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[twochords]

ZHANG YIXING

it goes like this; the fourth, the fifth...

THE BASICS

NAME: zhang yixing
NICKNAMES: N/A
AGE:26
DATE OF BIRTH: october 7, 1987

FAMILY: father (pure-blood, disowned), mother (muggle-born), grandmother (muggle)

OCCUPATION: herbology professor
HOMETOWN: changsha, hunan, china
CURRENT RESIDENCE: seoul, south korea
BLOOD STATUS: half-blood
WAND: ivy, unicorn hair, 10 inches PET: a white rat named xuehua (who sits on his shoulders and "helps" during classes)

QUIRKS: Here, here, here
LIKES: Here, here, here
DISLIKES: Here, here, here

RELATIONSHIPS

OOC INFO

NAME: olya
AIM: #the king composing
TIME ZONE: PST
WRITING STYLE: third person or first person, paragraphs preferred

PERSONALITY

there are two sides to yixing, at least two sides he puts forward. really, it just depends on when you catch him and the two don't differ too much.

during school, he was relaxed and gave off a dreamy aura even when he paid attention. teachers found themselves frustrated with the fact he never seemed to listen, though he could repeat their lectures back to them and answer any question posted without hesitation.

he was never a trickster, per say, but he had access to plants and potions; as a result ended up aiding more pranks than one could count. he never discouraged anything that was light-hearted.

he does have his quirks though and his dreamy moments. he's an adamant fan of solving anything with tea or with music. he'll spend his free time in the greenhouses with his guitar and though he says he's singing to the plants, it's one way for him to unwind. as a professor, first years often mistake him for being the most oblivious of their professors. it's not until he sneaks up on two distracted hooligans, who are attempting to prod a poor mandrake or venture close to one of the tentacula plants, and warns them, in calm tones, of the damage they are about to do, that the first years realizes they're under watch and maybe it's best to listen to professor zhang before someone really loses a finger. if the damage isn't going to be too severe, he has been known to give out his warning right as back-peddling is no longer an option.

he believes any lesson is worth learning.

always wanting to help, yixing will make an effort to ensure that students struggling within his classroom get extra attention or he works with them to adjust their coursework. his own time in school was spent struggling to fit into a mold and he doesn't believe forcing his students to continue down the same path, especially if it isn't working, will benefit anyone. he won't make things easier in terms of what they have to learn, but he's willing to adjust how they learn. the methods may not be orthodox but he's also willing to write to parents; though there's no guarantee on how his responses will be taken.

10 THINGS

01. plays the guitar, can be found singing and playing for the plants in the green house.
02. doesn't believe that rules should be in the way of any student reaching their potential, as long as no one get hurts along the way.
03. doesn't enjoy giving detention or punishing students and his detentions turn into having students help him with projects that need to be done around the greenhouses. though he won't let most go near the mandrake.
04. misses his grandmother and calls her often.
05. grew up spending half of his time around muggles so he's aware of the latest trends, technology.
06. doesn't like broccoli or honey dew melons.
07. double jointed.
08. has a hard time explaining what number form synesthesia is and often tries to avoid it, because he ends up going on about the forms in great detail instead of explaining what the syndrome is.
09. subconsciously counts when people sneeze.
10. spent time between starting his job and finishing university traveling, doing private lessons, and enjoying the world.
11. a bigger fan of magical and alternative medicine than anything muggles have come up with.
12. not a big drinker, though a recreational smoker.
13. really enjoys toffee and will hand it out to students, even if they don't ask.

BACKGROUND

zhang yixing was born in the morning, on a day when the sun was out but light rain filled the skies. he was his parents first, a product of a union his father's family refused to acknowledge, but from the moment he opened his eyes, he brought smiles to his parents' faces.

his mother was a muggle-born witch, his father a pureblood who had broken away from his family to marry the girl with the fiery personality that he'd spent most of his first years in school teasing. his father's portrait had been burned on the family tree, the zhangs seldom spoke of their youngest son and focused solely on their eldest.

growing up, it was his father that taught yixing to fly and the intricate workings of the magical world they lived in.

while he spent most of his time in the magical world, yixing's summers were spent with his grandmother, his mother's mother, in muggle changsha. he picked up an appreciation for plant life from her, spent hours listening to her stories as he helped her in the gardens. she taught him how to read and write, was the first to notice that yixing's grasp of numbers had him remembering dates and sequences of events much better than those his age. he knew what day of week it was when they planted the petunias last month (thursday! it was thursday!). he seemed to have his tricks for remembering how far to go when he was walking to the store, quickly learned to associate the distance with time.

yixing tried to explain his system, the patterns in the numbers and how it reminded him of a drawing of a forest from his favorite picture book (she'd read him the same story, taught him to read through it.) The numbers each tell into their particular place and, as he counted higher, the pattern filled out and the shapes took on a complete form.

the fact his family and friends failed to understand frustrated the young boy, but he did his best each time his mother wondered how he added the random sequences his father threw at him so quickly.

when he got his letter sm academy, his grandmother was the first to know after his parents.

in school, yixing made friend easily. he is friendly, out-going, but he doesn't steal the scene. he's caring, hard-working, and though not overly so, he's mischievous. the knowledge of plants he gained throughout his time in his grandmother's gardens became useful both in the herbology classroom and when there were pranks to be though of. or rather, supplies needed.

his house was hufflepuff, though he had more than a handful of friends in gryffindor and his favorite subjects were herbology and potions. though his father had hopes for him in arithmancy and astronomy, it was in those subjects that he fell short. the patterns his arithmancy professors taught never matched his own and no attempt to memorize or understand replaced the familiar distances between one and two, the subtle swirl between one thousand and one thousand and one. geometry made his head spin and during his time at SM, the astronomy professor seemed particularly interested in throwing it into every lesson when yixing had hoped the subject would be less... mathematical than it was.

during his second year, yixing picked up the guitar. it had been a whim at first but the music came easily, each chord reminded him of the distance between branches.

his own struggles with more concrete subjects, with math and understanding physics on his professors terms, made yixing more determined. and perhaps it was his own supportive nature, how much he enjoyed helping his friends, that made him consider teaching. it had started out as a small notion but each time he discussed it with his grandmother, his own reasons for wanting to help those who struggled with the set academic mold, the small seedling bloomed into something bigger.

he took his newts in herbology, potions, and charms but barely passed the third. then it was off to university, where yixing focused on herbology and teaching.

university felt like a blur, filled with long hours and focusing on herbology while the other subjects fell into the sidelines until his focus became education. he liked the classes where he taught older students, was able to relate and make sure examples were relevant to them.

after graduating, yixing took a year to travel; mongolia, tibet, nepal, khazakstan, and then farther westward to europe. though his plan had been to return to changsha, he knew a teaching position at SM academy was where he wanted to end up. the application process was a difficult one, as was demonstrating his skills but luck had been on yixing's side; his former herbology professor and mentor was close to retirement and it was she who chose yixing to first become an assistant teacher and then replace her in the upcoming school year. he started his first year as an assistant in the greenhouses, then slowly began to take over classes, until he took over the position the following year.

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