Junpei Sasaki

From a very young age Junpei had grown up in a single parent household. He never knew his mother and his relationship between him and his father became rocky as soon as Junpei grew old enough to have a sense of personality. His father strongly valued tradition and appearances, and his controlling nature always made Junpei feel suffocated. Though he tried his best to please his father he also had things he wanted to try and do, but they were almost always shot down. Junpei would be his fathers "ideal" nothing more and nothing less. On top of this Junpei often struggled with being perfect and, he felt, failed constantly at the simplest tasks. Making tea? Somehow he would manage to shatter the cup. Grab groceries for the store? He'd grab the wrong things or the wrong brands... nothing he did ever seemed to be good enough.

As Junpei got older he began rebelling more and more. It was small at first, ignoring his dads requests or pushing boundaries, but eventually he took bigger steps in outwardly arguing and going so far as to dress and alter his apperance in order to spite him. Needless to say Junpei rarely visited home if he could avoid it and prefered to stay out and hang out with friends... but even that had its issues. Junpei wasn't popular at school, he was a quiet kid who was often ignored at best and bullied at worst, and it eventually got to the point that he transfered high schools without telling his dad. Feeling as if "he" wasn't good enough, either for his dad or his peers, Junpei took this opportunity to reinvent himself. At his new school he took great strides to become someone else who people would like better... to appear as someone more appealing.

Junpei would move out as soon as he was able. He got a part time job and left home determined to become more independant. However, because of his somewhat clumsy nature, he would end up hopping between jobs often. He kept everything in his life separate... in front of his dad, his friends, and his coworkers he would change his personality and behavior to fit the situations. This led him to feeling as though he had no real sense of idenity. Who was he, really? Who was the real Junpei? He didn't even know how to answer such a question.

It was just by chance that Junpei found an interest in music. He was passing by a street musician when he got curious and decided to stick around for the performance. He didn't have any money to tip, but the musician struck up conversation with him anyways. He asked if Junpei had any background in music which he denied; the only "background" was him listening to loud and obnoxious music to piss his dad off. Smiling the musician offered to teach him some notes on the guitar, which Junpei found difficult to refuse. After that Junpei would often come to the park to meet with the stranger again and learn more about the world of music. Soon, though, the musician would get recruited by a talent agency and have to quite street performances. As a show of thanks the musician gifted Junpei his old guitar and suggested he try and persue the passion; he had a talent for it, after all.

It was the first time Junpei could recall being called good at something. That alone lit a fire in him, and he decided that he wanted to do whatever it took to succeed at this one thing. He would learn to play the guitar, to sing, to dance, anything so long as he could prove that musician right... that he did have something he was good at. Something he could do without failing. He'd prove it to himself and his dad; that he could succeed too. But... for someone who couldn't even find his own identity... how far could he really get?