5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 7, 2024 18:40:03 GMT -8
[This thread is backdated to start Friday, May 31, 2024]
Wooram had been excited when he'd realized that there was a smaller Pride Parade than the Seattle one that was actually quite nearby in the Snohomish Pride Parade when he'd heard about it earlier that week. There were some events later in the month in Edmonds that he was also hoping to go to, but he wanted to go to an actual parade this year. He'd been meaning to ask if Raein wanted to go since he'd found out, partially because he wanted to get a ride, and partially because at this point he was deeply curious when it came to Raein.
Sometimes the other man seemed like he might be interested in Wooram, and Wooram was pretty sure that Raein wasn't straight, but he'd never said anything to Wooram, and it wasn't like Wooram's sexuality wasn't obvious enough with his Pride decorations all over his part of the apartment and books that ended up on shared bookshelves about the queer experience and queer history and just general queer stories. He wasn't sure if Raein had entirely figured out that Raein wasn't straight, and he liked his roommate's friendship too much to press it.
He'd gotten home a little bit before Raein since the middle school had a meeting after school on Fridays, but once he heard Raein return, he'd given it a few minutes for Raein to get settled, and then popped out to the main room. Once he spotted his roommate, he asked brightly, "Hey Raein, if you don't have any plans for tomorrow, do you want to go to Snohomish Pride with me? There will be a parade and a little market, but it will be way less crowded than Seattle's would be."
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 7, 2024 20:37:16 GMT -8
Raein was relieved this school year was easy. The students were great, and he was really starting to feel settled in. At the same time, he was happy for it to be Friday. He set his things down and sat on the couch for a bit. He heard Wooram call out to him and furrowed his eyebrows, not moving from his position. "Snohomish Pride?" He answered back after a few moments of silence. He appreciated the sound of way less crowded. While he liked the city in theory, it stressed him out. He wanted to go to Seattle Pride more than once, but since he'd started paying attention to it, the numbers had been more than the amount of people he had possibly seen in his lifetime up until he moved to live his friends in Olympia. It was intimidating.
Another realization hit him and he finally looked in Wooram's direction, "Wait, are you gay?" He asked, confused. It would make the crush he had much easier, but he had always been too afraid to lose Wooram's friendship so he never even thought to approach the subject, let alone try to make any advances.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 9, 2024 13:29:31 GMT -8
Wooram nodded as Raein repeated the name of the event back at him, and started saying, "Yeah, found out it was happening from one of the counselors at the elementary school."
His mouth snapped shut at Raein's second question, and he stared at the other man in utter bafflement. Finally, after opening and closing his mouth a few times, like a baffled fish, he said, "Um, yeah, I'm gay. I'm not exactly closeted. You didn't know?"
He gestured at the pride flag hanging on his bedroom door and the bracelet that he wore and the bookshelves in the main room. He barely even had words. He wasn't sure that he'd ever actually said the words to Raein, but he also wasn't exactly subtle. Everyone else seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly.
He was still a little off balance as he said, "So Snohomish Pride?"
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 9, 2024 15:59:34 GMT -8
Raein felt a little dumbfounded by the nonchalant way Wooram said it. It felt like such a big deal to him, but Wooram saidit like he was just talking about the weather. "I didn't want to assume..." He responded quietly. He thought a moment about all the Pride things he had seen in Wooram's room. It made sense, but he never wanted to assume. After facing so much homophobia growing up, he was scared of assuming, or even guessing and being wrong.
Finally, a slightly tense smile formed and he nodded, "Yeah, let's go check it out." He was nervous about the idea of being at a Pride event. What if one of his students was there? Then he realized, he didn't care. If any of his students were there, they were there for the same reason he'd go - to celebrate being a part of the queer community, or at least for some students, that they were allies.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 9, 2024 22:24:55 GMT -8
Wooram was suddenly a little concerned. He sat down gently beside Raein on the couch and said, "You seem anxious about this, just checking in, are you OK?"
He took a guess and a deep breath and said, "I've been out since early high school. My school friends in Friday Harbor were all in GSA with me, and my family was awkward to OK to actually surprisingly great about it. I definitely took them a little bit by surprise though."
He mulled over the next part and said, "There's a difference between assuming and taking a pretty glaring hint. If I was trying to be subtle, everything I owned wouldn't be plastered in rainbows, I wouldn't wear a pride bracelet year round, I wouldn't have worn a shirt around you on the regular that said Proud To Be Part Of The Rainbow on it. Like not wanting to assume because someone's mannerisms or something offhand they've said is good. But like, you live with me, my books are in the living room, and so many of them are about queer immigrant experiences in some way or another. It's not a stretch."
He thought for a second longer and added, "I wish I'd told you in a straightforward way though. I think I was just expecting it to come up in conversation but it never did somehow."
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 10, 2024 10:34:08 GMT -8
Raein considered Wooram's words for a moment and sighed, "I... I will be okay. I'm still working on getting out of the small town mindset. Everyone in my school knew who the gay kids were, because there was maybe five of us. And we were all bullied mercilessly. I..." He played with his fingernails, focusing on them, "I am happy to be somewhere where I can be myself, but I'm still getting used to being able to actually be myself to other people, but I still find myself scared."
He laughed, and it was a little bitter, "I outed myself to the wrong person in high school, and after that I was afraid to even ask people or assume their sexuality, no matter how many signs there were. After that incident, to avoid harassment I ended up often hiding in a teacher's room who I trusted. She had the tiniest bit of Pride display on her whiteboard that was mostly hidden by her desk. I never asked her her sexuality, but looking back on it now, she was almost definitely queer. She was so comforting to me and I looked up to her a lot. Like, she's a big part of the reason I decided to become a teacher." He looked at Wooram, "And yet, still, when you asked me, the first thought that went through my mind was what if any of my students are there?" He shook his head and looked away again, "Then I decided I don't care, I want to be that same kind of teacher as she was. So I do want to go, but I'm just gonna be nervous about it."
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 12, 2024 23:37:01 GMT -8
Wooram reached out to pat Raein's hand comfortingly and said softly, "Thank you for telling me. I think I kind of get it, but also, while I grew up in rural places and small towns too, they were kind of weird ones, and leaned a lot more liberal, which helped me out. And I'm sorry for assuming that you knew and not telling you."
He smiled and said, "You're definitely in a place where it's not going to be a big deal if students find out you went to Pride though, and some of them would probably be absolutely excited to see you. I know that there are at least five of us who work at the elementary school who are openly queer, and way more who are supportive, and I wouldn't be surprised if we run into some of them there. One of the out queer teachers at the elementary is one of the kindergarten teachers. Also the librarian, so it's not just like me, who teaches fifth, though I host the little Rainbows lunch club with the librarian, which is mostly fourth and fifth graders. And it's not just teachers either, there's paras who are out, and it's not a big deal."
He added, "And I'm going to be here for you for your first Pride, you're not going alone."
He had a moment of feeling tentative after he said that, would it come off as him flirting? He did like Raein quite a little bit, and one of the things that came with the confirmation of the other man being queer too was the ideas rushing through his head about maybe asking Raein out, as a date instead of simply friends, one of these days. It would be too soon right during this conversation he felt like though. One of the things that he'd worried about, Raein not being out to even himself, was put to rest now though. Plus, he didn't want to disrupt things too fast.
[[OOC: Do we want to jump to the next day and going to Pride together.]]
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 13, 2024 15:11:17 GMT -8
"Wait really?" Raein asked, surprised. He didn't think that many teachers were queer. He knew about and participated in chaperoning occasionally in the middle school's Rainbows club, but didn't volunteer to be one of the regular chaperones for it. Maybe by the next school year, he'd be emboldened enough to be one of the main chaperones.
He smiled at Wooram, feeling like he was maybe blushing at how sweet the other man was being. "Thank you, I appreciate knowing I'll be going with a good friend. And... I'm sorry. I really should have asked sooner about you when I suspected, but I like what we got going here and didn't want to risk ruining it. I got so caught up in my past experiences, I forgot to take into account the experiences you may have had, and how obviously positively receptive you'd be." Raein chuckled, "Next time, if I question someone who's being blatantly obvious about it, just... I dunno. Scold me about it."
[[OOC: Yeah, let's go ahead.]]
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 15, 2024 10:33:40 GMT -8
[The next morning, Sunday, June 1, 2024.]
Wooram got up early the next morning, shuffling out to the kitchen to start water in the kettle for a pot of tea for both himself and Raein and to get the rice cooker started before he disappeared back into his room to dress for the day.
He'd set out ideas the night before, and the weather was looking promising. After his conversation with Raein the night before, he really wanted to lean into as flamboyantly celebratory as possible while still being tasteful if he ran into a student. Black jeans with a rainbow sash as a belt was easy, that had pretty much been his plan no matter what he decided to wear on top. He settled on a black tank top with fairly randomly scattered iridescent rhinestones as an under layer, with a fine holed rainbow fishnet long sleeved shirt covered in more rhinestones over it. He added a few little queer rubber bracelets to his usual set, which already included a rainbow, and a necklace with a charm of the original 8-stripe pride flag.
He carefully tucked some sparkly rainbow rhinestone flowers into his hair on bobby pins, forming a sort of headband pattern, and took a while to apply makeup. He didn't wear makeup that often, but for an event like this, a rainbow gradient of eye shadow, and rainbows painted onto his cheeks seemed like a good choice. He carefully switched out his usual simple hoop earring for a hoop with a series of rings hanging down from it that made a rainbow.
He looked at himself in the mirror, satisfied, pocketed the lip gloss he wanted to use so that he would make sure to put it on at some point after eating, and headed back out to the main room to finish making tea and something for breakfast. He had the ingredients in the fridge for a quick stir fry that he was pretty sure that Raein would also eat over the rice that he'd made earlier.
Checking the time, he figured that if Raein wasn't already up when he finished food and tea prep, he would go knock on his roommate's door. He put an apron, not super frequently used, on over his outfit, not wanting to somehow get food on it, and started getting everything ready.
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 15, 2024 11:10:28 GMT -8
Raein woke up and heard Wooram moving around, but didn't get out of bed right away. Instead, he was googling outfit ideas for a pride celebration, mostly getting results with clothing items he didn't have, but it was giving him an idea of what might make a good outfit. To say he wasn't still nervous about today would be an understatement, but the excitement was finally starting to win over his nervousness.
He finally got out of bed after distracting himself on his phone for a bit longer and headed to his closet. He pulled out bright blue ripped baggy jeans and a faded tank top that had a rainbow across the front, a bit of Target Pride merchandise he had gotten a long time ago from his grandparents the first time he visited them in Spokane. It was well worn despite him never wearing it outside back in his hometown, and rarely wearing it out when he moved into bigger cities. He also put on an iridescent chain necklace and matching bracelet, unsure of what else to do. He emerged from his room and almost immediately felt under-dressed.
"Um... You look... colorful." He muttered, somehow feeling embarrassed. He mentally kicked himself, that sounded almost rude. "It's a good look." He clarified, still a bit embarrassed. He was coming to realize his most obvious bit of Pride merch was the tank top he was wearing, and maybe he should... remedy that at some point. Maybe even get something not from Target. He noticed there was tea and rice ready, and pointed awkwardly to the bathroom, "Thanks for making tea and food. I'm gonna wash up first, and then I'll come join you."
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 15, 2024 14:11:49 GMT -8
Wooram smiled at awkward, morning Raein. He said a small, "Thank you," about the comment about his outfit and the clothes, settling in to eat while he waited for Raein to come back out of the bathroom.
When the other man returned, he said, "I like you're outfit too. I don't think that I've ever seen you wear that shirt."
He also considered that Raein didn't have a lot of celebratory adornment and said, "No pressure, but if you want a rainbow belt or a ribbon you could use in your hair or some makeup or a little flag to wave, I can help you add to what you're already wearing. I like your outfit, I think it's a good outfit, but like, if you want we can add to it."
He kind of hoped that Raein would let him put a flag on his face or dress him up a little or something. He wanted Raein to get the chance to really embrace this.
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
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Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 15, 2024 19:00:17 GMT -8
Raein pulled his hair into a ponytail and finished washing up before going back to get food and tea, sitting down across from Wooram. Raein looked down at the shirt and smiled a bit. "I normally only wear it as a night shirt. I think this might be my... second time wearing it out of the house." He confessed. He contemplated how he might want to add rainbows to his outfit. "Maybe belt and a hair scarf of some sort?" He mused. "Or if you have an idea... I feel like you've been to more Pride events than I have. I trust you." He added simply.
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 17, 2024 1:44:39 GMT -8
Wooram was finished eating, so he rinsed his dishes and tucked them into the dishwasher. He said, "I'll go grab some things for you. While I'm doing that, think about if you want flags on your cheeks in makeup or any makeup in general."
He went back into his room and grabbed a rainbow belt with a sliding buckle so it wouldn't matter that he and Raein weren't the same size, the belt had always been a little bit big on him anyhow, so if it fit Raein well, he figured he would probably just give it to his roommate. He also grabbed a length of ribbon and a bandana for Raein to choose between for his hair. He grabbed a rainbow bracelet made of braided leather cords, another piece he rarely wore because his wrists were a little too delicate for it.
He picked up his little rainbow bag full of small flags and some varied rainbow stickers, things that he could hand to people who looked like they needed something as well as some for himself. Then he grabbed the sparkly makeup palette that he used for the flags on his own face.
He came out of the room, hooked his bag over the back of his chair at the dining table and held out the offerings to Raein. He said, "Here's a belt, hopefully it fits you better than me. Then ribbon or bandana for hair, and if you want it a bracelet. I've got little flags and some rainbow stickers in my bag. What are you thinking about makeup?"
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Middle School ESL/Korean I Teacher.
Homosexual.
Single.
06/29/1998.
26.
Tiger (WA)
Authored by Redeim.
Offline.
|
Post by Raven Raein Kong on Sept 17, 2024 8:21:57 GMT -8
"Okay," Raein said simply, finishing up his own meal. He put the dishes into the dishwasher and sat at the table sipping on his tea. He was surprised when Wooram came out with a whole bag full of rainbows, secretly a bit relieved it wasn't ALL for him. He tried on the belt, happy that it fit nicely. He looked between the ribbon and bandana for a moment before hesitantly taking the ribbon. It had a bit of shimmer to it that he liked. He tied it around the hair tie, starting to feel a little more giddy and excited. He'd never been this open, and his brain was finally catching up with the fact that it was safe to do this here. He'd be fine.
He took the bracelet and got it on, smiling at the ensemble. His was starting to feel more emboldened, and looked at the make up palette Wooram brought out. "Let's do a rainbow uh... on my cheek?" He said, poking one of his cheeks. "And maybe some eyeshadow? I don't know, I've actually never worn makeup..." He admitted. "But again, I trust you."
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5th Grade Teacher.
Gay.
Single.
07/04/1996.
28.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
|
Post by Wooram Mok on Sept 19, 2024 14:07:21 GMT -8
Wooram mostly managed to contain the slightly wiggly excitement he felt at getting to do Raein's makeup. He smiled at his roommate and said, "You're going to have to be sitting for me to do this, otherwise you're too tall, but we've got good lighting in the kitchen, so it shouldn't be hard."
He contemplated his makeup palette that he'd brought out and said, "I can do something more subtle for your eyes than I did for mine, a sort of pastel rainbow gradient. Someone would notice you had it if they were looking closely, but not from like a distance. The flag will obviously be more visible, but that's like, the point."
He pointed out the more delicate colors on the palette, shimmery pastels. He came around to the other side of the table where Raein was sitting and added, "I'll start with the flag, and you can think about if you want the more delicate colors or something a little bolder for the eye shadow."
He was gentle as he touched Raein's face to do the makeup, occasionally gently turning his face a little bit with a touch on the chin, and focusing on getting the stripes clean and even with the bolder colors for the flag on Raein's cheek. He also focused on not thinking too hard about looking at Raein's face this closely. It was nice for Raein to trust him with this, and he didn't want to overstep anything, even though he was pretty sure that he'd noticed Raein being interested in the past.
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