Warning for death of a teacher alongside aforementioned ableism, anti-natalism, and real-life death of a role model.
Christofer “ Ofie “ Jin Kwon (45) is Hazel’s adoptive father and one of her two adoptive parents. Adoption was always clear on his mind although he loved his biological children just the same. Ofie is the younger brother of his family, his elder brother having a son who’s 27! His son, Channing Baek-gyeul Kwon, is actually a father-to-be himself, with a child due this June! Ofie himself is happy for Channing but hasn’t spoken to Channing’s anti-natalist sister even if she is his niece. He doesn’t want to know if a reconnection will happen, since she’s currently living away in California anyway, but also because she’s extremely ableist too, which is even worse. In a sense, Ofie related to Hazel because he too is separated from a family member with no idea when or if they’re reconnecting. However in Ofie’s case, it’s even less likely. Likewise, he completely understands the separation of Paul from Sören even if he knows that conflict is much different. Ofie is on good terms with Laura Morrow as well and considers her an inspiration for adoptions, fostering, and other social work. He knows her life has changed but it hasn’t changed her good nature, not to mention Laura’s own inspiration, Lisa Marie Presley, passed away the previous year. He knows how Laura feels driven by LMP and he appreciates how much she cared about her. Offie worries about these things at times the older he gets and the realisation that the people he was inspired by will pass away. However he knows Lisa was far too young to die and only a little older than Laura, which makes it more bittersweet.
While Ofie thankfully never grew up with grief in a family sense, he lost one of his teachers growing up at school. He was 8 years old when news spread around the school that his teacher passed away over the weekend. His class had a temporary substitute before he and the other students of that class were randomly assigned to different classrooms teaching the same year. He and the students he was transferred with felt a sense of being outcasts but also a great sense of pain because they greatly missed their late teacher. Many of them didn’t have an experience of death like this before and the school went into mourning after this. It was a very unpleasant year and he almost didn’t make it to the next grade but barely got passable marks to do so. The school still has a memorial tree in front to honour said teacher and Ofie himself actually works at the school now. He’s a very focused individual and he supports his brother and sister-in-law’s intelligence and success as well. He’s been very close to Channing since Channing told him about his unplanned fatherhood and promises to be there for him even if others won’t. His own biological children are just gradually learning that whole “birds and the bees” stuff but it won’t change their positive moods about Channing. Ofie decided not to tell them unless Channing did so first.
Channing and Laura were created by @moonwriteen.