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Character sheet for Dr. Frost.

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Psychologists

    Dr. Frost 

Dr. Frost

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/706fdf8e_9b25_4147_b815_41f2c85fed36.jpeg

He is the main character, a counseling psychologist who cannot empathize with others, yet can solve cases few others can.


  • Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Well, not affectionate, exactly, but it is a sign that Frost may be improving somewhat when he gives Seonga one of these after a case.
  • Anti-Hero: Being a Sherlock Homage, this is a given.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: He seems to be fond of asking these.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: Frost usually uses a Sherlock Scan or two on his patients to analyze them.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Happens surprisingly often. Such as when he stops Seokjoon Nam from accidentally slashing his throat, and when he and Seonga stop Jeonghyun from committing suicide.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: He did this often in the earlier chapters.
    Seonga: This isn't a movie!
    Frost: It's a comic, isn't it...
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Frost is a far cry from a conventional counselor. First off is his lack of empathy, but also the fact that he employs...unusual tactics, such as breaking and entering into his client's house, or pretending to be another client's math tutor.
  • Character Development: He starts off as an arrogant,Insufferable Genius with a a serious Lack of Empathy and emotions. While he never truly grows out of those traits, he is shown to care for certain people in his own way, and he becomes more and more expressive, displaying stronger emotions.
  • Clueless Chick-Magnet: Is somehow unaware of Yoon’s crush on him, Song’s past feelings for him, and Seol’s crush.
  • Consummate Liar: How he often gets information out of people.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He is unintentionally this.
  • Defective Detective: While it's clear that his inability to emphasize with others can help solve cases by being more objective, it's shown that it also places him into much more trouble than it does help.
  • Defrosting Ice King: Starts off cold (no pun intended), but begins to display stronger emotions as the series goes on, which does not go unnoticed by other characters.
  • Disability Superpower: Deconstructed. While Frost's lack of empathy makes him more objective and able to solve cases with more accuracy, the downsides of his condition are shown far more than the positives.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: A dark example. In "Merry Christmas, Dr. Frost," he gets drunk and one of his dreams is of a moment in the future. We see a bigger Pavlov, a Seonga with short hair who doesn't seem pleased to see him, and the information that he isn't a professor anymore. And they're in a graveyard.
  • Establishing Character Moment: In his first appearance, he objectively and coldly psychoanalyzes a man’s relationship status at a bar using both the man's body language, and his date's.
  • Foil: To Seonga. He is an older, experienced, Sherlock Homage psychologist who is objective, logical, and makes fast deductions. However, he’s also cold, cannot understand empathy, and often alienates people. She is a young, inexperienced student who is majoring in psychology. She is also over-emotional, can be illogical, and gets in over her head. But she’s kind, people smart, and understands affection and empathy.
    • Also to Moon. Frost can’t feel empathy, but he tries to understand compassion and affection. He rarely smiles, and even then his smiles are not quite smiles. People don’t tend to like him much. Moon appears kind, sympathetic, charming, and well liked. But he also lacks empathy, and manipulates others for the sake of his experiments. He also doesn’t hesitate to hurt people, even going to far as to murder, whether psychologically or physically. Even their appearances are opposites: Frost has curly white hair with thin red eyes, and no glasses. Moon has straight dark hair, wide gray eyes, and glasses.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: He doesn't die, but after Jeonghyun's suicide after receiving treatment from Seon, Frost volunteers to resign from Yonggang University instead of her.
  • Hero with Bad Publicity: Downplayed, but Song calling him a murderer after Seol’s death hasn’t done him much good, but it doesn’t bother him and doesn’t harm him too badly.
  • Hot Teacher: A lot of the female students certainly think so.
  • Ice King: Hey, with a nickname like Dr. Frost, this is to be expected.
  • Insufferable Genius: His Lack of Empathy, arrogant remarks, and cold demeanor definitely rub people the wrong way, although there is no doubt that he is a genius.
  • Intelligence Equals Isolation: Well, it's not the only reason why people tend to dislike and avoid him, but it's certainly a major factor.
  • Lack of Empathy: Because of his frontal lobe damage. According to one of his old colleagues caused the death of one of his first patients and made him a pariah in the medical community. Unusually for a Sherlock Homage protagonist his lack of empathy doesn't translate into abuse towards his assistant (other than making her pretend to like a patient so he can break into his apartment) or his patients, although doing an unwanted Sherlock Scan or stopping a high school girl's anxiety attack by springing at her and clamping his hand over her mouth is unsettling. Frost's lack of empathy even has an organic, explained source: when he was a child he suffered a traumatic brain injury (he later acquires a similarly injured puppy, claiming he's only keeping him for study).
  • Like a Son to Me: Is this to Chun.
  • Manipulative Bastard: While many of his plans to help clients are also the plans of a chessmaster, they usually do have shades of this as well. Often, they’re both ingenious and manipulative at the same time.
  • Meaningful Rename: He chose the nickname of Dr. Frost himself. His real name is Nambong Baek.
  • No Social Skills: Because of his Lack of Empathy.
  • Oblivious to Love: He can never tell when someone has feelings for him.
  • Odd Couple: Although they're not a couple and while the word "friendship" may be pushing it, by the end of season 2, it’s obvious that Yoon has a crush on Frost, and Frost at least genuinely cares for her in a way.
  • Older Than He Looks: Seonga is shocked to learn that he's thirty-five. It gets promptly lampshaded by another character who mentions that he still looks like he’s in his twenties.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Whenever he shows some sort of strong emotion, you know it's serious.
  • Prematurely Grey-Haired: Frost's hair is completely white, despite only being in his thirties. It's all but stated he got it through some sort of trauma and/or accident. Unlike most examples, it’s considered unusual and pointed out on numerous occasions.
  • The Profiler: He worked for the police as one for a while, although we don't know any details. He still uses these skills as a counselor.
  • Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Is the Rude Hero to Seonga's Nice Sidekick.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Is the Savvy Guy to Seonga's Energetic Girl.
  • Sherlock Homage: Sherlock Scan? Check. Genius? Check. Bad social skills. Check. Lightning speed deductions! Check. A smart, plucky assistant? Check. A Greater-Scope Villain who is a direct parallel to him? Check.
  • Sherlock Scan: Does these on a regular basis.
  • Toxic Friend Influence: What Chun worries is Frost's influence on Seonga. Frost himself seems to be aware of the possibility as well, as he encourages Seonga to study abroad.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Receives two of these in "Happy Birthday Dr. Frost."
    • One is a scarf that Seonga gives him before she leaves to study abroad.
    • The second isn’t a physical gift, but it’s his being able to cry after Chun dies.
  • Unable to Cry: Until Chun’s death.
  • What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: He wants to understand empathy and compassion, affection and love.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: While not as extreme as many examples, his white hair, Lack of Empathy and his Ice King status, make him this.

    Seonga Yoon 

Seonga Yoon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2d7ab393_add6_4a40_b38b_b0bd05c223b6.jpeg

She is a psychology major and a T.A for the counseling center. She helps Frost solve cases, and is more by-the-book.


  • All-Loving Hero: She’s the happiest and most cheerful of all the characters. She also doesn’t hold grudges and is forgiving.
  • Anger Born of Worry: While mild, she's still shown to be irritated with Frost after he gets his hand cut open after saving the actor.
  • Audience Surrogate: She asks the questions the readers tend to have.
  • Boring, but Practical: She objects to Frost doing impractical things to help clients, like breaking and entering into their homes.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Has a crush on Frost that grows more and more obvious, but is never stated.
  • Character Development: She starts as an over emotional, inexperienced psychology major who overreacts about everything. But she becomes a more serious student, and starts to be more logical while retaining a kind, emotional heart.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Played for laughs, but when she sees a shirtless Frost in a Psychologist in the Yellow Room episode, she is noticeably distracted.
  • Establishing Character Moment: In her first scene with Frost, she's shown to be passionate about psychology, but also still learning and an amateur. It also shows that she isn’t afraid to stand up to Frost at times.
  • Everyone Can See It: Seon seems to be aware of Seonga’s crush on Frost, which may be one of the reasons she keeps telling her not to work with him. It's also implied Chun knows, and why he is concerned about Frost possibly having a negative impact on her.
  • Foil: To Frost. He is an older, experienced, Sherlock Homage psychologist who is objective, logical, and makes fast deductions. However, he’s also cold, cannot understand empathy, and often alienates people. She is a young, inexperienced student who is majoring in psychology. She is also over-emotional, can be illogical, and gets in over her head. But she’s kind, people smart, and understands affection and empathy.
    • Also quite possibly to Song. Both women nearly idolized Frost at times in their lives, and had romantic feelings towards him. But unlike Song, who grew to hate him after she heard him call her sister and her sister's suicide little more than an experiment, Yoon, despite seeing him do some very questionable things, never loses her faith that he can change for the better.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: In a literal sense, she's the sweetest and purest main character, but is a far cry from dumb. But she does tend to be underestimated by others for her bubbly, sweet, and feminine demeanor.
  • Grew a Spine: The first impression she gives is that she will be rather weak. But even in the first chapter, she stands up to Frost’s rude behavior. But she also develops as a psychologist and begins to make more decisions on her own, and reprimands Frost when he needs it.
  • Hint Dropping: She tries to subtly ask Frost to the movies with her. He doesn't get it.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: Has blue eyes and is very innocent.
  • Last-Name Basis: With Frost. He calls her Assistant Yoon, but she's Seonga to everyone else. He does call her by her first name at least once...behind her back.
  • Licked by the Dog: Is one of the few characters to get a kiss from Pavlov.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Averted. She has a variety of outfits throughout the series.
  • Luminescent Blush: A sign of her feelings for Frost.
  • Morality Pet: Seon says that she thinks Seonga is a reason, if not entirely responsible, for Frost becoming more human.
  • Naive But Skilled: She’s still a student, so her counseling skills aren’t exactly the best, as she tends to either overlook things or be too by the book, and she needs a lot of help. However, it's made clear she has a lot of intelligence and potential. As the series goes on, we see her develop and begin the process of becoming a great counselor.
  • Nice Girl: Is one of the nicest characters in the series.
  • Not What It Looks Like: When Seon sees her and Frost standing outside a DVD room, she rushes after her, exclaiming this trope.
  • Odd Couple: Although they're not a couple and while the term “friendship” may be pushing it, has this with Frost.
  • Positive Friend Influence: Even Song points out that ever since Frost came to the counseling center, he's become more human, and almost entirely thanks to Seonga.
  • Rude Hero, Nice Sidekick: Is the Nice Sidekick to Frost's Rude Hero.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Is the Energetic Girl to Frost's Savvy Guy.
  • Shipper on Deck: For Jaeon and Nayoung.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Is her first name spelled Seonga, Seong-Ah, or Seung-Ah? It depends on which translation you read.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Downplayed, but she gives a pink scarf to Frost before she leaves to study abroad.
  • Tsundere: Type B. She’s very sweet in general, but when Frost displays his usual lack of tact towards others she’s fast to call him out and reprimand him.
  • The Watson: Is this to Frost’s Sherlock Homage.

    Sangwon Chun 

Sangwon Chun

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/54a8b8c3_243f_4d41_8720_de56bc812210.jpeg

He was Frost’s doctor as a child, and eventually become his mentor and taught him all about psychology.


  • Benevolent Boss: He's the head of the psychology department, and treats all the professors well.
  • Cool Old Guy: He is a very popular teacher and is middle-aged.
  • Cool Teacher: His classes are very popular and usually have a lot of students.
  • Happily Married: It is shown in “Merry Christmas Dr. Frost” that he has a loving marriage with his wife and a good relationship with his son.
  • Like a Son to Me: He has taken care of Frost since he was a child, and clearly thinks of him as this.
  • Mentor Archetype: Taught Frost almost all he knows about psychology.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard: He gets killed by Moon after confronting him about his connection to the suicides.
  • Parental Substitute: To Frost.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: To Moon.
  • Spell My Name With An S: Is his last name Chun or Cheon?
  • Team Dad: He is the oldest of the recurring characters, and is loved by most of them.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Chun apparently doesn't realize he's in a crime drama when he meets up with Moon alone to ask him about his experiments without telling anybody. He even gets back in his car after Moon makes a thinly veiled threat.

    Seon Song 

Seon Song

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6e57f792_3953_4073_856c_5292c925bf3b.jpeg

She used to be partners with Frost, until something happened. She now hates him and accuses him of being a murderer.


  • Berserk Button: Frost in general seems to be this for her.
  • Brainy Brunette: She has brown hair and is very intelligent.
  • Break the Cutie: What her sister, Seol’s, accidental suicide did to her.
  • Broken Pedestal: She used to not only have a crush on Frost, but she respected him as a counselor. After Seol’s death and hearing him call her little more than an experiment she hates him.
  • Cool Big Sis: She plays this part to Seonga, despite not being related. She was this to her actual sister, Seol.
  • Cool Teacher: Is also a popular teacher.
  • Curtains Match the Window: Sometimes. Sometimes her eyes are gray-blue, other times they’re the same brown as her hair.
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: After Seol's suicide she has this look for a short time.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: She cuts her hair after she sees her sister Seol begin to get closer to Frost. Because of Seol’s borderline personality disorder, she’s seen her sister “steal away” guys she likes before. It's meant to show that she's taking things into her own hands and won't tolerate Seol's behavior any more.
  • Heroic BSoD: Has this after she hears Frost call Seol, her sister and his first patient who had just committed suicide, little more then an experiment.
  • It's All My Fault: It’s revealed that this is how Seon feels about her sister Seoul’s suicide, and that her blaming Frost is a defense mechanism.
  • Light Feminine Dark Feminine: Is the light feminine to her sister Seol's dark feminine.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: With her younger sister Seol.
  • Poor Communication Kills: If only Seol had been able to get a hold of Seon in time...
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's sweet towards Seonga, seems like a good teacher, and can't even quite resist Pavlov's cuteness. But bring up Frost, and, well...
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Even ten years after her sister’s death her anger towards Frost hasn’t lessened.
  • To Be Lawful or Good: When she has to choose whether she should give her patients' files to the police for her safety after she gets threatening letters and her room trashed, by an old patient.

    Seonghyun Moon Warning: Major Spoilers 

Seonghyun Moon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2c5df677_2f11_4fc3_9989_6247476a8dc1.jpeg

Frost met him as a child and when Moon was in college. He influenced Frost's thinking, especially with the saying, "People are basically the same."


  • The Bad Guy Wins: As it is on hiatus, the ending of season two is this. Chun is dead at his hands, and no one can prove he's had anything to do with Jeonghyun's suicide. To add insult to injury, due to his actions, he indirectly influences Seonga's decision to study abroad, leaving Frost entirely alone, his future a mystery.
  • Beneath the Mask: He appears to be a kind, genius psychologist. But he behaves more like a sociopath.
  • Beneath Suspicion: His appearance would never make you think he was a murderer.
  • Big Bad: He is responsible for the suicides of his patients, and everything that goes wrong in Frost’s life.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Was a major influence on Frost, and is an influential and well respected man in general. Sadly, he is also a likely sociopath.
  • Break Them by Talking: What he does best.
  • False Friend: To Frost, Chun, and Song.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He seems happy, kind, and someone to confide in. The disturbing thing is that he rarely loses his smile, even while talking about suicide as though it's a game.
  • Foil: To Frost. Moon appears kind, sympathetic, charming, and well liked. He is also an influential presence in the psychology community. But he also lacks empathy, and manipulates others for the sake of his experiments. He also doesn’t hesitate to hurt people, even going so far as to murder, whether psychologically or physically. Frost can’t feel empathy, but tries to understand compassion and affection. He rarely smiles, and even then his smiles are not quite smiles. People don’t tend to like him much. Even their appearances are opposites: Frost has curly white hair with thin red eyes, and no glasses. Moon has straight dark hair, wide gray eyes, and glasses.
  • Good Doc, Bad Doc: Fulfills the bad doc to Frost's, Chun's, and Song's good doc.
  • Kick the Dog: Anything he does. He not only allows a girl to commit suicide without doing anything, he treats it like a game, trying to get Frost to find out who it is. And then he breaks her brother, getting him to kill himself after he finally found hope again.
  • Knight of Cerebus: The series becomes considerably darker once he's introduced.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Is able to talk several people into committing suicide, including some unnamed homeless people, and Jeonghyun Kim. He is also able to manipulate people in general into thinking of him as normal.
  • Psycho Psychologist: How else can you describe a psychologist who can talk so many people into committing suicide?
  • Villain with Good Publicity: He’s a well renowned and respected psychologist. He even has fans.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's incredibly difficult to talk about him without revealing that he's the main antagonist.

Other characters

    Pavlov 

Pavlov

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/a718ad34_0897_4e94_b33c_3dcaef3fe9cf.jpeg

A puppy that Frost and Seonga saved after being shot with a nail gun. He has similar issues to Frost.

  • Canine Companion: To Frost and Seonga.
  • Cuteness Proximity: To everyone. No one can resist his cuteness, not even Seon.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: He's surprisingly this. When Seonga takes him outside for a bit, he surprises her by barking for seemingly no reason. As it turns out, there’s a suspicious figure in the shadows…
  • Pet's Homage Name: Is named after Pavlov, as in, the man who created the famous Pavlov's dogs experiment.
  • Uncatty Resemblance: He and Frost look very similar, right down to white hair (or fur, in Pavlov's case), similar bangs, and even scars in the same place on their foreheads.
  • Team Pet: Is this to the psychologists in the counseling center.

     Bartender B 

B

A young man who works at Bar Mirror, and has a crush on Seonga.

  • Hopeless Suitor: Sadly for him, Seonga isn't interested in him. He eventually realizes this, but still retains his crush.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: In one of the "Psychologist in the Yellow Room" episodes, it appears he was discovered by a manager and could go into showbiz. He's last seen still working at the bar in the "Persona" arc, however, so it's unknown if anything became of this.

Patients

    Jeonghyuk Oh 

Jeonghyuk Oh

Frost's first patient, a man who came into Bar Mirror one night, and eventually came in for counseling.


  • Abusive Parents: His mother was very strict and controlling, which led to his contradictory desires to be noticed and loved, but also to distance himself from her.
  • Casanova Wannabe: He's dated 17 women, and only the first one lasted for a while. This is why he first goes to see Frost.
  • Freudian Excuse: Less an excuse, and more of an explanation and diagnosis. His mother was incredibly controlling when he was young, which led to him developing no sense of self and a Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
  • The Narcissist: It appears he has an Open-and-Shut Case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Of course, there's more than meets the eye.

    Nari Choi 

Nari Choi

A girl Seonga used to tutor. She has lately been either skipping school, or leaving later in the day to go.


  • Bespectacled Cutie: She's a cute girl, and partially because of her glasses.
  • Cute Bookworm: She has a very cute personality, and her favorite classes are literature and history.
  • Vertigo Effect: Has one of these when she has one of her panic attacks at the police station.

     Jaeon Yeon 

Jaeon Yeon

A classmate of Seonga's who has a mild social anxiety disorder, and who becomes her first case.


  • Hopeless Suitor: How he regards his feelings for Nayoung, due to his anxiety. He's wrong.
  • It's All About Me: In a sad way. Because of his disorder, he constantly worries about people talking behind his back and teasing him.

     Sihyun Park 

Sihyun Park

A friend of Seonga's who has had every single romantic relationship turn out very badly.


  • Abusive Parents: What they think her father is. It turns out her birth mother abused her, and her father divorced her when he found out.
  • Extreme Doormat: She has dependent personality disorder, which causes her to be nearly unable to make any decisions on her own.

     Anna Jang 

Anna

A teen idol singer who was a part of the girl group The Cubic Girls and is now a solo artist.


  • Ascended Extra: It seemed as though she would only be in "The Desires of Others," but she plays a prominent role in "Persona" and makes an appearance in "Insomnia."
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: She used to wear her hair in Girlish Pigtails, but after being diagnosed with a delusional disorder and getting help, as well as pursuing a career as an actress, she wears her hair loose to symbolize her growing maturity.
  • Girlish Pigtails: When we first meet her, she usually has her hair in pigtails to signify her youthfulness.
  • Teen Idol: She was a member of the girl group, The Cubic Girls, but after Sena's death, has become a solo artist.

     Seol Song Warning: Major Spoilers 

Seol Song

Seon's younger sister who had borderline personality disorder. She was Frost's first patient.


  • Boyish Short Hair: Subverted. Despite the short hair, she was very, very feminine.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: Due to her borderline personality disorder, she's like this with any friends she makes or any of her boyfriends. However, she's a platonic version with Seon; this is why she's always stolen any boys who were interested in her sister away; she doesn't want them, she wants Seon's attention.
  • Driven to Suicide: After overhearing Seon call her a freak, she attempts a false suicide attempt. However, she wasn't able to get a hold of her and ends up dying for real.
  • Mood-Swinger: She had drastic mood swings due to her disorder.
  • Poor Communication Kills: Her suicide was meant to be a false one, but as she couldn't get a hold of Seon, she overdoses.
  • Posthumous Character: By the time the story starts, it's been ten years since her death.
  • Self-Harm: She had a history of this.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's next to impossible to discuss her without explaining how and why she's the reason Seon hates Frost so much.

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