charismatic, outgoing, intelligent, dilligent, curious
closed, vain, attention-seeking, greedy, 

insp. jackson wang, lovelyz's mijoo

The Jester, a nobleman forced to entertain, delight, and fool others. And he does, he does it so well that they forget he is of noble blood after all.

his shadow - the junghyun everyone knows - he is a bastard always thirsty for more. can never get enough, and how can he? the world is his for the taking. look at how well he plays them, why shouldn't he take more?

because he doesn't want to, because he doesn't need it, says junghyun. the shadow scoffs and doesn't listen.

A part of him felt guilty/unfair that he got that far without being as skilled as he should've been, and the 2 years from produce to debut were spent with extensive training. He even signed up for uni classes to learn composing and production, and by the time Vesper is set to debut he is a much better rapper, dancer, and performer than he was in produce.

He finds out that no one really cares. He has some deep things to say, but everyone just wants the Jester. and Junghyun is happy to provide, but the more he does, the more he realizes that he's stuck in the shadow of the jester. Variety shows want him to be pretty and funny, photoshoots want him to be pretty and funny, MC jobs want him to be pretty and funny. It's like it doesn't even matter that he has improved enough to be a main rapper and that he is also an artist with things to say.

He composes songs and tries to be deep, but nobody cares about that. Prism actively tells him to keep being a jester. And Junghyun understands that because he is addicted to his own popularity. He loves it just as much as he hates it. He's an attention , there's nothing he can do about it. He just wishes he could get attention for things other than his charm and looks. But he's stuck in this jester outfit he has fashioned himself, and honestly? he has no one to blame but himself.

Junghyun has built a persona around himself, a persona that is and isn't him. He can't say he's not the jester, because he is. The jester is his strengths projected to the max. His charm and charisma, his easy-going, friendly nature and quick wit and love for the spotlight. That's all him, but it's not all of him.

Junghyun has parts of him he desperately wants to show others. He can be pensive and solemn and serious. He can be quite philosophical, and he gets melancholy and sad. He has a lot to say about the world, and sometimes he doesn't know what's the right thing to say. Sometimes he doesn't want to smile, to laugh, to entertain. Sometimes he wants to be just him, without thinking about how to be the best part of him. But being a jester is a cruel job. If you try to take your outfit off, you're no longer protected. Junghyun feels like the moment he allows himself to not be the jester, everything he has built will crumble into dust around him. So he hides it, he hides it under a tight lock, so tight that he forgets what's in front and what's behind the camera. He grows to disturst himself from knowing when he can let go - so he doesn't allow himself to let go, ever. He has a duty, a job he has bestowed upon himself (highly encouraged by those around him). He has been tasked with making sure the world knew Vesper. He can't let go. So he doesn't.

Instead, he works even more. The songs he writes, the thoughts he has, he hides them. He allows himself to look at them at night, and wish that he could show them. He knows he can't.

Kang Junghyun is born lucky. He is a really pretty boy, he's smart, he does well at school. He's really pretty, and his mother always tells him he can be on tv. He likes dancing in the after school club he's in. They live on the outskirts of Seoul, not really poor but never quite enough money to go around for him, his parents, and sister. It's still lucky. His mother knows someone who knows someone who has started working for this new entertainment company, Prism. His mother takes him there, and Junghyun dances for them. He's lucky he knows the basic, and lucky he is so pretty.

He is seventeen and they sign him as a trainee - the first male trainee, just him and a bunch of girls who are gearing up for debut. He's lucky he's a smart boy, his mother tells him, he can still finish school with good grades and pass the csat and have a different future if he wants to. But he's too handsome to waste it, and Prism agrees, showing him all around Seoul's best pastic surgery clinics. Junghyun agrees.

He learns rapping and finds that he really likes it, more than anything else he learned in school. That he's pretty good at it, much more than dancing. He's pretty good at performing, too. Pretty  good at many things his trainers tell him are important for an idol, especially for someone who hasn't trained for long, and he's lucky once again to have all that. He loves hearing how lucky he is, it makes him starve himself and work himself into exhaustion perfecting each and every thing he shows them.

He's really lucky, Jin Siryeon tells him, to have been chosen to represent Prism Entertainment in the upcoming season of the Produce show. Produce X 101 is a ridiculous name, but the recognition that comes with the show and its audience isn't. He's not there to win, Siryeon tells him. She tells him straight up - he's not there to win, he's there to impress. Generate buzz, anticipation, popularity. He's chosen because she knows he can do that. His skills are pretty good, but nowhere near enough to be truly impressive. But she knows he is charismatic and charming and so very pretty, and with luck (and money invested in the contract with mnet) he will make netizens remember his name, and remember the group he will be in.

Junghyun exhausts himself preparing for it. He creates a plan, and perfects it, and trains, and doesn't eat a single piece of carbs for months.

When the time comes for him to step on the light blue stage of the filming set, his shadow looms over everyone, tall and imposing and intimidating. Everyone comments about his height, his visuals. Their jaws drop in surprise as the music starts and he starts dancing and singing to SNSD's Into the New World. He's not nearly a good enough singer for it, but it doesn't matter. He gets his "D" from the teachers, and wiggles himself into the netizens' hearts.

His plan is quite simple. He plays to his own strengths. He always has been quite approachable, friendly, charismatic. He knows that they won't cut his screentime, it's been paid for. So Junghyun does what he does best, subvert expectations. He's pretty but smart. He at his audition, but then it turns out he's pretty good at performing. He's tall and intimidating but when he smiles he looks like a puppy and he snorts when he laughs and his sense of humor is appropriately naughty yet adorable. He is great at gathering people around him and keep spirits high during the lows of competition. He stumbles over his shoes on the way to his 9th ranking seat during the first elimination episode, and his loud laughter as he untangles his long legs from the floor goes viral on naver.

The applause and praise are like a drug. The spotlight has been a vague idea before, a wistful sigh "your face fits the tv screen" from his mother and people around Prism. Now, Jonghyun understands what it's all about. It feeds his vanity, his need for attention and acknowledgement. He reads the ranking, hears them being read out loud, knows they're total bull, and still gets drunk on them. It's intoxicating, knowing that a mass of people loves and appreciates him. He can't even quite tell why. The shadows that his frame casts go darker, tendrils crawling towards the blinding spotlight. He finds himself laughing more forcieably. Working on jokes and his smiles until the early hours of the morning. He puts himself more and more into situations where he knows he can shine. He thinks that he's too forceful, too unnatural at this point. He's strayed off his plan. But there's nothing he can do at this point, he's too desperate, too far gone.

And in the process, he meets the other contestants, other trainees like him. good guys, some more talented than him, some less. they're all good guys, and he can immediately tell which ones have been guaranteed something out of this show, and which ones haven't. He can see how anxious, how cautious, how desperate some of his newfound friends are. It's a different desperation from his, a raw desperation of survival. Junghyun can't begin to imagine what it's like, so he asks, and his new friends tell him. The camera captures it all. The tv screen shows lovely Kang Junghyun caring for his teammates and friends. Isn't he lucky that the camera was there to capture it? His rank climbs to 7th, 6th, 5th. It's just unlucky for his friends that most of them were edited out.

He starts feeling disgusted with his own petty desperation, starts feeling like he really is lucky, like he hasn't worked enough to earn this. But it's too late at this point. He is a true jester through and through at this point, already addicted on applause.

He's a fan favorite, a shoe-in for debut. And then he ranks 11th in the final episode. Netizens scream out their outrage and disbelief. Junghyun tries to shed tears, but it's hard. His expression is still described as "mournful, shocked, and devestated" on forums. he is praised by prism and immediately put back to work on the debut.

The training room feels empty without the cameras.

He is lucky to be the biggest winner of Produce X 101.

December 2019 comes and it's revealed that there has been extensive voting manipulation. Junghyun is revealed to have actually placed 4th. No one mentions that the manipulation was done for the sake of Prism. Junghyun reaps the rewards one outraged comment at a time.

He reads netizens' comments and discussions, anything to feed his addiction. He finds that they all repeat his mother's words, a face too pretty to not be an idol. They repeat Jin Siryeon and his trainers too, he is charismatic and charming and he'd make a great idol. But he's not as good as his friends, he thinks. He's only on their lips because Prism has paid for it.

The jester sneers at him, who cares? All that it matters is that we're on their lips to begin with.

I care, Junghyun says, and gets back to work.

The world sides with the jester. And it's only the jester they remember.

Just have fun here! Likes, dislikes, habits, hobbies, misc.

Please list the significant relationships only! Also define the character's personality (whether through listing traits or a short description), their birth year or D.O.B, and their faceclaim!

STAGE NAME: Junghyun, though he wishes it wasn't. He wishes he had some stage name to seperate himself from his shadows, but Produce X 101 didn't accept stage names, and now he's stuck.
POSITIONS: main rapper, dancer, visual
TALENT TWIN(S):

vocal - nct's jeno
rap - stray kids' han / seventeen's dino / nct's jeno (I'm not sure what level of rapping Vesper will need so I gave two very different levels, feel free to ignore this and just go with whatever you need for the story)
dance - nct's jeno

PAST EXPERIENCE(S): Lessons, music or dance academy, competitions, etc.

TRAINEE LIFE: How long did they train under Prism? How did they handle training? Did they adjust well to the lifestyle and get along with the other trainees? etc.

A part of him felt guilty/unfair that he got that far without being as skilled as he should've been, and the 2 years from produce to debut were spent with extensive training. He even signed up for uni classes to learn composing and production, and by the time Vesper is set to debut he is a much better rapper, dancer, and performer than he was in produce.

He finds out that no one really cares. He has some deep things to say, but everyone just wants the Jester. and Junghyun is happy to provide, but the more he does, the more he realizes that he's stuck in the shadow of the jester. Variety shows want him to be pretty and funny, photoshoots want him to be pretty and funny, MC jobs want him to be pretty and funny. It's like it doesn't even matter that he has improved enough to be a main rapper and that he is also an artist with things to say.

He composes songs and tries to be deep, but nobody cares about that. Prism actively tells him to keep being a jester. And Junghyun understands that because he is addicted to his own popularity. He loves it just as much as he hates it. He's an attention , there's nothing he can do about it. He just wishes he could get attention for things other than his charm and looks. But he's stuck in this jester outfit he has fashioned himself, and honestly? he has no one to blame but himself.

MEDIA PRESENCE: If they made any pre-debut appearances or content, how does the media and/or the internet perceive or remember them? Do they even know of their existence?

HEADLINES: From the point of debut and beyond. Scandals, rumours, news, trending tags, anything that could be made an article, basically!

CAREER ASPIRATIONS: How do they want to grow after making their debut? What are their career goals as a group and as an individual? What activities would they want later on? Solos? A unit group? Collaborations?