meet benjamin 'branch' lim !
28 — ANALYST AT COUFFAINE RECORDS
favorite song? doesn't have one
sexuality: pansexual
pronouns?: he/him
big three? who cares
benjamin wasn't always the lonely, sad sack one sees today. he used to be full of life and love that came with the family he used to be able to call his own. he and his brothers had the most fun anyone could imagine and he never thought the adventures would end. unfortunately they did. he was too young to understand why his brothers had to go their separate ways and why they were quick to leave without goodbyes. only one of his four brothers was nice enough to give a farewell speech, promising they'd be back eventually. benjamin was stupid to believe in that oath, he held onto it for years until came the eventual realization that it would never happen.
maybe he'd have a more forgiving heart if they'd left with an explanation but instead his brothers left him with a mess. he wouldn't learn about it until later in life but his brothers weren't the most upstanding of citizens, benjamin had no idea of this, of course. he never questioned how they all got their money he was just wowed by all the toys and trips they used to go on. little did he know, his brothers would do just about anything to get money to take care of him and their grandma. the reason for their departure came from a stash of money they found in a heist, the stacks and stacks of money looked too good to be true but times were tough, they didn't know it all belonged to a mafia. once they caught wind of what they'd done, they knew they were in big trouble. at the time, the only option that felt right was to run and hide. looking back, benjamin still doesn't quite understand why they didn't just give the money back or why they even needed the money in the first place, if he'd been given the choice between loads of cash or more time with his brothers, he'd choose his brothers every time. it became clear that his brothers didn't feel the same.
in the years that he did hold out the hope his brothers would come back, benjamin looked after his grandma. she took him and his brothers in after his parents died, he was too young to remember them so all he had were his brothers and his grandma. or well, now he only had his grandma. she was fun. a strict lady but he loved her and never wanted anything bad to happen to her. he swore to protect her because she was all the family he had left. he lived a quiet life, didn't really make waves anywhere he went he just longed for the return of his brothers who could teach him a thing or two about life. things were alright until they weren't. one day he came home from school to find his grandma dead. it was clear it wasn't a natural death, she was murdered. in the mess of the bloody scene, benjamin found a note that stated his family stole money from a powerful mafia and he'd eventually have to own up to it. he didn't know what to make of everything but suddenly he was being put in the foster care system with massive debt and no way to tell his brothers that their grandmother was dead. suddenly the pieces were being put together, his brothers' sudden disappearances made sense.
the years in foster care were spent in deep agony, depression, and loneliness. benjamin held resentment for the brothers he once looked up to and now hoped they'd never come back. his sour and pessimistic attitude toward life left him with no family ever wanting to take him in long enough for him to call it home. the only steady thing was school, it was the only thing to distract him from any matters of the home he didn't have. he supposed the mafia was nice enough to not bury the kid in any more stress while he was still a minor but once he turned eighteen, they came back and made sure he was reminded of the debt. he worked multiple jobs, doing whatever he could to pay off his debt little by little while trying to pay for his own apartment and further his education. he went after jobs in business, thinking it was sensible to go for something with job security and steady income. after college, he became a risk analyst for a financial company, eventually moving up in the company and later being offered a position at couffaine records for his impeccable work and experience. really ironic for him to work with finances given how he was still owing tons of money back to the mafia but it was manageable now and seemed to have an end goal in sight. throughout all of this, benjamin really learned that the only thing he had to depend on was himself.
HC’s:
actually had small dreams of becoming a musician once, but obviously that wouldn't pay the bills or the debt so he sticks to business
probably hasn't genuinely smiled in years, there's not much to smile about. his cynical state leaves him hating just about anything and he doesn't care enough about anything that could make him happy, he doesn't have the time for that kind of stuff.
really hates his brothers, like he would sell them out to the mafia in a millisecond if he could.
he's constantly worried about the mafia coming to get him, he knows he's doing good on his payments but what happened to his grandma really scarred him. he doesn't sleep much because he'll get nightmares about that day if he does.




















