NAME   nam boram; 남보람.  NICKNAMES   bo, rammi, the cursed one, nobi girl, more tba.  DOB & AGE   july 18th, 1841; 28.  BIRTHPLACE   outskirts of namwon.  CURRENT RESIDENCE   hanseong.  ORIENTATION   demisexual, demiromantic.  MARITAL STATUS   single. previously engaged.  SOCIETAL RANK   cheonmin.  OCCUPATION   solgeo nobi / lady-in-waiting for ryu yeonhwa.

  FACECLAIM   kang seulgi; 강슬기.  EYES   dark brown, almost black.  HAIR   soft black in color while thick and wavy in texture. grown long and braided loosely with a daenggi ribbon tied to the end.  STYLE   basic hanboks with muted, earthy colors.

a sangmin clan of black rice farmers, originating from the outskirts of namwon. for generations, they were known for harvesting the highest quality black rice in the market. unfortunately due to bad weather conditions and being short-handed, the quality of their harvests has recently decreased. there is no longer a successor to the business due to the clan head’s only child being disowned.

  infj. 6w5. neutral good. phlegmatic-melancholy. cancer sun, scorpio moon.  

  POSITIVES.   compassionate, insightful, empathetic, idealistic.  NEUTRALS.   sarcastic, perfectionist, focused, organized.  NEGATIVES.   judgmental, withdrawn, manipulative, conflict-adverse.  LOVE LANGUAGE.   quality time and words of affirmation.  APOLOGY LANGUAGE.   genuine repent and asking forgiveness.

nam boram always seeks purpose in her life and constantly focuses on what could happen in the future, rather than dwelling on the present. she is ever the observer, taking into account every event, emotion, and intention which leads into her developing profound insights about the world around her.what she truly cares about is the people around her. there's nothing she values more than deep, authentic relationships with others. what you feel, she feels it tenth fold. she will always lend a listening ear and offer compassionate but logical solutions.at her worst, she can use this skill to fling people’s insecurities back at them in hopes of getting ahead of a situation. she might know everything about you yet you would know nothing of her. she’s forever a work-in-progress trying to pretend she knows it all.

boram was the only child of a sangmin clan of black rice farmers. while her family worked very hard, they struggled to make good profit due to stiff competition. since their only child was female, boram’s parents knew her only path to gaining any capital would be to set up an arranged marriage.she soon found herself engaged to the son of a prosperous farming family. her life soon turned for the worse. her fiance was a drunk and verbally abusive when no one was looking. boram felt trapped and yearned to escape but couldn’t.in a twisted way, her wish came true when her fiance mysteriously keeled over and died after a drinking binge. everyone in the village dubbed her as cursed and her parents disowned her for not committing suicide so she could remain virtuous to him.

boram had to leave home and seek refuge at the woman’s shelter, manim maeul. A year and a half later, she has found employment as a household nobi for the ryu household, working as lady yeonhwa’s lady in waiting. while her societal rank as lowered, in a way, boram feels freer than she’s been in a long time.

  THE SUMMER OF 1841.  
nam boram was born at the peak of summer with the sweltering afternoon heat making it difficult for her and her mother to breathe inside the small room of their humble home. it had been a difficult birth, one that nearly cost both of their lives if not for her mother’s perseverance. while she was not a son as hoped, she was her parents’ rainbow baby. they saw her as a treasure brought into their lives. that year brought the most fruitful harvest the nam clan had seen in decades.  THE FALL OF 1849. [ tw: miscarriage. ]  
the distinctive crunch of fallen leaves could be heard as a young boram rushed back to her home with the village healer on her tail. her mother was in labor, struggling to bring her sibling into the world; however, there was something wrong, deadly wrong. she would never forget the sight: her mother wailing in agony as she held the lifeless bundle in her arms as her normally stoic father kneeled by the bedside, sobbing over the loss of his son. at that moment, she knew that she would be their only child, a daughter… it meant that she would have to take care of them when they turned fragile in old age. she could not stop the tears from falling into the wash basin as she dried to scrub the blood from the stained bedsheets.  THE DECADE OF THE 1850s.  
boram grew into her role as the sole child of the nam clan. she toiled the rice fields and harvested the hard-earned rice. the farm was all she knew. she felt unsatisfied but dared not to speak up. so she tried to pour her devotion into improving the farm but her suggestions were met with ire from her stubborn father. they did capture the attention of a certain gwak mooyoung, a dear family friend and the successor of a booming barley farm. he was an older man, recently married after nearly thirty years of singlehood. yet he frequently visited the nam household, much of his time spent inquiring boram about her farming techniques. his stares unnerved her but she had no choice but to entertain him.one positive change in boram’s life was the sudden arrival of her younger cousins after the tragic passing of their parents. she grew particularly close with the youngest, ryunhee. sharing a room with the younger girl led to their bonding. she helped her cousin through her family trauma, providing her with a shoulder to lean on.

  THE FALL OF 1862. [ tw: brief mention of physical abuse. ]  
time had not been kind to the nam clan. it was like the plague had struck their lands, degrading their harvests. boram predicted this outcome—her warnings had fallen on deaf ears—and she feared that worse was yet to come. it was proven true one night when her father stumbled home drunk with “joyous” news: he had accepted the generous offer for boram’s hand in marriage from the widowed gwak mooyoung. somehow the silver-tongued man convinced him that marrying his daughter twenty years his junior would save the nam clan’s business.it felt like the world was closing in on boram. how could her own flesh and blood doom her like that? she ran away and returned three days later to find her betrothed waiting there with her parents. she would never forget how painful her cheek stung after mooyoung backhanded her as an act of “discipline”. dread filled her soul, knowing this would set the precedent for her impending marriage.  THE FALL OF 1863. [ tw: mentions of verbal abuse and murder. ]  
boram was at her wit’s end as her engagement continued on. for whatever reason, her fiancé kept on pushing back the date. to make matters worse, he had shown his true colors to her, making a habit to stumble back drunk to her home and demanding that she cook meals for him and take care of him as a way of “preparing” for their marriage. her parents always gave them privacy which enabled him to throw verbal insults at her in an attempt to weaken her spirit. but what truly made her see red was how the man stared leerily at her unsuspecting cousin, rina.then one night she had a revelation as she stumbled upon the old jar of medicine that did little to cure her aching joints. it was made of monkshood, a deadly flower that made her violently ill. with her cousin ryunhee’s help and knowledge, they gathered the ingredients needed to set forth their plan.it was all too easy to lure her fiancé into the trap. he was too inebriated to notice the faint taste of poison in the meal boram had cooked for him. the cold look of indifference on her face was the last thing gwak mooyoung witnessed as he succumbed to his fate.the fallout of his death was immediate. the cause remained unknown but most chalked it up to his careless lifestyle and dangerous drinking habits. boram had removed all evidence that could connect his death to her or ryunhee; however, her parents blamed her. they were furious when she refused to take her own life to remain ‘virtuous’ to the vile man. she was disowned on the spot. the village saw her—and anyone associated with her—as a cursewith no other choice, boram fled home in secret. to this day, it pains her that she had to leave without saying a word to ryunhee, the very person who had helped her through thick and thin. she could not bear with the idea of dragging down her dear cousin with her.

  THE WINTER OF 1863.  
boram had ran from village to village yet could not find a proper place to seek refuge. the measly amount of money she had taken was no more and very few people trusted a random woman reluctant to share her story for a good-paying job. luckily she found solace in a woman’s shelter on the outskirts of gwangju, manim maeul.  THE YEARS OF 1863 TO EARLY 1865.  
there was no time limit at the madam’s village yet boram feared overstaying her welcome. she started helping out around the shelter which led to her meeting its founder, the marchioness lady ryu yeonhwa. with the younger woman’s help, boram finally learned how to read and write. soon a tentative friendship was formed. she had found a new purpose in life, wanting to serve the young marchioness as a form of thanks for all that she had given her.  THE DAYS OF PRESENT.  
living in hanseong took some time to get used to. being a lady-in-waiting was a far cry from everything she had learned from being a farmer’s daughter. the intricacies of high society were hard to follow but she planned to do her best for her lady yeonhwa’s sake. to this day, boram still cannot fathom her chance to start anew but she plans on seizing it no matter what.

  THIS SECTION IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.