like no one ever was
-
i choose you: froakie!
name jang yijeong age + dob 23 + september 10, 1993 birthplace jinju, south korea residence seoul, south korea occupation professional mukbang streamer, full-time loser status accounted for Life's simply fun and games when you spend most of it not really knowing who you are or where you come from. Each day spent not knowing where you'll end up or who you'll meet along the way, where uncertainties can certainly mean dangers around the corner, and quite frankly - this was how Yijeong preferred it. Abandoned at the hospital when he was only a few days old, Yijeong grew up in the care of ever-so-curious strangers, shifting from one foster family to the next for most of his younger years. It's all mischief and pranks when he's old enough to play the system, bitterness and resentment of knowing he'll probably never have a forever home masked by the pleasures of stealing cookies and forging good grades to earn his keep. If anyone were to ask - living an orphan kind of life? Definitely nothing like the motion picture Annie, but hey: he tried the make the best of it.
His travels alone consist of shifting from homes in Jinju to an orphanage three hours away in Seoul, a brand new city full of wonderous opportunities Yijeong knew he'd never get to have. Regardless, his trusty, diritied old bear by the name of Mr. Grim never once left his side and while Seoul was cold to children like him, at least Mr. Grim was warm when he needed it. That is, until he falls into the likelihood of a same-aged boy by the name of Park Jeup. Fresh on the orphan train with no one to show him the way, Jang Yijeong did what any boy desperate for friends would normally do: he took Jeup under his wing. It was a decision decided by fate, he'll come to say years later, the two an inseperable force the moment they shook each other's hands. Best friends until the end, and no one was around to break them apart.
As they grew together, Yijeong tried his best to keep up with Jeup's dreams and aspirations. "Maybe I'll be a firefighter, too", he remembers dwelling when Jeup promised that he would become one when he's older. The idea was shortly scrapped after he watched some boys in their wing set fire to a doll out of pure bordeom. He was left frozen on what to do when the flames began to grow, panicking only at the very last second. Jeup was the one to quickly spring into action then, suffocating the flames before they got too out of control. "Nevermind", he whispers to Jeup that night, knowing very well that the other knew what he was referring to.
He falls in between the lines like this throughout the years, unsure of what he was good at or who he'd grow up to be. That is, until he finds interests in robotics when he and Jeup were just nearing puberty. It helped with the girl problems ... and the acne problems, and that weird phase where he wore glasses too big for his face and clothes ripped in the most awkward of places. Any and all scraps were trash to others, but treasures to him and when he found ways to invent and create mechnical little gadgets in his own time - Yijeong knew he was going to strive to become an engineer eventually.
"That's not too geeky, is it?"
"Nah! I think it's pretty neat."
Of course, when windows to dreams open, doors to reality slam shut and Jeup and Yijeong swear leaving yet another home wasn't their fault. It wasn't! Honest! When bullies attack, you do anything you can to protect your own, you do anything you can to protect yourself. It was a scene of obscurity. Something that most people don't see every day in their messed up little world because when boys fight, they fight for dignity and for pride - but when Jeup's tossed to the ground and his cards go flying - Yijeong fights for something a little more than that. He's fighting for loyalty and friendship, for family.
His glasses are slapped off his face, broken when they're stepped on and he swore after this - he's going to find a way to wear contacts instead. When he, too, is pushed to the ground and a flurry of fists and kicks come toppling down onto his small body, he's still unsure to this day if he blacked out or if it was the cause of his powers flourishing so quickly that he's blocked it from memory. But Mr. Grim was never a fan of the bullies in their home, and he made sure to dispose of them on Yijeong's behalf with nothing less than screams of terror coupled with being tossed overhead by big, stuffed arms and his partner-in-crime pulled from Jeup's cards.
Safe Haven becomes their home after that, welcoming and permanent for the time being. As long as Yijeong wasn't separated from Jeup, the accommodation more than sufficed and they spend the most crucial years of their lives surrounded by mansion walls, kids with extraordinary abilities, and a lot of hobbies that Yijeong picks up and drops just as easily. What sticks are his keen skills when it came to music, picking up the piano and the guitar with ease that he and Jeup go into the busking business when they're in their last few years of high school. It's to help pay for the university they wish to attend, wanting to be stand up men of society that have practically seen it all. When their fees become too much for something only simply busking could afford, the two turn their attention to social media and ultimately come up with the idea of Skinny Boys vs Food; their twice a week mukbang show that went from zero to hero after a couple good months.
Making money off being an internet food guru and going to school for mechanical engineering proved fine and dandy while Yijeong was still a student. However, once he graduated and started working for one of the top engineering facilities in Seoul - being an engineer was a lot more fun as a hobby than it was as a profession. Due to this, Yijeong shifted his entire focus to Skinny Boys vs Food as opposed to his actual job. When their channel managed to explode and followers/donators kept flowing in, a Twitch streaming career made the most sense to keep doing. He quit his engineering career a year after he started.
With more time on his hands, dating came only naturally. Stories of crazy exes and flittering one-night stands are endless on Yijeong's end, but a little Chinese dragon managed to capture him and convince him that settling down? It wasn't so bad. Yijeong met Jun when the sun was high and the skies were clear, in a magical place called the supermarket. He doesn't know how buying pounds of meat for his next mukbang show with Jeup ended up as dinner and movie with the foreign investment analyst, but two years into it and Friday night dinner and movie is still tradition; now if only Jun stops trying to get him to invest his funds into "safer yields" for his future, that'll be great.
Now nearing twenty-four, Jang Yijeong knows he's seen a lot of shit in his life. However, taking one day at a time with good company, good food, and good sex – life is a lot clearer than it's ever been. Plus, Mr. Grim still takes him to bed when he's too full and gassy to even do so.
Much like his partner-in-crime, Yijeong possesses a subset ability of imagination manifestation. While he is unable to pull imagery and abilities of cards from fiction to reality, Yijeong is able to create life for his action figures and stuffed animals to do his own personal bidding. His favorite among his collection would be that of Mr. Grim, his trusty old friend that manifests up to 7 ft tall and can throw objects/withstand damage up to twice its own weight.
While Yijeong cannot create objects from thin air out of his own sheer imagination, as long as he is in the presence of any inanimate character - he is able to offer a part of his own subconscious on to them, creating a psychic lock with his creations until they are destroyed or if he is knocked out of focus. With certain objects or characters, if he understands how they work in their fictional world - he can bring those abilities to the real world. For example, summoning a lightsaber into the real world will work as it does in canon - cauterizing any and everything in its path.
Presently, a lot of his creations tend to wander off and do their own thing; mirroring Yijeong's wild and free personality a little too much for Yijeong to really control. However, with a stern voice and a lot of concentration, he can snap most of his creations out of their own rebelliousness when the time calls for it. Due to this, he tries not to have too many creations running rampant at once - two or three would do for now.
