hey y'all! i'm denver [sh/th, cst, 22] and i decided to full-send and join midasfm with phazeβs do jihan, remedyβs seo daon, and ydh soloist noh saetbyeol. but anywaysβ¦ this is jihanβs blog so you can find his career info here, his stats here, a pinterest board for him here & (hopefully) everything you need to know under the cut. as per usual, please like this post if you're interested in plotting & i'll reach out to you asap!
i.
tw for a couple brief mentions of substance abuse & hard drugs + the death of a parent (unrelated to the substance abuse/drugs).
born october 28, 1997. was the first child, followed by a sister (do jihye) roughly two years later.
all things considered, jihan had a nearly perfect childhood. his family struggled with money, but both parents were mature enough not to let the kids know too much about that. they were very easy-going and passionate parentsβthey would not reprimand their children without damn good reason & they would move mountains to see them happy.
became interested in performing very early in life, and thanks to his parents who would do anything for him, he was able to pursue it aggressively. excelled in dance classes. by age 13 he had already decided that he wanted to be an idol. obviously he was made fun of because he was a little lanky ass kid talking about "i'm gonna be an idol!" but he *knew* he could do it, his parents *knew* he could do it, and his sister was already running around telling people he was a trainee before he even had come into contact with any industry insiders. he was loved so much that he was never doubted.
signed to midas music at age fifteen. and the shit going on in those walls blew his mind!
had never really been subjected to true criticism, real competition or... ahem, bullying before so it was hard at first but he was still young enough to be resilient. powered through all the way through the competition show that formed phaze to phazeβs debut, and then he kind of lost his shit and never fully got it back.
struggled to get accustomed to the rush of celebrity life, and it didn't help that phaze exploded onto the scene. there was no easing into it, it was a swan dive. jihan had never really doubted himself before, but something about it all made him start to experience imposter syndrome. eventually, that turned into full-blown depression, and in trying to escape the depression, jihan turned to substances.
this is where it got kind of... um... awful! circa 2019-2020, jihan was showing up to *most* schedules hungover, but occasionally felt a little too down and needed a pick-me-up so he would show up actively on something (usually cocaine or adderall) thinking "no one's going to notice". and most people didn't. but those who did notice that *something* was going on started talking, and there have been steady rumors floating ever since. rumors that still float to this day despite him now being 16 months clean/sober. (3/21/25 update: his clean streak has ended).
started to pull away from anyone and everyone who cared about him. did not want anyone calling him out on his shit, did not want anyone talking like they knew what was best for him, did not want those he loved to see how he was changing. this resulted in the steady loss of most/all of his good friendships and the deterioration of his family bonds. things went from bad to worse, and came to a head in 2023 when his mother (who had been sick for a while, and who jihan hadnβt visited) died. he had been in denial that that was a thing that was going to happen and knowing that she probably died wishing heβd come back home one last time crushed him. he went on the worst bender of his life, which he didnβt think would matter too much as it occurred when he didnβt have shit going on career-wise, but then a threatening post surfaced. someone claiming to have damning footage of him. probably from when he was on that bender. midas music covered it up but obviously he had to feel some kind of consequencesβ¦ and boy, heβs still feeling βem!
has been going through various forms of βtherapyβ ever since, not exactly by choice. will bitch and complain about it but itβs helping.
has had a careful eye kept on him since then as well. is treated like a rookie basically. itβs funny, except it isnβt. everyone else in phaze has gotten to have a solo debut and he canβt until βhis behavior improvesβ :~) except he has a sneaking suspicion that midas musicβs trust in him can never fully be restored, and therefore a solo debut will never come.
is bitter, hates phaze because of it. is it nice to be a part of something successful? yeah. however, jihanβs over it and not sure he can ever get back into it. tends to focus on other things, particularly girl code. has produced & written a decent amount for them since their debut and it mostly fills the void.
ii.
before, jihan was an almost stupidly sweet kid, though somewhat entitled. he knew what he wanted out of life and he knew that heβd get it. this confidence could be annoying, but it was harmless and genuineβhe had never been faced with doubt, so he never learned to doubt himself. simple as that. was pretty friendly in his own offbeat way, typically keeping to himself *but* quick to join someone in the company cafeteria who was sitting alone, eager to help other trainees with their dancing, etc. meant well, always.
obviously, heβsβ¦ not like that anymore. he changed pretty quickly following phazeβs debut, thought it wasnβt exactly obvious since he was pretty quiet to begin with anywayβat first, it just seemed like he was talking even less than usual. and then the temper started. out of nowhere, he was angry about everything and seemed to think that everyone was against him. for years, he would flip between being mean for no reason to acting like everything was peachy (of course, never apologizing for his behavior) and would be pretty much unreachable if he didnβt have somewhere he needed to be. as mentioned previously, lost almost all of his friends in this timeframe.
but if weβre analyzing only present-day (2025!) jihan, heβs mellowed out a lot in the past ~year. has come to terms with a lot of the things that he was struggling with and is starting to come to terms with the rest of it. is still a piece of shit, just in less obvious ways: i.e, he will turn any little issue thatβs brought up about him on whoeverβs bringing it up, will forget important things and then make whoever else is involved feel like shit for *caring*, is disloyal in every aspect of life. heβs pretty impossible to be around if you actually care about him, but is much kinder to surface-level acquaintances. always thinks he can be better with someone who hasnβt already experienced his worst traits because he *thinks* heβs better now, and then the bad traits surface and heβs too full of himself to apologize/even acknowledge that heβs been unkind.
do jihan will never have a redemption arc.
