Face Claim: Na Ungjae (Hello Gloom, formerly of Imfact)

Gohyuk is 180 cm (5' 11") and lithe but muscular. He keeps his naturally black hair fairly short, but no where near military cut, and he will never have it short like that again. He has an array of small tattoos on his arms and torso, a lot of them flash art that he liked and flowers, a few of them clearly gay. He has an array of piercings in his ears as well, and wears a lot of jewelry in general.

He does have several scars, mostly on hands, arms, and legs, but none are particularly noticeable.

His style of dress can be fairly flamboyant (the most reserved looking suit he owns is dark purple, and most of them are far flashier), but he also has sweats and t-shirts and simple clothes for running a lot of daily errands and working out.

Gohyuk spent a lot of his life defining himself as what he was not: not like the rest of his family, not interested in the military, not sufficiently or traditionally masculine.

He's gotten better at defining himself by what he is: smart, loyal, sometimes a little silly, patient, very very flamboyant, dedicated. He is involved in activism (mostly around queer stuff) and tries to do what he can to help his community and friends.

He's had a rough time with accepting help, and he really struggled with rejection by and fear of his family. It makes him very protective of baby queers when he meets them because of it.

FATHER
Name: Noh Minsang
Birth Year: 1953
Occupation: Field Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Loathing. His father constantly ridiculed him in his childhood, told him he wasn't man enough, demanded that he follow the exact path expected of him, and gave him no positive attention. 

MOTHER
Name: Kim Eunmi
Birth Year: 1968
Occupation: Housewife
Feelings Toward: Complicated. Doesn't want to see her though. His mom was much kinder to him than his father, and he sees her as in some ways just as much a victim of the situation as he was. She married his father (15 years her senior) before her 19th birthday, and she was very much expected to be a military wife her whole life. She's very much entrenched in that identity, and there's no real ground for them to communicate.

PATERNAL GRANDFATHER
Name: Noh Jinseung
Birth Year: 1930
Occupation: retired General, Army
Feelings Toward: Distrust, hurt. His grandfather was kinder to him than his father, but had the exact same expectations (just expressed them more positively, and did have positive attention for his youngest grandchild).

PATERNAL GRANDMOTHER
Name: Lee Hanneul
Birth Year: 1935
Occupation: retired Army Nurse
Feelings Toward: Distant, distrust. She always seemed disappointed with him when he was a kid, so he never got close to her at all. Hasn't spoken to her in years, even before he stopped talking to his family in general though they had been in the same room.

MATERNAL GRANDFATHER
Name: Kim Jiseok
Birth Year: 1943
Occupation: retired Field Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Loathing. He's half convinced that his maternal grandfather and his father are basically the same person. Does not miss getting yelled at.

MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER
Name: Park Iseul
Birth Year: 1949
Occupation: Housewife
Feelings Toward: Similar to his mom, she married right out of high school to her military husband, and she was kind to him as a kid. Honestly the family member he doesn't talk to he misses the most. If he got the chance, he might try talking to her.

UNCLE
Name: Kim Eunjeong
Birth Year: 1967
Occupation: Field Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Loathing. His Uncle fits right in with his father and maternal grandfather. Also one of Gohyuk's first memories is his uncle shaking him because he was crying about something as a little kid.

ELDEST BROTHER
Name: Noh Ilhyuk
Birth Year: 1987
Occupation: Junior Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Negative neutral. They were never close, with a decade of age difference, and his brother mostly ignored him, but his brother was also his father's example of a perfect son.

OLDER BROTHER
Name: Noh Daehyuk
Birth Year: 1989
Occupation: Junior Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Loathing. Daehyuk was often tasked with watching him as a kid, and was absolutely nasty to him, mostly a verbal bully, but Gohyuk is very glad to be away from him.

OLDER BROTHER
Name: Noh Sanghyuk
Birth Year: 1991
Occupation: Noncomissioned Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Loathing. While Daehyuk was a more consistent bully, Sanghyuk was a more physical bully. Glad to no longer have anything to do with him.

OLDER BROTHER
Name: Noh Sihyuk
Birth Year: 1995
Occupation: Junior Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Mixed, mostly negative. Sihyuk was the only brother who was ever nice to him, but it was mostly to get Gohyuk to do his homework for him. At least Sihyuk wasn't part of the bullying directly. He never stood up for Gohyuk either though.

OLDER COUSIN
Name: Kim Hanmin
Birth Year: 1996
Occupation: Noncomissioned Officer, Army
Feelings Toward: Distrust. Hanmin was the person most likely to tattle on Gohyuk for the things he liked that his family didn't approve of. He's pretty sure that his cousin came very very close to outing him.

YOUNGER COUSIN
Name: Kim Hana
Birth Year: 2000
Occupation: Preschool Teacher
Feelings Toward: Fond, a bit distant. The only family member he still speaks to. He's proud of her for going into a career and not getting married right away. They were close as kids.

Noh Gohyuk was the fifth son born to a very military family in Gyeryong. He grew up in a family where the strong attitude is that all men must be manly and go into the army because they were descended from famous generals.

Gohyuk did not fit expectations from a very young age, and was resounding scolded or bullied by all the men older than him in the family to varying degrees. He didn't enjoy fighting, disliked loud noises, and generally liked artistic and academic pursuits.

By the time he was in middle school he knew he needed and wanted out. In high school he realized he was gay, and it became even more pressing. He also realized that his family would never approve of him doing anything other than enlisting or applying to officer school right out of high school.

He decided that since he would have to serve his military service anyhow, he'd enlist right out of high school into a different branch where his relatives weren't high ranking officers. Then he'd save up money and go to university.

He managed his plan well, enlisting in the navy, to much yelling and anger from his family. But it was done and he was out, he never went back, only staying in contact with his younger cousin since she was the only person sad that he was going away instead of mad at him and they'd always gotten along. 

The military was a traumatic time, reinforcing a lot of the bullying, verbal and physical he had grown up with, but one year and eight months later, he was done and on a train to Seoul with his savings, looking for a job, a place to stay, and a chance to actually start his life.

His first night in Seoul he found his way to a gay bar in Incheon where he saw his first drag show (incredible), had his first hook up (fun but not quite as exciting as he'd built it up to be in his head), and saw a poster that the bar was looking for a bouncer. He came back the next day and asked about the job, and he got it. The drag queens that worked the bar ended up his weird little adoptive family, and he spent the first six months he was in Seoul living in a run down little two bedroom apartment with five of them. They taught him to cook and generally take care of himself. He learned to bartend and started doing that some as well at the bar when they needed someone, and picking up bits in shows when they needed "the guy."

He was then able to get his own space, a tiny studio where he had privacy to bring people back and to study for college entrance exams. He was a little lonely, though he was over at his old place regularly. And he ended up deciding to get a dog. He found a big husky tibetan mastiff mix that had been given up for being reactive and too much work, and ended up falling in love with it. He worked with the shelter and trainers and really bonded with the dog, eventually getting to take him home, and calling him Daeyu (with the hanja on his collar meaning big, plentiful).

He applied to and got into Seoul National University in the Division of Consumer and Child Studies with a scholarship. He wasn't quite sure where he wanted to go with it, but the coursework was interesting and he was learning things and enjoying himself (and still working at the bar most nights). 

As he had more hookups and dates, he realized that he enjoyed consistent friends with benefits, and would like someone to build a partnership with, but really didn't like dating and romantic relationships. It meant that he ended up with a lot of semi recurring hookups and didn't really enjoy the whole dating thing.

He met Thomas in a shared Korean culture class, and ended up working on a few projects with him because they were the only ones in the class with evening work schedules. During that time frame, he surprised himself by finding Thomas someone he felt comfortable enough to come out to, and after trying to briefly flirt and being soundly rejected because Thomas was in a committed relationship, ended up comfortably friendly. He was minoring in music because it was fun, and he liked singing, and much to his surprise, when he went to Thomas's place to work on a project, ran into Remi there. Remi was the "hot guy" in his music theory classes.

He started hanging out with Remi, and they ended up in a casual friends with benefits relationship. Gohyuk was fascinated when he learned the idea of being aromantic from Remi because he was like, yes that is me. Remi ended up his most regular friends with benefits.

He graduated in 2022, and then took over as manager of the bar where he'd been working the whole time. He still does a mix of all the different jobs he'd picked up there over the years, and has gotten very entrenched in the queer activism spaces in Seoul through the people of that bar. Once he was managing and graduated, he was able to move into a nicer apartment, a two bedroom (but the second bedroom is tiny, it let him have a place to let baby queers stay of they needed it).

Member Information

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