Unfortunately for the young boy, his parents had expected him to be another girl and named him accordingly. Jaycie Kim. Yes, he was bestowed the honor of having a very feminine name because his parents were either too cruel or too lazy to come up with a back up just in case they’d given birth to a male. Tsk, tsk. As a toddler he was blissfully unaware of such a horrible name but as soon as he hit elementary school it became all too clear: he needed to change this atrocity. Other children would constantly tease him for his name calling him “Jaycie Waycie” in terrible sing-song voices. More often than not, he would come home from school crying. Finally at the age of 8, the young boy had had enough of the mocking and took control over his name, becoming Jayce from then on.

Growing up in a family that had a well-known plastic surgeon for a father and a former Korean actress as a mother meant that Jayce’s life was extremely comfortable. He never went without. He always had the newest electronic gadgets, fashionable clothing and even an expensive car when he was old enough to drive. Living a life of luxury wasn’t necessarily a good thing although it most certainly had its perks. It was because of this wealth that Jayce became spoiled, and harbored a sense of entitlement as well as laziness in his personality. Everyone has his or her flaws right? Well these were his. He was a snob as there wasn’t any other way to put it.

There always comes a time in a child’s life when they are uprooted from the place they have called home to a new location. They have to start over brand new. New school, new friends, new enemies, new fears, new life. This move happened to take place just after Jayce had turned ten years old and it nearly killed him (or so he would tell you). Oh the horror! Torn from his life in the city that never sleeps of New York, the Kim family relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A mere train ride away! You can imagine the dramatics a spoiled ten year old Jayce performed. His father had made the decision to close up his surgical practice in Whitestone only to reopen in a smaller location with less cliental. His reasoning was that he’d be able to spend more “quality” time with his family. The only seemingly good thing to come out of this move was the fact that no one in Philadelphia had ever known Jayce’s real name, there would be no memory of “Jaycie Waycie” here!

Spending his adolescence in Philadelphia meant that Jayce was more often than not- bored. He had known since his sixteenth birthday that he had a very wealthy grandparent in Korea and that he was going to be handed some of that wealth after turning twenty-one. It was because of this fact that he developed the notion that school was optional and spent most of his time ditching. His grades suffered and his parents threatened him with stupid punishments like the oh so feared, grounding. GASP. Never the less, Jayce maintained a semi decent grade point average and surprisingly graduated on time (even if he had to attend summer school three out of the four years of High School). Luckily for him, he was accepted into University and promised his parents that he’d study hard and make them proud of him (for once) if they foot the bill for tuition. They, being the loving parents they were, agreed with only one condition – they could check up on him whenever they pleased. Reluctantly, Jayce shook on it and his parents moved back to New York.

After leaving university a graduate at twenty-one years old, Jayce decided to spend some quality time in his parents’ native South Korea. His grandfather had passed away shortly after Jayce began school, but now that he was finally at the age when his money was transferred to him – Jayce was ready to party. Unfortunately living in Korea when you’re Korean-American and only semi-fluent in the mother tongue of Korean, proved to be a little too much for him to handle. It was tough to get by on a daily basis, thus he returned home to the good’ole United States of America where they spoke English. The one good thing to come out of his time in Korea? He learned how to make decent samgyupssal and kimchi bokkumbap!

At first, Jayce moved in with his parents when he returned from his stint in Korea. He was living rent-free as well as care-free until one embarrassing night when he thought he was slick enough to bring a girl home. He’d believed his parents to be out for the night, his father had some sort of dinner to attend. It was the perfect crime – bring a girl over, do the naughty, and send her on her way before the parents came home! Luck never seemed to favor Jayce however. Just as he was “getting it in” there came a knock at his bedroom door and before he could hide the girl, his mother came bursting in all a tizzy. Needless to say, Jayce had to move. The downfall that there wasn’t any privacy while living at home far outweighed the benefits. With his own independence in mind, he packed up his belongings and moved back to Philadelphia after finding a good deal as a roommate with ______.