PERSONALITY TRAITS: 

loyal, brave, real, measured, supportive, kind
proud, intimidating, slow, stoic
stubborn, defiant, resentful, unpredictable, insecure, awkward

PERSONALITY:

The first thing you notice about Inho as you see him walk towards you is that he's an intimidating sight. His face isn't very expressive, whether he's happy or angry or sad they tend to be understated emotions on his face, most of the time he just looks awkward. He also tends to have a resting b*tchface so that doesn't help, he just looks like a human do-not-disturb sign. The way he holds himself makes it seem like he's got all the confidence and swag in the world, one would never doubt that Kwang Inho is a rapper. 

A defining trait of Inho is that he's loyal, he isn't very good at making friends, he's brusque and unemotive and just not approachable at all, so when he does make a friend he stands by them. He's supportive of those around, in his own way. Inho is a good guy it's just buried under a lot of layers of being unnaproachable and stroic and awkward. Inho is a bit anti-establishment and individualistic, he believes that everyone should just do what they want and damn what anyone else thinks about it so he'll always try to inspire that in others even if that's not always a good idea. In that way Inho himself can also be defiant, he doesn't like listening to authority at all, especially that of a big company. He doesn't have a high opinion of anything corporation and sometimes he'll do exactly the opposite of what he's told just to spite them. This way he can be unpredictable because his stubborness sometimes rules him. Tell him to do A and he'll do Z just because he can. But while this defiance can be downright stupid many times, you have to admit that Inho is brave. 

Inho is far from rash, however. He's a bit of a slow person, not too bright or quick-witted, but he always carefully thinks through his actions. Inho doesn't do anything big before measuring the pros and cons and thoroughly thinking things through. Whatever he does, he always does it with full intent. This means he also takes some time deciding things, during brainstorming sessions he's usually the one who's silent at first, thinking things through and listening to the other's suggestions, and only at the end coming up with his own measured opinion about something someone else suggested or his own idea which can come way out of the blue. If Hanjin is the hare then Inho is definitely the turtle. 

He has some very dark parts inside him too, darker than the clothes he likes to wear. Inho has a bad habit of letting resentment fester. He doesn't like to think about the dark thoughts he has, thoughts like jealousy towards Hanjin, or just resentment toward fate for putting him in so many bad situations. So much resentment that he hasn't adressed and doesn't want to adress just festering. While he looks like he's confident with that rapper swag, Inho suffers from insecurities. He's had so little success in his life and gone through so much that there are parts of him that wonder if he's good for anything? Is he good enough to call himself a rapper? Nobody's paid attention to him before so isn't that answer enough? He struggles a lot keeping those insecurities at bay but that just puts them in the festering bucket. Honestly he's mostly too proud to let himself see those flaws in himself and definitely too proud to ask for help. 

Inho is Hanjin's trusted shadow, Hanjin is Inho's bro, but their friendship is far from perfect. Inho feels a lot of resentment toward Hanjin for being the effortlessly succesful one, and for having all these chances coming from a middleclass family and with his assertive and go-getter personality while Inho has always been poor and timid. While he knows Hanjin has worked for his opportunities and success he can't help but feel resentful that when he works hard there is still nothing that comes to him. While they have been friends for a long time their pride has kept them shallow friends on an emotional level. They would each call the other their best friend but they don't talk about their insecurities or troubles. Inho stands by his friend now but with every effortless victory of Hanjin and every crushing failure of Inho the chasm between them grows and the resentment in Inho festers.

 

BACKGROUND:

Inho grew up in a household of a single mother and 3 younger siblings (Kwangshik, now 22; Mirae, now 19; Daehwan, now 16). His da was around for the first 8 years of his life but he and his mom often argued and when he was 8 his da left them while his mom was still pregnant with his younger brother and since then they've been alone. Inho had to take care of his siblings from a very young age along with the help from his grandma while his mom worked several jobs to support them. There were a couple of times in his life where they were all on government benifits and those periods felt so shameful to Inho. His mom inbetween work and them living off scraps from the government. He always loved hiphop music, especially Leessang whose songs often touched topics he could identify with, using it as a way to keep his mind off of his troubles. Inho has a huge amount of respect for Gary and he's who inspired Inho to start rapping. When he was 14 he started to visit the underground clubs and watching competitions, pretending to be older than he was. It took him a solid year to get the guts to actually start participating.

When he was 17 he met Hanjin during a rap competition where he made it a few rounds before losing to a better rapper. Hanjin started questioning him about how everything worked and Inho took him under his wing and introduced Hanjin to his friends and before he knew it it was him who was following Hanjin around instead of the other way around. This irked Inho, but Hanjin's confidence was magnetic and the two grew to be best friends. Hanjin would often crash at Inho's house and drag him out to the underground when he wasn't supposed to go, and Inho's mom gave him a lot of times for skipping out on babysitting duties to go join a rap competition. Then Hanjin got signed by Brand New and things changed. They were still friends and hung out and still went to the underground together but Hanjin didn't have as much times for their antics anymore as he started working on his album and on getting his name out there while Inho dropped out of high school at 16 and immediately started working.

One of the best moments in Inho's life was when Hanjin called him up to feature on his album. It was only a feature on a B-side but Inho got to record in a studio and he got to meet Hanjin's labelmates and friends. From that moment onwards he got more involved with the other rappers. They even told him that if he worked on more variety in his rapping they'd be happy to sign him but Inho couldn't afford to take a risk like that while his income working his day job at the convenience store was helping to support his family. He didn't tell his family about this, they'd feel guilty for holding him back, but it was the main reason he didn't pursue anything but every once in a while he'd go out drinking with Hanjin's labelmates and feel like he was a part of something.

So 2014 comes around and auditions for SMTM4 are approaching and Hanjin convinced Inho to join him. Inho managed to get to round 5 before being eliminated, not even making it through the revival round. Meanwhile Hanjin made it all the way to round 8 and Inho continued to cheer him on and even made it to the audience during the one live show Hanjin performed at. Then for a while things went back to business as usual. Inho worked on his own mixtape for fun as a way of getting his thoughts out there. Then two years later Hanjin starts getting excited about this whole Do or Die thing and he wants Inho to audition with him. Even if he doesn't make it he'll get his name out there, Hanjin says, that way you can get picked up by a label finally. Inho at first is reluctant, he still has to supposed his family, but with all but one of his siblings being grown up now the pressure is off him and his family all pressure him to follow his dream and stop being in Hanjin's shadow all the time so Inho decides to go for it.

TRIVIA:

1. Inho had never been very good at learning languages and since he dropped out of high school as soon as he was able he never really picked up any. He can speak enough English to put a word or sentence or two in his raps but his accent is thick and usually he gets help from Hanjin. He's also got bad pronounciation.
2. He has a bit weakness for the underdogs like him and will go out of his way to help them. Honestly he's weak in general, he's a really good guy underneath.
3. Inho has datined 2 girls before but neither worked out. He immortalized them in his raps anyway.
4. Even though he often took care of his siblings when they were younger he's really bad with kids. They always end up being scared of him.
5. He really hates fast food since they always got fast food if they didn't have enough money for a real meal.
6. He really wants his family to see him live. Would cry if they had a family facetime thing. Would also deny crying after.
7. He's really awkward about skinship things, he just doesn't know how to act like does he hug them back or does he not and what is too much or too little? He usually just ends up awkwardly patting them. 
8. He's awkward around anyone below 20 in general. He does not do kids.
9. Besides hiphop he also really likes krnb and is a huge fan of Crush. 
10. He often tries to sing even if he's really bad at it for laughs, because it's fun. 
11. He can't cook at all. His siblings used to hate the days his mom couldn't make lunch for them because they knew they'd get nothing edible otherwise.
12. He dropped out of school when he was 16 to start working and help support his family. He's not good at languages or math or any kind of school subject.
13. Can play guitar and is familiar with rearranging songs and producing software due to his own mixtape making.
14. Inho has several tattos. One on his right arm that has the names of his mother, siblings, and grandma hidding in the leaves. Each tree is supposed to symbolise one of them.After he got that tattoo his sister became interested in tattoos and has since become an apprentice tattoo artist in an underground studio (tattooing is technically illegal in Korea) and he often lets her practice on him. Her first tattoos were some minimalist line designs on his rib where he told his sister to just do whatever to practice. They're a bit crooked but that just makes him like them best. Then he got 3 crosses on the side of his neck (Thinner than on the picture but close enough), one for what he sees as a major achievement. One for his first mixtape, one for his first competition win, and one when he got eliminated from SMTM. He plans to get anotehr one if he makes it far enough on Do or Die. The next one he got was a date underneath his clavicle: 29/09/00. That's the date his dad left and the day he had to grow up and become a man, Her biggest project to date was the cherry tree on his left arm which he got a month ago. He told her she could tattoo whatever she wanted and she chose the cherry tree because Inho used to take the kids to see the cherry blossoms in spring on Mirae's insistence. Honestly besides the tree and the date tattoo he doesn't really care what they are as long as they remind him of Mirae. He loves them because he knows they're her work and her style and this is her passion. 
15. He doesn't have any tattoos on his back because he won't be able to see them so he doesn't see the point. 
16. He's Christian but not very devout. He hasn't gone to church on sundays in a while but he prays when he feels like he needs support. Part of him doubts there's a god, there's way too much suffering in the world, but the other part of him finds comfort appealing to an outside force. It lifts some of the pressure off him. 
17. He's not in contact with his dad, nor does he want to be. When he grew up he fantasized a lot about what it would be like to see his dad again. Sometimes he thought he'd yell. Sometimes he thought he'd cry. Sometimes he thought he'd just ask why? Now he doesn't care anymore.
18. He gets sweaty palms when he's nervous.

⟪ Please introduce yourself. ⟫ 

He comes into the room and bows to the interviewer. A figure in all black, he's bit intimidating, but he sits down awkwardly into the chair and some of that disappears. "Annyonghaseyo," he says. "My name is Kwan Inho. I'm here for the interview for Do or Die?"

 

⟪ How did you find out about Do or Die? ⟫ 

"My friend Lim Hanjin, the one you saw before, convinced me to apply with him," he says. 

⟪ Why do you want to be an idol? Are you prepared for everything it entails? ⟫ 

"I don't necessarily want to be an idol," he says, a little discomfort shows on his face. "I want to be a rapper. If I have to be an idol to be a rapper then I will be an idol rapper." He tugs at the long sleeve of his black turtleneck sweater, especially picked to cover his tattoos. "That probably isn't a very good way to convince you to take me on but I promise I will not hold back. Even if I'm only around for a few rounds I just want the chance to be noticed for once."

⟪ Do you have any prior experience in the entertainment industry? ⟫ 

He nodes, letting go of his sleeve and rubbing his slightly sweaty palms on his jeans. "I have been active in the underground for ten years now," he says. "In that time I've made 3 mixtapes and participated in competitions and shows alike and featured on a few released tracks. I also participated in Show Me The Money 4 and made it to the fifth round. Underground I go by the stage name Inverse."

⟪ Where do you feel you're strong, and where do you feel you're lacking? ⟫ 

"My strenght is rapping of course," he says. He entwines his fingers and then releases them by his side again, unsure of how to sit and nervous tics getting the better of him. "I don't know much about being an idol though and I have no experience dancing which will surely be an obstacle to overcome but obstacles don't frighten me. I never would have gotten anywhere if obstacles frightened me." He lifts his chin, pride setting in for how far he's come. That's right, he's fought his way up from the bottom and he knows he's not on the top yet by far, probably not even in the middle, but he's a long way from where he started.

⟪ Why should we choose you for Do or Die? ⟫ 

"You need rap skills like I have," he says, his sudden surge of confidence making him sit up straight. "If you want to make any sort of waves with the hiphop crowd you'll need guys like me. Shows always want to catch the biggest audience right? I am here to represent the underground. You need me."

ANY LAST COMMENTS: I hope you don't mind that I applied with two characters, I was working on Hanjin and then I thought of this perfect way to create an intense frenemy rivalry and you know rappers are the best for that sort of thing. May the best diss track win.

You know Inho was the one I made to compliment Hanjin but I think in the end Inho is the better character. I also find it funny how Hanjin has more good traits but I consider Inho to be the better person of the two.

SCENE REQUESTS: 

• Can this please be a thing at some point? The lyrics suit him really well too. 
• Inho getting fed up playing second fiddle and dissing Hanjin in a rap. I mean he's loyal but he has his limits and he's been in Hanjin's shadow for almost a decade now.

PASSWORD: this one