistance of his two best friends who were also in college at the time. He can be really funny in a sarcastic sort of way, which makes him really good at making his students laugh, and that is something that he finds himself surprisingly proud about.



He can sometimes be rather pointlessly rebellious if an authority figure frames things the wrong way. Basically, if someone tries to force him to do something, even if he thinks it is a good idea otherwise, he will sometimes get really contrary and do the opposite just because they pushed him. He has gotten better at checking this as he's gotten older and at least not doing it on impulse. He can be really stubborn in arguments even if he knows that he's being ridiculous for much the same reason (and Sungyong is basically the only one who can make him see sense). He is also really slow to trust and emotionally commit to others as friends or in other ways.



He has two main habits, though he sometimes starts imitating his best friends' habits as well. He hums or sings under his breath all the time, and he generally fiddles with his shuzhu (prayer beads). They were a gift from his grandmother on his birthday shortly before she passed away, and he only takes them off to shower. He was really really distressed the one time their cord broke and he had to restring them that evening and carried them around in his pocket all day.

MOTHER
Name: Yunhye Lin (Park)
Birth Year: 1959
Occupation: software engineer
Feelings Toward: Estranged. Their relationship has been strained since Yunjin was a teenager and his parents practically disowned his sister for having a kid "too young." It was basically destroyed by the custody battle for Tai after Yunjia passed away. His mother's reaction to his sexuality also definitely didn't help.

FATHER
Name: Baijin Lin
Birth Year: 1960
Occupation: hardware engineer
Feelings Toward: Estranged. Their relationship has been tense since Yunjin was a teenager over his parents' practically disowning his sister, his father's reaction to his sexuality, and his father's career expectations of him. The custody battle was definitely the final straw of this relationship.

PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER
Name: Liu Haili
Birth Year: 1925 (deceased when Yunjin was in high school)
Occupation: was a professional singer in China, mostly helped raise her son's kids in the US, but did teach vocal, violin, and piano lessons
Feelings Toward: Deep love and affection. He misses her deeply. His grandmother was probably the most important adult figure in his life as a child, and she always had time for him, his sister, and his friends. She's where he got his love for music, along with his early training, and he hopes to be half as good a teacher and mentor as she was.

OLDER SISTER
Name: Yunjia Lin
Birth Year: 1985 (deceased)
Occupation: was a PhD student in Applied Mathematics
Feelings Toward: They were super close from a very young age, even though Yunjia was about seven years his senior. They played music together, going to competitions as a duet, and Yunjia was always very caring towards him, helping him with music and encouraging him to pursue his passions. He misses her deeply, and he's glad that he was able to fulfil her wishes of being the one to raise Tai. Sometimes he's still angry that she's gone though.

NEPHEW
Name: Taijia Lin
Birth Year: 2008
Occupation: Dreams Ent Trainee, High School Student (graduating Feb. 2024)
Feelings Toward: Immense pride, love, and caring. It feels to Yunjin like Tai suddenly grew up really fast, and he's not entirely sure what to do with that feeling, but he's so very proud of Tai's accomplishments. He's always encouraged Tai to do what he loves, and he's glad that he was able to instill an understanding of the values of curiosity, learning, and education in his nephew. He very quietly wishes that Tai could have waited a few more years before moving to a whole new country though.

BEST FRIEND
Name: Sungyong Han
Birth Year: 1993
Occupation: Figure Skating Coach
Feelings Toward: Best friends forever. They are deeply important to each other, and Sungyong is pretty much the only person who can snap Yunjin out of digging in his heels when he's being stupidly stubborn. They've known each other basically their entire lives, and their personalities really reflect that connection. Yunjin is really glad in some ways that he and Sungyong bought the house together before Theo was a part of the equation because it means that it's not a weird thing that Sungyong is a permanent part of the household.

BEST FRIEND
Name: Hwangjung Lee
Birth Year: 1993
Occupation: Songwriter & Producer, Bartender
Feelings Toward: Best friends forever. While he's known Hwangjung slightly less long than Sungyong, they've been a deeply important part of each other's lives for a very long time. He's eternally grateful that Hwangjung was one of the people who helped him raise Tai, but he's also glad that Hwangjung has been able to develop his own life not quite so centered on their shared parenting. He does kind of miss all of them living together though, but at least Hwangjung (and Jiuk) live right next door.

FIANCE
Name: Theo Xiwang Fan
Birth Year: 1992
Occupation: Office Manager at LGBTQ+ Youth Center
Feelings Toward: Love, comfort. They've developed a wonderful partnership, and Yunjin is really happy to have found someone who understands the weird order that his life has taken. They've been able to support each other in that, and he's really delighted to see their future stretching in front of them together. He really loves having Theo have moved into the house.

SOON TO BE BROTHER-IN-LAW
Name: Thomas Fan Qiwang
Birth Year: 1999
Occupation: Tutor, Translator, Driver, Assistant Manager for Dreams Ent
Feelings Toward: Thomas was one of his favorite students who Yunjin helped through a really hard time in high school before Thomas was his boyfriend's (and then fiance's) younger brother. They are pretty close outside of their relationship through Theo, and Yunjin is a kind of mentor figure to Thomas. He's really glad that Thomas is in Korea alongside Tai and able to act as Tai's adult in Korea, and he is so proud of how far Thomas has come for himself since high school.

SOON TO BE BROTHER-IN-LAW
Name: Teagan Fan
Birth Year: 2002
Occupation: In a trades program
Feelings Toward: Teagan was also one of Yunjin's students prior to Yunjin's relationship with Theo. While they weren't quite as close as Yunjin was with Thomas, he was a mentor figure to Teagan as well. He found that it transferred over pretty well to an older brother/assistant guardian role, and he was also really glad that he was able to help find a program for Teagan to really get involved in a profession that would work well for him after high school. It's a little strange for him to have Teagan now be the only one of the kids living at home, and he's not sure entirely how much longer that will be for considering that Teagan's trades program seems to be working out for him.

Half Chinese, half Korean, YunJin grew up with more influence from the Chinese side because his paternal grandmother took care of him a lot and took him to temple with her. He does speak both Mandarin and Korean fluently though. His parents were both busy professionals in the tech industry in the Bay Area, and his older sister was six years older than him (enough older that she didn't always want much to do with him). He was close to her all the same, and when their grandmother passed away when he was 12 and she was 18, she was the family member that he really leaned on.



She was well on track to becoming a professor and the first person in the family with a PhD when she had an accidental pregnancy during a fling when she was 21. Their parents were furious, and threatened to withdraw all support if she decided to keep the child. She did, and they mostly separated themselves from her. While YunJin stayed closer to his parents than his sister did for a while, he was also still very close to her, and he made very sure that she knew that he supported her. (She was 22 and he was 16 when the kid was born.) When he started Uni, he lived with her and her kid for a year before his two best friends, the year behind him in school joined him there, and they got their own apartment, but the three of them still babysat for her a lot as she finished her PhD. When she was 25, the kid was 3, and YunJin was 19, she was in a car crash and died instantly. There was a bit of a custody battle with YunJin's parents, but because of the things that she had left in her will (which she had written just in case when the kid was born), the kid ended up with YunJin as a guardian even though he was only 19. Being in pursuit of a teaching degree at the time probably helped his case. Around the same time, he kind of accidentally came out to his parents, and while they didn't outright disown him for it, between that and the custody battle, it was the beginning of the end of their positive relationship.



He still keeps in slightly tense contact with them, but he really misses his sister and considers his two best friends and his nephew to be his most important family. It was a rough first three years taking care of his sister's kid, finishing undergrad, working a few different jobs at any given time, and generally being very busy. His friends were basically the only things holding him together in his mind. It was a huge relief for him to be teaching a steady job instead of subbing and working several side jobs with flexible hours like he did for a bit.



Once he settled in at Cedar Beach High School, he started to end up a very well liked and respected teacher. He was considered good with "difficult" kids, and so a lot of them ended up in his homeroom. Because of that, he eventually ended up meeting Theo Fan, the older brother of a few of his students who was in a kind of similar situation to him, and they ended up very slowly building a romantic connection. Over the summer, about a month before Thomas left for college, the Fan brothers moved into the house that had once been shared by Yunjin, Sungyong, Hwangjung, and Tai, after Hwangjung and his boyfriend (Jiuk) moved into the house next door. This rearrangement of housing was a bit stressful, but overall, they've been settling in well together. Sungyong took over the downstairs bedroom from Hwangjung and Jiuk, and Teagan took over the upstairs study. Yunjin appreciates that Thomas basically just proclaimed that he would be sleeping on the fold out couch until he moved out because it meant not having to figure that out, and he has put some effort into setting up the study/studio in the basement to have guest room capacity since then so that Thomas would have a room to stay in with privacy when he came to visit in the future.

Hello! My name is Etienne!
I was born in 1989.
My pronouns are he/him.