Dunno if this has been asked already but what was Haley's life like growing up? What led them to become a burglar?
I am actually surprised I have never talked about Haley's backstory. Anyways, here it is 💕
Haley, (whose birth name is Harini) was raised as the eldest daughter (nonbinary now) in a Desi (Tamil) family, growing up Haley always had numerous hefty expectations placed on their shoulders without much reward for their efforts. Haley was raised in Chennai, but when accepted into a prestigious university program abroad (where our story takes place), their parents pressured them to enroll. This program was at a top university but extremely expensive. Despite being somewhat pressured into the decision, Haley didn't want their parents to have to worry about money, so they lied and said it was a full ride scholarship.
Haley still needed to pay for the program. So they decided in this new place they would go by a fake name to create a degree of separation between their identity and what people around them knew them as. This name 'Haley' was chosen when their younger sister referred to them as it as a joke about becoming westernized. Using their ability (which they discovered and honed from a young age) Haley would burgal what they needed to make tuition payments, always doing extensive research into the targets and proper fences before taking any action. Eventually, their work was noticed by the general public for it's mystery and flawless execution. Never greedy, always a perfectionist, always picking the best targets that were never sympathetic figures in the public eye, Haley never made a mistake, they were raised not to, so of course they would excel at this too.
They have since graduated from the program where for a few years after they worked at a local coffee shop and then eventually opened up their own. They have since become stable enough to not need to burgal, but then became headhunted by Miles's family to train him into a villain (something Hal couldn't exactly say no to).
One of my favorite things about Haley is their 'reluctant helper' aspect of their personality. For example, if there is a stray cat they say that it has to be owned by someone else so they won't take care of it, but they still feed it, and if it's there tomorrow they will feed it and make it a little shelter, and if it's there for another day they will let it inside... and so on until they are basically fully caring for it. This is kinda how Haley ended up being close to MC. Despite Haley giving off an 'I don't care' vibe, caretaking is in their nature and they can't help but to take responsibility. But they still may feel frustrated or slightly bitter that THEY are the person that had to because others either push it on them or aren't competent enough to trust.
Haley also has one younger brother and a youngest sister.
