Jared Bautista- Vietnamese (mother); Filipino (father); Jared Bautista is an honest and well-meaning young man who courts and eventually falls in love with Emma Tran when he encounters her after his move to New York. A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, he is a recent graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and is currently pursuing his masters degree at St. John's University. He is perceived as kind, sweet, gentle, and loyal, as well as slightly insecure and tends to be relied upon for his plans and analyses. As the only child of a mother who is a veterinarian and a father who is an entrepreneur, he has a close relationship with his cousins and his grandmother Poh. Jared was always a shy boy who did not make friends easily, preferring to be alone in the company of his text books instead. His classmates often mistook his withdrawn nature for arrogance, so they did not approach him either until he started doing so. He studied very hard and regularly finished at the top of national exams, leading some of his classmates to speculate that he was superhuman and had an IQ of 300. Usually calm and level-headed, he was the voice of reason among his peers and considered math and science to be his favorite subjects, as he was aiming to become a doctor. Jared is a big Star Wars fan and loves the television web series The Mandalorian, which he believes is the best thing to be released by the franchise since the film Empire Strikes Back. He is considered a bit of a night owl due to his tendency to stay up late gaming and watching different shows. He has a sense of humor that tends to surface during unexpected moments and has a distinctive laugh that makes him stand out. He also loves to eat red bean soup and can often be found watering plants or tending to his garden, although he has an aversion to eating crab.
Emma quickly notes that Jared is gifted with both talent and self-esteem once he shares a few of his sketches to her, prompting her curiosity to get to know him on a deeper level. She is also captivated by Jared's ability to combine fragility with strength and show himself to have a hidden depths despite his outward composure. Although she feels slightly overwhelmed and pressured to mirror his knowledgeability, her fears gradually subside as they begin to bond over inside jokes and discover some cultural similarities with Emma's partial Vietnamese heritage. He discovers that Emma is deeply emotional and expressive as they delve deeper into conversation. Jared notes her capacity to be charismatic and personable and leave an unforgettable impression with the honesty she brings to each encounter. He is also charmed by her delicate beauty and timeless "joi-de-vivre", appreciating the way her eyes lit up when discussing a new idea that excites her. He admits that he is passionate about Daft Punk and that he tends to like music from obscure anime shows, in addition to debating between doing a caring profession or becoming a landscape architect. He still doesn't quite lose his intrigue over Emma and choses to search for her name on different social media platforms to learn more about her. Jared appreciated her boundless compassion and the warm look she developed in her eyes when serving a cause she felt strongly about, embarking on a continuing quest to find the bubbly, high-spirited girl with the love-struck almond-shaped eyes that he had first seen at the subway. He and Emma would later meet again by chance once they were fatefully seated by one another in a new graduate course at the start of the new spring semester.
He would come to serve as a strong pillar of support to counterbalance Emma's impulsivity, as she noticed that being around Jared allowed her to relax and seize the moment as it came. Although she craved a sense of autonomy over her life, she would learn that sometimes, the best events in life were the ones that could not be easily predicted. She would lightly joke that Jared was her "manic pixie dream boy", as he could be amusing and weirdly mesmerizing with his offbeat mannerisms and ability to become a quick-talking, loud-mouthed social explosion once he finally began to unwind around those who earned his trust. Jared also has a desire to travel the world and claimed he would like to each in English in a foreign country, claiming that the cheaper cost of living in South East Asia appealed to him. He also has an interest in the paranormal, hinting at a weird and dark side to his personality, and claims that he once befriended a ghost named Scratch. He is shown to be pretty athletic, scoring lots of badges as a former boys scout and helped his local baseball team win a regional championship. He also helped reinstate a concert at the park in his neighborhood that he felt would benefit the elderly citizens that were placed at a nursing home. Jared bonded quickly with Emma over their shared values as people who desired to revolutionize the current education system through their work. He developed a sense of comfort once they openly shared stories about their "crazy, over-the-top", but well-intentioned Asian fathers and the slightly humiliating experiences they could bring. They claim that they share most of their "firsts" with each other, as they were both late bloomers with a limited amount of experience when it came to intimacy and love before they first met one another.
He shows a spontaneous side to him when he shares a memory of his formerly pretending to be a superhero when he was a kid and using his pet hamster as his side kick. Emma and Jared could mutually surprise themselves with the depths their minds could dive into with ease whenever they spent time together. He loved her community-mindedness and the diligence she brought to each of her commitments, whereas Emma could never resist the easy smile and determined look Jared would develop when he was up against a challenge. Jared saw every instance of getting to know Emma as feeling equivalent to unwrapping a new present, as he enjoyed watching her naturally unfold and meet new experiences with a stress-relieving laugh. He would come to propose to Emma in their late 20s once they took an Amtrak train trip to California, leading them to celebrate their union several months after through two separate ceremonies, with one including the Vietnamese Tea Ceremony that was unique to their cultures and the other being a classic white wedding centered on American customs and tradition. According to his mother, Jared is an athletic swimmer, a gifted artist, and an accomplished violinist, having performed in concerts, either by himself or jointly, such as when he held a concert with the Three Lights. He was able to drive a car and ride a motorcycle despite the fact that the age for earning a driver's license in America was 16, although when this was brought, he claimed he got his license abroad. He suffered an accident in which he had second degree burns on his left arm after playing with a pot of boiling water in the kitchen. Due to this, he was always seen wearing long sleeves to cover himself, although he becomes more secure in his own skin as he matures.
Jared was diagnosed with OCD and anxiety when he was a teenager, as he began suffering from intrusive thoughts when he was 13 years old. He has gone to therapy to learn healthier coping mechanisms for his disorder and tends to fixate on certain things and is sees turtles as his animal motif. His best friend Whitney serves as his confidant however, and he becomes more spontaneous and open-minded during the adventures they share together. The two have been best friends since they met their freshman year of college when they met during an anthropology class and she was studying to be an IT. After celebrating their honeymoon at the beaches of Phuket in Thailand, the two settled down in Charlottesville, Virginia, craving a calmer choice of environment to raise their growing family. They eventually had two young daughters born in short succession that they chose to name Leah and Cassie. Jared is an attractive young man with an average build who is on the shorter side, standing just a few inches taller than Emma at a height of 5 ft. 6. He has short, neatly trimmed black hair that is usually parted to the side, thin almond-shaped brown eyes, a beige complexion, and a slightly flat, rounded nose that he tends to feel insecure about. He also has a small scar on his left knee from having tripped on the sidewalk when he was 7 years old. He pursues a career as an urban planner and begins working for a firm, meanwhile Emma finds satisfaction in her work as a middle school guidance counselor. INFP 6w5
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What's in a Name?
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