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history.
Haneul was born Gwangju, South Korea to a woman who was both young and unwed. In a place that still places a lot of importance on a traditional family unit, this came with its own set of hardships for both mother and son. Gossip was harsh and common, but Haneul's mother also found it nearly impossible to find a good job. In spite of their struggles, she never made him feel anything less than precious to her. Much like the meaning behind his name, he was her sky, and Haneul's earliest memories are largely happy ones. But on his fourth birthday and with nowhere else to go, the young mother and her son returned to her parent's home.
Haneul's grandparents neither treated him warmly nor cruelly. For the most part, they pretended like he wasn't there. Meals were eaten in tense silence, and Haneul would retreat to the nearby mountain as soon as his mother left for the long train ride to work. Haneul enjoyed nature in its entirety, from the hatching of baby birds to the butterfly caught in the spider's web. There he felt like he could breathe, think, and just be. As he grew older, Haneul started to think more and more about the stories that he mother used to tell him when it was just the two of them, stories about who his father was and why he wasn't around. He also started to doubt those stories more and more. Sometimes children grow out of believing in ghost stories.
The early teenage years are often filled with angst about grades and body changes. Haneul was dealing with flashes of something, images that he didn't want to see. And then they came to him, the spirit that left the limp body on the street, or the tapping of a beak against a window after a bird flew into it. He didn't know what to do at first, besides worry that he might have a brain tumor or simply be losing his mind. But instinct soon took over, and Haneul led them where they needed to go.
Whether it was a result of Haneul coming into his own as a psychopomp, or spirits seeking him out for his help, paranormal activity started to pick up around their house. His mother urged him not to tell his grandfather anything, and took the blame for it herself. Haneul came home from school one spring afternoon to find a shaman and his family trying to force the evil spirits from his mother's body. She died at their hands, and Haneul escorted his first human spirit.
Enter an aunt that Haneul didn't even know existed, his mother's older sister who arrived from the United States and took custody of him. She brought him back to Portland, Oregon, where she worked as a fortune teller. She explained to him that many members of their family had gifts, and only the minority had chosen to embrace instead of repress. She'd chosen the former, and had lived an interesting life surrounded by interesting people as a result. In this environment, Haneul started feeling more comfortable with what he was. He started school, he worked hard to perfect his English, and he made a small circle of eccentric friends who were interested in the paranormal. And like many such people, they started visiting cemeteries and abandoned houses in the dead of night (pun intended). One good uploaded video was all it took, and they've become moderately famous within the community.
Haneul has been dubbed the team's "psychic medium", even though those words have never left his mouth. He goes along with it to give courage and moral support to his friends, and to help any lingering spirits should a place actually be haunted. What he's seen on the other side hasn't really inspired hope or dread in him, though there are times when that final destination seems more on the menacing side, when Haneul has to give the person a nudge. Lingering behind often causes a decay of the spirit that's not unlike the decay of the body.
He's also started paying more attention to the premonitions, hoping that he might be able to prevent the things that he sees from happening in the first place. Just once, he'd like to be just in time for a person's life rather than just their soul.
Haneul's grandparents neither treated him warmly nor cruelly. For the most part, they pretended like he wasn't there. Meals were eaten in tense silence, and Haneul would retreat to the nearby mountain as soon as his mother left for the long train ride to work. Haneul enjoyed nature in its entirety, from the hatching of baby birds to the butterfly caught in the spider's web. There he felt like he could breathe, think, and just be. As he grew older, Haneul started to think more and more about the stories that he mother used to tell him when it was just the two of them, stories about who his father was and why he wasn't around. He also started to doubt those stories more and more. Sometimes children grow out of believing in ghost stories.
The early teenage years are often filled with angst about grades and body changes. Haneul was dealing with flashes of something, images that he didn't want to see. And then they came to him, the spirit that left the limp body on the street, or the tapping of a beak against a window after a bird flew into it. He didn't know what to do at first, besides worry that he might have a brain tumor or simply be losing his mind. But instinct soon took over, and Haneul led them where they needed to go.
Whether it was a result of Haneul coming into his own as a psychopomp, or spirits seeking him out for his help, paranormal activity started to pick up around their house. His mother urged him not to tell his grandfather anything, and took the blame for it herself. Haneul came home from school one spring afternoon to find a shaman and his family trying to force the evil spirits from his mother's body. She died at their hands, and Haneul escorted his first human spirit.
Enter an aunt that Haneul didn't even know existed, his mother's older sister who arrived from the United States and took custody of him. She brought him back to Portland, Oregon, where she worked as a fortune teller. She explained to him that many members of their family had gifts, and only the minority had chosen to embrace instead of repress. She'd chosen the former, and had lived an interesting life surrounded by interesting people as a result. In this environment, Haneul started feeling more comfortable with what he was. He started school, he worked hard to perfect his English, and he made a small circle of eccentric friends who were interested in the paranormal. And like many such people, they started visiting cemeteries and abandoned houses in the dead of night (pun intended). One good uploaded video was all it took, and they've become moderately famous within the community.
Haneul has been dubbed the team's "psychic medium", even though those words have never left his mouth. He goes along with it to give courage and moral support to his friends, and to help any lingering spirits should a place actually be haunted. What he's seen on the other side hasn't really inspired hope or dread in him, though there are times when that final destination seems more on the menacing side, when Haneul has to give the person a nudge. Lingering behind often causes a decay of the spirit that's not unlike the decay of the body.
He's also started paying more attention to the premonitions, hoping that he might be able to prevent the things that he sees from happening in the first place. Just once, he'd like to be just in time for a person's life rather than just their soul.