personality traits

— Positive: courageous, strong-willed, calm, charismatic
— Neutral: quirky, frugal
— Negative: impatient, sarcastic, impractical, hypocritical

personality

— As always, let's start positive. Obviously, being the triple threat, Hanbyul needs to have courage to stand up to his haters. Actually, it's quite more than that, since he's scared of very few things and will always be the one to try out new stuff (remind me to put this in the trivia section). In addition to this, he knows exactly what he wants and will stop at nothing to get it, making him quite strong-willed. It's like, once Hanbyul makes up his mind, the world must follow.

Of course, he's not a dictator of any sort. He's actually quite the opposite: a very calm person. It might seem contradictory, a courageous, strong-willed person who's calm, but Hanbyul makes it work. He just up and goes 'okay guys I'm going to do this potentially dangerous/stupid thing and no one is going to change my mind', and no one else will. He's also the one to keep calm when the other members are panicking about a comeback stage or a first win or something; Hanbyul will manage to keep himself together. Speaking of performances, Hanbyul's the charisma of the group. Obviously, he's a triple threat (although he's best at rapping), which means he can show off his charms through singing, dancing, and of course, rapping.

— Okay, negatives now. Okay, it might seem contradictory AGAIN to say that Hanbyul's calm but impatient. Hear me out, because calmness is one of those things that shows more on your face than anything else. If it really comes it something that Hanbyul can't wait for, his face will be calm, but the rest of his body will be fidgeting and moving around. Like once, he was going to bungee jump, but the person in front of him was scared and taking forever to make up their mind. He said it was fine and even tried to help them, but he was jumping around and stamping his feet, showing how impatient he was. Okay, anyway, Hanbyul is a very sarcastic person. He's one of those people who will roast you until there's only ashes left, and even then, he'd probably still set you on fire. Yeah, not the best person to argue with.

Being courageous and all, Hanbyul's not scared of many things. However, this makes him a very impractical person since he's always wanting to do the impossible. 'Hyung I can jump off the stage!' 'Hyung just let me b-boy on top of the wall I know I won't fall down.' Um... yeah, no, hyung doesn't want you to die, Hanbyul. Another important aspect of this impracticality is linked to the members; Hanbyul, even though he's not the leader, sets very high expectations for s, which leads to a lot of arguments, a lot of roasting, and a lot of hurt. Hanbyul's actually quite the hypocrite, which stems from his impracticality and sarcasm, I guess. He says stuff to seem cool, but when he's asked to elaborate, he panicks inside and claims he wasn't being serious. Honestly, some of the members get really fed up with him being this way.

Now, Hanbyul's a pretty weird guy. I'm sure you can already tell from his fashion sense, but yeah. He makes the members laugh, but at the same time, Hanbyul can get annoying to members who are much more serious than he is. Not saying he's not, but he just... he's like Hyunseung, sort of lost in his own little world. Another thing is that Hanbyul hates spending money. He's cheap as . Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing since he doesn't have much money to spend, but like, he goes overboard. Literally, he won't even buy new socks when they rip; he just wears them as is, and the members all cringe. Once, Beautiful Lightning actually tried to throw out all his old ripped clothes, but Hanbyul caught him in the act and grabbed all his back. Now, the only times he'll buy new clothes is if the manager forces him.

background

— Hanbyul was born in Changwon, raised in Changwon, is a typical Changwon boy. Now, some background on Changwon: it's a city with a very high foreign population, which is part of the reason why Hanbyul learned Chinese. Anyway now. Hanbyul's parents were originally from Incheon but moved to the west side of Changwon (the modern side), and they were fairly religious. Hanbyul was born in 1997, and his younger sister Ibyeol was born in 1998. As soon as he could walk, Hanbyul's parents took him and Ibyeol to church. Hanbyul remembers sitting quietly in a pew and marvelling at all the pretty windows. He remembers wanting to make something like that with his own hands. He remembers singing with the church choir, and the pride that shone on his parents' faces, and he remembers thinking, 'This is what I want to do.'

So Hanbyul knew what he was going to do from the time he was seven years old. Unfortunately, his parents' marriage didn't last. Deep down, Hanbyul already knew; after all, what more could he expect from the people who named his sister 'farewell'? Perhaps it was for the best, because his parents were always the independent type. They had their own separate jobs and lives, and Hanbyul wished both of them well. By this time, he was in second grade, and his parents separated peacefully. Hanbyul and Ibyeol lived with their mother (they also took her last name), who lived with her brother and sister-in-law in East Changwon (the more traditional side). Now, Hanbyul was only eight, and he absolutely idolized his cousin, Jung Byunghee (omg look at me putting G.O in this plotline too lol). To little Hanbyul, Byunghee had the most perfect voice, was the coolest person, and spoiled him to no end. Honestly, sometimes Hanbyul was jealous of Ibyeol because she got more attention. Of course, Byunghee was ten years older than Hanbyul, so the very next year, he went off to college, and Hanbyul was alone again (with Ibyeol).

The rest of his school days passed normally, like the childhood of many other children. However, it was during fifth grade (2009) that Hanbyul discovered... BIGBANG. Let's remember that Hanbyul had always known he wanted to be a singer, and now, suddenly, he was introduced to kpop. Immediately, Hanbyul was hooked, and G-Dragon was his idol. All his family was shocked because MBLAQ had just debuted, and everyone in Changwon was so damn proud of Byunghee, but then there was Hanbyul, his immediate cousin, hooked into GD. Not that it really mattered much, since Hanbyul still had school to focus on.

Or not. In his seventh grade year (late 2010), Hanbyul was persuaded to join a busking group, and one night, while they were performing in Hongdae, Hanbyul noticed a man. He was dressed sharply, different from everyone else watching. Before the performance ended, the man left. However, Hanbyul noticed that he kept coming to watching their group, and finally, one night, after the music ended, the man ended up introducing himself. He was a scouting agent from Pledis, home of After School. He would very much like to invite everyone to audition in Seoul. Then he left. Lol. Obviously, Hanbyul ran home and told his mother and sister, who encouraged him to audition. 'Son, don't worry about money or transportation. We'll get through somehow,' his mother told him. So Hanbyul went, and he made it in. He was the only one in his group to make it into Pledis, because the one other member who would have auditioned actually got sidetracked and auditioned instead for FNC.

Anyway, Hanbyul worked hard to earn a place into the upcoming boy group (later to become NU'EST). Two years later (2012), the company announced the final lineup of six members, Hanbyul including. Hanbyul was so estatic that he called everyone he knew, including Byunghee. Unfortunately, a week later, Hanbyul was called in to see the CEO, who informed him that he was too young to be in the group. That wasn't necessarily wrong, since the other five boys were all born in 1995 or before. Hanbyul pleaded, saying that two years was nothing, plus he'd been working so much harder than the rest of them! However, the CEO wasn't having any of it, and he told Hanbyul that he was cut from the lineup 'until you can handle the idol life, which is not now'. Hanbyul was furious; he quit on the spot and, out of spite, stormed to YG (where GD is!!) and demanded an audition right then and there. Who knew that they would accomodate him, and who knew that he would make it?

Okay, but here I really need to say something. I couldn't fit it in anywhere, but remember when I said Hanbyul's parents were religious? Yeah, just like ITM Hanbyul, this Hanbyul is also quite gay. He's still currently in the closet (as in like after debut), but he's suspecting. He's suspecting that he's gay because back when he was still with Pledis, he was great friends with JR, and they did literally everything together. When he was cut from the lineup, his first thought was 'what about Jonghyun? He should be with me, fight for me'. After he left Pledis, he couldn't stop thinking about him, and even after he came to YG, he still cared. However, because of his religious upbringing, he feels ashamed and refuses to acknowledge his uality. However, I feel like after someone confronts him about it, he'll open up and accept the truth.

likes

— cats: Hanbyul was always one to feed the stray cats on the streets (I'll elaborate more on this in trivia)
— winning arguments
— stuffed animals: er, who knew Hanbyul had a soft side?
— rock music
— gummy bears: he eats them head first, then limbs, and body last
— carnivals

dislikes

— realistic dramas: they're way too cliche and sappy for him
— dogs: well, since Hanbyul already likes cats...
— planes: this is a bit unfortunate, but Hanbyul gets airsick easily (LMAO POOR BOI)
— cows: okay, it's really weird, but Hanbyul gets queasy if he ever hears anyone talking about milking a cow... he likes milk, but he'd rather not think about the process of obtaining it lol
— mechanical pencils: this is just a Hanbyul thing; he prefers the steady feel of a wooden pencil over a flimsy plastic one

habits

— sings in the shower: he usually sings ballads, and he can be very loud
— tugs on his hair when bored: it's bad for his already-bad-enough hair, but he hasn't been able to stop
— taps his feet when nervous
— plays members' hands: idk fam this just seems like something he would do lol

hobbies

— playing viola: you read right: VIOLA NOT VIOLIN :D surprisingly, Hanbyul, when asked to choose an arts class back in school, chose strings instead of chorus, and even then, he chose viola over violin (to clarify, he already had church to sing in, and he can't stand the violin's high notes)
— covering songs he likes: Hanbyul is the biggest fanboy ever, and he will literally cover any song he likes, from GD's Crooked to MBLAQ's Stay to f(x)'s Hot Summer.
— exercising: to be honest, before Hanbyul made it into Pledis, he never really cared about exercising. After he did, however, he discovered how great he looks with muscles lol and set up a regular gym schedule (every Tuesday and Thursday after practice)
— speaking Chinese: he doesn't really want to lose the little he knows, so he goes on all sorts of Chinese platforms to try to learn more (and use what he knows)

Trivia

— has a cat at the dorm: so one winter day, Hanbyul was walking home from the gym and spied a carboard box on the side of the road. His curiosity got the best of him, and he opened it to find a tiny, half-frozen kitten! Hanbyul knew he couldn't leave it there, so he brought it back to the dorm. The next day was their free day, so Hanbyul went and took the kitten to the vet. It ended up being a she with absolutely no problems, so Hanbyul decided to adopt it. He named it Byul, and how he managed to convince the manager to let a cat stay in the dorm, the other members will never know (but they tolerate lol).
— actually on better terms with Seungri than GD: well, Seungri is certainly younger than GD, so that's probably the reason why lol. Actually, Hanbyul sometimes manages to persuade Seungri to let him hang out with GD, who actually doesn't mind lol (he treats Hanbyul like a kid, which is to say, affectionately)
— huge Infinite fanboy: he idolizes everything about Infinite, from Sunggyu/Woohyun's voices to Hoya/Dongwoo's dancing and rapping, even to Sungyeol/Sungjong's variety skills and L's acting. Sometimes he wonders if he should have auditioned for Woollim; he could have definitely earned a place in Golden Child.
— wants to live in the mountains: Hanbyul really wants to go rock climbing on an actual mountain, but more than that, he loves the fresh air up there
— loves the cold, hates the heat: Hanbyul sweats a ton, so he really hates summer and is eternally grateful for the winter
— only wears baseball caps backwards: yeah, he's one of those people
—fearless idiot; always has to try things first (usually dangerous things at that)

relationships

— mother • Jung Areum / 41 / general manager of a Calvin Klein branch / 9 out of 10
As opposed to his father, Hanbyul is much closer to his mother, and she supports everything Hanbyul stands for. However, because Hanbyul has never mustered the courage to tell her that he's gay, he doesn't know how she'll respond (she'd be fine with it).

— sister • Jung Ibyeol / 19 / college student / 10 out of 10
All his life, Hanbyul and Ibyeol have been together. They're the very typical siblings, but at the same time, Hanbyul doesn't give a what his sister does with her life; after all, she's independent enough to be fine. He once suggested that she change her name, and that was the only major fight they've ever had (she didn't want to because it symbolized everything she's ever gone through).

— cousin • Jung Byunghee / 30 / MBLAQ / 9 out of 10
Byunghee was Hanbyul's first ever role model, and even though they're close, there's still a huge ten-year between them, and they both have their own friends.

— best friend • Cha Hoon / 23 / N.FLYING / 9 out of 10
This dude is the friend who got sidetracked on his way to Pledis and ended up going to FNC. Hoon is the guitarist of N.FLYING, and even though he debuted before Hanbyul, he continues to cheer him on from the sidelines.

— friend and member • Kim Dongmin / 16 / C2C / 10 out of 10
From the beginning, Hanbyul was awed by this kid's dancing skills, and he vowed to catch up; he can't let a kid beat him! Besides, the kid's short, and he has an alright voice too. Out of all the members, Hanbyul tries not to roast Dongmin too much.