Characters / Us, Withering Under The Sun

Character list for Us, Withering Under the Sun.

Main Leads

Jang Woojin

• Adaptational Sexuality: Woojin's sexuality isn't elaborated upon in the original show. Here, he's gay.
• Artists Are Attractive: He pursues a Painting and Drawing degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and, as his first boyfriend said, everything about him is gorgeous.
• Bond Breaker: Is the only member of the Class 2-5 friend group to have not stayed in touch and that absent is greatly felt.
• Broken Bird: Getting outed and bullied traumatized him greatly, leading him to push away all his friends from Hyosan. Also, after his boyfriend becomes as alcoholic, he stops dating for a while because he doesn't want to get hurt again.
• Cigarette of Anxiety: Took up smoking to relieve his stress. And he has a lot to be stressed about.
• Freudian Excuse: Struggles to trust his friends even after they vehemently defended him after he was outed, and cut himself off from everyone in his life in Korea, including his sister who took care of him in place of their parents, but this is out of trauma from the bullying he endured in high school.
• Gayngst: After being outed, he's viciously bullied and forced to leave the country all together. However, he eventually comes to terms with his sexuality and manages to live a happier life in the United States.
• Has a Type: Of his love interests, Ji-sung and Lucas both grow close to him since they share his love of art and baseball. David is also studying art. Additionally, Ji-sung is described as being practical, to-the-point, and logical, like Joon-yeong.
• Hereditary Homosexuality: Both him and Ha-ri are gay.
• The Mourning After: He takes a long break from dating after his relationship with David ends poorly, and when he does get a new boyfriend, Lucas, he tries to take things slowly in fear of getting heartbroken again.
• Never My Fault: A sympathetic example. He doesn't acknowledge that he hurt his friends by leaving and cutting off contact. This resulted in Joonyeong developing abandonment issues and blaming himself for not convincing him to stay. While Woojin definitely missed his friends, the only person he shows remorse about cutting off is his older sister.
• Parental Neglect: Because of his parents' favoritism, he was neglected.
• Remember That You Trust Me: He stops talking to his friends from Hyosan High, self-isolating as a trauma response to the bullying he endured from being outed. However, his friends did stand by him throughout the process and miss him dearly after he leaves. Joonyeong makes the most strides in reaching out and rekindling their friendship. When he receives an invitation to Cheongsan and Onjo's wedding, it's Onjo's letter and the picture of their entire group as high schoolers that makes him realize how much he misses them all.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Thanks to the amount of mistreatment he's endured, both from his parents and from his classmates, he leaves the country altogether and stops contacting any friends he had in Korea, including his older sister. Even after he's agreed to return for the wedding, he wonders if there's any point to trying to salvage his old friendships when he's made friends that don't remind him of one of the worst times of his life.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: After spending years in America, and having gone even longer without speaking to his friends, sans Joon-yeong, he is very aware of how out of place he is among his old friend group.
• Trauma Conga Line: The Fic. Neglected by his parents in favor of his sister, outed as gay to his entire school and bullied or othered by everyone but his closest friends, with even the boy he was seeing abandoning him. He gets hospitalized and put into a coma after a large fall after running from bullies. He decides to leave the country, and the teacher helping him with that suddenly dies. He gets a job to pay for the move, loses his virginity to his co-worker, and the co-worker (who was working to support his family) then loses the job. After finally leaving, Woo-jin cuts himself off from every ally he still had. He experiences racism as an Asian immigrant in America, his first two roommates treat him poorly, and just when things began to look up for him, with him gaining a best friend in Sam and falling for one of his classmates, his boyfriend's mom dies in a racially motivated attack and Woo-jin's forced to break up with him because he develops a drinking problem. Then when he's convinced to return for Cheong-san and On-jo's wedding, he realizes that he no longer fits in with his older friends due to how much time he's spent gone. And also he gets into a fight with a homophobe he comes across on the streets. Jesus Christ...
• The Unfavorite: All his life, he was ignored in favor of his older sister, Hari.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Joonyeong.

Oh Joonyeong

• Badass Bookworm: When he shoves Hong Jisung against the wall in anger, it shows that he's not all brain - he has some brawn, too. This is also shown when he tackles Nayeon.
• Berserk Button: He really, really does not take kindly to the people who contributed to Woo-jin's misery. This includes tackling Nayeon, shoving Jisung, and he quickly grows annoyed when he realizes none of his classmates care about what Nayeon did when she outed him.
• Green-Eyed Monster: When he finds out about Sam, he becomes very jealous of her and feels replaced. This is while thinking Sam is Woojin's girlfriend. When that's cleared up, he's still jealous in realizing that her friendship with him is just that strong.
• Stepford Smiler: Downplayed. He is genuinely happy with Chaewon, but hides just how hurt he is by Woo-jin leaving.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Feels quite guilty over encouraging Woo-jin to take an art class offered by their school, as that's where he met Jisung, the boy he got outed with, which led to him getting bullied and eventually leaving.
• Will They or Won't They?: With Woojin.

Woojin's Family

Jang Dalhoon

• Adults Are Useless: Is unable to stop any of the trauma Woo-jin goes through, inadvertently piles onto it, and fails to communicate with his family.
• Anger Born of Worry: It's mostly his own fault, but he did care about Woo-jin a lot. However, completely without his knowledge, his son is put through hell, all the while being convinced that Dal-hoon (as well as Eun-sook) hates him. He screams at Ha-ri when Woo-jin leaves because from his perspective, this comes out of nowhere. It's his fault that he didn't know, but from his perspective, that's still a scary thing to be blindsided with.
• Awful Wedded Life: His marriage with Eun-sook is strained, and it gets much worse after Woo-jin gets hurt. They start arguing over everything, even in front of their kids, and Dal-hoon starts sleeping on the couch. Word of God admits he is just waiting until his kids are adults before he divorces her.
• Disowned Parent: Woojin has no interest in speaking to either of his parents after he leaves.
• Empty Nest: Most likely his fate after Woojin leaves, as Woo-jin has no interest in contact, he's definitely divorced Eun-sook at this point, and Ha-ri says she hates both their parents.
• Hands-Off Parenting: Knows that Woo-jin mostly does whatever he pleases, seems to have let Eun-sook take care of most of Ha-ri's training, and when he does try to address issues, comes off as not really caring.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Is the only member of his family to not know that Woo-jin is gay. Ha-ri and Woo-jin do not tell him about the picture, though Woo-jin does admit to being bullied. He does not learn about Woo-jin's job, his son taking English classes or the SAT, or Woo-jin sneaking around with boys. He seems genuinely blindsided when Woo-jin leaves for America.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Dal-hoon genuinely loved Eun-sook a lot, and it caused him to turn a blind eye to what she was doing to their kids.
• Not So Stoic: Keeps his composure for most things, but is most emotional when Woo-jin wakes up in the hospital and when Woo-jin leaves for Chicago.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He's described as being cold and unemotional in nearly every mention of him. This makes one of the first impressions the reader gets of him, when him and Ha-ri are screaming at one another over Woo-jin leaving, quite notable and shows how much he does not want to lose his son.
• Parents as People: Loves both his kids more than anything but was emotionally distant and loved his wife enough to be in denial about her abuse of them. When he does realize how bad things have gotten, he tries to help but is helpless in doing so.
• The Stoic: He's generally shown to be iron-fisted and not too emotional with his kids.
• Useless Bystander Parent: Spent years in denial over the fact that Eun-sook did not care for one of their kids and was overly controlling and possessive of the other.

Lee Eunsook

• Abusive Parents: Straight up told Woo-jin that he didn't deserve any of his achievements and scolds any of her friends who give the slightest bit of praise to her son. She also hits him at one point. She also screams at a toddler Ha-ri, and then makes her miserable with all her pressure.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Always resented Woo-jin and saw him as competition for Ha-ri, so by Woo-jin's teen years, he defies her whenever she asks anything of him. Ha-ri also grows to hate her, slapping her for her lack of sympathy for Woo-jin getting hurt.
• Being Evil Sucks: By Eunsook's own admission, it's her own fault that she is so miserable, and knows that she is going to lose her husband and daughter because her entire family hates her so much. She just knows it's too late to change for the better so continues how she always has.
• Because You Can Cope: Since Woo-jin was a healthy baby and Ha-ri wasn't, she saw Ha-ri as needing her more and focused all her energy into her daughter.
• Disowned Parent: Woojin has no interest in speaking to either of his parents after he leaves.
• Driven by Envy: Interesting case. She's envious towards Woo-jin for Ha-ri, though Ha-ri herself feels nothing but love for her brother, and that drives her.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite knowing why her kids hate her, when she slaps Woo-jin she does show resentment over how Ha-ri views the work Eun-sook puts into her success.
• I've Come Too Far: When she hears one of her kids is in the hospital, assumes it's Ha-ri and despite loving her most, is most concerned about her own hard work being wasted.
• My Beloved Smother: Well, not 'beloved' but she was incredibly controlling over Ha-ri.
• Parental Neglect: Beyond providing Woojin the basic necessities, she isn't emotionally present where her son is concerned. She also was passive listener in the argument Hari had with her and Dalhoon.
• Freudian Excuse: The prequel Strangers reveals that Ha-ri's birth traumatized her and she felt she had to be her daughter's defender. She resented how easy everything seemed to come to her younger child and ignored him in favor of forcing her daughter's success.
• No Sympathy: To Woo-jin, even after he is bullied, hospitalized, and traumatized.
• The Resenter: Towards Woo-jin for being born healthy, and for how much Ha-ri loves him.
• Zero-Approval Gambit: Dedicated herself to Ha-ri's success in archery, which ruined her marriage and made her kids hate her.

Jang Hari

• Adaptational Sexuality: Hari's sexuality isn't elaborated upon in the original show. Here, she's lesbian.
• Aloof Archer: A skilled archer who isn't very emotional for the most part. The last part goes out the window whenever Woo-jin is involved.
• Big Sister Instinct: She gets into a huge fight with Dalhoon and Eunsook over Woojin attending university in America, fighting for his right to leave. She generally acts quite motherly with Woojin despite only being a year older than him.
• Cool Big Sis: Really just wants Woo-jin to be happy more than anything.
• Dating What Daddy Hates: Mother example. Eun-sook considers Woo-jin being gay as "ruining his life" and apparently told Ha-ri she couldn't be gay. Yeah... in the adult timeline, she probably isn't happy that her daughter ended up with a woman who is also her super cool manager (a position Eun-sook probably would've wanted for herself).
• Hereditary Homosexuality: Both her and Woo-jin are gay.
• Master Archer: An archery prodigy who, in adulthood, is an Olympic medalist.
• Not So Stoic: When Woo-jin is hurt.
• Promotion to Parent: Implied to be the case as despite only being a year older, she took it upon herself to be his rock when their parents were absent for him. Even as adults Woojin describes her as acting maternally towards him. This is made especially clear when Ha-ri reunites with him after waking up and calls him her 'baby'.
• Rage Breaking Point: Lets Eunsook have it after Woo-jin is hospitalized. It's possible that the screaming match she has with Dal-hoon was also this for her in some part.
• Sickly Child Grew Up Strong: As revealed in Strangers.

Joonyeong's Family

Park Seongmin

• Good Parents: She is a good mother who is understanding and very in-tune with Joonyeong's life. She doesn't need to ask Joonyeong any questions to know how much he's missing Woojin in Chapter 2, and she tries to make him feel better by cooking him his favorite dish, bulgogi.

Oh Soowi

• Children Are Tender-Hearted: She has a lot of love for Joonyeong, her parents, Shin Jeonghoon, and Woojin.

Shin Chaewon

Chicagoans

Sam Kapoor

• Best Friend: To Woo-jin. They're close enough that almost everyone they come across thinks that they're dating.
• Birds of a Feather: With Woo-jin. Both are art majors who are also gay.

David Chu

• Drowning My Sorrows: Becomes an alcoholic to cope with his mother's death.
• Leaving You to Find Myself: Woo-jin breaks up with him because of his drinking problem, deciding he needs time to recover from his grief and pull himself together.

John Glover

Lucas Hernandez

• Birds of a Feather: Like Jisung before him, he bonds with Woojin over a love of art and of baseball.
• The Reliable One: Woo-jin constantly refers to him as being reliable, a welcome change to his difficult life so far.

Class 2-5 Group

Yang Daesu

• Undying Loyalty: To Woojin. He makes it very clear that this loyalty remains even years later.

Lee Cheongsan

Nam Onjo

Yoon Isak

Han Gyeongsu

Seo Hyoryung

• Nice Girl: Is very sweet and gets along with Sam very easily.

Kim Jimin

Choi Namra

• Cigarette of Anxiety: Like Woo-jin, coped with her stress by taking up smoking.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Despite keeping her smoking habit well into adulthood, she seems almost weirded out that Woo-jin's taken up the habit as well. Doesn't stop her from going to buy a pack with him.