Gender: Female
Birthday: 8th of October, 1991
Face claim: Kwon Yuri
Family/Housemates: Pia Song, Tom Cha + Pablo Gomez
Address: Miduna Beach
Personality:
Dara appears a very straightforward and confident person, and she will also claim to be so, however she actually has many insecurities that were brought about due to the changes in her life and the way she was treated while she was growing up. She very strongly believes that everyone should be viewed as equal, although she doesn’t go about promoting this idea with a peaceful and positive attitude as some may imagine. She is very happy to be argumentative and, in reality, she loves a good friendly debate (although her definition of this may be different to others’). Her manner can come across as pretty aggressive
Another of Dara’s striking characteristics, a partner to her straightforwardness, is her honesty and bluntness. She won’t ever hesitate to point out something that someone is doing wrong or something bad about someone because in her head, it will be something that they just need to know. She doesn’t (generally) do this with rude intentions, but people are often offended, and whilst she does understand that this behaviour can offend many people, she continues because she thinks that honesty is the best policy. She is extroverted by nature and will talk to anyone who she feels like talking to, which can surprise some.
History:
Dara was born as Kang Gayoung in Ulsan, South Korea to Kang Jonghun and Kang Juyeon. Only a few months after Dara was born, her biological mom, Juyeon, left her father (and changed her name back to Seo Juyeon). He soon remarried to a certain Kang Seolhyun – because of how soon he remarried, Dara has later developed suspicions that they were seeing each other long before Juyeon even left Jonghun. When Dara was born, she had one older brother, Hoseok. Hoseok and Jonghun always gave Dara bad reports of Juyeon, although Dara thought that she actually sounded like a relatively nice person. Seolhyun always treated Hoseok more like her actual child than she did Dara.
Dara always grew up slightly irritated by the sanctimonious attitudes of Jonghun and Seolhyun. The family were very rich, as Jonghun was a financial dealer and Seolhyun was a well-paid magazine editor, and lived in a more affluent area of Ulsan. When she went to school, she saw other children being constantly pushed by their parents to be the best and wondered why her parents never really treated her this way (yet she was still close to the top of her class in mathematics and science related subjects). She came to the conclusion that her parents simply felt that they didn’t have time for her. In fact, she would often be left to stay with her grandparents (her father’s parents) because they were busy with work things or her brother’s activities. It was not until was presented with the idea of moving to America that Dara found a new way of life and people who treated her with more respect that she realised how much she disliked those times and attitudes.
The move to America was quite simple to Dara – an exchange program was talked about at her school, and she showed deep interest. Soon, more information was given out and Dara realised just how much she desired to try living in a different place, specifically America, where she had been interested in visiting for a long time. It was announced that they could only take one person from her school but not many other children had shown interest and she had one really caring chemistry teacher who put in a good word for her, which, on top of her excellent application, probably helped her land the place in the exchange program. This was when she was sixteen and she hasn’t since found any other reason to specifically show off her academic abilities, but she is somewhat grateful that she had them then.
It was just before this time that Dara began to feel very self-conscious about her body. From about when she was fifteen to seventeen, she suffered from minor bulimia, which only got worse with the lack of support from her family in South Korea. Her condition wasn’t terrible, but over this time, she lost a lot of weight and her health was very poor. When she moved to America, it wasn’t that there were less issues around body image in the country, but her friends who she went on exchange with, specifically Pia, were extremely great and helped her recover with their own support as well as by sending her to a therapist who she still sees occasionally. Whilst she is almost completely better, Dara’s previous condition can be triggered again (but in a less serious way) by certain things.
The exchange program took Dara, eight other girls and twelve boys to a place called Barfield. After graduating from Barfield High School, Dara took a break from her education all together and spent four years simply working at places like Target and living with her friends on their wages as well as her own. Despite some people seeing this choice as unstable, it was probably the best decision that Dara made because it sort of calmed her down in between important stages of her life and allowed her to get all of her thoughts together, even if it could be considered a slightly extensive break.
After these four years, Dara was twenty-two years old and decided to pursue a bachelor of science in physical therapy. She found this an ideal course for her because it meant that she could get a job in physical therapy, which was what she decided was her goal over her education hiatus. She is now twenty-four years old and a sophomore at University of Barfield. She lives in Miduna Beach with her closest friend from the exchange program, Pia Song, and also two guys called Tom Cha and Pablo Gomez. It doesn’t really bother her that she’s older than most of her peers at University – in fact, it doesn’t change her opinion of any of them at all, even if it may change their opinion of her a little.
Describe your character in a word: Honest
How your character would describe him or herself in a word: Brave