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Post by Etienne on Oct 22, 2015 1:20:33 GMT -8
Character: Yunjin Lin
Note: This occurs after Remi has become Yunjin's student for music and has Yunjin dealing with other teachers at his school.
Yunjin came into the teacher's lounge in time to hear the math teacher for the upper level math classes saying, "I swear he threatened me in class again, I think that Remi kid should get put all the way back into home schooling and kept there. He's a threat to society."
Yunjin's shoulders went up around his ears about that. For one, he was technically Remi's homeroom teacher and advisor as one of two teachers that Remi actually attended classes with, so it was kind of his job to be on Remi's side, but he also had a bit of an antagonistic relationship with that particular math teacher. The man was in his mid forties, and a bit pushy. He was also very condescending towards the teachers in non math and science fields, which did not please Yunjin in the slightest.
In one of his less rare than it should be moments of impulsiveness, as he was walking by the other teacher, he said, clearly, though not loudly, "It's not Remi's fault that you don't know how to handle him as a student. It's not that hard."
The math teacher was staring at him now, and Yunjin turned to face him, one eyebrow raised. The older teacher spluttered, "He-he's been threatening me!"
Yunjin nodded, "And I'm sure that many other students have thought the same of you in their minds, but have had the impulse control and brain to mouth filter not to say it to your face. You teach Remi a subject that he finds interesting, which is the only reason he's at the school for it. If you were taking the time to individually engage your students and gauge their interests, instead of holding them to a pace that doesn't let them achieve their full potential and rankles some of them, I'm sure that you'd be getting a better response from not just Remi, but most of your students."
The math teacher was nearly snarling at him at this point, but Yunjin felt the weird headiness of being in the place where he'd started saying what he thought and it was like his mouth was willing to continue on without much volition on his part. Before he said anything more, the math teacher got out, "You have to tolerate him too on a regular basis. If you think it's so easy, how do you handle him."
Yunjin tilted his head to the side and said, "I give him opportunities to learn. I don't force him to work too directly with other students unless he expresses interest in doing so. I take some of the things he says with a grain of salt and encourage him when he's being inquisitive. And I listen to the things that he says when he's expressing interest. If he's getting into what seems like a dangerous or threatening place, which yes he does do sometimes, I try to redirect him towards things that I have found he finds soothing or give him a chance to not have to deal with other people for a little bit. The only time he's been involved in any sort of disruption in my class, he was not the instigator, and that certainly says something for his ability to be OK in a school setting if he is handled correctly."
He leveled an irritated glance at the other teacher, and said, "But I've got papers to grade, which seems like a foreign concept to you considering the number of times I see you grumbling out here about students you are supposed to be teaching and not actually working on giving them valuable feedback."
He turned on his heel and walked the rest of the way down the short corridor to his office. He couldn't help but smile a little bit when the school secretary gave a little victory fist pump as he walked by her. He didn't entirely know what had come over him, and when he got to his office he put his head down for a second, and just breathed, hoping that all that wouldn't get him in trouble later.
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Post by Etienne on Apr 28, 2016 2:05:32 GMT -8
This thread will be a repository for drabbles about the histories of Etienne's characters. Currently, Etienne's characters are: Yunjin Lin, Taijia Lin, Sungyong Han, Hwangjung Lee, Minglong Lin, Allen Wen, Thomas Fan, JiaNing Xu, Benjamin BaiAn Tan, Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold, and Inkar Mun. Most of these posts will contain backstory, but there is a chance that any discussed plot that doesn't end up getting played out could make it into a thread.
Etienne
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Assistant Librarian.
Gay. Polyam..
Married to Minglong.
08/09/1996.
25.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Baian Tan on Apr 28, 2016 2:27:35 GMT -8
It was a late spring weekend their junior year of high school, and it was a rare chance for BaiAn to actually hang out just the two of them with his twin cousin, BaiWen. BaiWen had more friends at school than BaiAn, unsurprisingly since he did sports and was louder and more sociable in general, but they'd always been each other's closest friends. They didn't take too many classes together anymore, since BaiWen only took advanced classes when he was particularly interested anymore, while BaiAn was taking the hardest things he could so that he'd be able to eventually get scholarships to pursue what he wanted. BaiWen, though, knew that he was going to take over the family restaurant and figured that he might try to get a college degree as he went, but it wasn't even top priority.
They'd both started working at the family restaurant for real that summer, since they'd turned sixteen, and it made it even rarer that they just got casual time to hang out and watch dramas and chat. They'd finally gotten the chance to finish watching the newest installation of the K.O. series, even though it had finished airing months before, and that pleased BaiAn, since the new series would be coming out starting that summer, and he really wanted to finish watching as much of that as he could with his cousin.
BaiAn had flopped over on his back, contemplating the glow in the dark stars that they had peppered the ceiling of BaiWen's room with years before and never taken down. He didn't have much to say just yet, mulling over the end of the series in his head and wondering what the next series might start with. It was BaiWen who broke the silence at last, used to his cousin's tendency to take forever to talk if not prompted. He said, "So, who do you think's cuter, Lei Ting or QiuQiu?"
BaiAn looked over at his cousin, slightly startled by the question. No one really bothered to bring him into talking about girls at school, basically assuming that he was so distracted by books that he didn't care, which was good enough for him since he had nothing to say on the specific topic. He had friends who were girls, more than most of the guys who hung around his cousin did, but he had no interest in dating them. He sighed and said, resigned, "Neither, I mean, they're cute enough, but I'm not interested."
He'd known that he was gay for four years, maybe even more, but he'd never really wanted to or felt the need to bring it up with pretty much anyone. But his cousin could be determined when he got on a topic, and BaiAn had the suspicion that he'd be out to his cousin at least by the end of it. BaiWen prodded him with a sock covered foot to the side and said, "Then who do you think is cute. I mean, just about everyone likes one of the two."
One more long suffering sigh, and BaiAn decided that he didn't mind BaiWen knowing, and telling him would just forestall the pestering. He said, "Hua LingLong."
BaiWen made a face for a minute, and BaiAn could see the gears turning in his head. At last, BaiWen blurted out, "You could have told me you were gay man, it would have made all those times I tried to set you up with girls and suddenly you had another study buddy but no date make more sense."
BaiAn blinked at him clearly confused, "You were trying to set me up?"
BaiWen groaned, dropping his head onto his hand and said, "You are the most ridiculously oblivious, the most!"
BaiAn couldn't help but laughing, a slow, honey rich and deep sound that didn't happen very often. BaiWen prodded him in the side again and asked, "What are you laughing for man? Come on, you could have told me."
BaiAn said through receding chuckles, "Here I was not coming out because the hassle of anyone's reaction seemed like too much, and you're mostly just annoyed that you've been trying to set me up with the wrong people all this time. Seriously, I don't want to be set up with anyone, guy or girl. I'd rather study and get into a school that I want."
BaiAn was relieved that, over the next several weeks, BaiWen didn't seem to be treating him any differently, and no one else seemed to know about him. Things would go back to normal for a good while, with BaiAn focusing on his books and working odd hours at the family restaurant and trying his best to figure out how to do library science programs without needing his father's help.
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Assistant Librarian.
Gay. Polyam..
Married to Minglong.
08/09/1996.
25.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Baian Tan on May 2, 2016 14:15:21 GMT -8
Meeting MingLong
BaiAn had been awake since before six that morning, having to get up and get ready to catch his flight from SF to Seattle, and followed by two more busses to get him out to Cedar Beach Community College. All through the trip he'd been telling himself that the library sciences program scholarship was worth this trip, and even though he sort of already missed BaiWen, he was looking forward to being away from home.
It was raining, which he probably should have expected and not buried his raincoat in the bottom of his bag. He was exhausted.
When he'd checked into the dorms, he'd gotten a sort of disbelieving reaction over the fact that the giant rolling suitcase, backpacking backpack and laptop bag held all of his things, but he'd been too tired to care or explain, and that would have meant talking, lots of talking. Of course he was in the dorm completely across campus from the check in area, and by the time he stumbled into the top floor suite, he was starving and about exhausted enough to face plant into his bed after dropping his bags.
He said a quiet tentative, "Hello," as he walked in the door, scanning the entryway. There were a few pairs of shoes by the door, but they could have all belonged to one person, probably no more than two or three. He slid his own shoes off, glad to finally be out of them, and peeked around the corner. There was a man about his own age sitting at the couch, working on something on his laptop. BaiAn was pretty sure the other man hadn't heard his tentative hello, so he cleared his throat and said a little bit more loudly, "Hello, um, I guess we're probably suite mates?"
The man on the couch looked up, with a clear little startle, and then grinned at him, longish black hair falling back from his face, and slightly pointy features framing a charming smile that made BaiAn tentatively smile back. The other man hesitated a little bit as he started talking, and when he did, his voice was heavily accented with a familiar accent, "Hello, my um, name is MingLong, one other the roommate is already here, YongJi, we are exchange students, so you must be Denis or Benjamin."
BaiAn couldn't help but smile a little bit over MingLong stumbling over his name, and he replied much more comfortably in Chinese, "I'm Benjamin, but call me my real name, it's BaiAn, Tan BaiAn."
If BaiAn had thought MingLong's smile was charming before, it seriously intensified after that, and he was pretty sure that he was blushing just a little bit. MingLong managed to make putting the laptop on the coffee table and standing up to talk excitedly look graceful somehow, and he chattered, "I'm so relieved, YongJi's from Taiwan, and I'm from China, and well, I've got better English than he does, but knowing that there will be at least one person I can ask if I get completely lost is a relief. Are you from here originally? Or did you come to the US when you were younger?"
A small laugh bubbled up out of BaiAn and he said, "I was born here, but my parents are from Northern China. I've spoken Chinese at home my entire life, and at temple. And I can definitely help you."
MingLong, he determined, talked a lot, as he let out little bits and bobs of information, he learned a lot more in return. MingLong had grown up in temples mostly, though one of his parents, his mother, was still alive, he had no clue what he wanted to major in, but BaiAn suspected that he was a bit of a musical prodigy from the way MingLong talked about his music pursuits, he did martial arts and calligraphy, and he was very close to his grandfather who was a monk. He was also curious about everything and got excited when he found out that BaiAn could cook and was actually pretty good at it. He exclaimed, "I've made a few explorations of American food with YongJi, but I think he likes it better than I do, there is either too much meat or too much sugar, and none of the vegetables are right. Avocado is very good here though."
BaiAn couldn't help smiling and feeling a little bit more energetic around MingLong, letting him talk him into going to get food nearby once he'd dropped off his stuff. He finally had a moment to catch his breath and train of thought when he was putting a few things away, and he thought to pull out his phone and check Yelp for cheap restaurants around the college. He smiled and showed the screen to MingLong. He said, "It looks like there as Sichuan food place near here. It's not either of our home cooking styles, but it should at least be decent food, pretty cheap too."
MingLong smiled the adorable pointy energetic smile at him again, and BaiAn was pleased with himself. MingLong said, "That sounds amazing! You will have to show me how you found that. I haven't even got a phone yet though, so I might want pointers on that first."
BaiAn smiled and nodded, saying softly, "I can do that."
He found himself smiling a lot through dinner, and leaning into it a touch when MingLong threw a friendly arm around him on the way back to their dorms as MingLong chattered to him. MingLong had a remarkably good sense of when he wanted to say something, pausing and looking at him, but maintaining a flow of conversation that didn't feel demanding around BaiAn's quietness.
He was pretty sure he had a crush. He wasn't sure because he'd never really had one before, not on someone he knew in real life, let alone someone he had just met. He figured that he would keep it to himself and figure it out as he went along.
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Assistant Librarian.
Gay. Polyam..
Married to Minglong.
08/09/1996.
25.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Baian Tan on Aug 6, 2016 23:52:19 GMT -8
Bringing Someone Home
It was winter vacation their freshman year at CBCC and the dorms were closed for two weeks. BaiAn was determined that he would find somewhere other than student housing to live once the school year was up because he'd been blindsided enough by the vacation that the only viable option had been to go home. He didn't really want to. He'd have to deal with his father arguing with him over his college choices, and comparing him to his brother, and treating him like a failure. He did miss his cousin and his Uncle though.
MingLong didn't have anywhere to go. BaiAn had seen the look of panic when they'd gotten the dorm notice about the closure over the winter break. MingLong had muttered something about maybe being able to stay at the temple.
BaiAn caught up to him at his room, putting a gentle hand on his boyfriend's arm. He asked softly, "Do you want to come home with me for the break? I can't promise that it will be wonderful because my family can be a pain sometimes, but I do want to introduce you to the good parts."
MingLong replied, "I wouldn't want to impose."
BaiAn could read between those lines though. He wrapped an arm around MingLong's waist and dropped his chin on MingLong's shoulder. He said, "I'd like to have you there. We won't spend too much time with my family. I'll show you the parts of the Bay Area that I like, and you'll get to meet my cousin, who's exactly our age too. I'm not out to my entire family yet, but a few people, and I'm not particularly hiding, but you know me, I don't like announcing things."
MingLong asked tentatively, "OK, um, how much would the tickets be?"
BaiAn squeezed him lightly and said, "Not too bad, about $60 to $80 each way honestly. I can help with the tickets if you need me to."
MingLong leaned against him and shook his head, smiling, "I can afford that, so yes, yes, I'll go."
The others finished their own preparations, and MingLong and BaiAn left early in the morning the day before the dorms closed. They'd come back the afternoon of the day the dorms reopened. They spent most of the trip down to the Bay Area in quiet companionship. Both of them had books, and MingLong spent most of the plane ride sleeping against BaiAn's shoulder.
BaiAn had warned his family that he had a friend coming up for the break, but he'd not given much more information than that he was a Chinese exchange student with nowhere to go during dorm closure. It had been enough for his parents to accept the idea.
BaiWen was the one who came to pick them up from the airport. He had the restaurant van with him, and he excitedly ran up to hug BaiAn when he saw him. BaiWen was a little bit taller and a fair bit broader in the shoulders now, and he was able to basically scoop his cousin up into a hug. BaiAn was anxious suddenly, what if BaiWen didn't like MingLong.
When his cousin put him down, BaiAn snagged MingLong by the wrist, pulling him closer, and said in Chinese, "BaiWen, this is my, um, boyfriend, MingLong."
BaiWen looked MingLong up and down and said, "Nice to meet you. I'm BaiAn's cousin, BaiWen, but basically his twin. I was wondering if he was bringing a boyfriend home when Aunt and Uncle said that he was bringing someone, but that's certainly one way to let them find out that you're gay BaiAn."
BaiAn sighed and stuck his tongue out at his cousin. He said, "I'm not going to introduce them the same way as you. You already know I'm gay. I'm going to give them a little time to get used to MingLong before dropping it on them. I'll tell your dad though, cause he knows."
MingLong smiled at BaiWen, full on happy smile full of pointy energy that had so snagged BaiAn's attention when he first met MingLong, and said, "It's nice to meet you BaiWen. BaiAn's told me a lot about you."
The first few days were a bit of a whirlwind. Getting settled in, BaiAn was relieved that his parents had just assumed that MingLong would be sharing a room with him. Probably more because it meant the least hassle for them. While they'd grabbed out a sleeping bag for one of the boys to use, they'd not touched it, though it was set up, opting to share BaiAn's childhood bed instead. It was slightly bigger than dorm beds anyhow.
They went to the temple the BaiAn's family frequented, and MingLong managed to charm pretty much everyone that BaiAn had known his whole life. BaiAn was surprised that even his father and older brother seemed to quite like MingLong from the start. He almost didn't want to say anything, knowing that there was a chance that it would mess up their friendliness.
By the end of the first week, he'd taken MingLong to most of the SF sights, and they'd been to the zoo. MingLong had lit up at the zoo, clearly adoring the chance to see all the animals and getting excited like a little kid. BaiAn was quieter about it, but he really enjoyed trailing MingLong through the zoo.
When they got to the restaurant that evening, BaiAn was surprised when BaiWen intercepted MingLong and said, "I'm going to steal you to help out while BaiAn goes and talks to Aunt. She wants a chance to see him alone for a bit."
MingLong looked to BaiAn, but when he nodded, MingLong followed BaiWen off. BaiAn went into the office to find his mother. She didn't look upset, so that was good, and she was sitting on the couch, so this wasn't too formal. She patted the spot next to her, and BaiAn felt like an awkward teenager all over again, mind jumping to the time she'd given him the talk in almost the same circumstances. He shuffled his feet once he sat down, waiting for her to say something.
She finally spoke, "BaiAn, you've been hiding something, but you are very happy with having MingLong here. He seems like a good young man. Do you want to tell me what it is? I can guess, but I do not want to assume."
BaiAn swallowed, but he didn't make a habit of lying. He'd not come out to people more because it had been irrelevant and seemed more trouble than it was worth, but it was relevant now. He gulped one more time before he said, "He's my boyfriend. I'm gay. Mama..."
She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and said, "That is what I would have guessed. It's alright baby."
She rubbed his back when he surprised himself by starting to cry, not saying anything until his sniffles stopped. She asked, "Do you want me to tell your father? And maybe your brother too?"
He nodded.
He was surprised at how well the second week of their stay went. His brother was uncomfortable, but he just avoided them mostly, and to his huge surprise, his father didn't seem to like MingLong any less for the revelation. He didn't have the mental energy to explain polyamory and more than one boyfriend to them just then, but it did seem like a step in the right direction.
He was relieved though when they headed back to school at last. He didn't want to go back again until he had his degrees. Maybe getting a job down in the Bay Area would be where he wanted long term, but for now, it was full of complications.
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Tutor, Translator, Driver, and Assistant Manager at Dreams Ent.
Gay.
Dating Kangwan.
02/04/1999.
23.
Tiger (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Thomas Fan Qiwang on Aug 7, 2016 0:34:01 GMT -8
New Friends
The first week of his freshman year, Thomas realized that one of the downsides of being a freshman in classes with mostly sophomores and juniors was that they all already knew each other. This meant that he didn't really have anyone to work with when the dreaded group assignments began.
In his math class, and he still wasn't sure why math needed group projects, he looked around a little bit frantically from his spot in the front corner of the room. There was one other student looking uncertain, and he tried to catch his classmate's eye. The person was wearing a dress, but from what Thomas remembered, this person had a pin that said to use masculine pronouns. When his classmate looked at him, he smiled a little bit, uncertain.
Jess made his way over to Thomas's desk and said, "Looks like we're the two without partners, want to work together? I'm Jess, and use he and him, I'm a boy."
Thomas smiled tentatively again and said, "Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks Jess. I don't know anyone in the class basically."
Jess smiled at him, and it was a relief to have someone to work with. Jess was a good student, though not as into academics as he was, but they worked well together, and so he worked with Jess for projects when they were in the same class, which actually turned out to be a lot of the time even though Jess was a junior to his freshman, then a senior to his sophomore.
He enjoyed Jess's company two. He was sarcastic and a touch abrasive at times, but he was also caring and helpful. He'd been there quietly for Thomas when he'd lost his parents. But some of the other guys on his sports teams didn't get that one could have friends just because, even without a sport or a romantic interest. It was frustrating to get needled about Jess being his girlfriend cause he was too awkward to ask a real girl out. It was frustrating most of all because it wasn't respectful to his friend.
The first fight he got in at school after his parents died was because of that. And from then on, they knew that it was a sensitive topic.
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College Student (UW Bothell).
Bi.
Single.
10/19/2000.
21.
Dragon (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Inkar Mun on Sept 8, 2016 8:01:48 GMT -8
Juniors May Seem Scary, But Are Actually Pretty Nice
(also featuring Thomas Fan Qiwang )
Inkar was one of two people on the track team to qualify for States that year, and the only girl. This was practically unheard of, especially since she was a mere freshman. The other one was a junior, Thomas, she reminded herself. He was quiet, worked amazingly hard in practices, and didn't seem to get along to well with most of the other guys on the team. Inkar didn't really know why, but she'd heard some whispering about fistfights. She wasn't sure what to make of Thomas. She'd seen him around school hanging out with a cute boy with pink hair, friend, maybe boyfriend, she thought from the context.
They'd both been independent training for their events, so she'd not seen much of him before the actual trip to states. She wished that the coach wasn't so dumb about not having the girls and boys train similar events together, considering they'd both qualified for the 400 meters, because then she wouldn't be travelling with a slightly intimidating upperclassmen, then they'd have known each other since the start of track season.
She felt remarkably shy waiting for the coach to check them in for their flight. It was her, Thomas, the coach, and a female teacher who looked very bored about being there, and they were all flying to Eastern Washington for states at a ridiculous hour of the morning. Inkar didn't know if she could sleep on planes since this was her first time on one. She glanced over at Thomas nervously, and asked in a tiny voice, "Have you flown before?"
He looked remarkably awake for it being six in the morning, but he smiled at her a little awkwardly and replied, "No, actually. Freshman and sophomore years, States were close enough to drive to, especially since there were enough of us going freshman year for a bus. You?"
She shook her head. He seemed friendly enough, even if he wasn't exactly radiating enjoyment, so she added, "I'm a little nervous about it honestly."
He gave her a smile that was a little bit more reassuring this time and told her, tone soothing, "I'm pretty sure we'll be fine."
They were quiet for a good long while after that. Not something that Inkar was necessarily used to, but not too bad either way. By the time they got to the hotel they were staying in for States, and their coach had swung them by the venue to make sure that they were pre-checked in, Inkar was pretty sure that Thomas was just ridiculously quiet.
They'd gotten a small suite at the hotel because it had turned out to be cheaper to have Inkar and the female teacher share a room and Thomas and the coach share a room. Inkar decided that she might as well study in the little living room of the suite though. Thomas, it seemed, had had the same thought. It made sense though, with finals coming up, especially since he was a junior, and this was a big deal for him. His textbook stack was kind of daunting though, towering with AP texts and upper level classes.
She settled on the couch across from him with her math problems, reminding herself that Algebra II as a freshman wasn't half bad, and that as a junior, she'd be taking the same math he was taking as a junior, probably. She of course got stuck three problems in. She sat there staring at the page for a long while, uncertain how to approach it and feeling like the textbook was less than helpful.
About five minutes after she got stuck, Thomas's voice came softly from across the table, "Do you need help with something, your pencil stopped about five minutes ago."
She looked up to see him neatly tucking away his Chemistry homework, shortening the pile of textbooks by one rather thick one. She nodded, feeling slightly awkward about it, and he held out a hand for her homework. He read over the question twice before telling her, "Here, the textbook doesn't have a good example for this one because it's combining two of the tools in the book. I can show you how to break it down."
With a piece of graph paper, carefully taken out of his notebook, he showed her how to do the basic steps, setting up each one and then having her do it for herself. By the time they got to the end of the problem, both the problem itself and the two methods it was combining made significantly more sense to Inkar. She beamed at him and said, "Thank you! The teacher has been completely useless, and I don't know what to do with him."
Thomas nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're in the same Algebra II class as Kangwan, and you've got probably the worst math teacher in the school. He's the BC Calc teacher too, and when Mr. Lin subbed for him when he got sick earlier in the year, we learned more with the Chinese and music teacher it felt like, though that might just be because Mr. Lin is better at actually paying attention to his students. Everyone in the upper math track hopes he retires really soon cause then they'll have to replace him, and if it's someone younger, at least he probably won't be a jerk."
Inkar was surprised to hear someone so openly criticize a teacher when other teachers could come in, but at the same time, Thomas didn't seem too worried about the opinions of most adults at least. He was quiet, and seemed kind of awkward, but he didn't seem uncertain. She also had to recalculate just how good he was at school. BC Calculus was the second year calculus at their school, which meant he'd done Algebra II in eighth grade, or he'd gotten a year ahead somewhere.
States were intense. There weren't exactly many freshman there, and Inkar constantly felt kind of small and awkward. She did pretty well though, qualifying through to the finals at States her freshman year was definitely not too shabby. She came in around the middle of the final though, nowhere near a medal, in the 400 meters.
Then, she got to watch Thomas, who had qualified for three events: 400, long jump, and triple jump. She knew she was good, good enough to get to States as a freshman, good enough to qualify for finals as a freshman, but watching him was sort of different. A lot of other people seemed to recognize him from the year before, and he seemed in his element, still quiet, but mostly because he was very focused. He got to finals in all three events. Third in the 400, fifth in the long jump, second in the triple jump, and the coach, getting more excited than Inkar was used to seeing, shrieked, "Those are league records!"
Inkar watched him with a touch of fascination on their way back to the airport to go back to Seattle. He was still quiet, but she wanted to be like that, so focused that she was good at everything it seemed. She was surprised when, as they were waiting at the airport, Thomas told her, "You did a great job this year, I was impressed."
She shook her head and said, "I wasn't nearly as great as you out there."
That got a little laugh out of him, and he replied, "I didn't qualify for finals in either of the events I did freshman year at States. Came the closer with the 4x400, but nowhere even close in the individual 400. You've got three more years of states to come back for."
Before they split ways to go home, Thomas heading for the bus, and Inkar to where her mom was waiting with the car, he told her, "Hey, if you ever need help with homework or something, especially during the season, you can come ask."
She smiled at him, watching him turn to go, and then said, "Wait, I bet you can get a ride back to your place from us."
He looked surprised, but he nodded, and followed her over to her mom. Her mom was happy to give Thomas a ride, and Inkar was relieved. She didn't expect to see him much that summer, and she suspected that by the time the school year rolled around and he was a senior, he wouldn't really want to talk to her anymore.
Then, her first day of club sports training, meeting at the 24 Hour Fitness, he was the one sitting at the front desk checking people in. All through the summer, she chatted with him intermittently, surprised to find that he was actually really cool. Eventually she even confirmed her suspicion that Kangwan was his boyfriend, which amused her because of how much he blushed over it. But he was reassured when she told him that she was bi herself, and he didn't need to worry about it, she wouldn't tell. It was nice to have a friend who cared about similar things to her, and got that she was busy with taking care of her younger siblings.
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Chinese Teacher/Martial Arts Instructor/Music Teacher/Composer/Session Musician.
gay/grey-ace/polyromantic.
Married to Baian.
08/13/1996.
25.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Minglong Lin on Nov 29, 2016 2:26:28 GMT -8
Choosing a Major
MingLong arrived to his first advising meeting of transfer week at UW, and he was prepared. He had booked the last slot of the day because he had wanted to spend the beginning of the day going to as many department fairs as possible, and he had assembled a whole stack of pamphlets describing the requirements and merits of different departments. He was completely lost.
The problem wasn’t that he didn’t want to major in something, it was that he wanted to major in too many things. He had the grades and the breadth of study to get into almost any program he wanted to and several that he didn’t, so he couldn’t even narrow it down by the reality of the matter.
The appointment before his didn’t run much over time, but even then, MingLong was starting to get antsy. The professor who he’d been assigned to, Dr. Eric Phan, worked with a lot of international students, and he’d had good ratings on professor websites. MingLong smiled when Professor Phan stuck his head out into the hallway and called out, “Is there a MingLong Lin here for an appointment?”
MingLong stood up from where he’d been sitting across the hall and smiled, replying with, “That is me.”
Professor Phan smiled back, and he held open the door, saying, “Come in, come in. It looks like you’re well prepared at least.”
MingLong nodded seriously and said, “I have been going to department fairs all morning. Too many things seem interesting, and I am having trouble with deciding a major.”
Professor Phan laughed a little bit and told him kindly, “Well, that’s a better problem than the other way around. There are a fair number of crossover majors that mix elements from different departments, so there’s a good chance that we’ll be able to find you something that will fit what you want, and there’s always double majoring, though that will depend on your academic record up until now and whether or not you’re able to do summer term. I’ll pull up your transfer record, and you can start telling me about the different choices you’re torn between.”
MingLong sighed and said, “It is almost easier to tell you the things I am not interested in. In sort of general, I think that I may want to major in something to do with music or languages or communication of culture, but that does not narrow down my choices very much, and a more practical part of me thinks that maybe a science major would be a better plan.”
Professor Phan was about to reply when his eye was caught by the file that he had just pulled up on his screen. He was quiet for a good long while, and then he said, “I’m honestly quite impressed with your record up until now. You’ve more than finished your distribution requirements, and it looks like you overloaded every quarter at CBCC after the first one, but your grades didn’t suffer for it.”
MingLong fidgeted during his professor’s assessment. He knew that he was smart and a good student, but praise for it was not something he was entirely used to, or comfortable with. Professor Phan took a few quiet moments longer to look over his academic assessment, and then he said, “With your background, you could easily go for a music major of just about any type, and the department would be jumping up and down to get you. I saw that it was listed that you won a major competition for arrangement and composition your second to last term at CBCC. But it sounds like you aren’t sure that that’s what you want to do?”
MingLong bit his lip, thinking about how to say what he wanted to say in English. He hesitated, speaking slowly, but Professor Phan listened to him patiently, which made it easier to say, “I love music. It has been a thing that I do since I was very young. But I am a traditional music player, with several traditional Chinese instruments before I am a Western musician. I love the violin and the oboe as well, and I do want to keep doing orchestra and other music ensembles, but they are not my favorite instruments.”
He paused, looking for more words, and Professor Phan asked, not pushing but guiding, “So do you want to do something with music that would allow you more chances to use all the instruments that you work with?”
MingLong nodded and went on, “That would be good, but music is not the only thing that I love, and I know that I am good at it, but it is not maybe my most practical interest, especially if I want to be getting job in the US after I graduate.”
Professor Phan nodded and told him, “So it’s an interest to consider, but do you maybe think that you’d rather minor in it or double major than just plain major in it?”
MingLong nodded and said, “Double major maybe. If you think that it could be made to work with me graduating in time. My scholarship, it ends at the end of summer term 2018, so I would need to graduate by then.”
Professor Phan looked over his records again and told him, “I’m fairly certain that you’ll be able to double major especially since it sounds like summer terms are in the picture for you. If you continue to achieve academically the way you have in the past, I can’t see why any advisor would turn down letting you overload for a term or two if you needed to so you could graduate on time. What other things are you particularly interested in?”
MingLong made another face, as though finding an answer to the question was incredibly difficult, and at last he replied, “I like understanding people better. Learning about new cultures since coming to the US, it has been very interesting, and I have always liked learning the languages. I speak three, and I have been trying to learn another one a little bit, and would like to take more of it if I can work it into my schedule, Korean.”
He paused, and glanced down at his brochures, headers for Anthropology and Linguistics and the various Music programs peaking out of the stack. There was one other pamphlet that he’d picked up that caught his eye, and he said hesitantly, “There is a minor that I am very interested in since I heard about it.”
Professor Phan had been nodding along, taking notes and pulling up things on his computer based on what MingLong was saying, but he stilled when he heard MingLong sounding so uncomfortable, and he asked gently, “Which one are you interested in?”
MingLong looked around the office, anywhere but at the Professor, and his eyes landed on the little rainbow shield sticker in the corner of the office window, proclaiming it a safe space, and he sighed in relief, still uncomfortable but a bit more relaxed. He said softly, “I stopped briefly at the fair for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies minor. It seemed like a place that I would be comfortable, and the classes that it offered seemed interesting.”
He glanced up at the Professor, knowing that it was probably fine, but he’d not ever said that he was gay and asexual to a professor before knowing that it was a reasonable context. Not that he’d said it for real to Professor Phan yet, but the idea was out there, and he couldn’t take it back. The Professor’s smile was kind as he looked back at him, and MingLong relaxed further. Professor Phan’s voice was gentle again as he said, “That’s a good strong minor to pick, especially if you might be interested in some social work, and it’s important to have places that you feel safe. You’ve not got anything to worry about from me, and I work a fair amount with the department helping with expanding safe spaces on campus. I remember back when my husband and I were undergrads and it was a lot scarier.”
MingLong relaxed fully then, and he smiled widely again, though all he said was, “Oh!”
Professor Phan clicked a few more things on his computer, and he turned it so that MingLong could see the screen. He said, “I think that there are a few intersectional departments that you might be interested in from what you’re telling me. The Ethnomusicology program is a big one. It combines a lot of things from music and performance, but also from Anthro, and I see that you’ve got that brochure there. They’ve got a World Music focus that would let you do composition and performance with a whole slew of different groups based on your interests coming in. You also mentioned an interest in languages, and with the cultural interest, instead of the specific languages, you might get more breadth with Linguistics. There’s an Asian Languages and Cultures focus major, which would let you use Chinese at an upper level and also give you the chance to study some of the other major Asian languages offered at UW like Korean.”
When MingLong shuffled through his various pamphlets he managed to pull out the two for the listed departments. He said, “I thought that both of these seemed almost right, but the fairs focused more on European languages and cultures, and I was not sure that it was what I wanted to do.”
He flipped the pamphlets open, eyes scanning over the small text about the different tracks, and he pulled a pen from his pocket to circle the ones that Professor Phan had mentioned. Upon reading their requirements more closely, he smiled more widely and said, “Yes, this does sound about right. There’s a Classical Chinese focus in the Linguistics Major, and that is something that I have a lot of interest in, but the linguistics, it is more practical than just studying classical Chinese.”
Professor Phan smiled at his enthusiasm, and he asked encouragingly, “Do you want to attempt to enroll in those departments as a double major then? It might take a few days for it to clear, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work out. You’ve clearly got a bright future, and doing something that you’re enthusiastic about is going to help with that.”
MingLong nodded and said, “I think that I would like that a great deal.”
Professor Phan put together the request, and MingLong read through his pamphlets a little bit more closely. After a short while, Professor Phan said, “We should go ahead and get you pre-registered for the classes that you’d need to start out with for the course that you’re looking at. Most of the intro courses are open to students who don’t have an official major yet if they’ve declared that they want to do the major, or are just open to other majors in general, so we should be able to get you registered.”
He pulled up the registration website and said, “Are there any things that I should know before trying to get your schedule worked out? Any days or times that are bad?”
MingLong replied, “If possible, I would like to have my schedule be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday only. My boyfriend, he is in the Library Science department, and those are the days of his program and work hours, and we drive over together from Cedar Beach. He is the one who drives, so I would like to have my schedule match as closely as I can to his.”
Professor Phan nodded, smiling again when MingLong mentioned a boyfriend, and he pulled up the classes that he was trying to get into MingLong’s schedule. He looked uncertain for a moment, and then he said, “Well, I can fit it all on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but you’re going to have some mighty long days. You’d be starting at 10 am and not finishing until 8 pm with two hour long breaks, one around lunch time.”
MingLong nodded and said, “That can work for me. I will have the other days to do homework and rest. I will have a Chinese language TA job, but not in class. It is part of my scholarship, the language exchange, but I can work that around. I will be getting here at 9 am, and
I can work the language lunch sometime.”
Professor Phan was about to hit accept on the schedule when a notification popped up on his screen, and he tapped it. His eyebrows climbed and he said, “Well, it looks like I don’t have to worry about getting you enrolled without a firmly declared major, you’ve already been accepted for your plan of study. You’ll be getting assigned advisors in your own departments, and they’ll probably want to see you before the end of the week, but I can get you set up with this.”
MingLong was grinning as he left the appointment, glad that he’d chosen the last one because they’d gone a fair bit over his allotted time. He tucked all the pamphlets away into his bag, but he held onto the small stack of sheets that Professor Phan had printed out for him, one with his schedule, and one each for appointments with an advisor in the three departments he would be a part of.
BaiAn was sitting on a bench outside the building reading a book while waiting for him. MingLong rustled the papers a little bit as he got closer, and BaiAn looked up, his face relaxed and contented looking. MingLong was already smiling a bit, but he couldn’t help but smile wider when he met eyes with BaiAn, and he laughed when his boyfriend said, “Well you look happy, so I assume that that taking longer than expected meant that you sorted everything out.”
MingLong nodded and told him, “I am now officially double majoring in Ethnomusicography and Linguistics with a minor in LGBT Studies.”
He stumbled over the acronym a bit, but he was pleased to have used it correctly after Professor Phan had said it a few times when discussing the details of his schedule. BaiAn smiled at him in return and said, “That is a very you major. I’m glad that you figured something out.”
They walked together back towards the parking lots, headed home for the evening. MingLong was glad that they weren’t going to dorms, but instead back to their comfortable home. He was excited to tell the other two about their day. As they got in the car, he asked BaiAn, “How was the first library day? Are you getting settled in?”
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Assistant Librarian.
Gay. Polyam..
Married to Minglong.
08/09/1996.
25.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Baian Tan on Mar 27, 2017 21:21:44 GMT -8
What Comes Next
(featuring Baian Tan and Minglong Lin )
When they'd started at UW, Baian had realized that there were only two more years before Minglong was done with undergrad. He was planning to do grad school in the US, hopefully nearby, and then if he could getting a job, but none of that was certain. Baian didn't have the sort of career path to work well outside of the US except perhaps as an English teacher, and even then, he wasn't sure how good he'd be at that. It in theory took a lot of talking. At first, the idea was one that he didn't like to touch because he couldn't think of any real solution other than to hope, but he didn't like problems he couldn't solve, so he kept circling back to it.
After he'd been toying with the idea for a few months, and Minglong had declared his major and minor, and Baian knew that he needed to help Minglong find a way to stay now, because he'd had a few serious chats with Minglong about his chosen minor and why it was a risk for him to choose it, finally, he realized there was a possible solution that he hadn't addressed because it seemed like something he might want a little bit too much, and also the fact that it showed that maybe he cared and worried more about Minglong not being able to stay than Yongji. A corner or his brain reminded him that Yongji would at least be fairly safe if he had to go home for a while.
He thought about it for a while longer before bringing it up to Minglong. The last day of their quarter, when Baian was driving them home from their finals, he finally asked Minglong the first part of his question, "Do you think that you'd ever want to get married?"
Minglong took a moment to think, and Baian was nervous, but it wasn't long before Minglong replied, "I've not thought about it too much, maybe. To who?"
Baian could hear the expectation in that question, and he knew that Minglong was waiting for him to make his point, whatever it might be. He had to suspect that Minglong might have had some of the same thoughts as him, but he also knew that Minglong would want to hear his thought process on the matter, and Minglong knew him well enough not to rush his words. Baian replied, slightly tentative, "Well, I was thinking, to me. Not right away unless you wanted to, but it would be a solution..."
He trailed off, flicking a glance over at Minglong as the traffic slowed down around them, keeping his attention enough on the road to be safe. Minglong looked thoughtful when he replied, "I'd want to know if you were asking because you actually wanted to marry me, or if it was just to keep me safe. And keep me here."
Baian thought for a while, glad that traffic picked back up and he had the excuse of changing lanes in traffic to not respond right away. Finally he said, "Is both an OK answer? I thought of it because it would solve the problem, but I wouldn't have even thought about asking if I didn't want to."
He saw Minglong nod out of the corner of his eye. Minglong told him, "The idea had occurred to me, but I didn't want to ask because I didn't want to have it seem like I was just coming to you as a solution. And then there's Yongji and Denis and what they'd think of the idea."
Baian waited, knowing that if he didn't interject after a few moments, Minglong would finish the thought. Much as he expected, Minglong went on, "I'm not quite sure what either of them would think. There's not a legal sort of marriage for four people, and logically, if we wanted to stay here, each of Yongji and I would benefit from marrying one of the Americans. But it's not that simple. People see marriage as being important, and out of our four, you're the one that I would most want to put it on paper like that with. I don't know how that will change the relationship, especially with how things have been hard for Denis lately already."
Baian nodded. He'd worried about all this too. Finally, he asked, voice small, "You would want to though? Maybe not right away, but eventually?"
Minglong hummed agreeably and replied, "I would, yes. I just need to think about how to tell the others. I think that I like the idea enough even if they don't entirely, that I would want to say yes. You're not very good at romantic proposals though."
Baian laughed, smile spreading on his face and having to focus on the road carefully. He said, "If you expected me to be, then I would be surprised."
Minglong laughed a little bit along with him and told him, "I think that I would have thought that you'd been replaced with the you from an alternate universe or that fairies had kidnapped and brainwashed you or something."
They were quiet then, listening to the music from Minglong's phone that had been plugged into the car's radio. They didn't talk about it again right away, but several car rides were spent in the new quarter hashing out the idea. Eventually they told the others to mixed results.
When Denis went away for a while, at least a while, because he had other family that needed him, Baian wondered if it was an excuse, but he talked with Minglong again, and both of them were more sure now. Yongji was still there, still affectionate, but Baian wondered what he thought of the whole thing because he felt like Yongji was hiding it from them at least some.
Before the winter holiday, he called Baiwen and told him what was going on. Baiwen listened to him and asked, "What can I do to help?"
Baian told him that they weren't going to do anything other than a courthouse wedding for now, maybe once they'd both graduated they could do something fancy down in the Bay Area and even invite some of Minglong's family, but there was one thing he wanted. There was a little jewelry shop that they knew, one that made narrow jade bands that had silver around them, and Baian wanted to get two of them, but he didn't trust them getting picked out online. Baiwen reassured him that he'd pick them based on what Baian wanted, and when the little package finally arrived, at last, they were ready to do all the paperwork.
It took a little while to apply for the license, and then to wait for it to be ready to use, but they went to the courthouse on a weekday, when it was slow, and by lunchtime, they were married. Baian couldn't help but smile when Minglong threw his arms around him, surprised by the rings, and said, "I take back you being bad at romantic gestures, these are beautiful. How did you manage to keep them a secret."
Baian smiled sheepishly and told him, "I had my cousin send them to me. It seemed like something that you'd like."
As they held hands heading to grab lunch, the friend who had served as their witness heading off to do other things, Baian could feel the ring on Minglong's finger, and he couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride and happiness that they'd actually gone through with the idea.
((Note: They probably get married sometime between late March and early May. I've not decided for sure, so it might not have happened yet, and this is up for discussion timing wise in how it effects Yongji.))
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Chinese Teacher/Martial Arts Instructor/Music Teacher/Composer/Session Musician.
gay/grey-ace/polyromantic.
Married to Baian.
08/13/1996.
25.
Rat (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Minglong Lin on Aug 21, 2017 23:22:41 GMT -8
At the end of his first full year at UW, Minglong had meetings with what felt like way too many advisers, but he was making straight A's, and he'd been enjoying how many project based classes he was taking. He was planning to take a full summer load, mostly to catch up on the few distribution requirements he'd been missing from CBCC, but they were all interesting classes. His ethnomusicology adviser was his last meeting before the couple of weeks off, and he'd be meeting Baian for lunch and then to drive back to Cedar Beach after.
The professor, Doc Liang to most of his students, was smiling when Minglong entered the room, and he had a full series of pamphlets on his desk. Minglong smiled back and after greeting his favorite professor, asked curiously, "What's all this?"
Doc Liang replied, "There's a composition competition that I just got information on from the main music department, rather late mind you, called The Many Languages of Music, and I think that the big project that you've been working on of arrangements for Chinese folk songs on classical Western instruments and Western folk songs on classical Chinese instruments would fit it if you can actually arrange it into something with movements. You've got all the compositions, you're just going to need to do some rearranging. I got this kind of late, so the deadline isn't that far off, a week after summer quarter starts, but I think that you could do it, and honestly have a chance at winning if you do. The prize for the contest is fifty thousand dollars and having the chance to perform and direct your arrangement at Carnegie Hall, possibly a few other places too if it's well received."
Minglong stared at the pamphlets wide-eyed, sitting down and shuffling through them. The requirements registered, sheet music first, and recordings if you made it through the first round. He could do that. And there wasn't a submission fee if it was submitted through the university. He nodded slowly and said, "I can have something to you by next week Doc Liang. Would you be willing to give me comments before I submit it?"
His professor smiled at him and said, "Of course. I'll make sure that we've got a set of people to help you record over the summer. I know you can play most of the parts yourself if need be, but you can't do the entire Western chamber ensemble."
Minglong only half paid attention to the rest of the meeting, focusing on the idea of a competition like that. There were other prizes beyond the big one, and all of them would be nice. He tried not to hope too hard.
He chattered to Baian about it on the way home, and his husband told him in his slow and encouraging way, "I bet you can do it. Your music always sounds amazing."
Minglong smiled at Baian, glad that he understood. He spent the next week frantically rearranging bits of the music on his laptop, creating alternating movements and trying to make sure everything was balanced well. When he emailed it to Doc Liang, he didn't think that much of what would happen next, since he was busy with other things, but there was a touch of hope in the back of his mind.
Halfway through summer quarter, he got a big glossy envelope in the mail, and his hands shook a little bit at he opened it, Baian and Yongji looking on. He read it, half not believing the words, and then croaked out, "I made it through the first stage. I'm going to have to spend so much time recording to get the next part ready."
He called Doc Liang that evening, and his professor was nearly as excited as he was. The next month before the recording submission deadline was a whirl of recordings, and practicing with other symphony and ensemble musicians, and just editing and editing and editing all the parts together. He was proud of it when it was done though. He knew that they'd have to practice it live, but the recording was more of a proof of concept.
Then, he had to wait again. Two days before his senior year of college started, another letter came, bigger and glossier than the last. And his hands shook again as he opened it, with his husband and boyfriend looking on. He sat down in his chair hard, eyes wide, too stunned to say anything, clutching at the paper. Baian came around behind him to read it over his shoulder, and then wrapped him in a hug and said softly, "You won, I knew you could do it."
There were still tons of arrangements to be done, and Minglong was glad that it wouldn't be until winter break that he'd be going to New York because there was so much to prepare, but he was shocked and glad and didn't quite know what to do with himself. He had no idea what to do with the $50k. It was a strange new wealth for him, though it wasn't a huge amount of money in the grand scheme of things.
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High Schooler (11th - composition) / Dreams Ent Trainee / Producer / Choreographer.
Unsure (not straight).
Single.
08/01/2008.
13.
Rat (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Taijia Lin on Aug 21, 2017 23:37:49 GMT -8
Tai's ninth birthday had fallen at a sort of quiet lull in the lives of his strange little family, and it had been nice to go out and celebrate with his Uncles in a quiet way. They took him to bookstores, and to see a contemporary ballet in Seattle that he'd been interested in, and they ate some of his favorite foods. He'd thought about asking if he could invite Anya, but he would see her later in the week for a more normal celebration of going to the zoo, which he was excited for too.
He was thoughtful all that day, a state that didn't worry his Uncles too much, since it was a fairly common state for him. He talked to people more comfortably than he had a few years before, probably mostly because of Anya's influence, but he was still quiet, reserved, and thoughtful, with eyes that seemed to be constantly lost looking at something far off that only he could see.
He thought about what it would be like to join a dance troupe, and do nothing but that until he had to retire and maybe teach, but he didn't really want to do that. He liked performing, but being part of such a big group, where he would only do one thing it seemed like, seemed kind of awful. He'd had the idea for a while, Kangwan had kind of made it form fully, but it had rooted itself more firmly over time.
He wanted to audition for a Korean idol company when he was old enough. It hadn't been entirely real until then, but the timing was creeping up on him fast. Kangwan had told him about school in Korea, and he wasn't worried about that. His Korean was comfortable, and he was so dramatically ahead in school that it wouldn't be a big worry to transfer to another system. Kangwan had told him that middle school started in 7th grade there, and so that was kind of his goal, not long now, since he was going into 5th grade.
He didn't have to do anything special to pay attention to when things were, and how auditions worked. Uncle Hwannie was subscribed to all the right channels on YouTube already, and he'd watched lots of people's audition dances, and the explanations of how to sign up for auditions. He worried most about telling his Uncles that he was interested in going. He didn't think that they wouldn't let him. They'd always supported him in what he wanted to do, searching high and low for ways to get him dance lessons, but he knew that they would worry, and that they would want someone to go with him.
That was the hard part. But he knew that they would figure out what would work. He just had to let them know, and he wouldn't yet, not for at least a few more months, not until he was a little less freshly nine. So he just focused like he always had, practicing dancing even harder, working on his singing with Uncle Jin, and playing guitar and piano with various of his Uncles, and getting Uncle Hwannie to show him how his composing software worked so that he could try some of his own. When he was old enough, he would be ready. He was determined.
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Figure Skater.
Uncertain.
Single.
01/01/2003.
19.
Horse (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Elizabet Sarangerel Ganbold on Nov 28, 2017 22:47:49 GMT -8
This story bit is dated back to mid-March 2017. I took some liberties with the actual timeline and attendees of the Junior World Championships of Figure Skating, but it does have some commonalities with the actual event (including where the scores would have placed her). ((This was written as a short story in my writing at least 1,667 words a day for all of November, even after finishing my initial NaNo project.))
Junior Worlds
Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold was going to her first Junior World Championships. She was fourteen, and she was full of more nerves than she thought she would be. It was her first major competition representing Mongolia, and only her second competition representing them ever, since it had taken a little while for her to be cleared to represent a different federation with the ISU.
Her mother hadn't been able to come, so it had just been her and Sungyong. He'd been supportive, but also quietly contemplative. She wondered what it must be like for him to be back as a coach. He'd downplayed just how good he'd been a little bit, but she'd done some digging, and she knew that he'd been one of the favorites to win Junior Worlds the year he blew out his knee in practice. It had been years, but she would not have been surprised to hear it still stung.
She wanted to make him proud. She was nervous at the draw though, surrounded by a lot of girls who'd been competing on the same circuit all season and knew each other. She was a little surprised when one of the girls from a little cluster came over to her and said, “Mongolia huh? You can come sit with us. Small Feds represent.”
Liz laughed a little and followed her, saying softly, “Thanks. I'm Liz. You skate for Singapore?”
The other girl smiled back at her and said, “Yeah, I'm Yu. Most of us over there are the South East Asian contingent, but you looked lonely.”
Liz nodded and replied, “I, uh, kind of recognize one of the team USA girls. We competed at Sectionals once when I was still competing for the US.”
Yu laughed and asked, “Did you grow up there? So did a few of the others.”
Liz nodded, but her response was for stalled by reaching the other girls. It was nice to have folks to sit with, and she was a little relieved to realize that while the others knew each other, it wasn't well. Yu was friends with everyone it seemed, but she seemed to have that sort of personality.
Soon enough the draw actually started, and they went through countries alphabetically, with skaters alphabetical within the country for bigger federations sending two or three skaters. The girl in her little circle from Malaysia, Lisa, went up a little before her with scattered cheers, and she drew tenth. She seemed relieved, and when she sat down, she whispered, “Good luck. This is about where I wanted to be.”
Then it was Liz’s turn. She went up shyly to a small cluster of cheers. She pulled her number and showed it to the person running the draw. He smiled at her and entered her name for first skater. Yu patted her on the back and said, “Tough luck, first is a hard place to skate.”
Once the draw was done, they all scattered, wishing each other luck for the next day. Sungyong collected her at the front and said, “First skater, huh? How you feeling?”
Liz thought about it for a moment before replying, “A little more nervous but ok.”
He took her out to a good pre competition dinner. They were mostly pretty quiet, having gone over pretty much everything at practice earlier, but towards the end of dinner, he said, “Someone from the ISU people wants to interview us. You’re a bit of an interest piece. I'll tell them no if you want me to, but it can be good attention. She was anxious about it, but she told him, “I'll do it.”
The next day, her focus was completely on the competition in the afternoon, and the interview mostly slipped her mind. She went to official practice and ran her short program one last time before the real thing. Her jumps were feeling good, and suddenly she was excited. Yu waved at her as their practice groups were trading off the ice, and she smiled at her and waved back. Having a friendly face there was nice.
It seemed like she blinked between practice and the start of the short program. She knew she'd eaten and stretched, but it was all fuzzy. The rink seemed huge as the members of her warm up group were called out, but she settled a little bit when her she's actually gripped the ice. She practiced a few jumping passes at the start of the warm up, especially the triple flip, that year’s required jump. Then she spent most of the warm up on footwork and spins. She didn't want to exhaust herself for the short program.
She didn't leave the ice with the others, instead skating to where Sungyong was waiting for her. He squeezed her hands and said soothingly, “Just like practice. For the next few minutes, it's you and the ice. Go out there and do your best.”
Liz felt a strange calm as she skated out to the center, taking her starting pose after the announced mangled her name. The familiar strains of her music filled her ears, and she started her footwork sequence. She felt good on the ice, stretching into the layback on her spread eagle and then launching into her first jump pass. She wasn't as worried about the combo, but it was still the first jump. She picked off the ice into the lutz, feeling everything align into a smooth landing, and then pushed off into her most comfortable jump, the triple loop. From there it was like practice, spins into choreography, and then the double axel. Finally, she did her transitions across the ice and launched into the triple flip. She wasn't sure on her edge, but she landed it and moved into the final spin, finishing right on the music.
There were cheers suddenly echoing in her ears, and she saw more stuffed animals and flowers fall to the ice than she would have expected. She scooped a stuffed cat up from her path and went to step off the ice, her legs suddenly shaking. Sungyong hugged her and said, “That was brilliant Liz.”
They waited in the kiss and cry quietly, and she tensed as the announcer said, “The scores for Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold please.”
The pause seemed to draw out for longer than it probably actually did, and finally they announced, “Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold has earned a total of 62.85 points in the short program putting her currently in first place.”
Liz’s hands came up to cover her face in shock. Sungyong whispered in disbelief, “That's twenty points over last season.”
Liz’s interview wasn't scheduled until later, so after cooling down, they slipped into the stands to watch. She stayed in first through three warm up groups, watching in shock as all three Americans and a Russian scored less than her. She was almost relieved when the first of the team Japan girls finally bumped her down into second, but she was still close. It didn't entirely seem real.
As the end of the final group wrapped up, Sungyong drew her gently away saying, “Interview time.”
Liz nodded and said in a small voice, “I'm in sixth. I wasn't expecting…”
Sungyong squeezed her elbow and said, “I knew you were that good, I'm just glad they saw it too.”
The interview was weirdly more daunting than the short program had been. She’d never been interviewed before. She noticed Sungyong shifting a little bit awkwardly too, and she knew he’d been interviewed before, back when he was skating at the level she was now, but she wondered if maybe it was weird for him to be back.
The interviewer was already in the little conference room when they arrived. He was a middle aged man with a countenance that Liz could only describe as gentle. He seemed so genuinely happy to see them there, that Liz was able to relax a little. He came over hand extend, and shook first Sungyong’s hand and then hers, introducing himself as Ted, and he sat them down at the little table with a smile.
He asked some really simple questions first, about how long she’d been skating and how she’d started skating with Sungyong. Finally it got into the sort of stuff that she was a little bit antsy about answering, but she figured that she’d just try her best to say the truth, and she figured that Ted was nice enough that he wouldn’t try to skew what she was saying. He asked, “Did you expect to be in the top six at the end of the short program?”
Liz shook her head and said, “I really didn’t. I wasn’t on the Junior Grand Prix circuit this year, so I really didn’t get a chance to face up against anyone. I came in second at the one smaller event that I went to last month, but it was a pretty small field, and I definitely scored higher here because I didn’t fall on my flip.”
Sungyong nodded along to what she said, and he added, “I knew that Liz had the technical for it if she landed everything. Putting loops as the second jump of the combo helps with that, but I didn’t really have a good way to judge how the PCS would turn out. I am of course biased as her coach.”
Ted turned to him and said, “Back when you won the Junior Grand Prix final, you were known for your artistry though. Is that something that you thought that you were able to impart well to Liz?”
Sungyong squirmed just a little bit, but he gave a half-hearted smile and said, “We’ve definitely spent a lot of time working on transitions and skating skills and good spin positions and all that. It looks like the judges thought so out there today. It’s a different judging field than when I was out there as a skater though.”
Ted nodded and smiled, and Liz was relieved that Sungyong seemed to relax a little. It wasn’t helping her nerves entirely that he was having nerves of his own. Ted asked her, “What made you decide to do the triple lutz, triple loop combo. Almost no one in the world uses that one.”
Liz laughed a bit sheepishly and replied, “It’s one of the only combos that I’m actually good at for the short program. I can do a triple lutz, triple loop or a triple toe, triple loop, or a triple sal, triple loop, but the only triple, triple combo that I can do with a toe loop on the end is the triple loop, triple toe loop. The loop was the only triple I had for about six months after I started trying for triples.”
Sungyong laughed a little bit and said, “I suspect that that might have been one of my coaching influences that I’m not quite as proud of.”
Ted smiled at him and said, “Well it’s led to quite a technical advantage in the end. I do remember that the triple lutz, triple loop was your signature combination as well.”
Sungyong nodded, and the interview continued for a little bit on topics like why she hadn’t skated at the beginning of the season, which Ted was clearly mostly just clarifying for listeners because he understood the ISU guidelines about changing federations just as well as they did.
At the end of the interview, he asked another hard question though. He said, “You’ll be skating in the final group tomorrow, along with all three of the Japanese ladies, one of the Korean ladies, and one of the Russian ladies. How do you think that you’ll do? Do you think that you could medal?”
Liz shrugged a little bit and said, “I’m just going to try my best to skate my best. It’s amazing for me to be in the final group, and I really hope that I can make myself and Sungyong and my mom proud. If I skate well enough to be on the podium, that would be amazing, but the biggest thing that I was hoping for coming in was to skate well and maybe make it into the top ten. This has been pretty unbelievable and amazing so far.”
Ted shook their hands on the way out, and Liz could see Sungyong relaxing as they headed to the official hotel. He told her, “You did well today, both with the skating and with the interview.”
The free skate was the next day, and Liz awoke with a serious case of the jitters. She wasn’t sure that she was entirely ready to skate with some of the people who she’d been watching win things all season. She didn’t know what they’d think of her, and she didn’t know if she’d really be able to talk to any of them. She took Chinese at school, though she wasn’t that advanced in it yet, and she didn’t know which of them would speak much English. She was glad that she’d not really be having to spend much social time with them, even if they could communicate because she was a little bit intimidated honestly.
The morning practice was quiet. They were the last group on the ice for practice, and the none of the other girls had really stuck around to watch at the practice rink since they were generally headed to the main rink to watch their teammates skate as the day’s events started or heading back to the hotel to rest for a while. Liz was relieved not to have an audience that was actually other skaters. She was a little bit more comfortable once she was on the ice though. She had held her own with these skaters in the short program and earned her spot in the group.
She stayed quiet and focused, running bits of her program in the rests between skaters having their music run, and then practicing bits around the edges as she waited for the next person to be done. She was used to crowded rinks considering that most of her practices overlapped with public ice time. It was interesting seeing other advanced skaters on the ice at the same time as her, but they were far more predictable than small children, and therefore easier to avoid.
When her music came up, she did a full run through of her program, not marking any of the jumps like she’d seen some of the others do. She was generally pretty consistent, and she wasn’t too worried about wearing herself out. She usually didn’t have her best run through of the day in practice until towards the end of the middle part, when she wasn’t tired yet, but was all the way loose and comfortable.
Liz was starting to think that this competition just wanted her to go first in things. She’d drawn first in the final ladies warm up group, and she was surprisingly less worried about it than she felt she might have been. She decided that she didn’t want to see the others skate first because she didn’t really know what she was going up against, and she was going to skate to the whole of her ability the best she could anyhow.
The nerves came back a little bit during the warm up, and she fell on a triple flip, though fortunately not too hard. It did rattle her a little bit. As she was waiting for the cue to head to the center, Sungyong told her, “Remember, when you’re out there, it’s just you and the ice. Just like practice. You’ve done great so far, just keep doing what you’re doing.”
She nodded, and she put everything about scores and placements out of her mind the best she could. She loved this program. She’d been itching all year to actually perform it, and this was her big chance. She didn’t want to mess it up.
As the music started, she put everything she could into the program. It started with the most artistically challenging, but physically easily part, the step sequence. She and Sungyong had chosen a serpentine style sequence, winding across the ice in a few different ways, and she appreciated that it made her feel like she knew the whole of the rink. Finally, it was time for the first combination. She heard the music rise, and right on the crescendo, she flew into the double axel, fought a bit for the double toe’s balance, and relaxed into the finishing double loop. It wasn’t a huge start, but it was something to get her feeling sure on the ice.
There were a few transitions into her flying camel, and she enjoyed the feel of the spin, knowing that she was tightly centered and getting enough rotations at each position. Then she soared off across the ice with spiral into a three turn into the triple lutz, triple loop again. She was fairly sure that this one had been better than the one in the short program, more sure, but she didn’t let her mind linger on tat. The change of foot combination from the camel to the sit spin was next, and it was the hardest of the spins in her program, going into the jump that she struggled with the most. She worried for a second as she came out of the spin that she’d fight her edges, but she found where she wanted to be with plenty of time to propel herself upwards into the triple flip.
There was a lull in the music there, where she did some more steps into her next jump, timed just to when the music suddenly became full and loud again, but she knew that the rest was easier for her. She started the next set of jumping passes off with a triple toe loop, knowing in a little corner of her mind that she was probably the only lady in the top group who would use the triple toe as a stand alone triple. From there, she flowed into the triple salchow, triple loop combination which she’d been getting more steady on the past few months. The jumps came close together in this part of her program, and she hardly had time to think before the stand alone double axel was there for her.
She knew that she’d skated well coming into the final jump and spin of the program, doing a few quick steps into the triple lutz, and then aiming for the center of the ice for her finishing layback spin. She held the same position throughout, using her arms to accent the motion of the spin. The layback was her favorite, and she’d used it as the final piece of the program to be memorable, knowing that while the position wasn’t as stunning as a bielman perhaps, like she’d done in the short program, it should garner good grades of execution.
There were cheers as she finished, and she looked around as people were taking their feet around the rink. She was a little shocked. The entire program had felt good, natural even, across the ice. Sungyong was jumping a little in place as he clapped, and she could see the shimmer of tears on his face under the bright lights as she got close enough to take her skate guards from him.
She stumbled a bit coming off the ice, but Sungyong caught her arm and supported her to the kiss and cry. He was grinning at her, and she smiled back, too pleased with how she’d done to entirely feel the exhaustion. They waited in the kiss and cry for a long time, and Liz just hoped that they’d be happy with her.
Finally, the announcer called out, “The scores for Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold Please.”
There was another nerve wracking pause, and then he continued, “Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold has earned 110.05 points in the free skate, and a total combined score of 172.90, placing her currently in first place.”
Sungyong wrapped her in an exuberant hug, and she hugged back grateful to be able to hide the tears of shock and relief and joy that were streaming down her face. She’d at least gotten sixth. No matter how the rest of the group went, she wouldn’t have fallen places.
She wasn’t even bothered as each of the other ladies in the group placed above her. Sixth was far far more than she’d originally expected, and she was thrilled. Maybe next year she’d be actually gunning for the podium, but for her second international competition competing for Mongolia, and her third international competition ever, it was amazing to her. She received more congratulations than she would have expected as she left, and then there was the invitation to perform in the gala. She was glad that Sungyong had reminded her to pack the dress for last season’s short program, saying it was a good back up in case something happened to her other costumes. She wondered now if it had also been for this. She’d not had an exhibition skate planned, but Sungyong just smiled at her and said, “Last year’s short program will do just fine. I’ve still got a CD for it and everything because it’s on the same track list as your free skate this year.”
The gala was bit of a blur, but she enjoyed it, and what seemed like all too soon, she was on the plane home. She had contact info for the girls that she’d waited for at the draw though, and they’d been so excited for her at the party after the gala. She was still reeling from that a little too. She was happy to see how content Sungyong looked with the outcome of the whole thing. She also wasn’t sure how she was going to focus going back to school on Monday.
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Figure Skater.
Uncertain.
Single.
01/01/2003.
19.
Horse (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Elizabet Sarangerel Ganbold on Feb 26, 2019 3:23:05 GMT -8
This story is backdated to 6 February 2019 through 9 February 2019. At this point, Liz is in her second full season competing as a junior (technically fourth season overall). The figure skating competitions are based off the real competitive timeline and results, but I have tweaked/fictionalized things some to make Liz's story fit in relatively well. To cover the timeline:
- During the 2015/2016 Season: (Age 13) This was technically Liz's first junior season, but she competed for the US in one small international competition before making the decision to switch to competing for Mongolia. She would spend the second half of the competitive season off competitive ice during the beginning of the switch.
- During the 2016/2017 Season: (Age 14) She spend most of this season off ISU competitive ice because she was in the process of switching to competing for Mongolia. Right near the end of the season, she went to one small international competition as a warm up, and then went to Junior Worlds where she earned a surprise 6th place finish.
- During the 2017/2018 Season: (Age 15) Coming off a surprise 6th place finish at Junior Worlds the season before, Liz went into her first Junior Grand Prix season and floundered a bit, with one sixth, and one eighth place finish. She did well at some smaller competitions after the end of the circuit though, and came back for Junior Worlds and a 7th place finish (slightly less surprising this time, but still surprising). She bested her scores from the year before breaking a combined score of 180 points for the first time (180.55).
- During the 2018/2019 Season: (Age 16) She's been mainly competing in Juniors. It's her second season on the Junior Grand Prix. She had one third and one fourth place finish, which placed her in 11th in the JGP standing and two places outside the substitutes for the JGP Final. Because she has also been age eligible to compete as a senior this year, she has gone to a few small international competitions in the US and Canada so that she could get qualifying scores for Four Continents and Senior Worlds.
Liz was glad that Four Continents was being held in the US this year. The trip down to Anaheim wasn't terribly long, and that meant that it wasn't that big of a disruption to her school year, though half of her bags seemed to be filled with textbooks on her way down. This was the first big step that she was taking in figure skating that Sungyong had never gotten the chance to take. The season he'd been senior eligible and just starting to compete at the senior level was the one when he'd gotten injured. There was a way in which Liz was a little scared to step out into uncharted territory, and while two strong finishes at Junior Worlds had put her on the radar of people who followed skating, Senior Events were the ones with the chance at getting noticed by just everyday people who didn't pay that much attention to the sport. There was also a little voice in the back of her head reminding her that this was her first really really step of maybe having a chance at the Olympics.
She tried not to dwell on that thought though. One thing at a time. She was relieved that she'd been skating internationally long enough now that there were faces that she recognized from juniors, some like her skating up for the end of the season, and some who had since graduated from juniors but had shared at least part of a season there with her. Official practices were a very focused time, and she spent her time either training, resting, or studying.
Liz was skating second in the second group for the short program, and she was fairly happy with that draw. Her warm up was a little shaky though, and she could tell that the nerves were starting to mess with her a little bit. She'd been skating a jump layout that wasn't her favorite all season because the triple lutz was the stand along jump for juniors this year in the short program, which meant to keep up her technical scores, she'd had to put the flip, her weakest triple, in combination with the triple loop. She'd considered switching the flip back to the solo jump and the lutz to the combination, but it would have required changing more elements of the program than the jumps themselves, and in some ways, this season, Junior Worlds was a more important competition for her than Four Continents, so she didn't want to throw off her rhythm.
She and Sungyong had been quiet together as she got ready during the first skater of her group, and he told her gently, "Go out there and do your best, don't let the nerves get you too much. Try your best to enjoy the moment."
She hugged him and went out on the ice, avoiding the sweepers who were mostly as tall or taller than she was, as they cleared the ice from the previous skater's gifts. At last, she took the center of the ice when her name was called, and it was just her and the ice. She could tell as she left the footwork into her first combination that the edge on her flip was off, but she managed to fight for the landing and get off her triple loop, and from there, she was finally able to relax. Choreography into spins, into transitions into the double axel, followed by more transitions and the triple lutz, which felt confident, and one final spin.
She was relieved when she finished the program. She wasn't sure exactly how well she'd done, but she'd done it, and she hadn't fallen. As Sungyong was walking with her to the kiss and cry, he told her, "Probably going to get an underrotation on the flip, but the loop coming out of it was amazing, so that will count for something in the GOEs. I could tell you were nervous, but I don't know if the judges will be able to. It wasn't your absolute best, but you skated well. You should be proud."
It didn't seem like nearly long enough, but also almost interminable, when her scores came back, "Elizabet Sarangerel Gambold representing Mongolia has earned 62.13 points in the Short Program and is currently in second place."
She nodded. That seemed about right, and like Sungyong had said, she could do better, but it was a good skate. By the end of the short program, she was sitting in tenth. Overall, she wanted to be higher, but she was still pretty pleased with that. She was a lot more relaxed on practice ice that evening and the next morning. Somehow a solid but not perfect short program had steadied her nerves. She knew what she needed to do better in the free skate, and she knew how to do that. It had almost taken the pressure off of making this like that first Junior Worlds, where everything had fallen into place perfectly.
Skating in the middle of the second to last group for the free skate was strangely comfortable. She felt like she knew she could do this. She was skating to one of the songs from Kangwan's group, and it felt reassuringly like a friend was out there with her for the free skate, even if she knew that pop music was a bit of a calculated risk for a not fully established skater. While she was still mostly in juniors was a good time to use the song though, and she liked her program to it. There'd already been some really good skating by the time she got out onto the ice, but she just couldn't find it in her to be worried.
When she finally found herself in the center of the ice, waiting for her music to start, she was relieved that the strange calm focus had stayed with her all the way up to that point. Then the music started, and she dove into her program. The footwork for the piece was quick and dance-like, matching the style of the song, and it was a fun challenge that pushed her to move more quickly and cleanly across the ice. In the free skate, she stayed well in her comfort zone for her difficult jumps, though she'd also introduced a new for her combo for this year, and that was what she started with: double axel, euler, triple salchow. She sailed out of the landing of the jump and into a layback ina bauer. From there she felt good. Travelling from jump to spin through footwork and choreo. And finally, into the last jumping pass of her program, the triple lutz-triple loop. She could hear the cheering as it came down clean, and she went into her final layback spin, holding the hair-cutter position, and it was over. She was surprised by how many people were cheering, and she stopped part way back to the boards to scoop up a stuffed animal that someone had thrown onto the ice for her.
She cuddled the little stuffed eagle under her chin in the kiss and cry as she waited for her scores. Finally, the announcer called out, "Elizabeth Sarangerel Gambold, representing Mongolia, has earned 128.50 points in the free skate for a total of 190.63 points, and she is currently in first place."
It was a personal best score, and Liz was grinning because she'd set a personal best and she'd gone up at least two places. She had to wait with Sungyong where the cameras were once she'd cooled down a little bit from her skate, and she watched as bit by bit other skaters overtook her in the podium places. In the end, she was in eighth place, and she was pleased with this. It was a good start to her senior skating career, and her free skate had been the fifth highest scoring of the night. She was starting to believe that maybe she could have a decent showing at Senior Worlds like Sungyoung thought she could.
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Dancer; Kindergarten Para.
Bi.
dating Kit.
01/09/1990.
32.
Snake (WA)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Devi J. Yun on Mar 10, 2019 1:33:36 GMT -8
This story is set in late December 2001 (Devi was 12, Sam was 6, and Kali was 14). It also features @kali and Samnang Yun (however, mostly Sam).
(TW: mentions of transphobia/general bigoted opinions from their grandparents.)
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When Devi was about eight, the Yun family had started doing a party late in December where the adults gave all the kids presents. It was generally so that the kids had something to answer when their classmates asked what they got for Christmas. Devi had never really cared that much, but Kali and Sophea had both talked about it with their grandparents and parents, and their grandparents always loved an excuse to spoil Kali. Devi wouldn't have minded presents if what he got each year had much of anything to do with him, but he would get books that Ricky or Sophea might have appreciated (he usually gave those to Sophea discreetly), or clothes that didn't fit him or suit him, or things that his grandparents thought were sufficiently masculine.
This year though, as they'd all opened a matched set of presents from their grandparents, Devi realized that the issue was going to hit someone else way harder than him. Their grandparents had gotten beautiful scarves of silk from Cambodia with traditional patterns for the girls, and they'd gotten ties in similar material and patterns for the boys. They'd gotten Sam a scarf.
While their parents hadn't fully accepted everything with Sam, they were being OK about things mostly, though Devi worried for his littlest brother even with them, but their grandparents were not being good about it. Devi wasn't surprised. When this had been in it's earlier stages, his grandmother had scowled at him and told him that he was a bad influence on his younger siblings, and maybe if he'd behave better, Sam wouldn't be such a problem. Devi hadn't responded. He never did to that sort of thing, but he'd intentionally worn eyeliner to this gathering. If their grandparents were focusing on him being a disappointment, they'd pay Sam less attention.
For the moment though, Kali was holding the most of their attention, praising the scarf that she'd gotten. Devi stared at the tie in his hand in frustration, knowing that he'd never use it even though the pattern was beautiful, and inspiration struck. He slid down from the couch to sit next to Sam on the floor, ignoring Nicky's crowing in pleasure over being able to claim Devi's spot on the couch.
Before Sam could start to cry, which looked like it was building up. Devi nudged his littlest brother gently in the shoulder, and whispered, "Hey Sam, wanna trade?"
He ruffled his little brother's hair a little bit, shielding what they were doing from his grandparents' view. Sam blinked up at him, a little bit of surprise on his face, and Devi smiled at him. They'd been spending less time together now that Sam went to school and he and Nicky were on the same schedule basically. Devi counted it as a small victory when Sam didn't start crying, and reached out tentatively and touched the tie. Sam nodded and asked quietly, clearly getting that they were not trying to draw the attention of their grandparents, "What do you want the scarf for though?"
Devi reached out and touched the material of the scarf that Sam had dropped to take the tie that he'd held out and replied softly, "It's pretty and soft."
He didn't say more, but he stayed sitting next to Sam on the floor, and eventually, after more presents that had been better suited to Sam were opened, and Devi had stuck two books carefully into Sophea's growing book pile, and carefully ignored Nicky stealing a video game from his diminished stack of presents, Sam fell asleep leaning on his shoulder. There was a while before family dinner, and Devi quietly told his mother, "I'll put Sam up for a nap."
He carefully gathered his littlest brother and their presents up and carried them upstairs, taking Sam to the nursery and play room where he still slept along with Nicky and Sophea and tucking him in without his litlest brother even stirring much. He put the pile of presents on the little dresser at the foot of his bed, the tie folded neatly on top, and he held the scarf that was the only thing that he'd actually kept in his own pile and fiddled with it as he waited a minute to make sure that Sam was going to actually nap.
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High Schooler (11th - composition) / Dreams Ent Trainee / Producer / Choreographer.
Unsure (not straight).
Single.
08/01/2008.
13.
Rat (Korea)
Authored by Etienne.
Offline.
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Post by Taijia Lin on Mar 12, 2019 0:17:38 GMT -8
Tai had stayed up later than he should one night in February, once the snow was mostly melted, and the adults were back on their normal schedules. He snuck with his laptop to his dance room and logged on to the video chat that Kangwan and Thomas both used. He was kind of relieved when he saw that Thomas was on, though a little sad that Kangwan wasn't. He typed quickly, "Thomas, can I ask you about something?"
He was a little bit surprised with how fast Thomas's reply arrived, "Sure Tai. Is everything alright?"
Tai nodded to himself as he typed his response, "Yeah, I just want to talk to someone about signing up for the auditions for Kangwan's company before I for real talk to my Uncles about it. Can I video call?"
There was a little bit more lag this time, but pretty quickly, Thomas replied, "Yeah, just needed to get my headphones and move into my room. Ready when you are."
Tai sighed in relief and hit the call button, fiddling with the headphones that were a little bit too big for him but had a good microphone so that they would stay in place during the call. Thomas smiled at him and asked, voice just a little teasing, "Seeing out the window, I just realized how late it is there. Did you stay up late just to call me?"
Tai nodded earnestly and replied, "You or Kangwan."
Thomas smiled at him again and said, "Alright, tell me about it."
Tai was a tiny bit tentative as he started explaining, "I've talked to all the Uncles about wanting to audition someday at this point. And I mentioned that there were going to be international auditions in Seattle next month, but the sign up deadline is coming up, and I need to actually sign up, and that means I need Uncle Jin to help me sign up because I'm a minor. They all were pretty supportive of the idea in general, but I'm not sure any of the realized that I was actively interested in auditioning now though."
Thomas listened intently as his basically extra little brother babbled, and he said, "Do you think that you're going to need help convincing them for that part?"
Tai scrunched up his nose and said, "Not exactly, but I think that they might end up needing reassuring that you, and maybe Kangwan but mostly you, would be on board to watch out for me while I was in Korea. I mean, if I make it through the auditions. I suspect I can make it at least to the training camp that's this summer."
Thomas looked thoughtful, and he said, "Qiwang mentioned once that a lot of the foreign trainees have a relative with them in Korea, or someone who's a designated guardian substitute basically. I'm an adult, so I'm technically old enough to do that for you if that's what needs to happen. I know you've been wanting to do this for a long time."
Tai's eyes lit up, and the tension drained from his posture. He said, "You'd be alright doing that for me? Even with college?"
Thomas nodded and said, "I know you can take care of yourself for the most part, and I hope that I could trust you to tell me if anything was wrong. I've even already got a lot of the clearances to do stuff at Kangwan's company, finally."
Tai grinned at that and said, "Thank you! I think that knowing that I can tell Uncle Jin to talk to you, and that you'd be ready to do that will help. Uncle Hwannie might volunteer to go with me at least at first, but he and Jiuk just bought the house and they're still getting settled. They might end up being the ones that go with me for training camp, though I don't know, maybe everyone would try to go. But knowing that you're there, and ok with being my official adult there, helps."
Tai spent a little bit longer in the call with Thomas asking him curious questions about how school was going, but soon enough, he was yawning hugely, and Thomas told him laughingly to go to bed.
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The next day was a Saturday, and relatively early, when he and Yunjin and Sungyong were the only ones up, he laid out his hopeful plan to them over rice and some leftover grilled fish from the night before. Yunjin looked serious when he asked, "Are you very serious that this is what you want to try to do? And would you still take your school seriously while you were there?"
Tai nodded furiously and said, "I promise that I would try my absolute best with school, and even if being a trainee didn't end up with the career that I wanted, I would have the experience of having gone to a good school in Korea."
Yunjin sighed and said softly, "I knew that this was coming, but not quite so soon. You've thought out all your details though, and I promised that I'd never try to hold you back from your dreams. We can work out the logistics, but yes, I'll help you sign up for the auditions."
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Once he was fully registered for the auditions, he sent out excited messages to Anya, Kangwan, and Thomas. He knew that there would be long talks with his Uncles about how to make the logistics work, and that his Uncle Jin would make sure that he had thought every single part of it out, but he was getting the chance to try for his dreams.
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