shin daehyun & shin taeyong 
aka the b(r)others

ever since they were little, raeyeon had always been told by her brothers that they found her in the trash and taken in out of pity. naturally, due to her naivety, her first response would be to cry out of annoyance and tattle to her parents. 

as they grew up, daehyun and taeyong moved on from the "adoption" jokes to various teases, pranks and childish arguments. yet the exact moment someone else tries to do the same to her, the two brothers would become protective over her because as they say, "only we get to do that to her," before they proceed to verbally annihilate the other party into shreds. 

and it was during those instances where she'd realised that for someone who was "picked up from the bin" and allegedly "adopted out of a split second feeling of pity", they liked her a lot. or better yet, they loved her. regardless of how it was rarely verbalised. 

daehyun and taeyong are one of the factors as to why raeyeon grew up into how she is now. she's a huge eater; competitive; quick witted in her responses and actions; and handles rowdy boys at ease. all because of her brothers. 

while the between the two brothers is small, raeyeon's s with daehyun and taeyong were four and two respectively. due to the brothers being only a few years apart, they had always been close to each other and often teamed up against raeyeon to annoy her. 

by the time her brothers were seniors in high school, the dynamic between the siblings had shifted from silly antics and being physical, to verbal arguments. nevertheless, they were still childish. 

yet over the years of growth and maturing—a process expedited by their parents frequently travelling—their way of expressing affections became more apparent; daehyun, being the oldest, would treat them food after school and would rotate in paying with taeyong; raeyeon found herself nagging them while forcing them to eat breakfast; and it was via the little things that screamed how much they loved and cared for each other, while simultaneously picking on one another on a daily basis.  

through her brothers, raeyeon could play video games well; she knew how to be competitive in sports, and how to ride a skateboard without tragically falling off. but aside from the fun things, raeyeon knew how to be patient, let alone, understanding; how to showcase good sportsmanship; and how to take care of those around her. raeyeon, beneath those eye rolls and grumbles, looked up to her older brothers because she learnt a lot by simply being with them as they took care of her in the place of their parents. 

when raeyeon began eleventh grade, daehyun made the decision to fly out to america due to their parents' encouraging him to study there. in the following year, taeyong would follow his brother's footsteps to continue his studies in law. leaving raeyeon and her parents behind until they would also make a decision to take a job opportunity overseas, resulting to her being the only one in seoul. 

it was ultimately her choice to stay in seoul, a hard decision to make but not one she regrets. while she was rather used to her parents not being around, it was strange not having either of her brothers around. she went from having both her brothers, to only one of her brothers, and now to just her being alone in the house. 

while the three siblings don't talk as frequently as they wished, they still do keep in contact via group chat and video calls. they try their best to fly back home during holidays, but based on past experiences with their parents, all of them know that it isn't necessarily easy. 

extra bits! 
 raeyeon is the only one who chose a career outside of law, academia and medicine in her family; seeing that taeyong studied law while daehyun studied medicine, they jokingly refer to her as 'the family disappointment' 
 raeyeon loves to talk about her brothers on her youtube channel and would feature them when they do come home for holidays
 both daehyun and raeyeon are introverts while taeyong is the only extrovert, which they like to reason as the "effects of having middle child syndrome" 
 they were wary of raeyeon's friends at first but eventually preferred the boys more than their own sibling; while they don't openly admit it, their favourite is actually heeseung
 every so often, daehyun and taeyong sends her money. they still feel responsible in taking care of her, despite her protests

enhypen dance crew
aka her best friends

raeyeon has known the seven boys since they all attended the same international school. all eight hailing from different parts of the world due to various reasons, returning back to their homeland—with the exception of riki who had moved due to his parents' business ventures.

the group first began as a small trio composed of jungwon, sunghoon and seonwoo, the first ones who attended school. following that was heeseung and jay during sixth grade. once the beginning of high school rolled in, raeyeon, jake and riki entered the picture. 

they became a close group over those years; a bond strengthened through fights and bickers, only to quickly come together again, choosing to move forward. and despite being in one group, each of them had other friends they would hang out with and talk to, however, at the end of the day, they would always be the ones running out of the gates to hang out or study. 

raeyeon has a different dynamics with each of them, nevertheless, she's close to all of them. she tends to baby seonwoo, jungwon and riki, while doing the exact opposite with the others, but all in all, despite her sarcastic comments and complaints, raeyeon's love for them shows in everything she does for them.

because if raeyeon was to be ever asked what are the best moments in her life, most of her answers will always include her seven friends. 

extra bits!
 the boys began their dance crew when they were in 10th grade where they would upload their dances on youtube. however, once they graduated, they decided to create other kinds of videos as means to document their youth
 they named their dance crew as enhypen, and raeyeon's immediate response was laugh, thinking they were joking until she realised that they were serious

"first off, i'm totally calling you guys as epipen, and second, did you really name yourselves?" 

"what, people can name themselves team 10, or hype house on youtube, but we can't?" 
 seeing that she was the only one available, raeyeon had been their camera man from the very beginning and still is even now 
 they generally crash into jay's house which has been their normal hangout place besides the dance studio that riki's parents own; but as a group, they love going out and eating out
 they collectively speak in a mix of korean and english as well as random japanese words they picked up from anime or riki
 all their parents love raeyeon especially by jake, jay, and heeseung's parents who only have boys, or in jay's case, an only child. it's something she takes pride in and likes to flex from time to time
 raeyeon features them heavily in her videos because they're her only friends and they hang out a lot; as a result, her audiences are their audiences and vice-versa
 within the group, heeseung and raeyeon are everyone's confidant; raeyeon has had her fair shares of late night talks with each of them via text or call. she's not good at advice compared to heeseung, but she's good at listening, giving perspective and providing a solution 

jake sim(p)
aka best boy

while raeyeon may say she doesn't have such a thing as favourites, jake sim is pretty close. and in an unspoken manner within the group, jake is everyone's favourite.

jake was the reason why raeyeon got to know and befriend the rest of the boys. if not for jake and his affability, she wouldn't have gotten to know them at all. 

they first met in the beginning of seventh grade as they shared the same home room. both the new students, jake figured it would be good to talk to someone he had some sort of similarity with. from the get go, raeyeon knew that she would like jake and even more so when he'd reveal his favourite subject being physics. 

at the time, raeyeon liked learning more about physics and seeing they had a mutual interest, they began to talk more often. eventually, jake would introduce her to a friend he also made, riki—a japanese student who would arrive a week later from them—who introduces them to the friends he made via jay, the only student in riki's class who spoke japanese.

and from there, the rest was history. 

jake is raeyeon's first ramyeon run buddy, and former go-to guy back in high school when exam seasons would begin; they would have study sessions that turned out productive since he actually focuses on doing work, an activity which they still do in the present day. 

to jake, raeyeon is his confidant. seeing that she encourages each of them to be open with their feelings, jake and the other boys feel very comfortable in pouring their heart out to her or asking questions. as a result, jake opens up to her a lot, even more so prior to dating seulhui. 

extra bits!
 jake immediately became her friend once he mentioned his love for physics; before they got really close, all their talks involved science
 raeyeon used to spam him, jungwon, and seonwoo in high school the day before every exam, so she could cram study; they would be the only ones that had complete notes, while everyone else leeches off them 
 the ramyeon runs began as an after school activity between them during study sessions, heeseung would then join them not long after in order to "study" 
 prior to dating seulhui, jake would ask her a lot of questions about how to confess or what kind of dates would be nice; none of which she could answer properly 
 after realising that jake has feelings for their friend, seulhui, raeyeon began refer to jake as 'simp with a silent p' 
 aside from seonwoo, jungwon and riki, she babies jake the most because as she reasons, "he's like a stray puppy who barely knows what he gets himself into" 

bae seulhui 
aka her girlfriend

if sunghoon and raeyeon were to be embodied as a tiktok, it would be the "me, you and steve" compilations. in which for sunghoon's case, he would be "steve" between jake and seulhui. 

however, in raeyeon's case—or so she likes to tell herself—"steve" would be jake between her and seulhui.

the first time raeyeon met seulhui was during her friends' initial visit at the cafe-floral shop. it would be a visit that resulted to jake asking for seulhui's number on behalf of their friend, after raeyeon refused to take on the task when she was initially asked.

she remembers watching seulhui rejecting his "advances" which she fully understood—after all, if she was in seulhui's shoes, she'd do the exact same after seeing him being rowdy and chaotic with his friends. raeyeon fully expected it to happen. 

although, what raeyeon didn't expect was jake calling her later that night, upon realising he shared the same calculus class as seulhui and asked for advice in order to alleviate potential awkwardness between them. 

and what raeyeon didn't expect was her very impulsive decision to visit the shop a few days later and approach seulhui regarding what had occurred days ago, apologising if any of them made her uncomfortable and for being rowdy. 

"jake is a good guy, he's just an idiot for being soft for his friends. but if his poor as attempt of getting your number made you uncomfortable, or even any of us for that matter, let me know and i'll beat them up for you." 

since then, raeyeon began to continually visit the shop and eventually became a regular; it was through her visits, where she'd try to hold a few conversations with seulhui, often coming in with a simple trivial question that she spins into a tangent in order to get seulhui to open up more.

her random questions and unyielding curiosity would result to a friendship between them. one that she often flexes to jake because sure he's in her calculus class, but she's managed to be in seulhui's contact list. 

to raeyeon, seulhui is someone that she's very fond of. the more seulhui would open up, the more she found herself adoring the girl. and by the time she notices how jake and seulhui begin to be getting closer and closer, she can't help but to openly root for them. even more so, when jake begins to ask her questions about seulhui or always tags along with her to the cafe-floral shop in order to "study". 

and despite feigning nonchalance on the two's progress, raeyeon anticipates the day that jake finally decides to date seulhui because as she always tells her, "if jake won't wife you up, then i'll do it myself."

extra bits!
 despite being a regular customer, seulhui is unsure of raeyeon's go-to order since she tries to order different items on the menu each time
 when raeyeon was trying to befriend her, the first thing she'd do when she got to the counter was to ask seulhui a random question 
 one of the most random questions raeyeon asked seulhui was, "what do you think is the meaning of life" at 7am in the morning  
 when the group secretly texts during their classes and jake is in his calculus class, she makes sure that jake tells seulhui that she said hi, which generally causes the rest to follow 
 raeyeon likes to refer to seulhui as "babe" or "my girlfriend" and tends to childishly compete with jake as a joke for seulhui's attention 
 jake gets teased a lot by his friends because of seulhui, especially by raeyeon who reasons that her purpose in life is to clown her friends

jeon nari
aka the babiest baby
played by wooyeon of woo!ah

fresh out of high school, and both desperate for a part time job, raeyeon and nari first met through their part time jobs at the pc bang. due to the fact that they joined and trained around the same time, the two girls immediately hit off.

to raeyeon, jeon nari was her breath of fresh air. nari was gentle, naive, and affectionate; she was the little sister raeyeon always wished for, but never got. through nari, she found someone that could understand her and relate to her in terms of certain aspects only raeyeon could experience.

the moment that raeyeon found out that nari was going to attend eumshik as well, and later on discovering that nari would be in the same class as one of her friends, seonwoo, she was ecstatic to find out that they would see each other outside of work.

raeyeon loves to spend time with nari outside of work because nari loves to asks questions about random things, while raeyeon loves to answer them. and when they walk side by side, just by from the way they dress and their differing mannerisms, anyone can tell that raeyeon and nari were opposites.

but that’s what she loves about nari, the fact they were opposites but somehow they clicked so well.

extra bits!
 raeyeon loves to play games while nari is a game enthusiast, making her the best and also worst person to play with; she can't use any controller given to her, but she's a blast to nerd with over the game design, graphics and lore
 they don't normally go on breaks together so to avoid leaving the counter unattended, but when nari has bad days, she'll ask raeyeon if they could go together and ever since she's picked up on it, raeyeon calls these breaks as "therapy sessions" 
 nari's main love language is physical touch, and raeyeon is generally at the receiving end of her hugs which she happily accepts, even if it is something she wasn't used to
 without warning, nari tends to ask thought-provoking questions. her naivety causes her to blurt out questions that leave raeyeon buffering for minute or two
 nari tends to feature in her videos from time to time, especially for videos where she has to vlog her progress  

do hajun, ex boyfriend

t he one who came quickly into her life, only to leave her to pick up the pieces of her broken heart alone. 

their story began when hajun entered school in 11th grade, his expat parents returning back to seoul after years of living in germany. on his first day, hajun would find himself seated right next to raeyeon which would become his seat for the rest of the year.

hajun was charming and funny, enchanting as others would call him, but raeyeon didn't think so. that is, until she found herself liking him. 

it was an instant friendship which would lead to something more; hajun had always been quite interested in her, and seeing how well they had clicked, he saw the opportunity and took it. 

and raeyeon, being charmed and swayed, said yes to him after her family's reluctant approval.

through hajun, raeyeon felt what it was like to romantically love someone; what others meant about having butterflies in your stomach, or the feeling of being on cloud nine. 

until the butterflies fluttered away and she was falling down to ground. 

it was a gradual progress, signs of the young love they had slowly coming to a halt. hajun began to accuse her of things she'd never do, or how he'd prevent her from meeting up with her close friends; the way his jealousy became more outward, and his words a little more spiteful and condescending about her friends.

they began to argue, have days where they wouldn’t speak to each other until raeyeon decides to reach out and talk about it, because he'd never initiate it; and every time they’d talk, he would apologise and say that he’ll make up to her before the cycle would continue.

raeyeon eventually became exhausted of their continuous cycle. she knew to herself that there were red flags waving right in front of her, but she wanted to give him a chance to tell her the reason towards his sudden change, because maybe they could solve it together.

and she was right, there was a reason for it. everything hajun would often accuse her of—cheating, lying, two-timing, fooling around—he was doing, projecting all his shame and guilt onto her. raeyeon found him with someone else one weekend, after he rejected her offer to go out that day, excusing study preparations for the college entry exam. she watched them walk down the busy streets hand in hand and sharing kisses that broke raeyeon into pieces.

raeyeon didn’t speak about that day to anyone, she wanted to know how long he was going to keep it up. yet her desire to know led her to become more and more frustrated, let alone hurt, because he kept pretending as if nothing was wrong.

it wasn’t until two weeks later where raeyeon and hajun had a big confrontation, sparked by one of her friends who decided to tell her that they saw hajun with another person.

“come on, raeyeon! you don’t seriously believe that, do you? he's lying to you because he wants you for himself!”

“and you expect me to believe you? i saw you with my own eyes kissing someone else.”

just like that, nearing the finishing line of their senior year, a month away from college entry exams, raeyeon and hajun never spoke to one another. her friends made sure hajun wouldn’t be able to reach her and they'd never cross paths again.

everyone around her was weirded out by how nonchalant she was through the process of her break up. raeyeon looked fine, acted fine, and to others, she seemed to have moved on. she rarely spoke about it, aside from the jokes she would make that made everyone else around her feel uncomfortable. 

though if raeyeon had to be truly honest with herself, she was far from okay. raeyeon made sure she kept busy day in and day out, to the point of exhaustion. it was her way to avoid thinking about hajun, the possibilities of the “what ifs”, and the heartache she was trying to dismiss.

the college entry exam helped her do exactly that as she poured her heart out for a whole month for the preparations, and if she wasn't busy for the csat, raeyeon would hang out with her friends. by the time exams were finished, raeyeon immediately went to look for a job and to keep her even busier, she started her own youtube channel. 

it’s an unhealthy process, one that she hoped would allow her to forget what happened. but in reality, she hasn’t moved on; raeyeon still has keepsakes that reminds her of him, she still has their conversations and photos merely archived but never deleted, she still thinks of him and cries over him.

it’s an open wound that isn't healing, one she tries to treat in every possible but properly. the memories she had with hajun may have been beautiful, but the aftermath of those memories still negatively impacts her.

name. relationship. occupation

don't get away, don't get away i gotta make, i'm the one 모 아니면 도 아니면 모 아니면 도라고 i need a diamond ring, 모만이 나의 길 난 루저가 아닌 위너가 돼 that's my way (go big or go home) 승리 아님 패배뿐인 game 같은 세상 가는 거야 right, right now 될놈될을 믿어 어차피 될 놈 되니까 이 한 판의 fight right now let's go, go, go 내 앞엔 언제나 모 모 모 중간 같은 건 feels like a loss 고민할 시간에 가챠를 뽑아보자 (go big or go home) i'm feeling lucky 예감이 좋지 두근거림에 feels alright 내 운명은 대박 이런 근자감 all 아님 nothing 질러봐 we going, going, going we ride i'm feeling, feeling, feeling alright we going, going, going we ride, we ride (go big or go home) don't get away, don't get away i gotta make, i'm the one 모 아니면 도 아니면 모 아니면 도라고 i need a diamond ring, 모만이 나의 길 난 루저가 아닌 위너가 돼 that's my way (go big or go home) 거부할 수 없는 russian roulette 같은 삶 어쨌거나 i'll survive 아이템 획득 합성 강화 i can make it right 자신 있게 choose right now let's go, go, go 내 앞엔 언제나 모 모 모 중간 같은 건 feels like a loss 고민할 시간에 가사를 뽑아보자 (go big or go home) i'm feeling lucky 예감이 좋지 두근거림에 feels alright 내 운명은 대박 이런 근자감 all 아님 nothing 질러봐 we going, going, going we ride i'm feeling, feeling, feeling alright we going, going, going we ride, we ride (go big or go home) don't get away, don't get away i gotta make, i'm the one 모 아니면 도 아니면 모 아니면 도라고 i need a diamond ring, 모만이 나의 길 난 루저가 아닌 위너가 돼 that's my way (go big or go home)

name. relationship. occupation

don't get away, don't get away i gotta make, i'm the one 모 아니면 도 아니면 모 아니면 도라고 i need a diamond ring, 모만이 나의 길 난 루저가 아닌 위너가 돼 that's my way (go big or go home) 승리 아님 패배뿐인 game 같은 세상 가는 거야 right, right now 될놈될을 믿어 어차피 될 놈 되니까 이 한 판의 fight right now let's go, go, go 내 앞엔 언제나 모 모 모 중간 같은 건 feels like a loss 고민할 시간에 가챠를 뽑아보자 (go big or go home) i'm feeling lucky 예감이 좋지 두근거림에 feels alright 내 운명은 대박 이런 근자감 all 아님 nothing 질러봐 we going, going, going we ride i'm feeling, feeling, feeling alright we going, going, going we ride, we ride (go big or go home) don't get away, don't get away i gotta make, i'm the one 모 아니면 도 아니면 모 아니면 도라고 i need a diamond ring, 모만이 나의 길 난 루저가 아닌 위너가 돼 that's my way (go big or go home) 거부할 수 없는 russian roulette 같은 삶 어쨌거나 i'll survive 아이템 획득 합성 강화 i can make it right 자신 있게 choose right now let's go, go, go 내 앞엔 언제나 모 모 모 중간 같은 건 feels like a loss 고민할 시간에 가사를 뽑아보자 (go big or go home) i'm feeling lucky 예감이 좋지 두근거림에 feels alright 내 운명은 대박 이런 근자감 all 아님 nothing 질러봐 we going, going, going we ride i'm feeling, feeling, feeling alright we going, going, going we ride, we ride (go big or go home) don't get away, don't get away i gotta make, i'm the one 모 아니면 도 아니면 모 아니면 도라고 i need a diamond ring, 모만이 나의 길 난 루저가 아닌 위너가 돼 that's my way (go big or go home)