SPOILERS!!!: Quon Yue's Past
Last chance to turn back....
To understand Quon Yue you have to understand his family, namely his mother. Chen Lien Tai actually come from a pretty wealthy family that moved to Tokyo for business reasons. Lien Tai was a bit of a blacksheep in her family: not only was she the only girl (though an only child, her male cousin was the heir apparent to her father's business) but she also wasn't the most mentally sound person on earth. By the time she was in high school she already wasn't exactly her parents' pride and joy, and she didn't care. She was a wild child, who did what she wanted whenever she wanted, and also seemed to be a tad on the delusional side. (She was sincerely convinced her father's company was evil.)
When she was 16 she met a boy named Aizawa Tachi, and seemed under the impression that they were in love with each other. Unfortunately, no one notified Aizawa of this. He only wanted to use her for sex, and was put off by her strange behaviour and obvious instability. When Aizawa's father found out he was dating a Chinese girl he was ordered to break it off, something he did gladly. Shortly thereafter Lien Tai found out she was pregnant. She was convinced that Aizawa somehow knew and this was the real reason he left, and therefore harbored a deep-seated hatred of him. She was expelled from school and her family disowned her. The only way Lien Tai could support herself was to marry a man from Hong Kong almost three times her age who didn't care that she was pregnant or what she planned to do with the child. (He was also a bit batty himself, though not on the same level as Lien Tai.) They moved to a poor "gaijin" district and purchased an apartment from a couple desperate to leave the building (it was more like a condo. The building was owned by someone, but each apartment was purchased, not rented), and shortly thereafter Quon Yue was born. And that's when things REALLY started to go downhill...
Right away Lien Tai was convinced the boy wasn't any good (or even human, for that matter). She thought of him as a "curse" and a "monster", as no matter how many times she tried to get rid of him he always found his way back to her somehow (and also because of his eyes: his left one was defective and they changed color with his mood). A few times her husband even caught her trying to kill the boy and had to stop her, as he also felt the boy wasn't human, but thought of him as "property", something that could be of potential value to him and his wife in the future.
Almost right from his birth Quon Yue was tortured and beaten by his mother, but never killed on the order his his stepfather. Though he was sent to a school and his stepfather paid his tuition, from the time he was five years old the man would "rent" him out to strangers for large amounts of money and let people have their way with him. Because he was considered property by his parents he even had a dog collar put on him to that people knew that he was owned by someone. And for much of his childhood the cycle was that he would wake up, go to school, come home only to be tormented by his mother (his stepfather would force him to stay and take his torture rather than let him run), and then would be sent off to that evening's client, only to have the cycle repeat itself day in and day out.
Despite this horrible life Quon Yue was actually a sweet and gentle boy, very quiet and shy and unnoticed by most. Also unknown to everyone else was that he was a musical prodigy, a natural at any instrument he took up. But since Quon Yue was just another face in a sea of many other faces. Those who noticed him were drawn in by his delicate, effeminate appearance, and often no good came of it (especially with local children, who loved to torment him).
When Quon Yue was around seven his stepfather's dealings were discovered and cops and other concerned people would often come to the apartment looking for the boy that they were selling. Because these people came at random his mother and stepfather, worried that their prime source of income would be taken from them, would lock him in a closet whenever he wasn't at school or out working, only to let him out late at night, when Quon Yue would promptly climb onto the fire escape via his bathroom window and use other fire escapes to reach the roof, where he would watch the stars and oftentimes fall asleep, only to slink back down before his parents discovered.
Things only began to look up when Quon Yue reached junior high. There he was enrolled in a music class, and for the first time his talents were discovered, namely by a young Chinese music teacher named Yat Tìng Hùng. Because Quon Yue refused to perform in public, Tìng Hùng (who suspected there was something going on in the boy's life that caused him to not want to perform) began to follow the boy and eventually discovered his secret. Saddened and distressed by this discovery he began to use what little money he had to literally buy Quon Yue's time so he could help him improve his musical skills and overall save him.
Quon Yue looked up to his gäau sì (teacher), who was doing everything he could to help him for no seemingly no reason other than to be kind. Quon Yue worked hard to try to impress him, and even began to fall in love with him. Tìng Hùng reluctantly had to admit that he also had feelings for Quon Yue, and encouraged the boy to come with him right after school rather than go back home. His parents were naturally upset by this, but they couldn't find him to do anything about it.
Quon Yue shared his love of astrology with Tìng Hùng, and as a result he was given a gift: a silver coin the the Chinese symbol "sing" (star) on it. Tìng Hùng tried to remove Quon Yue's collar, but was surprised to find he didn't want it removed. For almost a year Quon Yue lived with Tìng Hùng, and he actually started to relax and feel happy.
But things fell apart when Quon Yue's stepfather finally showed up at the school and took him (by now he was almost 13). Quon Yue struggled against his stepfather, and eventually managed to escape his father's grasp...only to fall down the stairs leading to his apartment. To keep from breaking his neck he had used his arms to catch himself and broke both of them, severing a major nerve in them both. Though he survived, he no longer had feeling in his hands and would never be able to play music again.
Distraught and feeling he had failed Quon Yue, Tìng Hùng shot himself in his apartment, leaving Quon Yue alone with his parents and without an ally once again. The cycle once again began, but this time only lasted a year, for when Quon Yue turned 13 he decided it was time to break the cycle and escape once and for all. While trying to make his escape his stepfather tried to catch him, only to fall down the same flight of stairs that had cost Quon Yue his hands. He broke his neck, and Lien Tai called Quon Yue a murderer. Because most people in the apartment building knew what had happened to Quon Yue not even a year ago they were inclined to believe he had pushed his stepfather, even if they did feel he was justified.
After the funeral, Lien Tai left for China, thinking if her son wouldn't go away then she could get away from him. Left with the realization that everyone he met seemed doomed to die, Quon Yue slipped into a deep depression. However, his musical dream was rediscovered when he was a performance of Bad Luck on a TV in a store. With renewed conviction he went back to school and began to sing in public. He changed his image, vowing to never again be the shy, weak boy that caused the death of two people, and chose to associate with neither males nor females because of how he was treated by both in his childhood. Eventually his talents caught the attention of Seguchi Touma, who, after discovering the boy's new arrogant attitude, decided to use him as "revenge" against Nakano Hiroshi...only to have the plan backfire when Quon Yue befriended his son, Seguchi Tokui.
Another interesting note is that Quon Yue's hair was shoulder-length for much of his life. He only started growing it out as a tribute to Tìng Hùng, who had long hair and dark eyes. (Sound familiar?) Also, before he was signed onto NG (and for a time after) Quon Yue continued to sell himself and other equally illegal things, and attained his jewelry through people who gave it to him as payment (those who didn't pay him still owe him favors). Quon Yue also never removed his collar.
(Note: This is the cut-and-dry Reader's Digest version. When it's revealed in context it's much more dramatic, but this is more or less what I have in my notes.)