&&. is that ( hyun bin )?? no, it’s just ( park younghoon ). he is a ( duke ) of ( chungcheong ). he is ( 40 ) years old and his birthday is the ( 25th ) of ( april ) which makes him a ( taurus ). he is ( patient and tenacious ) and ( inscrutable and analytical ) but, unfortunately, also ( unapproachable and callous ). those traits just make him a ( ravenclaw ) and in scientific terms an ( estj ). he is ( heterosexual ) and the plaza’s ( billionaire ). his theme song is ( i get money ) by ( 50 cent ). his interests include ( jinny and ipo’s ). he practices ( richism ) and is a supporter of ( the democratic party ). his quirk is ( constantly looking like 😑 ) and favourite quote is ( we all have the same 24 hours in a day ) by ( someone he doesn’t know ) because ( he believes it’s what you do with them that makes the difference :/ ). last but not least he ( does ) believe in true love.
the parks are a traditional chaebol family. they run in small, tight-knit circles and remain as one of the more elusive chaebols in terms of exposure in the media (because they control it). the parents prepare their children for the world of business, drilling in a strong work ethic and the importance of ‘integrity’ from a young age whilst having judges and politicians in their pockets.
as the eldest son, younghoon was set to inherit the family business once his father stepped down. growing up, he never had any strong feelings about it. all his friends had similar futures ahead of them, though not many also had a duchy to rule over as well. he studied abroad in california, then harvard for college, studying economics and business, before returning to seoul to start his career.
his brothers followed suit, as they always would, and joined the family business to gain work experience. it’d been expected for them to venture out as they’d always struggled being in younghoon’s shadow, but during the few years the brothers worked together, younghoon had convinced them to stay.
younghoon and his brothers grew up in a quiet household. it wasn’t cold. the love was there. arguments were few and far between. they were all soft-spoken and paid extra care in minding their manners. respect came first and foremost -- no one would dare to speak out of line. family dinners were as formal as business meetings. younghoon is always polite to his family, only speaks when it matters, and always put them first. in return, this meant the family struggled to express themselves, found no use in talking about their feelings, and never truly got to know one another.
this worked well for younghoon. he liked coming back to a calm household, knowing he could discuss five-year-plans, ruthless takeovers, and potential investments with people whose minds he could trust. talking about his personal relationships, or lack thereof, would’ve been a waste of time for everyone. in his mind, he had a well-functioning family. he couldn’t be more grateful.
once he started getting into the thick of it, his drive for success started to grow exponentially. he wanted to be the one to take the business to reach new heights, not just in korea, or asia, but on a global scale. it was true, greed begets more greed. somewhere along the lines, his ambition blinded him and a thing such as ‘too much’ stopped existing in his world. he always wanted to do more, have more.
his political influence started to expand across continents. armed with propaganda machines, think tanks and lobbyists, connections in all the right places, younghoon holds no qualms in leveraging political relationships to help him achieve his goals. which, to put it simply, is evading antimonopoly and foreign ownership rules. basically, more money.
sometimes that means supporting war behind closed doors, undermining efforts to combat climate change, vilifying anti-monarchists, and so on and so forth.
however, these means to an end often contradict the image he reflects to satisfy his customers. at the end of the day, he is mainly in the business of selling.
there’s no question he’s a real hardball but above that he’s better known to be a good leader. better than the men who have come before him. he adapted the environment of the company to suit the current social climate: good salaries, even better benefits, everything to attract the best of the best. but he thinks in numbers, in both his professional and personal life. it’s how he makes sense of things, solves problems. he puts a number on everything, even the most abstract of things like feelings.
but when haera entered the picture, things became confusing. younghoon’s lack of a love life had never been a problem until it became increasingly clear that he would never find a wife of his own accord. he had no problem when his parents came to him with an arrangement. like all other matters of business, he trusted them to find someone who could bring a good return on the investment.
there had been minimal communication between him and son seolhyun, his future wife, and he hoped that meant they were on the same page. but when news came about how she had gotten into a real relationship, and he was to be arranged to the youngest, haera, he didn’t particularly have any significant feelings about that either. after the wedding, he flew to san francisco to attend some meetings and haera went on her own honeymoon with some gal pals <3
the little time he had spent with her was -- well, he didn’t quite know what to make of her. she was loud, rude, dramatic, made all these ridiculous demands. she was the exact opposite of someone he’d expected and it’s not exactly like he could fire her as his wife. so he focused on the part of his life that did make sense. even after jinny was born, he was so consumed with his work and ambition that he’d missed all the important milestones.
he can’t pinpoint when exactly things started to feel different with haera. but he started to carve time out of his schedule to spend more time with her and jinny, random objects would remind him of them when he was away, and he’d look forward to haera accusing him of cheating when he returned home.
younghoon is in the program to represent himself. his loyalties with the crown only run so deep as long as it benefits him. he’s here for his own goals in building a global empire whilst building ties with some of the most influential people in the world. being close to haera and jinny is an added bonus -- after the incident, quite a big one -- but they’ve been meeting up in a penthouse in tokyo most weekends so it’s not the real reason for him joining the program.
HEADCANONS:
sleeps three hours a day
dresses “casually” most of the time - a shirt without a tie
has a very good sock collection
currently in the middle of developing haera’s dream house
invited to appear on shark tank, took it as an insult and he’s rarely offended
he hates the label ‘the handsome dukes’ -- sees himself as more of a businessman than a duke
doesn’t really like new money
has one blank stare for 846945 not-so-different emotions
has been going to the same barber for the past 19 years for $10 but he gives a hefty tip
a clean freak
CONNECTIONS:
friends: not many - maybe from college? work?
political friends: a little quid pro quo back in the day? sneaky evil friends that get up to sneaky evil things? he has a phat share in a weapons business through a phanton firm so 👁
business: someone he is currently investing in, someone who wants his money or expertise in a project etc.
antis: people who hates everything he stands for <3
mentee: a mentorship program either through harvard or hanon corp ??? and ur chara got it through nepotism - younghoon hates it
ex: a very short, brief, emotionless thing and they stayed friend after, probably during college?
im running out of ideas .. mb more later!
