AGE: Twenty
COMPANY: Radioactive Entertainment
POSITION: Trainee
FACECLAIM: Kang Daniel
PLAYED BY: Ime
Sean was born on December 10th, 1996, to a family that never should have had him. His parents had moved to New York City and already had a son that they couldn’t afford either before Sean came along, and they never let him forget how much his existence had put a burden on the already-struggling family.
But Sean always thought that he was lucky to have his older brother Damien in his life. He was almost eight years older and always looked out for Sean and supported him, especially with things Sean found he was naturally talented in, like b-boying and music in general. In return, Sean practically worshipped the ground Damien walked on when he was a kid. Though their home life was rough, he always had Damien. Sean never knew what he would do if he didn’t have Damien, but unfortunately, he found that out soon enough.
Sean can still remember the night Damien was arrested. He didn’t understand what was going on, it felt like one moment his mother was answering the door to two police officers asking if her son was home, and the next moment Damien was in handcuffs. Sean had kept trying to ask him what was going on, but Damien couldn’t answer him. He most Sean could do was watch powerlessly and in bewilderment as his older brother was taken away.
He couldn’t do anything but watch again as Damien ended up being convicted of robbery and illegal possession of a firearm. At first he couldn’t believe that the person he had always looked up to so much had held someone up in the middle of the night, and only a few miles away from where they had grown up. But soon afterwards Sean learned that wasn’t the first time Damien had done such a thing. Whether Damien had ever mentioned mentioned it or not, that was how he had managed put food on the table for himself and Sean when their parents either couldn’t or just didn’t bother to.
But as difficult for Sean as a child to come to terms with the fact that his older brother had always done things like this, it was much harder to accept that the next time his brother would be free again would be years in the future. He wouldn’t be able to have Damien by his side anymore, or even anywhere close. The only good thing that Sean ever had in his family was suddenly being torn away from him altogether, and there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening.
Sean hadn’t exactly planned to leave after that. But with Damien gone and his home life worsening still, the best thing Sean figured he could do was leave. Even if it was just to be less of a burden on their already-shrunken household like he had always been told he was. Sean was only thirteen when he sent in an audition video of himself dancing to Radioactive Entertainment in Korea, and though the idea to leave the country altogether and be a trainee with them sounded far-fetched, there honestly wasn’t much else that he could think of to do. After he heard back from the company shortly afterwards, who invited him to train with them in Seoul, leaving his whole life behind him was easier than Sean had expected–though unsurprisingly, the most difficult part was having to say goodbye to his brother through a plate of glass between them when he visited Sean in prison and explained what he was going to do.
It was barely a year after he had joined Radioactive that Sean competed as part of Team B in the company’s survival show from which Legacy debuted. Competing on the show had been nerve-wracking, and losing had somehow made his heart sink even lower in his chest, but then again, Sean knew that it wasn’t the hardest thing he had gotten through before. He returned to training along with the other boys in Team B, but when they were preparing to debut as Crown three years later, somehow Sean was the only member missing from the lineup.
When he didn’t debut with Crown, people noticed his absence. The only thing that fully put a dispel to the rumors that he had left the company altogether was when Sean eventually was asked by the company to be a backup dancer in addition to his training. It was honestly the only solace he had to still being a trainee despite being promised that he would debut with the other members of Team B. Sean knew that he was ready to debut for years now, but the closest he got to performing onstage was performing on promotions for Radioactive that were the other artists’ there, not his.
But as frustrating it was to share the same stage with the people he had trained with for years but not being able to actually perform with them, Sean knew that his skills had improved to a point that he never could have imagined being at back when he first started. It was obvious that he was one of the best male trainees at Radioactive, but for some reason, they never seemed to have plans for him to debut.
When MNet announced their second season of Idol Project, Sean almost didn’t hesitate to apply. He thought that it could be a second chance for him at debuting. Sure, it would only be for a few promotions, and then probably back to his usual corner of a dance studio in radioactives basement, but at least it was something. So Sean had auditioned, was completely contracted in, and did all of the opening interviews. But just before taping for the show was going to actually begin, he broke his ankle and had to withdraw from the competition before it even began.
In the few months that followed, all Sean could think about was getting back to dancing. For once, he just wanted to train again, but now his worst fear wasn’t that he would never debut, it was that he would never be as good as he was before he ever debuted at all. But slowly his ankle is healing and Sean’s been able to return to dancing, even though he still catches himself hesitating to do so more often than he would like. It’s hard for Sean to deny that a small part of him wants to debut and prove to his parents that he wasn’t a burden, to him the most important reasons he wants to debut is to ensure that none of the years he spent as a trainee were wasted and hopefully to someday make his brother proud.
