chani was born to his parents, hyunki and doyun moon in seoul, south korea where he lived in a tiny apartment with his older sister, yeon. she was 7 years old when he was born. at the age of 4, when his sister was 11, they moved to the isle of skye for his mothers research on magical plants. his father, though residing with them, was typically in london for his work with the ministry. yeona always resented their parents for moving.
the isle of skye was different from the bustling streets of seoul, though chani hardly remembered them. though he and his sister were close, he grew up a bit lonely, immersed in his studies and practicing his music. as a child, his favorite thing to do was run to the cliffs overlooking the ocean and play to the sea, as he put it. he would spend hours out there. this was the only time he would let his hair get messy, mussed by the salty sea breeze.
that september, yeona went to hogwarts and chani was left alone. his father was always off in london or holed up in his room. his mother, lonely as well, spent her time either reading countless books or was away for hours, sometimes days at a time, collecting samples.
the village where they lived in the isle of skye was a small community of wizards and witches. tiny, really, consisting of a few lanes in the middle of the scottish countryside. a little bit away from the village lay a slightly larger, muggle inhabited village. here resided an older lady who was a squib and knew of the wizarding village, her parents having resided there decades before. just as she knew of the wizards, the wizards knew of her, and families in chani's neighborhood pointed her out to the family as a friendly face.
during one of the early weeks of their move to the isle of skye, chani's parents decided to take him and his sister to visit the small village. this is when the boy heard the older lady, named ada, playing violin in the small town square. he was entranced. even as a young, energetic toddler the boy stopped and stared, refusing to leave even when his parents ushered him along.
his love for music blossomed here. ada, the squib, began giving him lessons in violin and piano. they would go to her house on the edge of the village on tuesdays. though his parents worried he may reveal his magic to the muggle villagers, they were comforted by the relative distance between ada's house and the others as well as the fact that she was a squib. still, this was the one time at least one of his parent's made sure to take off of work to observe the lesson and ensure nothing went wrong.
at 5 years old, his parents began alternatingly homeschooling him, though it was mostly his mother as she was home most often. when he was younger she would sit with him at the kitchen table for hours, learning english and arithmetic. but as chani got older she would teach for an hours or so then assign him worksheets to do while she went off for her job. while for other children this may have resulted in a stunted education, chani was intelligent and responsible enough for his age to complete his work. by about 9 years old he was self-studying for the most part, having been taught to do so early on.