FULL NAME yoo jiho.

BIRTHDATE 0224, 25.

ETHNICITY korean.

 

GENDER cis male.

UALITY biual

FACECLAIM hyojin onf.

 

STATURE 170cm with a medium, slightly fleshy build.

APPEARANCE with simply cut black hair and a likable smile, jiho's looked about the same since he was fifteen, though he came off just as babyfaced then as he does now. he's unintimidating — jiho leaves the impression of a small forest animal, like a weasel or a stoat, capable of managing himself but ultimately just one small player among much bigger powers. he smells vaguely of ginseng and eucalyptus with a milky undertone. 

 

STYLE jiho's style verges on stylish and trendy, but this is disrupted by his habit of wearing at least one red piece of clothing in every outfit, and the fact that he doesn't bother spending much money on his wardrobe. very often, his tshirts are printed with nonsensical phrases in foreign languages — he knows they don't make any sense, but he thinks its funny, and they're super cheap at the market.

 

while he was growing up in simdong, he pretty much only had hand-me-downs — new clothes were big gifts from special occasions. he didn't care about his outfits until he was in university.

PERSONALITY 

loyal, passive, courteous, defensive, reactive, inventive

infp in fi-si loop, lawful neutral, 6w7

 

while he's kind and has good intentions, jiho is a fundamentally self-serving person — he's never been taught any other way to exist. this worsened as he was into adulthood unprepared for life on his own. he feels betrayed by the people in his past, but longs for the simple happiness he felt growing up. he's uncertain of who he is today, and sees his life like a story waiting to be written — but he's not sure if he's still is, or ever was, the protagonist. he's more reserved than he used to be, a little more distrusting, and finds it easier to lie.

 

jiho is unfamiliar with negative emotions outside of anger and self-pity. he truly desires to return to simdong and the way of life that his grandmother raised him for — a deep loyalty to the town and its residents; small-town friendliness; leaving big, lofty dreams to other people — but being out in the "real world" with his brother's influence muddled this. he's stubborn with his affections, almost clingy towards the things or people he likes, and believes that the world is a fundamentally good place, leaving him easily impacted by his surroundings and whoever's closest to him. his life in chuncheon sparked a difficult coming to terms with just how insignificant and tiny his perspective of the world used to be and has turned him into more of a cynic than he thought possible. 

 

now that he's returned to simdong, jiho is at a tipping point — he can either try to forgive the town he feels betrayed by, accepting it and its residents as they are, or decide that, while he loves his hometown, the boy he was there can no longer hold dominion over his identity. 

 

( growing up, jiho was generally the same as he is now, but more confident, honest, and oblivious to his surroundings. he never had particularly deep emotions as a child, positive or negative, due to how sheltered he was by his family and friends. when his feelings did show themselves they were usually tantrums, but these were only witnessed by his grandmother. with his friends, he was easygoing — a pushover, even, willing to agree with whatever sounded like fun. he found it difficult to open up about his feelings, even though he enjoyed asking hard questions about theirs. )

 

BACKGROUND 

born just over a decade after his older brother, the yoo family treat jiho like a new year's miracle. his parents didn't plan to have him, and after a stressful pregnancy and his premature birth, there were concerns that jiho wouldn't survive at all. these fears are assuaged after he makes it through his first several months of life, but a few weeks before his first birthday, he gets an ear infection. the simdong doctor suggests they go to a western hospital a few hours away — there, the doctor decides to wait, believing that the infection will heal on its own in a few days. it's not as bad as it could be and it does, eventually, clear up without additional medicine, but he is in pain for several days. this short period of time alters the course of jiho's life.

 

after jiho's infection, his family — his grandmother, in particular — lose trust in modern medicine, and become convinced that jiho needs to be protected from the outside world if he's going to survive to adulthood. this changes how he and his family are perceived in town. they're nice people, but unlucky people, the kind of people that make everyone else in simdong feel a little better about their lot in life.  

 

jiho's frailness, along with his parents' increasingly strained relationship with his older brother, eunho, cause his grandmother to take over raising jiho. he's weaned off of milk and given herbal supplements from simdong's doctor, instructed to play inside instead of swimming in the ocean with the other kids. he spends most of his early childhood this way, doted on by the old ladies of simdong and kept an arms length from their grubby grandchildren, but his limited options for playmates means that these barriers start breaking by the time he's enrolled in primary school. 

 

to the rest of simdong, jiho making it to school-age is a relief — no one wants to attend a baby's funeral. he's doted on by the other townspeople for being cute, quiet, well-behaved. his grandmother has taught him to compliment and praise with the kinds of words the old townspeople love to hear. it's a bit of a redemption, for the yoo family's reputation: their little boy might be weak, but he's the sweetest kid in town. jiho has a similar popularity among his peers, and gets attached to his friends quickly. his best friend is kang sangyeol — they're nearly inseparable, hanging out every day. jiho spends many hours loitering in the kang's restaurant in the heart of town, much to his grandmother's chagrin. the longest period of time they spend apart is the spring after jiho turns fourteen, when he catches the flu, gets terribly sick, and is essentially forced into quarantine for nearly two weeks by his grandmother. there's the possiblity he could have recovered faster, if she'd gone to simdong's doctor rather than relying on her own medical knowledge, but she's too afraid to leave jiho's bedside, convinced that he'll stop breathing the moment she turns her back.

 

he goes off into high school after that harrowing reminder — to himself, to his grandmother, to simdong at large — that he's just not as healthy as his peers. his grandmother is more protective than ever, and given that his older brother is pushing for jiho to attend college and join him outside of simdong, he spends a fair number of hours studying at home or at a table in the kang's restaurant. in his second to last year of high school, he gets into a relationship-ending fight with sangyeol, and winds up clinging to two of his underclassmen, jisung and yugyeong, for the constant companionship he's grown used to. 

 

fueled by his anger towards sangyeol and eager to get to know his older brother, jiho decides to attend college in chuncheon. there's nothing in particular he wants to study, but his grandmother urges him to follow his passions — the yoos expect eunho to be the moneymaker in the family; jiho gett inga higher education is just a pleasant bonus. he winds up deciding on literature, as all his time spent indoors, listening to simdong's elderly wax poetic about their pasts has cultivated an interest in storytelling, narrative, history.

 

he enjoys college, even though city life is overwhelming at first. it's a huge shock to his system to get to know his brother eunho — he's the exact opposite of the people in simdong, interested in success and upward growth and reading the "world news" sections of the paper. eunho tells jiho that he can study literature if he wants, but that he should have a career path in mind before he graduates. eunho does most of the planning, providing outlines for jiho's emails to professors asking for recommendations and internship positions — jiho's a good student, attends class, but he's more concerned about his social life, like if there will be too many smokers at the party next weekend. he graduates with decent grades, and thanks to his writing skills and eunho's practiced brown-nosing, manages to get a good job soon after graduating.

 

jiho's turned out better than anyone could have expected, for a sickly boy from a poor farming family in small-town simdong, but he still longs for his hometown, his grandmother, the simple pleasure of hearing the sea lap against the shore.

 

he'll have to enlist soon, no way around it — maybe he should go back, say hello.

 

in chuncheon jiho shares a small apartment with his older brother, where he's been living since he left simdong for college. he graduated from hallym university with a degree in korean language and literature. he's been working at a copywriting agency since he graduated — a job he landed through one of his professors' connections — and mostly works remotely, spending his days typing on his laptop at various cafes and libraries in the city. occasionally he has to go to the agency's main office in seoul for team meetings or other events, but they don't happen frequently.

 

jiho doesn't particularly enjoy his job, but it pays well and he enjoys being able to set his own hours. he contributes a little to he and his brother's living expenses and does eat out frequently, but most of his money goes into savings or his small investment account. he meets up with college friends who stayed in the area a few times a week, during lunch breaks and on weekends, and calls his family back in simdong every monday night. he normally gets out of bed at around 9AM and goes to sleep at 1AM. he's currently anticipating being called for military service, which is why he's decided to return home to simdong to spend time with his family — his aging grandmother, in particular — before he has to go. 

 

in simdong when at home in simdong, jiho lives in the yoo family home, the  furthest inland property in simdong. the yoo family farm used to be much larger — with livestock and a wide array of crops — but due to financial difficulties caused by jiho's grandfather, it's downsized to just soybeans and soy processing, along with a small selection of common vegetables that are sold to simdong locals. jiho doesn't do chores at home, or help much around the farm because he was seen as the precious, frail baby of the family, and he reverts to his childhood behaviors when he's back in simdong. occasionally, he helps move the water around the fields or deliver veggies to the townspeople, but that's about the extent of his responsibilities.

 

he's well-regarded by the townspeople, thought of as a mature, filial son who turned out well: all the upward momentum of his older brother with almost none of the pretension. however, he, and to a certain extent, the rest of the yoo family, are seen with a sort of friendly pity around town — they're one of the poorer families, their firstborn son has too much of an ego, and their little jiho is so weak a strong gust of wind could take him out... when he returns as an adult, he still does some work since he doesn't need more than his laptop to do his job, but the wifi isn't fantastic so he's cut back pretty significantly. he tends to go to bed and wake up earlier when he's in simdong, since his day-to-day schedule has to accomodate on his parents and his grandmother, who all rise with the sun. 

 

TRIVIA 

song refs the adults are talking - the / susie save your love - allie x / red - hyuna / gimme gimme gimme - abba / movement - hozier

 

jiho in college hallym uni, korean lit + lang major, paid for by his older brother. jiho made a lot of friends, had a girlfriend from start of 2nd year to middle of 3rd year but they broke up because she was graduating and they were both losing feelings.

 

ocean town jiho cannot swim. he was never allowed to learn how.

 

health born premature, jiho has asthma, some hearing loss, and needs contacts to be able to see (his current prescription is -4.75 in both eyes). his hearing in his right ear is worse than in his left (categorized as moderate hearing loss) due to an aom infection as a baby. this wasn't formally diagnosed until he was in chuncheon. he's adapted to relying mostly on his left ear, and most people in simdong know not to approach him from the right, etc. he's currently saving up for a hearing aid for his right ear, but given that they are expensive, carry social stigma, and the fact that he's grown used to his current level of hearing loss, it's not a priority. 

 

he also has a general physical weakness that's come from his limited diet growing up — he has a sensitive stomach, so his family decided they'd rather be safe than sorry —  but his health has improved since he left simdong. his parents made the decision to start him in school a year late because of his history of health issues. when he enlists, he expects to join the civilian service because he probably will not qualify for active duty.

 

diet grew up almost vegetarian due to abundance of tofu and veggies at home, his gi issues, and meat being expensive... but beef is his favorite thing to eat now, even though he can't use as much seasoning as he'd like. while he spent a lot of time in the kang's restaurant, he wasn't supposed to or allowed to eat there except on special occasions, like birthday dinners, because his grandma thought the food was too rich and over-seasoned.

 

reputation as mentioned previously, the yoos are seen as likable but unfortunate people. jiho is often negatively compared to jonghyuk, who was born just a few weeks prior, and who's always been robustly healthy. jiho was completely unaware of almost all of this growing up, but learned about the way he's seen by the townspeople from eunho and yugyeong after he left simdong. this really hurt his feelings, and deepened his distrust for past friends like sangyeol, who he feels should've told him about the gossip. he does not at all want to be seen as weak or infantile when he returns to town — this was one of the main reasons he hesitated to go back for so long.

by water

candlelight

by car

premade

reincarnation

no ghosts

friends

hero

villain

damsel

villain

COMMENTS sickly baekhyun from the soybean farm for tofu <3

 

this or that section layout from leah everybody say thank u leah for s*xy code <3

 

medical advice from my local pharmacist chenneth moonbok thank u chen ^___^

 

please kill him off tofu ^___^