For those of you who aren't writers and wonder why in the world I would ever do that, please note that characters are SO essential to a good story. Each character needs to be unique in their own way but at the same time very believable to the reader. This is accomplished through an intense amount of work by the writer, which usually (in my case) begins with a rough idea of what their personality is like, what makes them passionate/mad/happy/what they live for/what they believe is important/etc. and then proceeds on to details about their past and present that gives reasons for why they are the way they are. Also, just as people respond to situations within the framework of their personality, past, etc., so characters also determine where the book goes next by responding to it in their own unique way. That should explain why I sometimes say something strange like, "My characters fell in love without my permission," or "My characters are not doing what I want them to." Writers more often than not simply shape characters and set them loose on a situation they know will be trying to them and watch them react.
Anyway, all that being said, I want you to meet the characters of my newest novel. They've been a lot of fun to think tip and dream of (although I am thinking of cutting some of them).
Oh and another side note...here you'll see me referencing an entertainment company full of singers and dancers alongside words like "audition", "trainee", etc. Although I do tend to write about things of which I have no idea about (hey, it's a great way to learn!), just trust me on this. Maybe on a different post I'll go into Korea's entertainment industry and the ways it operates (this is essential to the story, so if I end up posting more of that on here I'll explain it). But for now, just trust that I actually have a relatively great deal of knowledge on this and I know what I'm doing.
Anyway, here are my characters (sorry for any mistakes...I got sick of typing long before I was done with this)! And feel free to comment about them/present things you think I can change!
Kim Ha Na, a young, ambitious woman, previously involved in
the arts, loses her little sister in a tragic car accident, where it is a hit
and run and the killer cannot be found. There were no witnesses, only a pile of
red roses and a dead body. When she sees her boyfriend at school the next few
days and tells him about the accident, he seems cold and distant, even though
he says he’s perfectly fine. About a week after the accident, however, she
receives a mysterious suicide note from him, vaguely alluding to something
plaguing him. She believes it is her sister’s death, since the two were close,
and determines to catch the killer. She gets excused from the entertainment
industry to go to school as to become a full-time detective under her father’s
police division. She has worked hard on the case of her little sister ever
since, as well as the cases of others, and she constantly seeks to bring
criminals to justice and preventing others from getting hurt. But then her
father asks her unexpectedly to leave the case and work instead on a smaller
scale crime in an entertainment company as an undercover agent. Her talent is
quickly recognized and she is soon assigned as his lead dancing partner, which
leads to a friendship among the two.
Kwon Seunghyun, known better by the alias Monster, considers
himself dead. He has considered himself dead since the day he hit his
girlfriend’s little sister and killed her. He couldn’t face her. He couldn’t
live with the fact that he had crushed her. And as much as he wanted to tell
her it would be okay, as much as he wanted to comfort her, his heart screamed
the questions hers only began to raise. So he left her. He left it all, and
tried to take his life. His mother caught him and convinced him not to and to
rather throw himself into his dream of being a singer. This he did, but he
still hates himself. And now, he hates himself for letting her go. He drinks
away his problems almost every night and engages in a loveless fling to hide
his pain. Often, he thinks of the time when his music career, the only thing
truly keeping what he considers his corpse animated, is over and he can truly
die. He doesn’t necessarily like the idea, but it’s better than the pain he is
in. But then he meets the new dancer, a girl that looks remarkably like the
woman he left in a trail of tears years back. At first, he attempts to just
ignore her but is plagued by the fact that he let her go in the first place so
he stalks her as well, but then she gets cast as his lead dancing partner in
the upcoming tour, and there is talk eventually of even debuting them as a
group. They must work together, with her attempting to uncover his crimes and
he trying to keep his secrets.
Michelle, the antagonist of the story, is a confident,
cut-throat make-up artist with a dirty secret. She prides herself on being
trained in Hollywood, and her superior expertise is what she shows to the
professionals, but her dark past as the child of a homeless prostitute has
caused her to take up whatever jobs she can in the spare time to provide for
her mother’s constant medical needs. One of her many jobs is to work her
sexuality to get stuff out of people for the benefit of whoever pays money. She
has done many undercover jobs, and her most recent one is for Kimmie’s crazy
mother, who will stop at nothing to get
her daughter in the spotlight. As a result, Michelle has befriended Kimmie with
the intent to let her get the limelight once Monster gets exploited. But in the
meantime, she actually begins to develop feelings for Monster, and doesn’t want
to use him to exploit anyone, but has to if she is to keep her mother alive.
She begins to try to win Monster’s heart, but when she sees that he is
beginning to like the new dancer, Michelle begins to secretly investigate her
as well, and, once she figures out who she is, tries to sabotage her
reputation.
Joo Eun Seung believes that one is only as good as they can
perform. Beauty, hair, make-up, talent, voice, dancing, and acting…she succeeds
at all of them very well and applies the same rigorous work ethic to her
current job, which is a detective and owner of a club at night. This allows her
to keep proper tabs on her daughter who is in the entertainment industry, since
many of the entertainers and trainees populate this club. She has found out why
her daughter isn’t becoming famous – the company she’s with doesn’t think she
would gain them much profit because her talent is mediocre compared to the rest
of the stars. So the mother sets out to sabotage the company’s reputation.
Chiefly, she has in mind to destroy the lives of the stars by discovering their
dirty secrets and publicizing it. She hires a young make-up artist (Michelle)
to spy for her. Specifically, she has heard rumors of Monster’s dark past and
is curious about the young man behind the mask. She tells Michelle to seduce
him and learn his secrets. She was once a very promising Chinese singer and
performer, but she received a severe beating from her drunken father, who was
angered that he didn’t have a son that could fight in the military like he
could, one night, and made her sign a contract to go into the military. While
in the military, she received several injuries and underwent corrective
surgery, After her healing time, which took two full years, she attempted to
return to the performance scene but they wouldn’t take her due to her old age
and the fact that her corrective surgeries made it difficult for her to dance.
Angry at her father, she resolves to protect people from fate’s like hers by
becoming a cop, which she promptly enters school for.
Kang Ji Eun considers herself as a kind, humble warrior
attempting to make good in people’s lives. She is very considerate and loves to
listen to people’s sides of the story, but remains fully grounded in her
beliefs. Her heart is for the mentally hurting, and she loves to help them
through giving them advice. Her brother almost died of a mental disease that
was not properly managed and so she wants to help others suffering from similar
things. She is the one that knows the most about Monster’s past, but does not
know it all. She knows about Ha Na, but is not entirely sure how he lost her or
about the incidences surrounding Hye Mi’s death. Her policy is to keep
everything her clients tell her secret unless it is a life-threatening issue.
Thus, she wouldn’t even report Monster’s crime if she found out. She guards a
wealth of personal secrets, and is attempting to guard him with her life, even
if it means her career. She is not very careful about Ha Na, however, because
he has confessed to her that Ha Na is the girl that he loved in the beginning.
She thinks Ha Na will be healthy for Monster because she will give him someone to
tell everything to; someone he can finally open up completely with and find
love and healing. She doesn’t understand, then, when he doesn’t, and begins to
search for some answers of her own. She usually doesn’t probe into personal
matters of her clients, but it gets to the point where she must choose to
either defend her client by knowing the information or let him fall into enemy
hands. Even so, she does her snooping surreptitiously – mainly, through
conversations with Ha Na at various times in the story, which makes Monster
mad. Later, when Monster is found guilty, she too is imprisoned on the day of
the trial for knowing too much and saying too little. Ha Na, therefore, has the
job of getting them both out unharmed.
Pipo, aka Yoo Young Jin, views himself as one of the world’s
most beautiful people and thrives on competition. A dancer, he is known for his
beauty and boyish charm. Already a very successful model, this young man loves
to trample everyone that attempts to get in his way. Ever since he was a little
boy from a fishing village near the sea, he has dreamt of being the greatest of
all. And, ever since he actually got into the entertainment company, he not
only dreamed of being the best but knew he was the best. He, therefore, is very frustrated that the
company owner has not yet given him a debut and wants him still only as a
back-up dancer. He obviously would be thrilled if Monster’s reputation were
damaged so that he could shine more brightly. Therefore, when Michelle later
asks him to spy on every move of Monster’s in the places where she cannot go,
he wholeheartedly agrees to do so.
Pepo, aka Yoo Eun Woo, has a great passion for what he does,
but, unlike his brother, views it as something he does because he enjoys it.
Although he does a preference for pink clothes and all the pretty things they
give him (indeed, he does like to play dress-up, but Pipo never wants to play
it because he can’t deal with the fact that his brother can be so much prettier
than him without even trying), but he respects his sunbaes and rather admires
them instead of trying to beat them. Even though he loves to tease and is mostly,
especially towards Kimmie, a little spitball of sass (he learned it in order to
have fun with his extremely competitive brother). He does take comments
personally and secretly hates always living in his brother’s shadow, but he
pities those going through really hard times because he knows the pressure to
be perfect is ridiculous and still believes somewhere inside of him that the
person inside is more important than the perfect person they try to portray,
but even he struggles to believe this sometimes and he doesn’t necessarily
recognize it at first. He loves eating
anything and everything, especially if it has meat, but he hates pork because
he also loves pigs. He also loves ramen, and misses his mom’s cooking at home.
He is gentle, but a dark horse competitor in that he is not afraid to work for
what he wants. He falls deeply in love with Kimmie, mostly because he pities
her and her attempts at perfection all the while living under the pressure of a
high-performance stressing mother who really won’t approve of her daughter
unless and until she is at the top. He knows nothing of Monster’s past, he just
kind of views him as a casualty of the company. The reason he exists in this
drama is to fight for the justice of the trainees. He’s not very vocal about it
all the time, but he becomes the emotional backbone of the group when Kimmie’s
pregnancy becomes known.
Kimmie, aka Kim Seo Young, believes at first, like her
mother, that to be beautiful is to be everything. She is highly competitive,
her biggest frenemy being Pipo because they are forced to live with one another
but are constantly competing with each other to be the best at everything and
sometimes don’t get along very well. But, usually, at the end of the day they
go to bed friends. What she doesn’t know, however, is that Pipo has developed a
bit of a crush on her, and what Pipo wants he always makes sure he gets.
Kimmie’s goal: debut and become the best in the company. She oftentimes uses
her aegyo to win people over to her side, but it seldom works with people like
her choreographer noona. She especially attempts to use it on monster, because
she has a big crush on him and believes that if he asked her out they would be
forced to give her a debut. She is a bit tired of being defined only as what
caliber she can perform at, but she doesn’t know any other way so she plays all
the games. When she was little, she used to cry herself to sleep. Now she
solves it by reading SSKiss magazines and anything else that would soothe her
mind. If it’s a hard day, she does sometimes still cry. Secretly, she is
jealous of trainees like Pepo that have great relationships with his or her
mom. She really wants to please her mom and for her mom to like her, so she
tries to perform at top caliber. She takes criticisms pretty hard, as they
always tear at the only thing she thinks is really important. She loves good
publicity, though, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it. During her crisis, though, she needs lots of
support due to the constant bad media, the anger of her mother, and the fact
that she casts the entire company into a tumultuous lawsuit. However, Pepo sees
her need and becomes there for her at all times. This is when she finally
confirms her love for him.
Kim In Suk’s has been plagued with the reality of his
daughter’s death ever since it happened. As a police detective, he has been
desperate to find the killer and finally bring peace and restoration to his and
his hurting daughter’s hearts. He used to be a smiling father, happily married
to his wife and living with his two daughters until Hye Mi died and his
precious wife soon followed the girl down to the grave in grief. All he has now
is Ha Na, but even though he loves her, he finds it hard to get past the lump
in his heart and show her strength and courage and joy. Indeed, he sometimes
feels ashamed that often she seems like the strong one, the one that works up
the strength to smile despite the circumstances and the one who, even though
she is tired at the end of the day, always finds the strength to come home and
make some food for the both of them, even if it is just a TV dinner eaten on
the couch of their apartment while the newsman relates what they already know
from that day: a boy missing, a man killed, a woman weeping that her husband
beat her. He cares. He cares a whole lot, but sometimes he just feels numb.
These issues are so much a part of daily life to him that, even though they
strike him with sympathy, he can now view them without cringing. The only nerve
that still strikes its deepest in his heart is that of his daughter. He will stop at nothing to find the killer,
even if it means late nights and giving up everything he has. The only thing he
wouldn’t give up would be his other daughter, so when the time comes for her to
audition as a spy to the entertainment company, he is very reluctant to let her
go. But he knows that he must, so he sends Tae Joon along with her. He severely
beats all the people suspected to be involved in his daughter’s death and keeps
close tabs on Ha Na after he lets her go. At this point, he is also in charge
of figuring out what happened to some security guards that got too close to the
true past of Monster, because they were mysteriously and violently cast out.
Curiously, however, they won’t talk and are now living on a large sum of money.
Li Ai Qing is a trainee from China who is seeking to make
her debut in the Korean entertainment world. She is a lot like Pipo, but has a
crush on him and thinks that Kimmie does too so she competes with her all the
time. She has traveled a far way for her work and is a favorite of Na Eun, the
choreographer. She would like nothing better than to knock Kimmie off her game.
Gil Na Eun considers herself at the top of her game. She is
a tough choreographer, and expects nothing less than perfection from her
students. She lives in the dorm with Ha Na, Pipo, Pepo, Kimmie, and Ai Qing and
enforces strict rules such as diets and bedtimes. Of course, the kids do have a
stash under their beds, but that’s irrelevant. She gets frustrated with them
most times and never lets them have any fun. Her part in the story: criticize
everyone, make them sick of perfection, etc.
Yang Hyun Joo, the CEO of the entertainment company, is a
shrewd business person with a bent for churning out idols and making lots of
money. He only expects the best from his employees and trainees. Everyone else
is dropped. He is at first hesitant to take Ha Na, not knowing her background
and how good she is. On the insisting that his safety and the safety of those
around him is threatened, however, he agrees. Currently, he is preparing the
company for two big things: the annual company show and Monster’s tour. He
wants only the best of the performers at this show and therefore everyone is
working super hard to impress him.
Astonishingly, however, he ends up really liking Ha Na, as she is super
talented. He ends up considering two things: 1. Casting her alongside Monster
for the company show, and 2. Debuting her as a solo artist or having her
feature on Monster’s album. He presents these ideas to her, and she wants to
accept them really badly. In her heart,
she still loves performing and just wants to be on the stage. He really hopes
that she accepts.
