Orenda | KSJ • MYG • KNJ

Namjoon's Backstory

🖤 Namjoon was born in a hybrid facility and spent the first few years of his childhood there. The facility was something akin to a mixture of an animal shelter and a government science laboratory. There were two different classifications of staff members; the authorized personnel that oversaw the monitoring of the hybrids such as their growth and behavioral development, and the care staff in charge of feeding and attending to the hybrids. The hybrid behavioral scientists were determined to raise well-trained and well-educated hybrids. So, as soon as each hybrid baby was deemed old enough, they were carefully assigned into cohorts to learn and train. Young toddler hybrid cohorts were indirectly taught how to interact with each other through specially designed playrooms. Once they reached the age of three, the hybrids were then placed into classrooms to learn how to read and write and the basic core subjects covered in all schools.

🖤 Even at a young age, Namjoon was aware of his inevitable fate. The facility he lived in wouldn't be permanent. In fact, he remembers some of his friends suddenly disappearing without a reason. Later, as he grew older, he learned it was because his friends got adopted. From then on, Namjoon knew it would only be a matter of time until he was also adopted.

However, even then, Namjoon never forgot his parents. Truthfully, he doesn't remember his parents very well now since he was a young child the last time he saw them. But Namjoon still recalls short fleeting memories of being wrapped up in his mother's arms every afternoon at a set maternal bonding time. There are nights when he still dreams of her soft and gentle voice singing a lullaby softly as she sways their bodies back and forth in a comforting embrace. He also recalls the airy chuckle of his father whenever they played together in the large outdoor play area. The smile on his father's face never faded as he watched Namjoon run around to play. And Namjoon will never forget his father's comforting voice always there to console him if he fell and hurt himself.

🖤 Though the thought never occurred to him during his time at the shelter, Namjoon had gone back to research the facility later when he was older to find answers. One day as he was thinking about his early childhood, he stopped to ponder why his parents and some other adult hybrids stayed in the facility if the entire goal of the establishment was to become a special hybrid adoption center. After some digging, he discovered that the facility had begun as a local government-funded experiment. They wanted to breed and train rare hybrid breeds to monitor their development and gain more insight into the hybrid species themselves. At the time the idea was first proposed, hybrids' living conditions in the public world were not great. Therefore, as an incentive to get started on this project, the facility offered food, shelter, and protection to adult hybrids in exchange for their participation in this experiment. Which, Namjoon assumes, his parents had taken up the offer on.

🖤 At the age of eight, Namjoon was adopted by a rich family. The family had assumed he was an expensive puppy breed and never bothered to look into the details of his hybrid genetics. In their minds, being expensive equated to being the best. After his first interaction with the parents and their young daughter, Namjoon never bothered correcting his owners. He quickly picked up how keen they were on the idea of showing off their expensive "puppy" and that they were repulsed by the wolf-hybrid breed.

🖤 Namjoon would be lying if he denied dreaming of what life would be like as an adopted hybrid during his time at the facility. But no matter how many different variations of scenarios he created in his head, he never imagined the life he would end up living.

The family that adopted Namjoon never let him out of the mansion's premises - for his own protection but also for their own selfish reasons. Yet, on one fateful day, when Namjoon and the daughter were older teens, the parents had finally gone out on a vacation by themselves to celebrate their marriage anniversary. The daughter and Namjoon grew to be quite close, but deep down, Namjoon still had his reservations about the girl, especially about the way she treated him from time to time. Regardless, he cared for her and wanted to protect her nonetheless. So, when the daughter begged Namjoon to sneak out of the house to go shopping with her, he easily agreed. Perhaps Namjoon was naive to believe her actions were a reciprocation of the familial relationship he believed them to have. Because the moment they arrived at the mall, her true intentions became crystal clear. Namjoon had winced in pain when a loud group of teens around their age ran up to them, bustling with commotion. The girls were all squealing in delight, poking and prodding at Namjoon's ears. The boys were bombarding the daughter with a multitude of mindless questions, adding to the increasing volume of the group. In that moment, it became clear to Namjoon that he was only snuck out of the house so that the daughter could flaunt her expensive "puppy" to all her friends who have been dying to meet him.