#uncle;

If you take a look at this post here, you may notice that all of the characters listed have Korean names (save for two; the one with the Japanese name and the one with the Chinese surname) so, based on that, you might be wondering; Why, then, does Kael Haden have such an, er, incredibly Irish name? This is all to do with his Jisoo (his father)’s upbringing.

Jisoo was born as Kang Jisoo but for certain reasons (currently undecided by me and entirely unbeknownst to Kael), Jisoo’s parents died when he was fairly young; I’d say about the age of six. The Kang family aren’t very fortunate when it comes to being parents, apparently (but, trust me, this ends with Kael). It was for these reasons that the young Jisoo wound up an orphan but he was lucky enough to adopted fairly soon -- he was now the son of the Haden family. At no point, however, did he leave Deling City.

He grew up mostly out of touch with his own parents’ culture and his adoptive parents were his parents just as much as, if not more than, his birth parents. However, when he met Ahn Miseon, the woman he would marry only a couple years after their meeting, she encouraged him to try and re-associate himself.

Why was it, then, that this couple, Jisoo and Miseon, chose to give their son a name that simply did not line up with this? It was almost purely because they wanted to, that they thought it might sound better, but, in some way, perhaps they were trying to protect him from being judged by his name alone. Though, more than anything else, Miseon had just really liked the name Kael. However, Miseon’s attempts to have Jisoo acknowledge his parents’ cultured had taken their effect on him and, so, he’d pressed for a name to suit that. Obviously, this plan didn’t go through but it is important to note that Kael technically has a second name by which he never gone -- that name is, of course, Hyunjin.

And, so, what happened to Jisoo’s adoptive parents? As it so happened, Miseon never quite got along with Jisoo’s parents and, after Jisoo’s death, due to their lack of blood relation to Kael, never made a point of making sure the family kept in touch. Though, on that note, due to Seungho (Miseon’s younger brother and therefore Kael’s uncle)’s disapproval toward his sister’s decision to send her son off to Galbadia Garden, Kael also doesn’t know his Uncle very well. He’s met him once or twice but, generally, his mother limited the contact she had with her brother. Seungho is married with two small children, meaning Kael also has an aunt and two cousins he’s never met.