meta 001. jules’s family
robert song was born and raised in new york city to korean immigrants. his parents sent him back to south korea for college, which is where he ended up meeting nayeon. where he liked to say that it was love at first sight (for him, at least) the truth was that he was a bumbling fool whose dorky charms eventually won nayeon over. he worked hard to convince her parents to not only let them get married, but to let her move back to the united states with him. though they eventually relented, it did come with the stipulation that if they had a son, he would eventually return to korea to take over the family business.
robert had always been the more laid back of the two. having a love of all things comics, when the two of them eventually settled in hawkins, he decided to open up the town’s first comic book shop. he passed his love of comics and all things nerdy on to jules, who practically spent her entire childhood in the comic shop. jules had always been closer with her dad, and that only became more true as she got over.
everything changed in the summer after high school graduation. she had noticed that something was odd about her dad’s behavior, but jules chalked it up to being frustrated about the drop in sales due to the popularity of the new starcourt mall. she had no idea that it was something much more sinister.
having no idea about the goings on underneath the surface of hawkins, she had no idea that her dad had become one of the flayed. and then her world crumbled after he passed away during the “fire” at starcourt. after his death, jules took over ownership of the shop, and she started looking into the starcourt incident--refusing to believe it was as simple as it seemed. she’s slowly realizing that there’s a lot more going on.
nayeon kang was lucky. born to a wealthy family that owned a chain of department stores around seoul, she had lived a rather privelidged life. graduating top of her class in high school and getting into seoul national university, her life was all but planned to a t.
what she never expected was for robert to turn her perfect life upside down.
she met robert while she was at university, and while it wasn’t love at first sight, per se, it didn’t take long for his unique quirks and charms to win her over. after much pleading from both her and robert, her parents eventually relented in letting them marry and settle down in the united states. nayeon could not be happier, and fully supported robert in opening his comic shop.
their first child was peter, and nayeon’s parents were ecstatic at their firstborn being a boy who could inherit the family business. a couple years after peter, nayeon gave birth to julia. julia adored both her children, affectionately referring to them by their korean names: jihoon and jisoo, respectively. she also insisted on raising both kids to be able to speak both korean and english, wanting to keep their culture alive in the family.
while she loves jules, she does wish that her daughter was more of a girly girl, and takes every opportunity to dress her up. so if you ever see jules looking like she suddenly started caring about people’s perceptions of her, it was most likely her mother’s doing.
nayeon was, however, completely distraught after robert’s passing. she does her best to smile brightly, still, but both jules and peter can tell that she’s having a hard time.
peter song was the firstborn, born with the crushing weight of family expectations on his shoulders. he has always been incredibly bright, and graduated from hawkins high school at the top of his class. after high school, he left for south korea for college, as well as to start learning about the family business.
his relationship with his sister has always been an odd one. while at their cores, they are incredibly close, they are also two very different people. peter is much more analytical and straight forward, whereas julia would much rather lose herself in the world of comics than have to go to business school.
when he received the news about his father during the summer of ‘85, he immediately packed up his things, taking a break from school as he traveled back to hawkins to be with his family. he’s trying to keep an eye on jules while being there for their mother, but peter can tell that there’s something looming on the horizon--and he’d be lying if he said it didn’t scare him.
