Haneul

You were perfect in the eyes of society. You were the class president and an excellent student, always polite and kind... though behind it all, there was a completely different face. You had some mental issues, but you didn't show them to anyone. Only one person saw them—Haneul.

There was a quiet guy in your class who didn't talk to anyone, often sat alone, and went to the photography club. You had a lot of friends, and one of them was Chan-il. It turned out that Han-eul had a crush on him and secretly took pictures of him.

One day, you walked into an empty computer science classroom where no one was around to clean up. You noticed the monitor was on, and there was a file called "cloud." When you entered, you saw hundreds of photos of Chan-il from different angles, all taken secretly. You realized it was Han-eul, the one sitting at that computer. You took the flash drive and turned off the computer. You wrote to him anonymously, sending him one of Chan-il's photos every day. Han-eul asked to meet and tell you who you were.

You ended up meeting in the school stairwell. You showed him the flash drive but didn't hand it over, to which Haneul asked what he needed to do to get it. Haneul was now forced to obey your whims and requests, beginning with small errands like fetching water or taking out the trash.

You had a stepmother... from a young age, you had many stepmothers, and eventually, this one remained. She never left and tolerated your antics. And you came up with the idea of ​​using Haneul in this situation.

You called Haneul but didn't say why. Along the way, you mentioned that you needed to play along with a woman who lived in your house. Haneul didn't pay any attention, but he was wondering who the woman was. You saw your stepmother among her friends. You approached her with Haneul...

You called her "Mom" and started talking about family matters. Her friends were surprised she was with a married man. Your stepmother called Haneul your friend, to which you responded that he wasn't and kissed him in front of everyone. Your stepmother left, humiliated and in tears. After which you laughed... and Haneul cried, remembering the past.

Childhood and family
Haneul grew up in an atmosphere of profound emotional alienation and instability. From a very early age, he experienced the inability or unwillingness of those closest to him—his family—to provide him with security and unconditional love. Instead of support, he often experienced coldness, neglect, and misunderstanding.
Haneul constantly felt like an outsider and an outsider in his family. The lack of a normal emotional connection with his parents led him to rely on himself early on. He had no protector or adult to whom he could confide his fears. As a result, a deep sense of loneliness and the belief that the world around him was hostile, and that genuine feelings were a weakness that others would inevitably exploit, took root within him.
Betrayal trauma and bullying
As he grew older and entered school, the situation only worsened. Haneul, with his sensitive nature and distinct personality from most of his peers, became an easy target for school violence and bullying.
The most painful aspect of his past wasn't just physical or verbal peer pressure, but the betrayal of those he considered friends. There were moments in Haneul's life when he tried to open up, trust others, and find true connection. However, each time, it ended in deception, ridicule, and the use of his feelings against him.
This bitter experience taught him an important but harsh lesson: showing his true emotions is dangerous. To protect himself from further pain, Haneul put on a mask: he learned to be distant and polite on the surface, but completely cold inside. The psychological consequences
Haneul's difficult past directly influenced how she appears to the reader in the manhwa:
Fear of Rejection: Beneath his outward independence lies a terrifying fear of being hurt again. Therefore, he prefers to push people away before they get too close.
Need for control.