name: reira miura
age: 21 (2/10/1987)
born: sarajevo, bosnia
current residence: shinagawa, tokyo, japan
family: ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
kwon (stepbrother)
heritage: 2/3 japanese, 1/3 eastern/southern european mix
there was no fairytale story for reira's parents. they'd met on accident -- she had come to bosnia from japan on missionary work, and upon deciding that she was the prettiest of the bunch, he'd decided to announce to her that he was half japanese but if she wanted, he could also put a little european in her. she slapped him, and his army buddies laughed at him. not one to give up, though, he tried every day for the next six months, though in much less crude ways. eventually, she gave in, and once she did she fell hard and fast; they were married only five months later, and reira was born seven months after that.
things were perfect for a while. the family remained in bosnia until late 1991, when things started to get shaky between their country and the surrounding ones. reira's father, being in the military, had to stay behind, but he made sure to find a safe way for his wife and four-year-old son to get out before things got worse. he promised to meet up with her in japan as soon as things were calm again, promised to contact her and for a couple of years he did, but the letters and phone calls stopped very suddenly and she knew what that meant.
reira doesn't remember his father. he has photos and the occasional vague memory but to him it isn't enough to be attached to, and so he doesn't miss him much at all. as far as he was concerned, the only person he needed in his life was his mother, and until he was 9 years old they were very much all that each other had. at 9, though, she met
kwon's father, and reira met
kwon, and he didn't like either of them. reira was fine with only a 'she' and 'her' in his life; he didn't need a 'he' or 'him' and to 9-year-old reira, those were the only appropriate words to refer to the man she was dating, because for the first year, he refused to speak directly to him, coldly ignoring the gifts and candy the older man would buy in hopes of making peace with the boy. at 10, he finally spoke his first direct words to the man -- "i really hate sung min. you can marry my momma but i don't want him to be my brother." at 11, reira's mother and sung min's father were married, and the two were made stepbrothers, which was a vile offense in the older of the two's eyes. this boy was loud and obnoxious and stupid and
ugly.
eventually, though, things settled between the two boys, though not without normal brotherly fights -- each constantly tried to get under the other's skin, though their methods were vastly different. the more time went by, though, the more reira began to think that maybe it wasn't so bad having a younger brother and maybe it wasn't so bad that sung min was the one to be that younger brother, because sung min was kind of like a baby and reira could take care of him when he wasn't busy putting rubber snakes in the younger's bed. soon after that, reira finally began claiming the other boy at school, and despite his introverted tendencies, would fight in a heartbeat with other kids if they said something he deemed out of line to sung min. his school records are proof enough: straight a's from day one until graduation, and zero absences.... minus five suspensions of ten days each for fighting. reira has never lost a fight in his entire life, both physical and verbal, and eventually people at school figured out not to screw with sung min, lest the wrath of That Quiet Kid come down upon them. he still managed to graduate from high school with honours, choosing to go to rissho university in shinagawa afterward to major in japanese linguistics and literature. reira and his stepbrother conveniently decided to move into the same apartment complex, mostly so the older could keep a watchful eye on the younger while still giving them both the private space they needed.
as reira settled into his new life away from home and the somewhat overbearing, moderately pushy ways of her, he began to loosen up significantly, taking part in more of sung min's crazy schemes and providing himself as an accomplice to things he'd have never dreamed of doing before. it was fun, he decided, to be relaxed and let himself go instead of overworking himself like he had during school, and it was comforting to be close and yet not too much so. although he still normally kept to himself and could even come across as a bit snobby, being around people like sung min gave him the confidence boost he needed to come out of his shell and be social and have real, genuine fun -- something he realised he'd been sorely missing during the years he'd spent at home.
• although generally shy and reserved (and perhaps even a bit snobbish) on his own, reira picks up on the attitudes of those around him and adapts to them. the most notable example of this being the time he spends with sung min, and the trouble the other manages to talk reira into getting into with him. he loves to have fun, he just thinks it's pointless if there isn't someone there to share it with.
• despite the fact that the two initially didn't get along at all, reira now considers sung min to be his real younger brother. he's quite overprotective of the other and even tries to mother him a little now that they're away from home -- when they have disagreements, reira is never as harsh on sung min as he could be, and if other people attempt getting harsh with the younger, he doesn't hesitate to put them in their place.
• is about to begin his fourth year as a japanese linguistics and literature major at rissho university. reira's ultimate goal is to become either a writer or a teacher, though he has a hard time deciding which he would like best. his biggest dilemma when it comes to this is the fact that if he were to become a teacher, he feels as though it might be a waste of his university education, because he's only really interested in teaching small children.
• going along with that, reira is surprisingly very fond of children, and not in a creepy or perverted way. he believes that he probably picked this up from his mother, who is still a first grade teacher herself due to her own love for children. occasionally reira volunteers in her classroom in order to get first-hand experience working with younger kids, and a large majority of her students end up loving him because he acts very different with them than he does other people. one wall in his apartment is entirely dedicated to the pictures and projects they've made for him (including get well cards from last fall when he had the flu), which motivates him when he's beginning to feel a little overwhelmed.
• isn't dark or depressing or pseudo-goth or emo, despite what some of his wardrobe choices might say. he can actually be very friendly and cheery once you get to know him, though his introverted nature and dark colour choices can sometimes make him seem otherwise. he thinks it's dumb, but doesn't really care enough to change it, though sometimes he does mix it up and that's normally in the form of very bright neon colours -- if you're going to go out of the usual, go all out!