My boys!! My best friend and I have this lovely story about these two. The entire concept was to have a sunshine cutie character that secretly has the absolute WORST life (Owen, strawberry blonde), and his bad boy love interest, who's actually had a pretty good life (Loïc, black hair). We thought it would be funny since its usually the other way around.

Owen grew up really rough, incredibly pressure from his parents to be perfect, lots of fighting, and then eventually a divorce that they blamed on him, told him to his face it was his fault. Both parents fought over who would get Owen to live with them, not because they wanted him, but to get back at each other. Eventually Owen picked his mother and his father, an alcoholic, drank himself to death not to long after. His mother blamed him for his death. With no further incentive to keep him, his bother abandoned him at an orphanage and disappeared.
Owen spent most of his young life with few friends, but always did his best in school. Outwardly, he was perfect. Happy, bright, the biggest suck-up imaginable, the teacher's pet, the honor roll student, and yet none of it made anyone love him the way he hoped it would.
By 16, by was emancipated, unable to stand living in orphanage after foster home after temp family. He picked up a few jobs, got a cheap car, and adopted a cat. Now he's just trying to get by without going insane and giving in to the incredible amount of grief in his heart.

Thats where Loïc comes in. I'll talk about him in a different post :P