Ji-hyun is almost certainly the stereotype of what you'd expect of a son of Hypnos. And you know what? He's happy that way.

He's infinitely patient, making him a hit with the kids—in fact, he was aiming to become a teacher just before he left for Camp Athens—and he's a great listener who'll be willing to give anyone, even people he's not close to, a little time and a listening ear to let them unload. He doesn't use anything he learns for his own gain, only satisfaction knowing that he could help people. He's lazy, yes, but not uncaring, and certainly not callous. He hates to see strife, and if he can he'll try to help resolve disputes, but only if he knows he can make a difference and if he truly cares for those involved.

Ji-hyun gets along well with everyone to the best of his ability, being ready with genuine compliments and a bright smile for anyone he has to interact with. He's good at taking instructions from others (though not so good a leader himself), and is a great team player, if you consider someone who sits in in the corner quietly until he's given work to do a good team player. Even so, he generally tries to take a short cut to complete his tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, unless he's given extremely specific instructions, because that means that all the thinking's already been done for him.

Despite this, Ji-hyun's oddly cynical about the world. His pessimistic tendencies are an excuse for his laziness, claiming that since things are most likely going to unravel themselves there's little reason for him to put in too much effort or time. This is why he offers such shit advice despite being a good listener, because he'll often suggest a method of action to put the problem away for good. Having problems with a person? Forget them entirely. Struggling with a task? Just give up on it. He's seen and experienced enough to know well the feeling of disappointment, so to avoid any further letdowns he prefers to dodge such situations entirely.

Bill Gates once said he would hire a lazy person to do a difficult job because they'd find an easy way to do it. This might have been spoken with Ji-hyun in mind, because while he's probably the laziest piece of shit to ever step foot in Camp Athens, he's also incredibly intelligent, having been top of his school often while he was still schooling and skipping a grade ahead while he was in middle school. Therefore, his laziness is born of a reluctance to act on his own observations and opinions rather than a lack of them. Still, he tries not to stand out too much, preferring to live in others' shadow to avoid raising the expectations that society and his peers have of him.

Even before the failure of her husband's business that forced them to leave her children in the care of her mother, Kim Nari was facing marital issues. Following the birth of her son, she'd gradually drifted away from her husband until they were barely more than strangers who lived in the same house and occasionally slept with each other for the hell of it. By the time her son was 5, she'd had enough of being ignored except when her husband needed someone to warm his bed. She used to wander around the city at night, a lone woman bar hopping in the hopes of finding someone to fill the void in her heart.

And there were many men, sure. But there was only one that remained in her memory years after he'd loved and left her, a tall and handsome foreigner with sleepy eyes—she didn't even know his name. The only evidence she'd ever had of him was the son she birthed nine months later, which her husband assumed was the product of one of their drunken nights together. What did it matter? A child would pull the family together, just like old times.

Until the debt Ji-hyun's father took out to sustain his business was due, and with his clinic on the brink of closure the family decided to split up for their own good. Nari sent her sons to live with her mother, promising that she would go to collect them when they'd found a nice new place to live, away from the scary debtors. And she intended to keep her promise—until one night, when a truck forced their car off the road and down the side of a mountain, killing both on impact. Ji-hyun was only 3 at the time.

And so Ji-hyun and Ji-ha, now orphans as far as anyone was concerned, grew up in the care of their grandmother. In the absence of their parents, she decided that she'd have to be the strict guardian children needed, and so she always pushed the boys to be stronger, better. Ji-hyun, a naturally brilliant child, did well as far as he was expected to, but his brother, still reeling from his loss, was never quite able to adapt to his new surroundings.

Right from the start, the difference was obvious. Though they were given the same opportunities, Ji-hyun and Ji-ha responded differently, and somehow Ji-hyun always came out on top. His brilliance put him at the top of the target list for the older boys at his school, and so it was always his brother that had to come to his rescue. Every time a teacher called home with the news that Ji-ha had been in another fight, their grandmother would shove a few dollars into Ji-hyun's hand and tell him to go down to the shops to buy something for himself while she kept Ji-ha back to scold him. Ji-ha never resented protecting his brother, because it was his duty, but after everything was said and done and he had to tend to his bruises sometimes he'd wish for a different destiny, one where he didn't have to put himself at risk for the only person he ever loved, one where he wasn't ridiculed and hated.

Those evenings, Ji-hyun used to sit outside the convenience shop with a man who would buy him an ice cream and talk to him about his school. This man was tall and handsome, and spoke Korean slowly, but he looked like nobody Ji-hyun knew. Once he tried to tell Ji-hyun he was his father, but the boy just laughed and shook his head—everyone knew Ji-hyun didn't have a father. And it wasn't because he was missing, it was because he was dead. So the man, laughing, agreed that he would be Ji-hyun's uncle instead. His secret friend. Wouldn't that be nice?

Over time, their conversations shifted from the mundane and casual to heavier topics, like just what exactly Grandmother was doing back at the house with Ji-ha. Ji-hyun, in his little bubble of contentment, gradually learned that the world wasn't fair to those who fell behind. He saw the tears his brother held back, the bruises he tried to hide. Grandmother just wanted the best for them, he tried to explain. Grandmother never wanted to hurt us. But hurt she did.

Because the nice man used to pay for Ji-hyun's ice cream, he never had to spend the money Grandmother shoved at him. Over the years, the little handful of coins grew and grew, and by the time the brothers knew what they wanted to do it was enough to keep one of them alive for some time, away from home. Right before Ji-ha left for the last time Ji-hyun shoved the envelope of money into his hands—you'll need it, Brother, just write back to me when you can.

Grandmother never really forgave herself for what Ji-ha did. He never wrote back, never spoke to any of his old friends—it was as if he'd just taken everything he owned and disappeared off the face of the earth. It was around this time Ji-hyun began to understand that no good deed goes unpunished. He did well at school, and for what? His brother would get hurt at school, and then again at home. He saved money and gave it all to his brother, and for what? Disappeared straight out of his life, maybe living with a nice girl somewhere, maybe lying dead in a ditch. Even the nice uncle had left him a long time ago, wasn't there to sit with him until the only light was from inside the convenience store, a safe haven for Ji-hyun.

Still, he had Grandmother to provide for. She was old and getting weaker, and needed him. Until the nice uncle reappeared, came back into his life like nothing had ever happened between them, and explained Ji-hyun's heritage to him, said there was a camp somewhere full of people just like him. I'll make sure your grandmother is taken care of, he promised, and then what did Ji-hyun have left to hold him back? He made arrangements for a neighbour to check in on Grandmother every now and then, made the usual promise of calls and letters, and left the place he'd always called home for Camp Athens.