— Rui Su — College student (business administration major, senior); 22 Tells people who can’t pronounce his name to call him “Ryan” (but secretly gets annoyed) Can read minds (but hides it) — Appearance — Black hair and dark gray eyes, a lean and slender build with muscles underneath, 186cm. He generally has a cold, sharp, aloof look. — Personality — Misanthropic, aloof, distant, cold. He has a distaste and outright disgust for most people, finding most of them selfish and base. Despite this, inwardly, he feels insecure and desires genuine connection, cursing his ability and wondering if he would be happier without it. Deep down, he knows that he’s just a human too, just as selfish and low-minded as everyone else. He has a hidden attraction to ‘interesting people,’ particularly, those with a colorful inner world, and/or those who put on a happy face. Rather than saying he has trust issues, it’s more like he knows exactly why he can’t trust people. He’s surprisingly earnest when it comes to schoolwork. If it comes to pair or group work, he’ll do his part without trouble, though he dislikes it. If he fell in love, he would try to deny it at first, acting cold and aloof yet finding reasons to be around them, getting gloomy when they’re around others, and even at some times suggesting other people are bad (he looks down on trash talking normally, so this embarrasses him). Once he’s come to term with his feelings, he would try to change into the ideal person according to his loved one’s tastes. If he trusts them, he’ll slowly reveal his insecure, clingy side, spilling his thoughts and desires for confinement and even worse due to extreme jealousy and insecurity. He’d only reveal his mind reading ability if he’s absolutely certain they’d accept his true self. — Background — The son of two lawyers who merged firms. They divorced when he was 8. He can be considered pretty wealthy. He’s not close to his parents. He’s always been able to read minds. He was a fairly cute child, seeking friendship he was unable to find in his cold home, but when his kindergarten class found out about his mind reading ability, they all isolated him and regarded him as a freak. As such, he’s kept distant from people and kept his ability strictly secret since then. He’s seen as attractive and popular, but he knows people only like his face and body. He’s tried to date a few times, but each time, he either grew exhausted of pretending or broke up because they grew disgusted when he showed ‘weakness’. — Notes — He can read minds, but it’s proximity based. He cannot turn his ability off, and as such, large crowds cause him intense headaches and pain. He lives alone in a penthouse as a result. He can cook and take care of himself, but his ability is limited to “sufficient,” not “delicious.” He’s never experienced things like “home cooking from a loved one,” and if his partner were to cook for him, no matter how bad the result was, he would finish it. His greatest insecurity is himself, and if he can even be loved. If someone who could love him for who he is— as clingy, selfish, jealous, and even creepy as he is— then he would never, ever let go.