the person vs the concept: jo hoyeon
spontaneous, passive, misfit, accepting, loyal, slow learner, persistent, ashamed

"don't say you can drive, you're the visual"
"don't eat too much on broadcast, you're the visual"
"you don't have to try that hard, you're the visual"
"if i had your face, i wouldn't complain a day in my life"

jo hoyeon knows who she's supposed to be, not because she's had the chance to find out but because she's been told who her self is. over and over.

hoyeon makes a strong first impression as an agreeable girl who wants to live life. she's trying whatever there is to be tried, engaging in conversation and maybe asking questions too. it's like she doesn't carry enough negativity inside of her to judge. but, the more there is to do, the more hoyeon takes "seize the day" to the extreme, and city life is an unlimited asortment of things to try. if one of the nct guys offers her a cigarette by the vending machines, what's she supposed to do? say no?

oh, yeah, saying no... despite having a big spontaneous drive, hoyeon's never been an active force in the course of her own life. directly or indirectly, often because of her looks, opportunities present themselves to her. from the get go, there's certain things people expect from her. hoyeon is so good at living in the now because tomorrow is always set out for her. her permanent default is the path of less resistance: she takes things at face value and whatever you tell her, she'll accomodate.

which brings me back to hoyeon being accepting and loyal. once she believes you, she has no reason to change her mind. she really treasures her close relationships and friendship with hoyeon is mostly uncomplicated. except, of course, that she feels miles away from the world of idols and trainees that she regularly walks by. a slow learner and genuine to a fault, the idol image is a cage and it's hard developing skills she's never used before while also getting used to an entirely new lifestyle. she's stayed strong and persistent because she wants this, she thinks, but hoyeon never really chose to be an idol. it makes it hard to connect, for all that it demands, for all it implies.

because what does she know, jo hoyeon, about city lights and plastic surgery clinics? it's embarrassing to be the only one in the room who knows the price of a cow. she knows, because everyone in paju said, that her success is inevitable, that she's going to have a great life. but when she looks at trainee life and idol life ahead of her she wonders if this is the great life that made her hate deokcheon and everyone promised she'd have. the people here don't get it and they never did back in deokcheon, either, so she has no one to understand her. she never chose this. if she doesn't debut or if she quits, she'll feel like she failed everyone in the village. if she does, she'll feel like an irresponsible unprepared idol. she'll never be one of them.

History

 

PRE-TRAINEE: everyone in paju told hoyeon that a girl like her (a girl with her face) could make it far, so much further than this. she could make it out of the village and leave behind farming. forget about the dirt under her nails and the selling price of a cow. she could do something better than rot away in deokcheon-ri for the rest of her life, even if her family couldn't afford cram schools or scholarships to get her into a university in the city.

if it weren't for that, hoyeon would have never felt like she lacked anything. it wasn't the possibility of more that got to her —that was a compliment, after all— it was the fatality with which people told her she could have anything. they said "you could make it far", left unsaid was "but you won't". even jo hoyeon, the jos' oldest, well known for her outstanding beauty, had no way out of the farm. that's just how things are. like pitiful was all her life was meant to be.

and that made it worse. even though hoyeon has had girls wanting to be her friends ever since she can remember, even though she was always included in conversations and boys had crushes on her, even though her home life was happy and driving her family's worn down pickup truck around deokcheon was the highest form of peace she knew, she wanted what she supposedly couldn't have. she wanted it more because of that. when the ahjummas went on and on about how they would be ashamed if their kid "failed" to get a good life, being as beautiful as jo hoyeon, she wanted to punch something. it made her really hate deokcheon sometimes. when was she supposed to stumble upon this great life that everyone was so sure she could have? 

it found her, eventually. she doesn't know why or how people from the entertainment industry were driving down the paju roads, but a chance encounter had her traveling from deokcheon all the way to seoul. this was it, her mom said, her brother said. she just couldn't say no.

TRAINEE: it was hard. of course hoyeon wanted to do it and she can put in work, she knows what a long day of work looks like. she was willing to do anything to make this happen, but it was hard. nothing about it was familiar. raised amongst greenhouses and sturdy homemade dinners, the most alienating things were the simplest, like subway stations and diets. it was the most restrictive, wildly different and challening stage of her life. 

again, hoyeon did work hard through it all. she befriended some of the girls, tried hard not to get distracted with the city life!! of it all and learned how to dance and sing, despite being a slow learner. but it was embarrassing how hard it was for her. all of it, the dance routines and the skyscrapers, and hoyeon felt both cheated and compelled to hide that. surely it'd all get easier after debut, when she started living the life everyone told her she could have.

THE IDOL:
talent twin: gyuri, fromis_9
future aspirations: well... hoyeon doesn't aim to do things as much as she'd be glad to take any offers. something about this has got to be fun, after all, right? what even is out there to try? actually, she wants to know how their stylist gets their curls to look like that.

idolsphere. despite dropping out of high school to train in seoul, hoyeon's easy-going nature definitely lands her some friends backstage and gets her into the '01 groupchat. there's something off about it. she can't tell when she's texting the people she's met backstage or hanging out with friends, but eventually she always gets the feeling tha her idol friends aren't friend friends. not like her friends from deokcheon.

ham cheoeum. a step closer to the unrecheableness of idols is how hoyeon feels when cheoeum is around. it's comforting to have someone so skilled and accomplished, the way hoyeon sees it, genuinely enjoy her company and give her advice.

sara kim. to hoyeon, sara is an utter fascination. for all she knows, the makeup artists speaks the most languages people are biologically able to do plus she can choreograph plus hoyeon wishes she could do a smokey eye half as well as her. they don't have anything like a close relationship, but hoyeon finds her one of the most impressive people in circle and gladly volunteers to partake in her youtube endeavors.

choi gun. for a guy of normal height (or probably normal height, hoyeon hasn't exactly run the numbers), choi gun might as well be a giant. perhaps the most intimidating person in circle (yongsun included), this, his presence seems to scream, is what idols should be like. these, jo hoyeon, are all the skills you lack. you simply don't have the mild exhaustion and years of training and professionalism that it takes. now that's an idol. 

and whenever she finds herself taking the elevator with him or sees the omni guys shooting something, hoyeon makes herself as invisible as she feels. she doesn't stare (because someone might think she's flirting with them, she's learnt at dokcheon that she shouldn't be too polite or too rude to men), and wonders. she always wonders what it's like, if she'll ever have that too.

Details

 

AGE: 19
DOB: december, 10 2001
BIRTHPLACE: deokcheon village, paju
HOMETOWN: deokcheon village, paju
NATIONALITY: south korean
FC: minju (iz*one)

Trivia

 

— hoyeon (very illegally) learned how to drive her family's pickup truck and her neighbour-who-had-a crush-on-her's motorbike, which circle media has made sure she never talks about because it's "uncommon" and a fifteen year old driving a vehicle would make netizens' heads explode. she never got her license because she by eighteen she was already a trainee.

— can do lots of handy work because calling (and therefore waiting for) people to fix things was a hassle more than a solution in deokcheon. need a lightbulb changed? hoyeon's got it. sink needs fixing? toilet? gotta hammer anything into a wall? around with the router? is there a problem with the van? let her do her thing.

— doesn't really have a music taste, listens to whatever's on the radio, whatever the members like, whatever you recommend her.

— friendship ever since her pre-teens has been a little... complicated for hoyeon, especially with guys.

— watches dramas when she's bored, her mom always left them playing.

— looks like she's listening intently when people speak even when she's not. she could be thinking about how to fix a crooked frame in the wall and you'd think she totally gets what you're saying.

— needs to know how things work. if she couldn't get a drink out of vending machine last time, she'll ask someone to go with her and see how they do it.

— if variety hosts ask for a volunteer, hoyeon is the first one to raise her hand or raise from her chair. what are we doing? she wants to try it!

— subtlety is not her forte. back in deokcheon everyone knew everyone, so there wasn't much to hide. can't really flirt for the same reason: everyone in the village more or less knew.

LOVE INTEREST

 

hoyeon is definitely trying to find what she wants from life/who she is more than she is trying to find a relationship, but with that said, matchmake with whoever you see fit! i'd love it. you can make her have a crush on anyone or have someone have a crush on her for plot reasons, no need for it to be the same couple 'til the end.