This is the short character sheet for Extracurricular. Page is still under construction.
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Main Characters
General Tropes
- Dysfunction Junction: They are all misguided teenagers who have visible emotional or psychological issues. There's Min-hee seeking approval from her boyfriend and denying having PTSD, and Ki-tae who's unnaturally coldhearted and revels in tormenting others. Then there's Ji-soo who was abandoned by his parents and Gyu-ri whose family controls her life and choices and has tried to commit suicide before... Yeah, everyone is perfectly fine here.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni:
- Ji-soo and Gyu-ri. Ji-soo is reserved, easily flustered, and plain-looking, whereas Gyu-ri is assertive, extroverted, and attractive.
- Gyu-ri and Min-hee have such a dynamic, as well. Unlike Min-hee, Gyu-ri is confident, shrewd, and tomboyish. Min-hee, on the other hand, is insecure, not particularly interested in studying, and likes girly accessories and smoking.
- There Are No Therapists: An interesting case — all the young characters desperately need help and guidance in any form, but they'd never admit to the psychological issues they have like Min-hee who got defensive when Wang-chul implied she has PTSD and clearly wants to quit sex work.
- Troubled Teen: Each of them (with the exception of Ki-tae whose background and home situation are never explored, thus lacking a Freudian Excuse regarding his problematic behavior) has to deal with a lot:
- Min-hee worked as a hooker to make money to impress her boyfriend (who didn't know) and look cool to her friends then an experience with a creepy client leaves her traumatized and scared of continuing this kind of job.
- Gyu-ri has domineering, wealthy parents who constantly breathe down her neck on everything to the point where she, as she claims, tried to cut her wrists. She even has to keep her habit of pressing her nails into her skin under check because her mother doesn't like it.
- Ji-soo was abandoned by his mother, and his father only remembers him when he wants to leech off his money. Thus, he works as a pimp in order to earn money.
Oh Ji-soo
Oh Ji-soo
Portrayed by: Kim Dong-hee
"Dreams are expensive. They're even more expensive for a kid without parents. You can't buy it even with hard work."
The protagonist of Extracurricular. He's an introverted and academically gifted high school student, who has a terrible secret. To pay for his university tuition, he provides security services to sex workers against dangerous clients anonymously via an app called Doggo. Ji-soo lives alone in an apartment away from his deadbeat father and has no friends at school. He harbors a crush on his classmate Gyu-ri.- Agonizing Stomach Wound: His fate is left unknown, but he bleeds a lot after Ki-tae stabs him in the stomach and gives up trying to walk or even survive the wound as Gyu-ri cries and refuses to leave him.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Ji-soo lets Wang-Chul work with him because he once saved him from bullies.
- Book Smart: Since Ji-soo aims to enter a prestigious university, he studies really hard and keeps his grades up. This stops being true as his grades start to decline after he loses all his hard-earned money thanks to his father.
- Bully Magnet: Due to his meekness and nerdy looks, Ji-soo is a constant target of bullying.
- Dark Secret: At school, he is a meek, well-behaving model student. Out of school, he secretly works in an illegal prostitution business under the name "Uncle", so no one would know who he is.
- Extreme Doormat: He doesn't really speak out or defend himself against bullying. He even gets nicknamed "the school's loser" by his classmates and Gyu-ri calls him a wimp all the time out of frustration at his powerlessness.
- Friendless Background: Ji-soo starts the series with zero friends except for Wang-chul whom he met in a subway when Wang-chul saved him from a Gang of Bullies.
- The Hero Dies: Played With. The last thing we see of him is the scene where he's lying down while bleeding from his stomach and refusing to go anywhere with Gyu-ri. Afterward, whether he dies for real or manages to go to a hospital is left unclear.
- In-Universe Catharsis: After someone in Ji-soo's class mocks him for getting 48 on an exam and for "acting" all smart when he's just a moron Ji-soo finally retaliates by punching him and letting out a scream then yelling "Fuck! I can't stand this shit".
- The Klutz: Ji-soo is prone to tripping at the worst times, a habit that got him beat up by Ki-tae once. This trait of his disappears as the series progresses, though.
- Non-Action Guy: Although he's the protagonist and he's the one who kickstarts all of this, he isn't that good at fighting or defending himself from any kind of danger due to his passiveness.
- Parental Abandonment: His parents abandoned him when he was young, leaving him to live on his own and provide for himself. His father only visits him when he wants some money from him.
- Tragic Dream: Ji-soo's dream of entering a good college and being able to live a comfortable life financially gets shattered his father steals his hear-earned money and then loses it. This is lampshaded in his monologue about how dreams are expensive and how hard work alone can't buy them.
- Villain Protagonist: Ji-soo is no lawful hero; he perpetrates a grave crime so he can support himself financially. However, he isn't really a criminal as he stops himself from murdering his father when he loses his money and isn't a fan of violence and cruelty.
Bae Gyu-ri
Bae Gyu-ri
Portrayed by: Park Ju-Hyun
"I'll take care of it, okay?"
The deuteragonist of the series. Gyu-ri is an outgoing, scheming, blunt student who comes from a wealthy but controlling family. After taking a peculiar interest in Ji-soo, she manages to force her way into his shady business just to escape her hellish home despite his strong rejection. Gyu-ri has a rocky start with Ji-soo at first, but she quickly grows to like him.- Class Princess: Downplayed in that she isn't particularly kind to anyone, but still qualifies as she's stunning, popular, sociable, and has a successful and well-off family.
- Clingy Jealous Girl:
- She gets noticeably jealous when she sees the cap that Min-hee gave to Ji-soo when Ki-tae didn't like it, interrogating him about why she'd give him a cap and whether she's his ideal type or not.
- Her mood also turns sour that time she talks to him on the phone and hears a woman's voice (Minhee's, again).
- Consummate Liar: She's pretty good at lying and acting to get what she wants or get out of bad situations, such as the time she lied to the school's dean about feeling lonely and suffocated because of her parents' expectations, dramatically sobbing so he'd let her go without investigating into why she set off the school's fire alarm.
- Flipping the Bird: She flips off Tae-woo when he was about to make a suggestive remark about her and Ji-soo being the only ones in the Social Issues Research club but he leaves the sentence unfinished.
- Foil: She's the total opposite of Ji-soo in almost everything. She's financially secure, brave, outspoken, cunning, and popular, all the things he isn't. Their odd relationship bewilders everyone at their school.
- Hates Their Parent: She doesn't stand her stodgy parents and only goes along with what they tell her to do because she'd lose if she made a scene and fought with them. Her teacher Mr. Jin-Woo notes that she becomes sad when talking about them.
- Innocently Insensitive: During their first meeting outside school, she asks him about his mother then laughs out loud when he says that "she left", thinking he was joking then realizes that he was being serious by his awkward, silent reaction.
- It's All About Me: Begins the show as one, where she only thinks of her own interests and treats Ji-soo's life like one big game and doesn't accept anything less than 60% from the profits of their business, even though she's the one who forcefully inserted herself into it. She gets better later on.
- Manipulative Bitch: She has no problem fake crying in front of teachers, lying about dating Ji-soo and making up a random anniversary date, and trying to trick Min-hee into spilling the beans about her part-time job. Ji-soo is always annoyed with her endless schemes.
- Nervous Tics: She sometimes messes with her nails until they bleed when she feels uncomfortable, much to her parents' annoyance.
- One of the Boys: Gyu-ri is a classic example. She has more male friends than females and plays football with them during the recess period. She even gives one of her male friends the middle finger.
- Rich Bitch: She starts off by making insensitive remarks and looking down on Ji-soo for his awkwardness and timid personality. She makes his life hell when she learns about his illegal business and insists on joining but causes him to lose his savings to his dad. She tries to solve this by giving him some money as compensation but he refuses. Though Gyu-ri gets becomes more caring and sympathetic of Ji-soo as the show goes on.
- Tomboy:
- Gyu-ri has many male friends, plays football and baseball aggressively, and manages to scare off the known bully, Ki-tae. She's also capable of flipping Ji-soo upside down in self-defense and isn't afraid of facing criminals alone.
- Gyu-ri can be unashamed and bold sometimes, as she has no problem waving around the dildo deliberately put in Ji-soo's bag at school, while Ji-soo is naturally embarrassed.
- The Unfettered: She'd do anything and go to any lengths just to earn her own money and live away from her parents, even if that would her or Ji-soo in danger.
- Unflinching Walk: A scene where she and Ji-soo drive a car to escape from Dae-yeol and the car ends up getting burned, has Gyu-ri walking solemnly and calmly while Ji-soo is naturally scared.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: It's not extreme, but she becomes enraged when Ki-tae or anyone harms Ji-soo and threatens him, and has defended him from Ki-tae's nasty bullying several times.
Seo Min-hee
Seo Min-hee
Portrayed by: Jung Da-Bin
"You said you liked my money, right?"
The second important female character after Gyu-ri. Min-hee is another unguided, love-depraved teen with lots of unresolved mental and emotional baggage. She engages in sex work to earn enough money to impress her boyfriend, Ki-tae, and get validation from him. Her biggest fear is being alone and unloved, which is why she puts up with her awful boyfriend.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: She has Ki-tae saved on her phone as "My sexy and handsome punk", which is all you need to know about why she would date a selfish thug like him. He's cool, hot, tall, and smokes just like her.
- Birds of a Feather: She and Ki-tae are dating and both are smokers and love going to the Karaoke.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: She has a large bust and Ki-tae admits that's one of the reasons he likes her.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: The reason she tolerates her scummy boyfriend is that she's desperately looking for affection.
- Naughty by Night: She's a normal schoolgirl by day, and a hooker by night. She quits this job early in the series, though.
- Selective Obliviousness: She strongly denies having PTSD and panic attacks regarding a terrible incident with a sex client that almost killed her, even though she obviously can't bring herself to go back to this type of work. Wang-chul sees through her and says it to her face.
- Smoking Is Cool: She's frequently vaping at school in secret, of course, though she's always scared of being caught.
Kwak Ki-tae
Kwak Ki-tae
Portrayed by: Nam Yoon-Soo
"The boss man will run the hell down now!"
Ki-tae is Gyu-ri and Ji-soo's classmate and Min-hee's boyfriend. He is a thug and has many delinquent friends, as well. Ki-tae is violent, immature, and is frequently seen smoking like Min-hee (he smokes cigarettes while she mostly vapes). He spends his time in game or arcade rooms when he isn't bullying someone.
- Bad Guys Play Pool: Ki-tae and his delinquent friends are seen playing billiards in episode four and all three of them are ill-mannered, violent, jerkasses. Especially Ki-tae who gleefully reminiscences the time he bullied and gaslighted a student from 9th grade to the point where he tried to commit suicide.
- The Bully: Ki-tae takes pleasure in making other students suffer and even has a full Gang of Bullies whom he gathers in episode 10 to go destroy Dae-yeol's karaoke club and fight him after he learns that Min-hee's broker works there. In the last episode, he stabs Ji-soo with scissors three times in his apartment.
- Delinquent: His whole image and reputation is this, a thug-like teen with a Gang of Bullies for friends.
- Gaslighting: He admits to playing pranks on his previous bullying targets where he nearly drove someone to suicide by making him doubt himself little by little then when caught by the teachers he'd deny he ever doing such thing. He uses this same technique on Ji-soo then feigns ignorance when Ji-soo asks him if these pranks are his own doing.
- Gold Digger: A modern male version in which he only dates Min-hee because she spends all her money on him and spoils him going as far as being genuinely disappointed when she only gifts him a cap on his birthday.
- The Hedonist: He prioritizes his own needs over other's and has no problem harrassing others for his own enjoyment and desires.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: He takes pride in being a rude, ruthless asshole, though he pretends to be innocent in front of teachers which is how he always gets away scot free with tormenting others at school.
- The Prankster: One of his preferred bullying tactics is pulling pranks like that one time he put a sex toy in Ji-soo's bag.
- Sir Swears Alot: The whole cast swears much more than in your average Korean TV drama, but for him, rare are the scenes where he doesn't use expletives in them.
- Smoking Is Cool: He smokes a lot much more than Minhee and at totally random times, befitting his intimidating aura and personality.
- Teens Are Monsters: He's just a high school student, but he participates in vicious bullying, gaslighting, and puts on the nice, behaving kid act when talking to authority figures like the school's dean and the cop who told him of for smoking at school. He even has no problem with stabbing Ji-soo and leaving him to bleed out in the finale.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: He pretends to be all innocent and nice in front of the teachers so he can get away with misbehaving without them suspecting anything.
Secondary Characters
Lee Wang-chul
Lee Wang-chul
Portrayed by: Choi Min-Soo
- Cool Old Guy: He's old in age but is very good at fighting and handling guys Ji-soo can't deal with alone. Min-hee even says he can be an MMA fighter if he ever gets fired from his job.
- Parental Substitute: He is somewhat like this to Min-hee. At first, she tries to initiate a friendship with him, despite his attempts at pushing her away and lack of response. He still deeply cares for her and her safety, though. He can see through her strong façade, too. She even cries hard when she learns of his death.
- Technologically Blind Elders: Whang-chul starts the series with a flip phone—a cracked one, no less. Ji-soo later makes him get a more modern phone and then an iPad, for the latter he includes an entire instructional manual.
Lee Hae-Kyung
Lee Hae-Kyung
Portrayed by: Kim Yeo-Jin
- Hero Antagonist: She's a good cop who's trying to investigate the mystery surrounding Ji-soo and Min-hee but that means that they'll get in lots of trouble if she discovers the whole truth.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: She's a juvenile officer who's only doing her job as a cop by trying to find out the truth behind Ji-soo who works as a procurer himself.
Jo Jin-Woo
Jo Jin-Woo
Portrayed by: Park Hyuk-Kwon
- "Don't you have dreams, hopes, or anything like that?"
Ji-soo and Gyu-ri's Homeroom teacher. He teaches social studies and is the most prominent adult figure with whom the students interact well.
- Cool Teacher: Mr. Jo has a lenient personality and genuinely cares about his students. He even motivates Ji-soo to socialize, have some fun, and get in trouble once in a while. He persuades Ji-soo into joining his Social Issues Research club, and he's the sole reason Ji-soo actually gets to talk to Gyu-ri.
- Speaking Like Totally Teen: When Gyu-ri brings up the topic of homosexual behaviors at school during their first club session, stating that "being gay isn't a crime", Mr. Jo replies "That's woke." Gyu-ri immediately complains that he sounds so old when he uses such slang.
Jung-Jin
Jung-Jin
Portrayed by: Park Ho-San
Ji-soo's incompetent and irresponsible father.
- Financial Abuse: An extreme example of this, as in episode 2, he steals Ji-soo's entire nest egg. He proceeds to blow almost all of it on cryptocurrency.
