Byeol : Lee Minhwan

HERE I AM

"Love me or hate me, but you'll never forget me"

 

PERSONALITY TRAITS :　
(+) Driven, Passionate, Ambitious, Thorough, Independent
(/) Internal
(-) Obsessive, Competitive, Defensive, Perfectionist, Demanding

PERSONALITY :　

Lee Minhwan is one of those people who doesn't have a clear line between his good and bad traits. All his characteristics can really be taken either way, which means you either love him or you hate him, with very little in between. he's the sort of person who everyone has an opinion on - he definitely doesn't fade into the background, and once you've met him it's impossible to not form a lasting first impression.

On the more positive side, one could see him as a passionate individual who works hard to achieve his goals. He knows what he wants and he's ready and willing to put in any and all effort to accomplish those wants. He sets his sights and standards almost impossibly high, and pushes himself tirelessly to reach them. He can get a little egotistical at times, sure, but with all the effort he puts into his craft, surely he should be allowed some arrogance. And he does ask for help when he's struggling with something. It should be noted, though, that he never clearly acknowledges if someone is better than he is, instead focusing on learning whatever it is they're better at until he feels he has improved to the point of being their superior. He's definitely a very driven person who doesn't give up easily.

On the negative side of things, Minhwan is an arrogant brat who can't admit when he's outclassed. He's overly intense when improving himself, bordering on obsession. Everything is a competition, and he has to place first. He's not necessarily a sore loser, but when he doesn't do as well as he wants you can definitely tell. He's a poor sport, and he gets rather petty when he doesn't rank well, refusing to shake hands or congratulate the winners. He doesn't even necessarily want to win, just place in the top three at the very least. He feels entitled to a higher rank since he's put so much into his craft, and he doesn't like when he feels cheated. He also doesn't like it when the rankings actually are logically fair. He has a hard time admitting he's not as good as someone else when it comes to dancing (though it should be noted he's significantly more open to failure in anything that isn't dance related), and he really doesn't take criticism well. One has to be very careful when correcting him - you can't use the word 'better' or he shuts down and stops listening (ie. saying "why don't you try this and see which feels more comfortable" is fine, while something like "if you do it like this it will look better" will cause him to shut down and stop listening). He's defensive - he doesn't like his flaws to be pointed out to him. When he comes in fifth or sixth in competitions he goes into shut down mode where he just practices for hours on end, and the only way to get him out of it is to just let it happen and never speak of it again.

Whether you see him as good or bad really depends on what mood he's in when you meet him. For the most part, Minhwan is really just a perfectionist with particularly high standards for himself. He doesn't try to push being the best onto anyone else, or try to make them work harder than they want to - he only cares about himself, and is actually pretty hypocritical with others, telling them not to overwork themselves and even using his own meltdown in school as an example. He keeps to himself, not liking to open up even slightly to others. There isn't a real reason beyond not wanting to get close to the 'competition'. He does have slight trust issues as well, not really stemming from anything but, again, his high sense of competition. For him, life is something to win at. He's not quite sure what the prize is yet but he absolutely has to be the person to get it. He can't really explain why he's so obsessed with being the best at dancing, but something in his mind latched onto the sport as the main object to be used to win the life game. And so he continues to push himself well past his limits in his illogical quest.

BACKGROUND :　

Minhwan was born in Itaewon-dong, Seoul, at 7:45 in the morning on the degradingly named Hooker Hill. He was delivered by a half-trained midwife to a 23-year-old e after almost 24 hours of labor. His mother, Lee Naeri, had come from a broken home. At age 18 she had left the house to try and start a new life, but ended up on the streets trying to earn enough money just to eat. ion proved the most effective, and most profitable, of her options, as she was barely educated. She did well for herself, earning enough to afford a small, one bedroom apartment in Itaewon and to have three meals a day. Then she got pregnant. She'd always been extremely careful, so she didn't know how it had happened, but she ultimately decided to keep the child. She quit her job and took up a position at one of the restaurants in the area, wanting a more "legitimate" life for her son.

Minhwan's childhood was rocky. There was no guarantee that there would be food on the table when he got home from school, he slept on the couch because they couldn't afford a larger apartment, and he was a very awkward and shy child, resulting in him not having many friends. There were a few boys from his neighborhood who he hung out with on a semi-regular basis, but they were never super close and drifted as they aged. The main problem was that Minhwan could never hang out after school. Naeri was very insistent that Minhwan come straight home and complete his school work. She wanted him to be as high in the rankings as possible so he'd have a better chance at a scholarship to a good school, since there was no way the family could afford to further his education otherwise. Minhwan became a bit obsessed with ranking first as he aged and started to understand why he needed to study so much. He worked day and night to increase his scholastic standings, sometimes going several days with very little food or sleep. But although he did learn how to function on the bare minimum, it still put a heavy strain on his mind and he ended up over working himself to the point of actually failing a final exam. He was twelve years old.

After what he's come to refer to simply as 'the incident', Minhwan's grades all dropped at once. Once in the top two percentile of his class consistently since he was seven, he now ranked below average. It caused several screaming matches between him and his mother, and he often took long walks around his part of town to clear his head afterwards. It was during one of these that he happened across a team of street performers. He watched them for almost three hours as they battled each other freestyle, only leaving because one of them had caught sight of him and looked like she might be coming over, so he booked it back to the apartment. After that he found himself lingering in the area more often, hoping to catch sight of the dancers. he saw them a week later, once again freestyling for fun. This time the girl caught him before he could run off and dragged him over to the group. They were quite welcoming, and he learned that most of them were from around the area and met up once or twice a week to dance. They invited him to join them, and figuring he had nothing to loose, he agreed. One of the oldest guys there, Im Minwoo, started showing Minhwan the basics of b-boying and freestyle dancing. Minhwan proved to be a natural and a quick learner, and a little after he turned fifteen - two years after joining the group - Minwoo suggested he try competing. At first he was hesitant, remembering what happened the last time he got competitive, but his group encouraged him until he gave in and went to a small-time freestle battle.

He came in fourth, and it started a new addiction. Minhwan started practicing more, studying the other dancers at the battles, getting lessons and advice from them if he could. He wanted to be the best, win every competition. He was constantly dancing, whether it was freestyle practice with the group or more sophisticated choreographies he found online in his free time. One of the girls in his group, Hong Aeri, made the suggestion that he go pro with his dancing after his seventh win at a competition in mid 2010, when he was almost 18. Minhwan ignored the comment at first, continuing with his focus on the battles. Then, in 2011, Brave Girls debuted, and suddenly the idea seemed very intriguing to him - specifically the idea of being an idol.

He'd of course heard other idol groups on the radio, even used their choreographies for practice (he can do most of INFINITE's dances), but he'd never been too intrigued by the idea of becoming one himself since he found that most idol group dancers were either overrated or overlooked if they actually did have talent. However, Brave Girls' effortless mastery of the charts, despite being new and despite high competition from other groups that year, as well as the unique feel to their music caught his interest, and he found himself looking into Brave Entertainment. What pushed him to ultimately decide to audition was Minwoo. His friend entered a dance competition with Minhwan - and Minwoo won. Stunned, and feeling an illogical sense of betrayal, Minhwan stopped hanging out with the group he'd been with for almost five years. He did a bit more research on Brave Ent and learned where their main building was located. After finishing his final high school exams, he went straight to the building and demanded an audition "because I'm the best damned dancer you'll ever have the chance of working with". The CEO was amused by the show of bravado and invited Minhwan to back up his claims. And Minhwan definitely did. He started training the next week.

LIKES :

▸ Freestyle Dancing
▸ Winning
▸ The color blue (it's been his favorite color since he was a kid)
▸ Dark Concepts in MVs
▸ The nickname 'Geoman-hwan' (word play in general amuses him)

DILKES :

▸ Losing
▸ Cats (he's very much a dog person)
▸ Aegyo
▸ Getting teased about his height
▸ Most idol dancers (he finds them all overrated)

HABITS :

▸ He chews the tip of his tongue with his front teeth when he's tired to try and wake himself up
▸ Rolling his shoulders back to relax before dance battles
▸ Tapping the top of his journal twice after making an entry, before he puts it back on its shelf

HOBBIES :

▸ Freestyle dancing
▸ Studying new dance techniques
▸ He keeps a detailed journal with explanations on how to execute different dance moves

TRIVIA :

▸ He only says he's from Seoul on his profile, no mention of Itaewon
▸ He really doesn't say anything about his past at all other than he didn't have many friends
▸ Though he's easily the strongest freestyle dancer in the group he's not always the best at set choeographies and often ends up adding his own flair to them
▸ He has undiagnosed OCD
▸ Although he's a top dancer in the company Minhwan doesn't teach dance (because he's a really bad teacher and gets impatient with his students)
▸ He wears 3cm shoelifts whenever he's in public
▸ He claims to be completely fearless, but in reality he's quite terrified by the idea of failing, he'd just never admit it
▸ He regularly challenges other idols to dance battles whenever anyone suggests they might be better than he is
▸ His biggest pet peeve is when people leave cupboards open - it stems from his childhood when an open cupboard meant mice and bugs could get into the food
▸ While he's not scared of them per se, he really really abhors rodents, particularly rats and mice
▸ He's always wanted a golden retriever (he'd name him Rouge)
▸ He actually has a picture of him with his old dance crew from when he was 16 and had won his first dance competition hidden in the cover of his journal

TOGETHER WE STAND

"Friends are just enemies waiting for your guard to fall"


 

RELATIONSHIPS :　

FAMILY

▸ Mother — Lee Naeri (48) / Waitress / tired, impatient, demanding / 4/10
Naeri honestly has the best intentions for her son, she's just terrible at showing affection. She definitely expects a lot from Minhwan, but it's only because she wants him to have opportunities that she never did. He sort of understands that, but after they started arguing all the time over his grades he's had a hard time seeing her as a friend. She's actually very supportive of his dancing since it brings in money for the family every time he wins, but she does wish his grades didn't have to suffer for it.

FRIENDS

Nope

OTHER

Also nope

I HAVE NEVER STOPPED TRYING

"THERE ISN'T ANYONE BETTER THAN ME. I WON'T ALLOW IT."

 

PERSONA :　Rising Star

STAGE NAME :　Byeol
POSITION :　Lead Dancer, Vocals

TRAINEE PERIOD :　3 years at Brave Ent, 2 years at Yunrae

TALENT TWINS :　

▸ Vocals: Khun (Up10tion)
▸ Dance: Jay Park (Solo/Ex-2PM)
▸ Rap: Kyuhyun (Super Junior)

TRAINEE LIFE :　Minhwan may have been training at Brave Ent for a good chunk of time but that doesn't mean he made friends. In fact, he actively kept to himself, instead focusing completely on his dancing (and kind of his singing, since he knew he needed to have decent voice control if he wanted to debut). He was determined to be the best dancer in the whole company, and he constantly measured himself against everyone around him, turning even warm up exercises into a competition. He was either found to be that really annoying kid or someone to look up to.

After his 3-year contract with Brave Ent ended without a debut, he decided to pack his bags and try somewhere else. Yunrae just happened to be the first relatively small, decent-seeming company he came across. He auditioned, got in, and then pretty much acted the exact same way as he did at Brave Ent.

PREDEBUT :

▸ Some backup dancing for Brave Girls and Bigstar before he left

SCANDALS :

▸ He has a habit of insulting or dismissing other idols' dancing skills on camera (mostly for laughs, but also he's serious) so he pisses of their fans and tends to get a lot of hate messages on his social media accounts

THIS IS ME

"I really have better things to be doing"

 

why did you pick yunrae entertainment - or to be an idol at all in that case? : 

▸ Well, there aren't many options when you want to be a professional dancer, and being an idol is basically the only one that gets you noticed for it. As for why Yunrae, it was honestly the first company I saw after leaving Brave. I didn't want to go to one of those huge companies with their overrated dancers and terrible teachers. I want to start somewhere where I can't be compared to people in my own company.

If you could pick another sub-unit to be in, which one would it be and why? :

▸ Diamond is the only sub-unit with legitimate dancing. I have no interest in being in any other unit.

Is there a particular activity you'd like to try in the future (like acting, musicals, variety)? : 

▸ Not really. Maybe choreographing? That could be fun.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR SUNBAES? : 

▸ They... exist? I don't know, what am I supposed to say here? I don't exactly know them.

AND HOW WOULD YOU TREAT YOUR HOOBAES - IF YOU WERE TO HAVE A SISTER GROUP FOR EXAMPLE? : 

▸ The same as anyone else? So long as they don't try acting like they're better than me, I'm fine teaching them to dance or whatever. Or just ignoring them works too.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION? : 

▸ No, can I leave now? The dance room is open and I kind of usually use it right now so if you don't mind...

lilshocker8 : lils : 8/10

LAST WORDS :　I'm so drowned in writing right now, Yeongki just wasn't happening OTL So have this wonderful nightmare instead! :D

PASSWORD :　"Annyeong, the greatest rising star has arrived!" (Byeol means star in Korean, so he sort of already said his name? That's how he sees it anyway)

SCENE REQUESTS : 

▸ I'll add them if I think of any ^^

turn in : story : cheatsheet