Characters / Head over Heels

Characters from the Manhwa.

School Students

Ha Yan

Troubled, but Cute

• Abusive Parents: A flashback in Chapter 25 shows her father treated her like a prisoner and ignored her begging and screaming. He even served her food in a dog bowl.
• Ambiguous Situation: She stops coming to school for a week, and when Soojin asks Mr. Kim about calling her parents, he tells her that she lives alone due to her family life being complicated.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: To Soojin. She pretends to be distressed so she can lure her to a motel and frame her as a slut. Even Woohyun calls her a piece of trash for it.
• Brainy Brunette: Inverted. She has brown hair but is one of the dumbest students.
• Book Dumb: Chapter 26 reveals that she's at the bottom of the class with her GPA. Her average score last year was in her 20s.
• Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship: The loser to Soojin's cool kid.
• Creepy Child: With a Thousand-Yard Stare to boot.
• Cute and Psycho: She was abused as a child by her father and it left tons of scars on her. She never got proper therapy for it and it broke her as a result.
• Defiled Forever: In Chapter 35, after Taemin plants a Forceful Kiss on her, she believes this.
• Deliberately Cute Child: In Chapter 17 she plays up her cuteness to seduce and torture someone
• Friendless Background: Due to her lack of self awareness and creepy tendencies, her classmates were disgusted with her.
  Lee Soojin: I'll be honest. Mr. Kim was worried you didn't have many friends, so he asked me to help. I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to take it the wrong way
• Green-Eyed Monster: She goes as far as to assault Soojin and stalk her in the changing rooms when she suspects she loves Woohyun
• Honey Trap: To an Asshole Victim in Chapter 17.
• Love at First Punch: A rare female example.
• Love Makes You Crazy: She's already a few screws loose, but when it comes to Woohyun she becomes even crazier.
  • Love Makes You Stupid: Though she was already dumb in the first place
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Embarrassing Nickname: Jiwon calls her "Milk girl" after the incident where Woohyun dumped milk on her head
• Ms. Fanservice: Close ups reveal that she's buxom and leggy.
• Nightmare Face: See the Nightmare Fuel page
• Sadist
• Slut-Shaming: Her female classmates spread rumors that she sleeps with men at motels. It didn't help that earlier, at the school trip to Jeju Island, Woohyun left a hickey on her neck
• Self-Harm: After Taemin assaults her she starts slashing herself.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Has eyes for only Woohyun, because of his abuse of her.
• Stalker with a Crush: She video tapes Woohyun at school and reads his notes. She has pictures of Woohyun all over her room and that includes her ceiling.
• Terrible Artist: In Chapter 29, we see that her trees look like Eldritch Abominations.
• Troubled, but Cute: Even her Nightmare Face has a degree of adorableness
• When She Smiles: She looks like Akko from Little Witch Academia when she does.
• Yandere: Went as far as to kidnap and torture a stranger for getting in the way of her and Woohyun, as well as recording his tears because she wanted to appease him.

Suh Woohyun

Jerkass

• Abusive Parents: His mother was physically abusive, told him that she wished she never had him and slapped him multiple times for getting in trouble at school. Unsurprisingly, she lost custody of him. His father didn't care about him and moved to the States with his new wife, leaving him in custody of his uncle.
• Big Damn Kiss: Chapter 29, he kisses Yan as a reward for getting rid of Mr. Kim.
• The Bully: Towards Ha Yan, and anyone who isn't his friend.
• Chick Magnet: In Chapter 16 girls from another school swoon over him
• Childhood Friends: Chapter 2 reveals that he knew Hyuk since elementary school
• Daddy Had a Good Reason for Abandoning You: His father was cheating on his mother with his secretary, and after divorcing her he married her and moved to the USA. He comes back later on, only interested in him as a potential successor for his business.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Jung Jiwon seems to be Ambiguously Bi for him
  • Chapter 33 reveals that Joon-Hyuk was in love with him ever since they were children.
• Girl Posse: Gender-inverted. He's always seen around Jung Jiwon and Jong-Hyuk.
• Happily Adopted: Inverted. Despite being adopted by his wealthy uncle he says that he doesn't want a family.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Has no redeeming qualities.
  • In Chapter 27,when Soojin asks if he cares about Yan, he says that she's a replaceable toy.
• Lonely Rich Kid: Lives with his uncle who's well off, but most of his friends don't like him.
• Manipulative Bastard: He invites Soojin on a date, only to humiliate her and set her up to be attacked by Yan. He even uses Ha Yan as a tool to get rid of Mr. Kim and Soojin.
• Mr. Fanservice: He has a muscular build, as Chapter 12's shower scene shows.
• Parental Favoritism: His cousin claims that her mother, his aunt, is kinder to him than she is to her.
• Rich Boredom: Jiwon and Joon-Hyuk have more fun at his house than he does.
• The Sociopath: Shows barely any concern or emotion at being abused or abusing others, even Joon-Hyuk is disgusted with him at times.

• Walking Shirtless Scene: In Chapter 12
• Token Rich Student
• Trademark Favorite Food: Chocolate milk.
• What Is This Feeling?: He doesn't exactly love Ha Yan, but admits that being around her makes him feel different.

Lee Soojin

Jerk with a Heart of Gold

• Alpha Bitch: Is introduced with her Girl Posse bullying Ha Yan. she later becomes a Lovable Alpha Bitch as she starts becoming a Defrosting Ice Queen towards Ha Yan.
• Broken Tears: In Chapter 28, after she's framed as a slut.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: See above.
• Everyone Has Standards: In Chapter 1, when one of her Girl Posse starts being violent towards Ha Yan, she looks shocked. This is a subtle hint that she's Good All Along.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Subverted. She starts off as an Alpha Bitch but later actually starts looking out for Ha Yan.
• Girl Posse: Always has 3 or 4 girls with her. When they start badmouthing Ha Yan and slut shaming her, she defends her.
• The Mole: Spies on Woohyun and Ha Yan and reports it to Mr. Kim
• Only Sane Woman: She actively makes an effort to help Ha Yan and is horrified at her "crush" on Woohyun.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: To Woohyun in Chapter 27.
  I hate myself for having ever liked you, even for a second...it was useless for me to try to understand your "relationship". Stay away from Ha Yan. You're the one that's ruining her. You're a real psychotic perverted piece of shit.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Ha Yan's tomboy. She even gives her fashion and make up advice.
• When She Smiles: She looks like an angel when she does!

Park Joon-hyuk

Only Sane Man

• A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 33 expands on his character and background with Woohyun.
• Audience Surrogate: He asks Woohyun the questions we've been thinking.
• Childhood Friends: To Woohyun. Chapter 29 reveals that their parents knew each other.
• Closet Key: In Chapter 31, it's revealed that he's gay for Woohyun.
• Forced Out of the Closet: Taemin threatens him with this.
• Gayngst: I'm not sure when it started. At first I thought of him as a good friend. He was merely a close friend. That's all...he was...I don't expect him to accept my feelings. Even I suspected myself of being seriously ill...If I can just look at him from afar. If we can keep being friends just like now...I'm...fine with it. I'm...fine. I'm...fine. Am...I...fine?
• Precision F-Strike: Calls Taemin a motherfucker in Chapter 33.
• Straight Man: To Jiwon's Class Clown.
• Straight Gay: None of the readers saw The Reveal in Chapter 33 that he's homosexual
• Token Good Teammate: Calls out his peers for bullying and actively steps in to stop Jiwon from harassing Ha Yan. He is the only classmate to ever show kindness to her.
• Morality Pet: Woohyun deeply trusts him and isn't afraid to show his dark side for him.

Jung Jiwon

Please God, send me a friend!

• Ambiguously Bi: He has shown attraction to both Ha Yan and Woohyun. When Joon-Hyuk asks if he wants to be all alone with Woohyun he has an Imagine Spot and begins blushing before denying it.
• Book Dumb: On the school trip to Jeju Island, he makes a remark about passing through immigration. Mr. Kim points out that it's a domestic flight so there's no need to go through immigration.
• Class Clown
• Distracted by the Luxury: Once he's at Woohyun's house he exclaims that he admires everything
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Has a porn stash and on the school trip he invites a bunch of girls from another school to his hotel room.
• Hypocrite: He doesn't tell on Joon-Hyuk when they're in trouble because "friends don't snitch", despite earlier blaming Woohyun
• I Just Want to Have Friends: In Chapter 31 he laments over his lack of friendships, and upon seeing a new student, immediately latches himself to him and claims them to be besties.
• Shout-Out: At one point yells out "OBJECTION!" while pointing
• The Friend Nobody Likes: His friends make a group chat without him and miss his talent show performance. They also repeatedly ignore and belittle him. Lampshaded in Chapter 17 when he asks if they really even are his friends.
• The Gadfly: Occasionally pokes fun at Woohyun.

Girl Posse

Lee Soojin's friends

• Academic Alpha Bitch: They're both nasty towards Ha Yan and have the highest grades on the class. Soojin in Chapter 29 scores the highest in everything.
• Beta Bitch: The brown haired girl. She's actually worse than Lee Soojin, being physically violent with Yan.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Subverted, instead of a redhead, one of the girls hair is light blue
  • Played straight in Chapter 26, when a new girl with reddish brown odango hair appears in the clique.
• Boyish Short Hair: The brown haired girl resembles Ms Choi.
• Girlish Pigtails: The blue haired girl.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In Chapter 34 they fall for Taemin, and get angry when he expresses affection to Ha Yan.
• No Name Given: Averted in Chapter 28, when their names are revealed to be Yerim and Jinhee.
• Satellite Character: Their only role in the story is to characterize Soojin.
• Slut-Shaming: They regularly do this to Ha Yan, and to Soojin after she's framed. However later they make amends with her after Mr. Kim said that Soojin was unwilling.

Students from the other schools

Misogynist boy

That's alcohol on his face, not what you think it is

• Asshole Victim: He's a misogynistic pervert and deliberately preys on weak women because he knows that they have a difficult time saying no. He may even have intended to rape Ha Yan by getting her drunk.
• Bound and Gagged: It's not a pretty sight. Ha Yan does this to him when she believes it's his fault Woohyun wouldn't give her attention.
• Shout-Out: Resembles Oh Sangwoo from Killing Stalking. Given that both Killing Stalking and Head Over Heels are published by Lezhin comics, this most likely wasn't a coincidence.
  • He's actually an inversion of Sangwoo if one thinks about it - Sangwoo is a serial killer who kidnaps people and tortures and kills them, whereas he's an Asshole Victim of the deranged Ha Yan himself.
• Tears of Fear: When Ha Yan tortures and abuses him.
• Too Dumb to Live: While he's tied up, he swears at the person who did it and calls her a bitch. He gets dragged for that.

Nam Taemin

• Ambiguous Situation: He knows Ha Yan because he went to the same school as her, and he's also aware of her Cute and Psycho side. In Chapter 19, after misogynistic boy confronts him about her, he says that she's someone who he's pretty fond of.
• Best Served Cold: Waits years to get revenge on Woohyun.
• Chick Magnet: Attracts a lot of the female cast.
• Childhood Friends: With Woohyun, or so he thought.
• Evil Redhead: A manipulative bastard with ginger hair.
• Jerkass: An unpleasant person who antagonizes his former classmates and nonconsensually kisses Ha Yan.
• Manipulative Bastard: He took advantage of his classmate's lustful nature and told him to go after Ha Yan, knowing that Ha Yan would abuse him.
  • In Chapter 42, he sets up Ha Yan in a way so that Woohyun dumps her.
• The Rival: To Woohyun
• Sadist: He abuses Ha Yan and Joon-Hyuk on a regular basis.
• Poltically Incorrect Villain: In Chapter 31 he calls Park Joon-Hyuk a "gay son of a bitch" and threatens to out him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Drags Ha Yan by her hair in Chapter 34

Taemin's friend

• Ambiguously Bi: Has a crush on Taemin, but when Ha Yan threatens her with a knife she blushes
• Combat Sadomasochist: Chapter 35. She gets turned on when Ha Yan intends to attack her.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: She isn't his girlfriend but acts like she is. When Ha Yan is at the door for revenge she offers to take care of it

Teachers

Mr. Kim

• Abuse Mistake: Ha Yan is instructed by Woohyun to get rid of Lee Soojin and Mr. Kim. So in Chapter 27, she lures them into a motel room and frames him as a pedophile who was sleeping with Soojin.
• Adults Are Useless: Zigzagged. he's secretly aware of the bullying and that Ha Yan isn't normal and uses Lee as a mole to investigate.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He wants the best for his students and supports them in any conflicts.

Ms Lee

It must be hard having a lot of troublemakers in your class

• Ambiguous Situation: About Yan's past. —>Mrs. Lee: Anyway, I feel bad about Ha Yan. Everyone knows about the situation, but they're keeping it under wraps.
• Luminescent Blush: Around Mr. Kim, a lot.
• The Pollyanna: In Chapter 13 she tells Mr. Kim to not be hard on himself because he's trying his best.
• Secret-Keeper: She's apparently aware of Ha Yan's past and Mr. Kim's ulterior motives

Parents and family

Woohyun's father

You seem to be under the impression that you can do whatever you want, just cause you've grown a bit. But I've got you in the palm of my hand

• Abusive Parents: He doesn't give a damn about his son unless he useful to him for ulterior motives.
• Parental Abandonment: Left Woohyun to be raised by his uncle
• Parental Neglect: He was more interested in his business than the welfare of his son. When he was being hit by his mother he was only interested in how it would disadvantage her legally.
• Straw Misogynist: Doesn't want his daughter, Suh Eun-Hye, to inherit his business because she's a woman.
• Useless Bystander Parent: In the flashbacks of Chapter 23,he barely lifted a finger against his wife's abuse.

Woohyun's mother

• Abusive Parents: Was violent to her son for getting into fights at school
• Resentful Guardian: She admitted that she never wanted Woohyun.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Hit Woohyun due to the Family Resemblance he had to his father

Ms Choi

• Culture Equals Costume: Wears a hanbok
• Parental Instinct: Was horrified when Woohyun's biological mother beat him
• Subordinate Excuse: She's formerly Mr. Suh's secretary but has feelings with him, and becomes his mistress.
• Wicked Stepmother: Inverted. Despite being his stepmother, she cares about Woohyun more than his biological mother ever did.

Suh Eun-Hye

• The Unfavorite: Her father doesn't consider her important because she's a girl

Suh Jin-Hyuk

Don't keep disappointing me.

Woohyun's uncle

• Big Fancy House
• Family Eye Resemblance: He looks a lot like his daughter and brother.
• Non-Idle Rich: He debuts in Chapter 3 as a company director irritated at Woohyun's bad behavior.

Woohyun's Aunt

Feel free to come over whenever

• Good Parents: Is concerned about Woohyun's welfare
• Spoiled Sweet: The kindest member of Woohyun's family.
• Mum That Looks Like A Sister

Woohyun's cousin

Mom, you always favor Woohyun oppa

• The Unfavorite: Claims that she is this to Woohyun. However Woohyun's aunt says that she just wants her to study more and get into a good college, and then pinches her cheeks.
• Family Eye Resemblance: Too Woohyun and her mother

Ha Yan's father

Make sure you clear your plate. And no spilling

• Abusive Parents: He locked her up in a cage and treated her like an animal.