#..hwanhee..intro..

kang hwanhee, 27, second son to the kang family of garam. 

in his conservative family, second son = second-in-line and second-in-line = always letting the first son (taehyun!) be better. as if it isn’t hard enough to be told that he’s never going to be heir from the moment he’s born, hwanhee finds himself having to restrict his own capabilities (despite being a smart kid and all). be mediocre, right within reach. let himself be overshadowed on purpose. 

and for the most part, he plays that role well. graduates from saebom high (2012) with exceptional grades, just not better than his brother. doesn’t get involved in any real trouble. gets accepted to hanbit university for business. 

except one of the real reasons he’s so obedient (and one that he keeps to himself) up until the point his father forces him to drop out of college is (tw: abuse) because he gets smacked around so much by his dad. it’s a struggle trying to hide all the bruises and the marks, but he gets used to that too. cue all the poor acting in front of his siblings (what happened? oh i fell). dad doesn’t just rule with an iron fist; he has one too, apparently. 

so yeah, complicated family love-hate relationships. more on the hate side with his dad, more on the love side with taehyun. more on the hate side with his mom, although he can never really hate his mom, and much more on the love side with rieon. not so clear cut, but that’s family. 

he’s typically well-liked, mostly because to the wolves of cheongdam he’s a much easier face to handle than his siblings or parents; but it’d be a mistake to take his lack of sour words as sociability. 

or more well-said, hwanhee keeps his negativity under a cap, usually, because he’s learned to smile as a cover for hurt; but one wrong poke and watch his short fuse go boom! bc the scariest thing about being a victim to his father’s fists is that he’s so afraid to inflict violence himself and yet it’s the most liberating feeling ever. 

and his complacency quickly wanes after he’s forced to drop out of college (tldr; media caught wind of father’s generous donations to hanbit and in an effort to prevent further stains on reputation, father made hwanhee quit school and not taehyun) so he’s pretty bitter about that. 

took some time to get his head screwed on straight but now he’s managing lower tier work at the k palace hotel, sometimes goes on trips to other k palace locations. mostly to keep up appearances with his father. but hwanhee’s done being the silent wallflower kid of the family.