PERSONALITY
matthew has two sides to him - the sober one and the less than. his sober self is shy, reserved, closed off to the bone.

talk hours to matthew and chances are you, you might not get any valuable information of his story or self, perhaps just glimpses.
his less than sober self is confident, outgoing and firmly believes he's the shit.

his sober self begs to differ, but he does need to feel like that to achieve what he wants. attitude is all, amirite?
on a more internal basis, matthew is bored and mostly sad. opportunistic, matthew doesn't mind doing unbelievable favors in the hopes of things paying off one day. be it in entertainment, friendship or simply because he would experience some sort of personal pleasure in watching people achieve what they want. on top of that, he does have money to help anyone achieve anything.

slightly religious. doesn't talk about it.

BEFORE NEW YORK


seoulite? absolutely. matthew was born kwon jiyong in 1988, a younger brother to a much shinier kwon offspring. attending the best schools, eating the best food and meeting the richest people, jiyong got to watch his parents be more and more absent from his life. without a right direction and with the attention, hopes and dreams focused on his sister, jiyong started to push his boundaries to see how much he could get away with.

a lot, is what he found out. he nearly dropped out of school and started messing with crews his parents would hardly approve of. the drug use came at age 18, a year and a half before he moved. at first, he just wanted to know what the hype was about, until it wasn't about the hype, it was about how he felt under it. from a forgotten child to the king of the fucking damn world. it stuck.

while his sister was working to represent the kwon empire one deal at a time, his parents became worried about his image. he was sent to new york as a hideout, a college student that three months later, gave up and said fuck it. the streets and favors it is.

UP TO NOW


his close to homelessness lasted 3 years, leaving him at 22 years old. his visa status being held by a half-assed four years of art school, jiyong managed to find part-time jobs at photography studios. it paid close to nothing, but it became enough for him to build an empire of contacts using his own work and slowly building his independence over the years.

living on couches and roommating abusive assholes was a choice - his parents offered a great amount of allowance so he would keep out of trouble and staining the family name. he didn't want one cent for now.

this time was marked by several bad choices and wrong company. his drug use increased and it was fair to say it blended with him well. gave the attitude he needed to go after what he wanted. given time made his skill stand out and his contacts to increasingly become more important until when he noticed, he built his own empire. he no longer needed anything or anyone.

it was his 26th birthday when the phone rang. he had been going hard this time. he left no party unattended, not a model unmet, not a line left behind and not a rumor unhead parents ears. the call came with an offer - change your name and do whatever the fuck you want, just don't bring your shit to us. we'll pay.

a tired jiyong realized - "i don't need it, your money is being lost and i won't have to deal with this shit anymore." done. jiyong has been using his "american name" for years now, so it was easy to become to become matthew kwon, the person he has been for such a long time.

from high middle class, matthew became very extravagantly rich and this did go well with his lifestyle. he already wasn't very keen on talking about himself, but now, he just wants to bask in the light of being a person he built.