Full Name: Ren Asano
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 130 lbs.
Hair Color/Length: Black/short
Eye Color: Brown
Date of Birth: 02.16.2012
Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan
Parents: Chizu Asano and Sadami Asano nee Etsumoto
Siblings: none
Current Place of Residence: Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
Ren was born to parents who were too busy providing for a child to raise one. He spent a great deal of his childhood with his grandparents, aunts and uncles, all of whom gave him the love his parents simply didn't have the time or the inclination to dole out.
His father is vice president of legislative affairs for the Tokyo Manufacturing Association, an organization representing the affairs and concerns of Tokyo factories. His mother is an entrepeneur running a formalwear shop. Besides selling both Western and Eastern formal wear, she teaches classes on how to properly wear and behave in a kimono.
Once Ren reached high school age, it was decided he should go to school in Tokyo, where the schools were better. This would mean living with his parents, but the term "living with" is used very loosely. His parents are almost never home, so the apartment is practically his. His room is a little messy but he keeps the rest of the small apartment straight, in deference to his non-existent parents.
Ren's uncle on his mother's side taught him chess (he, in turn, learned it from his wife), which Ren's mind took to like a duck to water. Ren doesn't enjoy chess for the strategy or logic, both of which he does excel at. He enjoys it because he can win quite easily most of the time. Besides being captain of the high school chess club, he also enjoys basketball and frisbee - really anything that gets him outside and away from the reminder of his empty home.
Ren dated a few girls, and even slept with one or two of them, before realizing that girls just weren't his "glass of tea." [Yes I meant it that way - it's a movie quote. Obscure, but there you are.] He hadn't really thought much of them before dating them, but had done so because that was what young men were supposed to do. As much as he can, Ren tries to be normal, mostly as a backlash against such an abnormal childhood.
A little disappointed at first at this new difference in himself, Ren learned to adjust. His usually sunny and gregarious attitude won out. And in his senior year, he met Seichirou Date...
He took an immediate liking to Seichirou, whom he considered good-looking and who had enough good taste to read Yami no Matsuei (a manga Ren had picked up because (A) he'd heard there was some shonen-ai overtones to it and (B) because his senior thesis is about modern media and forms of communication). Seichirou attends the same high school, and was even the same year as Ren, although in a different class (Seichirou is in class B, Ren in class E). He also sensed an inherent...loneliness in Seichirou, which called out to his own. Although Ren has a few friends, is captain of the chess club and very well liked in general, he has never let anyone in too close, having been raised on the distance of his own parents. But that kindred depth of loneliness pulled him to Seichirou, who feels distant from his own father and has no real friends.
The two spent the rest of the day together...and the night, although things were fairly innocent until the following morning. Seichirou is Ren's first boyfriend, and having found a kindred spirit has lifted Ren's own spirit considerably.
Trivia: for the trivially minded
From A History of Japan: 1615-1867 by George Sansom:
"The Tozama, or Outside Lords, were powerful chieftains who had been neutral or hostile to Ieyasu [Tokugawa] after the death of Hideyoshi. They included the great houses of Maeda, Shimazu of Satsuma, Hosokawa, Kuroda, Asano, and Date, all of whom had territories in provinces remote from Yedo."
Stories
Tadaima - Ren comes to live with his parents the summer before he starts high school.
When Ren Met Seichirou - how Ren and Seichirou met, from Ren's perspective.
~Mate~ - Ren & Seichirou meet Ren's Father...
Checkmate: by Tavestry - Seichirou's mental "replies" to the events of "~Mate~".
Songs
Ren likes anything to do with Chess of course, which, songwise, isn't much; he also tends to alternate between rock and blues. And of course he likes anime music.
Anime lyrics from (where else?)http://www.animelyrics.com.
Chess - One Night in Bangkok [Lyrics]
Yoko Kanno - Cowboy Bebop - Real Folk Blues [Lyrics]
Yoko Kanno - Cowboy Bebop - Rain [Lyrics]
Martian Successor Nadesico - You Get to Burning [Lyrics]
Outlaw Star - Through the Night [Lyrics]
This isn't a song Ren would listen to, but it's a very Ren & Seichirou sort of song nonetheless:
Nina Gordon - Hold On To Me [Lyrics]
Pictures
Ren in High School from "When Ren Met Seichirou". This is Ren looking at the family in the park.
Copyright 2000 - J.L.Roberts, aka Socks, aka Lina no Miko - My fictives are MY creations. All others mentioned belong to their respective creators. Songs belong to their writers/singers/owning corporations, etc. Respect others' property, ne?
