application.

[neuropathist]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Jelle
Contact: queeningsquare | aim: Lunixhime
Age: 22
Current Characters: Heisuke Toudou (ofuse)


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Choi Chihoon (eastern order, in western order that'd be Chihoon Choi)
Age: 18
Canon: White Christmas
Canon Point: Post-series

Background: there's very detailed summaries of all the episodes over at dramabeans!

Personality: At first in the series Chihoon seems to come off as a bit of a douchebag. Even though there's only seven of them (eight if you include the teacher) who stayed behind at the school over their Christmas break, he doesn't really seem to interact much with the others at first. He mostly just keeps to himself, and when we do see him in situations with the others - like during dinner - he mostly keeps to himself. We're introduced to him as the stereotypical resident genius, and he seems to fit the description pretty well since he seems so cold and distant.

This description of Chihoon is not entirely untrue, honestly, although it would be unfair to just stick with that and say that's all there is about him. It's true that he seems to have a mentality that pretty much spells out "I just want to get through these three years and pass my classes with good grades and get the hell out WHO NEEDS HIGH SCHOOL MEMORIES AND FRIENDS" which leads to him ignoring the general population of the school, but as the mystery starts unfolding between all of them left behind at school, and especially once their teacher is found dead in the courtyard, Chihoon starts interacting with the others more. He's actively trying to figure out what's going on and shares the information with the others: he's actually quite helpful to the group, both when they try to figure out who's behind the letters and what happened to the teacher, and later on when they're trying to deal with the serial killer that's got them locked up. He's still slightly cold and very much business-like about his interactions with the others, but it's not like he completely ignores them and only helps himself. For all of his usual attitude, Chihoon doesn't seem like very much of a selfish person - or at least, not a bad person. He's one of the few of the students who doesn't try to sell out another one of the students during a breakdown: even when Youngjae names him as the mastermind behind a failed plan to take down the killer, he just calmly accepts it and doesn't try to blame anyone else for it, even though it means said killer takes him somewhere seperately to kill him.

The fact that he doesn't sell anyone else out though and is actually the driving force behind most of the plans and intelligent ideas the group has - aside from the fact that he's really smart - probably a lot to do with his uncanny ability to be calm at all times. At first it really does come across as douchebaggery, but as the series progresses you start to see that it's just how Chihoon is. He looks just as calm when he's eating dinner with the other students as he looks when he's talking to a serial killer or looking the barrel of said serial killer's gun in the eyes. In fact, he only seems to make a few expressions in the series at best, otherwise just sitting there with either a blank expression of a frown that still doesn't seem to say as much. Even when everyone else freaks out, Chihoon seems to keep a calm head, to a point where any sane person would start to wonder how he even does it.

The answer is fairly simple, at least - it's not that he's just good at hiding his emotions, it's just that he doesn't even feel said emotions to begin with. Chihoon explains later on that the nerves in his left brain are thinner than most, which means that he has problem processing emotions the way normal people do. It's not that he isn't capable of feeling emotions (even Chihoon seems to express shock, surprise or anger under some circumstances, like when his plan to grab the serial killer's gun almost fails) but it's just a fact that it takes quite a large situation or emotional blow to even get any sort of reaction out of him.

Whereas this weird disfunction gives him an advantage in a situation where he has to deal with a serial killer on the loose (which, hey, seems to work out for him in this canon), it also gives Chihoon a severe disadvantage. Muyeol practically points it out during a scene where they both escaped the school for a little bit to try and contact the police and get stuck alone on the snowy mountain. Chihoon questions one of Muyeol's less logical but more emotional decisions that he's making for Eunsang's sake (the only female student out of the group stuck at the school), and Muyeol gets so frustrated with it that he yells at Chihoon that we can't all think with our brains instead of our hearts. Since that's the difference between Chihoon and most people, and it's why he can come off as a prick a lot of the time even when he doesn't necessarily mean to be rude: most people think with a combination of their brains and their hearts, but since Chihoon can't really feel emotions as easily as most people do, he mostly just thinks with his brain. It's why he can say blunt stuff without the kind of tact that most people have and sometimes not be the most thoughtful person around. And, at the same time, it also means that he can't always predict people too well when they make emotional decisions. Even when Muyeol gets worked up at him during that moment, Chihoon doesn't realise the other will snap if he keeps pressing about Eungsang until Muyeol does, pushing Chihoon straight off the cliff - he ends up with a messed up leg because of it. He just seems incredibly unaware to the fact that some people might dislike him because he's so smart or be jealous of him since.. well, he doesn't really understand emotional ways of thinking about people like that.

It has to at least be said though that he does learn from this experience. Somewhat. It's still really hard for Chihoon to think in any emotional way rather than a logical way, but after Muyeol saves him from freezing down on the cliff of that mountain (granted, Muyeol is the one who got him there to begin with, but that aside), he does show a big more emotion. When he's saved, he actually does seem to tear up a little bit as he tells Muyeol that he didn't think the other was going to come back for him, and later on when he has the serial killer's assistant under gunshot while the killer himself is pointing his gun at Muyeol, Chihoon doesn't agree to them both shooting at the same time since it doesn't seem like he wants Muyeol to die right after saving him. (Granted, Chihoon's gun had no bullets in it and he was just bluffing, but it's unlikely he would have made a different decision even with bullets in his gun.) He even tries to tell the killer that his brain can't process complicated emotions like guilt or the like, but through his decision to not get Muyeol shot, it does seem like he's starting to understand emotions like that at least a little bit more.

Even at the end of the series it shows. After the whole ordeal is over (or seems to be, anyway) and they're all in the hospital since Chihoon's leg is still messed up to hell and back, he actually seems to be trying to interact with the others in a more normal social way instead of being all business, asking in his own awkward near-emotionless way if he can feel the bump on Muyeol's head since he's never felt a bump before. With a cute near-emotionless awkward look on his face, on top of it. It's even so surprising to the others that Chihoon of all people would try to socialize that they fall quiet for a moment, but start laughing and letting him after that.

So even though the whole ordeal was quite traumatizing for everyone involved (Chihoon included, considering they did all agree to throw the killer off the roof of a building and kill him themselves afterwards), it does seem like he's personally learned a thing or two through it. He's still nowhere close to being normal and it's still really hard to get him to emote, but he's at least trying to be somewhat less of a prick through it.

Emphasis on somewhat. It's hard when you don't know that feel, bro.

Abilities: It's not really an "ability", but I still felt it was noteworthy enough to list here: Chihoon is not as easily capable of feeling emotions as other people. It doesn't mean he's incapable of it, since we see him emote in some extreme situations, but thanks to the nerves that process that sort of stuff being thinner in his left brain he just doesn't process emotions as easily. It allows him to keep a cool head in most situations, but it also means that he thinks with his brain rather than his heart.

His true ability, however, would be his intelligence. Even in a school that houses the smartest kids in the nation, Chihoon is at the top of the school - granted, Kang Mireu managed to beat him once in a test, but since the other has never seemed to put as much effort into it after that (preferring to spending his time on bungeejumping off the school.. apparently..) Chihoon is easily considered to be the smartest guy in school. Even when they're trapped by the serial killer he seems to be the one thinking up most of the plans until he's out of commission - probably exactly thanks to a combination of his natural calm and genius-like intelligence.

Alignment: Sosyne. Not as much the anger part as the calm part though. Thanks to his lack of quick emotional responsitivity in his brain, Chihoon has the capability to be calm in any situation at all. He looks the same when he's eating dinner with other people from his school as he does when he's staring down a serial killer. The anger part of the spectrum does have something for him too though, because in the rare instances that he does seem to display emotion, anger (or at least, intense frowning, could just be the eyebrows though) seems to be a big part of it.

Other: nothing!


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample: here and here.


Questions: nope.