Characters / Mystic Messenger

Due to wiki policy, all trope names are visible and may spoil. Proceed with caution.

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Player Character

Main Character/Hana Kang

Click ^here to see the manhwa's Hana Kang

The heroine of the game and manhwa adaptation. She finds a mysterious phone and finds her way into becoming the new head of the Rika Fundraising Association, filling in for Rika after her death.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: MC has long, brown hair in the game, while Hana Kang in the manhwa has shoulder-length black hair.
• Adaptation Expansion: The manhwa adaptation adds some details about her life and the situation that led to her finding the phone that has the password to Rika's apartment.
• Babies Ever After: Downplayed. In V's After Ending, they have an adopted daughter together.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She can act like one in Zen's route, even before she and Zen enter any kind of romantic relationship.
• Driven to Suicide: In Jumin's second Bad Relationship Ending, she jumps out of his penthouse window to her death.
• Dude Magnet: It is shown that even the primary antagonist has the hots for her in all of the Deep and Casual routes, especially in the Prologue bad ending and Christmas DLC bad ending, not to mention both branches of Another Story.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It is an otome game after all, the correct answers to the options (and the number of guests that attend the party) determine how "happy" her endings might be.
• Even the Girls Want Her: In V's route Rika's shown to like her very much and keeps expressing it even if you are rude to her. In one of the calls she says that she knows V is attracted to MC because so is she, and in another - that she might be able to love her more than she loved V. There's also Jaehee's route; the nature of their partnership is left ambiguous, but the subtext is certainly there.
• Extreme Doormat: She gets a bad ending in Ray's route if she responds to Saeran's abuses by submitting to his demands and not defending herself.
• Face–Heel Turn: You make the choice to join Mint Eye in several Bad Story Endings: V's 1st, Zen's 3rd, and Saeran's 3rd.
• Featureless Protagonist: Since she's supposed to be an extension of the player, little is specified about her and when her backstory and life come up in conversation, you're free to say whatever you want. The only canonical traits she has is that she's a girl, lives in Korea, loves fried wings as seen in one of the bad endings in Another Story and according to the illustrations, has long brown hair and pale skin.
• Happily Married: To Yoosung and Jumin and V in their After Endings, and Happily Engaged to Seven at the end of the second secret ending.
• The Heart: Figuratively and literally (in the game the more hearts she obtains from each of the respective routes, the higher are the chances of a good ending).
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: You can name her however you want. The others will also be calling you by the handle you chose for the player's screen name. In the manhwa adaptation, she is given the name Hana Kang.
• The Hero Dies: She doesn't make it through some of the bad endings: Yoosung's Bad Story Ending 1 ^note Yoosung rushes to the apartment despite the fact that Seven hadn't fixed the rigged bomb yet, killing both him and the protagonist., Yoosung's Bad Relationship Ending 2 ^note Unknown activates the bomb during a confrontation with Seven., Jumin's Bad Story Ending 3 ^note Unknown activates the bomb when he meets the protagonist at the apartment., and Jumin's Bad Relationship Ending 2 ^note The protagonist jumps out of the window in his penthouse..
• Iconic Outfit: The sweater (sweater dress?) that the main character is wearing in the selfie Seven takes of them on the 10th Day of his route is the outfit she's depicted wearing in most fan works, despite having that outfit in just that one scene.
  • A light blue blouse and white polka dot skirt appear in all of her CGs during V's route.
  • She wears a black party dress for the entirety of Ray's route.
• In the Hood: We never get to see her eyes as they are not shown at the CGs. A possibility is that it was left that way so that the players can imagine what eye color they wish the player would have. Averted for most of the default avatars the player can choose as their display picture in the messenger app. The default avatar that looks most like the Player Character in the CGs has yellow eyes, but it's unclear if she's supposed to be "the" MC. The manhwa adaptation gives a short-haired MC that isn't among the default avatar options as her appearance.
• The Ingenue: If played very kindly. Many characters, male and female, will remark on her pure innocence. Additionally, just starting V and Ray's route requires her to be so trusting and gullible it throws away any sense of self-preservation.
• Kick the Dog: She's given plenty of opportunities to be rude and hostile to any of the RFA members. The options you have to choose to get some of the bad endings can be downright cruel.
• Limited Wardrobe: In V's route, she only has one outfit (a light blue blouse and white polka-dotted skirt). Justified, considering that she gets trapped in Magenta on Day 1 and spends most of the time after her Day 7 rescue hiding from Mint Eye in a cabin. A similar case occurs in Ray's route where she's trapped in Magenta from Day 1 to Day 10.
• Living Emotional Crutch: In most routes to some degree, but especially in the Deep Story and Another Story routes. It's addressed in V's good ending, when he says he needs to leave and figure himself out so he doesn't use MC as an emotional crutch.
• Loving a Shadow: In Seven's 2nd Bad Story Ending (see Manic Pixie Dream Girl below), she ignores the revelation of Seven's trauma and implies that she prefers the funny, lighthearted facade he uses in the chatroom.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She can be a twisted variation of this in Seven's Bad Story Ending 2 if she continues to talk like he's the same Seven she met in the chatroom after his real personality has been revealed. Her optimism cheers him up (outwardly, at least), but ultimately results in him giving up on rescuing Saeran, leaving the RFA, and eloping with her.
• Manipulative Bitch: Intentionally getting a bad ending nine times out of ten requires you to be cold, manipulative, and/or outright abusive to whoever's route you're on.
• Named by the Adaptation: In the game, MC has no official name; in official side-material, she is simply referred to as "MC." In the manhwa, she is given the name Hana Kang.
• Nerves of Steel: Required to get the good ending of Ray/Saeran's route. No matter what abuse was hurled her way, the protagonist stands tall against it and chose to worry over Ray/Saeran's state over her well-being.
• Out of Focus: Scarcely appears or speaks in the two secret endings.
• Player Character: Naturally, most of her actions and personality are shaped by the player.
• Plucky Girl: Oftentimes, getting the best endings requires maintaining a positive and supportive mindset, no matter what.
• Replacement Goldfish:
  • She replaces Rika as the party coordinator, and is often compared to her (especially in Yoosung's route). Unlike Rika, she is not mentally unstable (unless you play her that way, which you have to in order to get some of the bad endings).
  • At one point in Jumin's route, she is this to Elizabeth 3rd.
• Second Love: For V in his route, after he takes some time to rediscover himself and move on from his relationship with Rika.
• Stockholm Syndrome: She can pursue Ray or Rika in V's route while being held hostage, though doing so leads to a Bad Ending. Jumin even drops the trope name when discussing her situation should Day 10 be reached. This is also one interpretation of her feelings for Saeran after he abuses her in his route
• Understanding Girlfriend: She has to be understanding and sympathetic about her partner's troubles to get any character's good ending. The trope is at its most remarkable in Seven's, V's, and Ray's routes, because they have a lot of hidden issues to work through.
• Vague Age: Her exact age is unknown and is left up to interpretation. The game even goes so far to make her age vague through the honorifics the RFA members call her. As noted by a native Korean user here.
  • This gets questioned when you play the deep route. In one of Yoosung's calls in the first four days, he'll ask the protagonist's age and the choices ranged from a student, an adult, or neither an adult or a student. Some of the chats also gave the choice of saying that the protagonist can drink alcohol, and a chat with Jumin in Seven's route ask if you are underage or of age to drink alcohol. Which makes her to be Yoosung's age or a year or two younger than him at her youngest (the age of consent for one to drink alcoholic drinks in South Korea is 19 internationally), Jumin and Jaehee's age at her oldest. Depending on what you choose.
  • In Zen's route, she does get the option to call him "oppa" (translated as "Zenny"), which is the honorific girls use for older guys in South Korea. In Yoosung's route, he does eventually call her "noona", which is the honorific boys use for older girls. Therefore, she's probably younger than Zen (23) and older than Yoosung (20). Many think that she is meant to be around Seven's age.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: Ironically mentioned by most of the RFA members and Rika, despite said eyes never being shown in the CGs.
• Yandere: In V's route, if you pick the choices where you're rude to Rika and possessive over V, you get a bad ending where he devotes the obsession he had for Rika to you.
  • The choices you have to pick to trigger one of Yoosung's bad endings indicate this, since you tell him and the other members that you don't care who he's confusing you with as long as he can be completely yours, and generally act very possessive over him.

Casual/Deep Story

Jumin Han

Voiced by: Yongwoo Shin

Jumin is the heir of the C&R Company, who is always on business trips and usually talks about work. Due to his upbringing, he is fascinated by internet slang and "commoner items." He absolutely loves talking about his cat Elizabeth 3rd. His route is one of the branches of the Deep Story.

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• Abusive Parents: Jumin's DLC has Jumin confess to the protagonist that on several occasions he was locked in his childhood house's basement for hours on end by his mother in an effort to make him play his toys like the other kids his age. And when he was older, it's heavily implied that one of his stepmothers tried to sexually groom him.
• The Ace: Several characters comment in-game on how he shows knowledge about a wide variety of things, including wine and golf. He turns out to be more of a Broken Ace. All of his talents can't cover up the fact that he seriously struggles to maintain personal relationships and is obsessed with his work to an unhealthy degree that negatively impacts everyone working for him.
• Anger Born of Worry: Several of his interactions with V involve Jumin getting frustrated with him for keeping secrets and telling V that he should trust his friends who believe in him. The angriest example comes in Jaehee's route; see How Dare You Die on Me! below.
• Arranged Marriage: In his route, with Sarah. It was called off during the party, after Mr. Han finds out that he was tricked by Sarah and Glam so they could get access to the Han family's wealth.
• Berserk Button:
  • He hates Gold Diggers, a label that tends to fit his father's girlfriends.
  • Don't even think about harming or demeaning his cat, Elizabeth 3rd...
  • Or calling her Elly.
• Brutal Honesty: He tends to say exactly what's on his mind, regardless of how anyone else feels. Sometimes, it makes him the most rational and objectively-speaking person in a situation, but most of the time, everyone thinks he's just being rude without knowing it.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: He tries on occasion, though it tends to leave everybody else in the chatroom bewildered.
• Curtains Match the Window: Both his hair and eyes are black.
• Defrosting Ice King: Over the course of his route, he has to come to terms with his own feelings about not only the protagonist, but also his issues with his father and the way in which their conflicts have affected his own attitude toward relationships.
• Drives Like Crazy:
  • In Jaehee's route, Jumin steals one of Seven's cars to get revenge and goes on a wild drive, crashing it. He even admits that he's a terrible driver; at one point, he mentions that he's still alive because the driver drove, not him.
  • In V's route, this is shown to have always been the case, with baby Jumin crashing his toy car.
• Forceful Kiss: He kisses the protagonist in front of Sarah Choi as retaliation. Whether the protagonist should be shocked or rather accepting of the kiss is up to you.
• Freudian Excuse: His apparent disinterest in women stems from his father having a revolving door of women in the house as Jumin grew up. He had several stepmothers throughout the years, to the point where eventually he didn't even bother keeping track of them anymore. What pulls the nail in the coffin is that it's heavily implied that his father's second wife tried to sexually groom him.
• The Gadfly: A very minor example, but he tends to use more cat based text boxes, and reference more cat related things when Zen is in the chat...
• George Jetson Job Security: In Jaehee's route. Jaehee keeps Longcat as the logo for his cat hotel project, rather than Elizabeth 3rd as he intended. When she justifies it by telling him that the company took a vote, and they liked Longcat better than Elizabeth 3rd, he fires her.
• How Dare You Die on Me!: In Jaehee's route, after V says he has terminal cancer, Jumin yells at him for going without treatment and demands that V admit he's lying. Perhaps the saddest part is that V probably is lying; see his entry for details.
• Innocently Insensitive: There are times when Jumin genuinely doesn't seem to realise he's being rude, such as being unable to understand why he'd need to interact with his maid when they do entirely different jobs.
• Insistent Terminology: His cat's name is Elizabeth 3rd, not Elly.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: It's implied that he had feelings for Rika before, which he didn't act on because she was V's lover. Also to Elizabeth, whom he thinks ran off because she doesn't want to be his pet anymore; he tries to give her back to V before you and V convince him to keep her.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He can be pretty sweet, although he definitely has his jerk moments (especially in Jaehee's route). Even Yoosung lampshades this sometimes.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Jumin has a soft spot for cats despite his gruff demeanor.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Jumin is most infamous as a Yandere, but is first and foremost a Kuudere, slowly-then-quickly defrosting on his route as the MC becomes his Living Emotional Crutch. (The trope Tsundere is also discussed, with Jumin insisting he isn't one. However, he is correct as he is this trope instead.)
• The Kindnapper: Holds the heroine captive in his apartment on his route for her own protection.
• Leitmotif: Jumin's theme song, which plays in his chatrooms, is "Urban Night Cityscape."
• Living Emotional Crutch: Elizabeth the 3rd. When she runs away, the MC takes her place as this. How long this lasts and the severity of such depends on the player's choices to either encourage him to view them as such, or to refuse to be a replacement for his cat. The reason Jumin has such an emotional crutch is also explained on his route; he was so desensitised to people being nice to him due to sucking up to his wealth even as a child that he refused all offers of emotional expression or friendship. As a result, he unconsciously became so lonely he projected his need for emotional connection onto Elizabeth the 3rd. This loneliness was also why V and Rika gifted her to him in the first place.
• Lonely Rich Kid: He had one friend (that is, V) as a child, whom he only met because Jumin crashed a miniature car into V's wall, and V said he'd prefer a friend over monetary compensation. Jumin mentions in Another Story that he was kidnapped as a child, which certainly justifies an overprotective dad.
• Mistaken for Gay: Seven and the other RFA members joke but probably don't believe it. Publicly, however, the suspicion that Jumin is gay is an occasional tabloid topic because he's still single. It's even a plot point in Zen's route when Echo Girl tries to destroy his reputation along with Zen's. Jumin doesn't seem to care much, though; he says the rumor has surfaced before and always dies down eventually without damaging C&R.
• Nerves of Steel: It's very unusual to see Jumin stressed - even Zen begrudgingly admits Jumin's ability to keep cool-headed in a crisis is a valuable asset to the RFA, especially when there are hackers and Mint Eye involved.
• No Social Skills: Downplayed. He's perfectly capable of functioning and interacting with people in a business environment, but has trouble understanding emotions (including and perhaps especially his own) and tends to be Innocently Insensitive. V is the only close friend he's ever had, and V is sensitive enough to pick up on Jumin's subtler tells.
• Pass the Popcorn: This is his reaction when the protagonist and Sarah get into an argument and a Cat Fight in his first bad ending.
• Replacement Goldfish: After Elizabeth 3rd runs away in his route, Jumin realizes Elizabeth 3rd was just a cat and wasn't able to understand him as well as the protagonist does. Thus, he begins latching onto the protagonist to the point where he refuses to let her go home. The other members of RFA even find his sudden change in behavior alarming.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Jumin runs a very successful international company, but also insists on using company resources to fund his vanity projects, like his cat food commercial. He even decides to overload Jaehee with work while he goes to a cherry farm despite the fact it would be cheaper and less taxing on the employees if he had the cherries delivered to him (and not only that, but he even has people pick cherries for him!).
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Jumin is wealthy and privileged while the protagonist is viewed as a commoner. In Jumin's After Ending, their relationship even garners their own crowd of Shippers on Deck because of this dynamic.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The manly man (stoic, professional businessman, always wearing a suit) to V's sensitive artist.
• The Stoic: Unless it involves anything related to cats.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Very much so, even Jaehee and Zen admit Jumin is very good-looking.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Oh, is he ever. He's probably the snarkiest character in the game.
• Uncle Pennybags: Thinks nothing of using his wealth to hire bodyguards for the RFA when a Hacker manages to infiltrate the chatgroup.
• Undying Loyalty: To V, who was Jumin's Only Friend for a long time and probably the person who understands him the best. In V's Route, when Rika starts trying to talk the RFA members into joining Mint Eye and forsaking V, Jumin is having none of it and gives her an understated "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Downplayed example, but Jumin is far more focused on work than his father, who is often distracted by spoiling his latest Gold Digger girlfriend.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Jumin's character development deals with him experiencing emotions, particularly when the protagonist is involved.
• Wine Is Classy: Jumin is frequently seen with a glass of red wine on hand. He even owns a grape farm!
• Yandere: He might not seem so, but if you take his route, his possessiveness gradually starts to show, especially after your life gets threatened, at which point he won't let you go home for 3-4 days despite your need to go home and plan the party. Even better, you can also pick answers that encourages him to be creepy towards you, and trigger a bad end where his possessiveness gets turned up a notch.

Zen

Voiced by: Kim Jang

Zen (real name: Hyun Ryu) is a musical actor with a growing following. His job usually keeps him up late, between acting, meetings with the director, and needing to practice his lines. Zen doesn't really get along with Jumin. Zen's route is a branch of the Casual Story.

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• Abomination Accusation Attack: In his route he refuses Echo Girl's advances because of his feelings for the protagonist, so as an act of revenge, she starts talking about how he called her to his house and sexually harassed her. His reputation as an actor as well as his self image take quite a blow in the aftermath of her lie.
• Abusive Parents: When he was still a little child, his parents kept telling him that he was ugly, pretty much crushing his self-esteem, just so that he won't aspire a career as an actor or singer and instead become a doctor or get another respectable job.
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: He was in a biker gang when he was younger, apparently. Subverted because he's now left the gang and is pretty harmless, but still has the bike.
• All Men Are Perverts: He insists that this is a hard and fast rule for every man, and will become very nervous and concerned for your safety the very instant you are alone with a male character, including himself in his own route. In Seven's route he'll tell you to absolutely under no circumstances take any of your clothes off around Seven if you say you're getting overheated, and that it wouldn't be a bad idea for you to carry a knife while you're with him. In Jumin's route, when you're being kept in the penthouse semi-against your will, he tells you to stay at least five meters away from Jumin at all times and to move five more meters away every hour, and to clock him in the head with a pan or pot if need be in order to escape and to disregard any injuries that Jumin might sustain as a result.
• Always Save the Girl: Zen is very protective of the main character, even outside of his own route - to an over-bearing degree. It often seems the only reason for this is because she's a girl. He even defends her in the opening chat on the grounds that the random intruder might be a girl.
• Art Imitates Art: The title screen for April Fool's is a play on Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, with Zen's silhouette in the iconic clamshell. On April Fool's day itself (and on the cover for the DLC in "extras"), it's not a silhouette.
• Attention Whore: Zen is talented and pretty, he knows he's talented and pretty, and he wants everyone to tell him he's talented and pretty. It's not quite as simple as it seems, though.
• Berserk Button: Cats. Slightly justified considering he's severely allergic to them, but the hissy fits he throws when Jumin talks about cats in the chatroom are a little excessive.
• Big Brother Instinct: Displays this towards Yoosung when he's feeling vulnerable, and despite the flirty nature of his conversations with the protagonist, if she's in a relationship with someone other than him, he changes track to fretting over her safety and warning her that all men are beasts at heart instead.
• Big Damn Heroes: In his route, when he arrives at the apartment just in time to rescue the protagonist from Unknown.
• Butt-Monkey: Zen gets trolled big time in the April Fools DLC.
• Casanova Wannabe: Zen is the flirtiest character in the game and desperately tries to get a girlfriend, but he states himself he hasn't had one in years.
• The Charmer: Towards you, and presumably toward his sizable In-Universe fanbase. A few lines from his plays indicate that most of his characters display this behavior as well.
• Chick Magnet: One of the groups you can invite as guests for the RFA's party is his fanclub, and he brags about being sent letters and presents by his fans.
• Chivalrous Pervert: When asked what his favorite genre is, he replies that it's not suited for the game's rating. He also very openly flirts with you, calling you "honey" or "babe" even before you get on his route. However, the second you get on a man's route, even his own, he becomes very protective about you, warning you to be careful around men.
• Does Not Like Men: An extremely rare male example. He never hesitates to drill it into you that all men are sex-obsessed wolves who will take advantage of you at the slightest opportunity, and that you should do everything in your power to protect yourself when you're alone with a man, including hypothetically carrying a knife when you're alone with Seven and knocking Jumin out with a frying pan if either of them get too close for your liking. He even applies this rule to himself, and he often speaks of "the beast" inside him that he has to reel in whenever he's around you, lest he accidentally get too handsy and overstep your boundaries.
• Drama Queen: He's an actor in the musical theater industry, so drama is to be expected. For instance, his exaggerated sneezing at the mere mention of cats is comically overblown.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: During his route, he notes that sometimes he has incredibly clear and unnerving dreams of things that eventually come true in real life.
  • He mentions having a dream where all the characters, including the player, are just robots saying programmed things.
  • In his route, one of these dreams allows him to rescue the protagonist from Unknown.
  • In Jumin's route, he dreams about Elizabeth 3rd in the Mint Eye headquarters. Later on, said cat is missing, and they do find her at the Mint Eye headquarters.
• Education Mama: His parents wanted him to be a straight-A student and go to law school like his brother. His mother was furious and tried to shave his head when Zen started playing music and looking into performance careers. Small wonder he ran away.
• False Rape Accusation: See Abomination Accusation Attack above.
• Former Teen Rebel: After he ran away from home, he was in a biker gang, stole alcohol, and did other bad things.
• Freudian Excuse: His apparent vanity and desire for validation and praise can be attributed to his family treating him horribly for the fact that he was beautiful since birth, which got him a lot of (often unwanted) attention growing up; his parents told him he was ugly very often and brutally, and his mother even once tried to shave his hair. He had an ally for a while in his older brother until he too became cold and unkind to him as they grew up, and if you play his route right, he realizes that the reason he often loathes Jumin so much is because he very much reminds him of the brother who betrayed him and projects that pain onto him.
• Gay Dar: Claims that he has this and insists that Jumin's not gay like Seven jokes because gay people "have their own aura."
• Godiva Hair: In the title screen for the April Fool's DLC, his long hair is just barely keeping the picture PG-13.
• Going Commando: According to one of his spaceship reveals, he once went up on stage without wearing underwear.
• Healing Factor: He once broke his arm and it healed in a day. In the Casual routes, he fractures his ankle and it's completely fine a couple days later. His doctor is very confused.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: In that photo of him leaning on his bike.
• Hopeless with Tech: In V's route, Zen is revealed to have a "Hindows 98" (Windows 98) and seems to be out-of-touch with technology seeing as he rarely uses it.
• Hypocrite: He complains a lot about Jumin's lack of emotions. On Jumin's route, when he starts to open up and talks about his feelings for the player character, Zen starts making fun of him for being emotional.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: He constantly talks about how amazing his looks/voice/he in general is. However, he mentions feeling useless when he gets hurt and can't help with the party due to that. Even more noticeable when Echo Girl spreads rumors about him. He almost immediately goes from bragging at all times to thinking he doesn't deserve you.
• It's All About Me: Several characters comment on his big ego, especially Yoosung. You can do so too, if you wish.
• Leitmotif: Zen's theme song, which plays in his chatrooms, is "Narcissistic Jazz."
• Locked Out of the Loop: Notably, after the secret endings, he and Yoosung are the only two members of the RFA to not know the truth of what happened with V, Rika and Mint Eye. In V's route, he gets the whole story.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has long hair, and he's pretty.
• The Masochism Tango: This is what Zen and the protagonist's relationship eventually turns out to be in his first bad ending, when you intentionally treat him coldly in order to test his affection for you.
• Mr. Fanservice: Have you seen how many selfies showing his arms or torso he takes? Combined with implied Workout Fanservice.
• Mystical White Hair: It's fitting that in a game mostly lacking supernatural elements, the guy with psychic dreams and a downright unnatural healing rate is also the resident white-haired red-eyed pretty boy.
• Narcissist: Have you seen how many selfies he takes? Plus he has a tendency to redirect chats to talking about him and his acting gig if you let him.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Hyun Ryu, but everyone except for V calls him by his stage name, Zen.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He's the most overtly masculine of the main cast, rides a motorcycle, works out a lot, etc. He's also a musical theater actor and dancer, and mentions that he's mostly played "pretty-boy" roles instead of more manly ones.
• Reformed, but Rejected: In a sense. He calls his brother and tries to reconnect with his family on the path to his good ending, but it's revealed in the Valentine's DLC that they wouldn't even let him in the door when he tried to visit them with MC.
• The Runaway: He ran away from home at fourteen because of his Abusive Parents and the fact that his once-supportive brother started parroting their oppressive views.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Yoosung's Sensitive Guy.
• Shameless Fanservice Guy: The photos of himself he uploads in the chat range from him on stage (which may or may not be fanservicey), to Workout Fanservice, to Intimate Open Shirt, to him in bed and winking at you.
• Shirtless Captives: In one of his musicals, his character was captured and bound by the enemy. He sends you a picture from the show in question, in which he is wearing an almost entirely open and form-fitting shirt and his arms are tied over his head.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Played with. He's on his way up in the acting world and insists he's not actually famous when others mention it, but he tends to be hugely self-congratulatory and his love affair with his mirror is well-represented.
  • Big Ego, Hidden Depths: His parents told him he was ugly and talentless when he was a kid. It seems very likely that his narcissism is just overcompensation, and flat out stated that it's a major reason for why he craves recognition of his acting skill and not just his looks.
• Smoking Is Cool: He's the most classic "cool guy" type character, and he smokes. Subverted in that he's trying to quit.
• Starving Artist: Though not ever explicitly stated, it is heavily implied that this is the case despite his fame. He lives in a semi-basement apartment, has a bare fridge, and buys most of his tech from junk shops. While he could just be Slumming It, if the player chooses to demand that Zen buy an expensive pen on his route, he will tellingly say that he will take up extra construction work to make it happen.
• Sweet on Polly Oliver: He comments that "Mary Vanderwood" is very photogenic and attractive. It quickly turns to Stupid Sexy Flanders when Jaehee informs him that the photo in question is Seven in a wig and maid outfit.
• The Unfavorite: Both of his parents are teachers, and they expected Hyun to do well in school and get a respectable career like his brother. They essentially tried to squash the creativity out of him by telling him he was talentless and ugly.
• Unwanted Assistance:
  • He became famous thanks to Seven making a video of him singing into a virus and spreading it all over the internet. Needless to say, Zen wasn't so pleased with this.
  • He rejected an offer of financial and promotional help from Jumin pre-story, one of multiple sore spots between them.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Him answering about Seven during the interrogation led to Saeyoung being missing throughout the majority of the finale of Saeran's route. Though in his defense, he didn't know that the prime minister wants to get rid of Saeyoung.
• Workaholic: His route doesn't focus on this tendency as much as Jaehee's, but he spends the vast majority of his time in every route rehearsing performances or working out to maintain his physique for his roles in stage musicals. In his route, he gets so agitated with the idea that he's only successful because of his looks that he overdoes it practicing and breaks his ankle.
• You Remind Me of X: His antagonism towards Jumin stems from Jumin reminding him of his older brother, who was one of the few positive presences in Zen's life as a kid. His brother eventually became the straight-laced businessman their parents wanted, just like Jumin.

707

Voiced by: Kim Young Sun

707, or simply Seven, is the RFA's resident hacker and the creator of its messenger application. He works as a hacker at an unknown agency, and is implied to earn lots of money by doing so. His baptismal name is Luciel Choi. His real name is Saeyoung Choi. His route is a branch of the Deep Story.

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• Abusive Parents: His mother was an alcoholic who saw her children only as something to blackmail their father, while his father wants him and his brother dead so they can't be a threat to his image or political career.
• Affectionate Nickname: He calls Elizabeth 3rd "Elly." Jumin is not pleased.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: He crossdresses on a regular basis and posts the photos in chats. The player and Zen can both fall for the disguises and comment on the beauty of these "women". Zen is unsettled when informed that "Mary Vanderwood III" is in fact Luciel.
• Big Brother Instinct: Saeran is his twin, but Seven usually took the "big brother" role because Saeran was so fragile as a child. There is nothing Seven won't do to keep his brother safe.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • In his own route, he arrives at Rika's apartment just after Unknown breaks in and is seconds from abducting MC.
  • Also in V's route, when he rescues V (who is drugged and incapacitated) and MC from Mint Eye's compound.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a highly skilled hacker, as well known in the field as someone who leaves no traces that could lead back to his identity can be, and can whip up a fire-breathing robot in a few hours when distracted. He's also very quirky, believes that stretching a cat's spine is a viable way to make it into a meme, and goes off on completely nonsensical tangents that the rest of the cast (sans the protagonist, if you're picking the right options) are unable to follow. And let's not even talk about his apartment's security system.
• Break Their Hearts to Save Them: Tries this in his route. Both with the protagonist, romantically, and with the whole RFA platonically. Luckily for him, neither stick.
• But Not Too Bi: Although in the RFA Orientation Guidebook he identifies himself as bisexual, no mention is ever made of it in-game. The only real hints we get is that he makes the occasional gay jokes, but seeing as he makes fun of just about anything, those don't hold much weight.
• The Cracker: Hacking is his job (both in real life and as a member of the RFA). He's pretty good at it.
• Don't Look Back: In his second bad relationship ending, Seven asks you to look away when a mentally unstable Unknown approaches the both of you with a gun, seconds before he is shot.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Boy and how. Seven, more than any other character, gets put through the wringer in the course of his route and the Secret Endings. On top of the backstory reveals, he nearly quits the RFA, his own agency comes after him, he gets shot, imprisoned by Mint Eye, nearly bleeds to death, his own brother tries to strangle him...
• Family Eye Resemblance: He and his brother Saeran are among the only characters in the game to have a single, ring-like marking inside their irises, which was likely a hint of them being related. He and Saeran also naturally have the same gold eye color as their father, Saejoong.
• Facial Recognition Software: His apartment is equipped with one. Along with a talking door that requires a secret code in Arabic.
• The Gadfly: He just loves teasing people, for example convincing Yoosung about the existence of "POADCS" (Pass Out After Drinking Caffeine Syndrome), or pretending to strongly believe that Jumin is gay.
• Gadgeteer Genius: He showcases a talent for inventing gadgets. Some inventions include V's phone (which is capable of detecting whether a call is bugged or not), a fire-breathing dog robot, a cat robot, a pair of wings that he can actually use to fly in the sky, and Rika's apartment security system equipped with a bomb that apparently only destroys her apartment while seemingly not affecting anyone else's. If V's comment in his after ending and Seven's dream in his after ending is any indication, he'd rather be an engineer and own a toy store than be involved in hacking and his agency.
• Genius Ditz: He loves to joke around, troll people, and meow at you. He's also an amazingly good hacker and smart enough to design and build a fire-breathing puppy robot in less than a day.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: Initially averted, but played straight on his route when he emotionally distances himself from everyone else in an effort to protect them.
• Heroic Bastard: His father is an important politician who had an affair with his mother, and Seven joined the agency largely to hide from him.
• I Have Many Names: Is called either 707, Seven, or Luciel by different members of the cast. Luciel is his baptismal name, and Seven comes from 707 which is his code name as an agent. And there's his real name, Saeyoung, which he discarded when he joined the agency. In his good ending, he discards his other names in favor of using his birth name again.
• I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He tries to pull this with you during the majority of his route, ignoring you and speaking to you cruelly in an attempt to push you away because he thinks he's too dangerous to be with you and that you would be better off with someone else.
• Implausible Hair Color: Korean and a natural redhead? Okay, why not.
• Implied Love Interest: He is the supposed canonical love interest. There's so much Ship Tease with him and the protagonist even if you chose other routes. And when translated to English, the opening music video for the game seems to be from his point of view.
  • Also, Secret Endings 1 and 2 that wrap up the mysteries of the plot follow on from his Good Ending.
• Insecure Love Interest: In his route, one of his main reasons to why he keeps his distance from the protagonist is fearing that his kind of life wouldn't suit her and will surely put her in danger no matter what he does. To get his good ending, you had to comfort and convince him that you are fine and okay to be with Seven no matter who he is.
• Kick the Dog: In his route, when you get to the Mint Eye headquarters and encounter V. Seven is understandably furious about the state of Saeran and V concealing the truth, but one of his comments to V seems unnecessarily vicious, especially since V is trying to help at this point and Seven doesn't know the whole story.
  Seven: If Rika knew the real you... I now get why she messed up your eyes like that.
  • Again in the first Secret Ending, when V comes down to the prison cell where Rika's cult has locked up Seven, Vanderwood, and the protagonist. V is already injured and obviously distressed after a scene with Rika, and Seven responds to his attempts to help by physically attacking him.
• Large Ham: He tends to act as this on the rare occasions during which he's present in the chat box, even though it's hinted it's only an act.
• Leitmotif: Seven's theme song, which plays in his chatrooms, is "Geniously Hacked Bebop." In more serious moments, a slower and softer arrangement called "Life With Masks" plays instead.
• Meaningful Name: Invoked. Luciel was Lucifer's name before he became a fallen angel. In his route, it's revealed that Saeyoung chose it as his baptismal name to remind himself of the consequences of losing his way.
• Oblivious to Love: At the start of his route, overlapping with Everyone Can See It. He says he keeps thinking of you and can't concentrate on work because of that, calls you to hear your voice, is worried sick when something might be wrong... But no, he totally doesn't have feelings for you. Turns out it's more of a willful ignorance on his part.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Twice, actually. Most of the time he's called "Seven", from his chat name 707, while he's sometimes also called by his baptismal name Luciel. It isn't until later in his own route that we learn his birth name, Saeyoung.
• Pre-Climax Climax: In Seven's After Ending, he asks the protagonist to leave "evidence" of their love, as he isn't sure about whether he will end up dying because of his work.
• Sad Clown: He constantly makes jokes and fools around in the chatroom, but is one of the most depressed characters in the cast due to his Dark and Troubled Past.
• The Spook: The agency where he works is made up entirely of these, because the illegal and dangerous nature of their activity means they need to be untraceable. Seven joined them for exactly this reason, since he needed to make an income while hiding himself and Saeran from his father.
• Stepford Smiler: Overlapping with Stepford Snarker. His playful attitude and jokes hide some serious baggage. It's hinted at in other routes, but only really explored in his own route and the Secret Endings.
• The Teetotaler: Seven refrains from smoking and drinking, save for the very rare sip of champagne for special occasions, largely due to the fact that his mother was a physically abusive, emotionally volatile, raging alcoholic, and also because he finds alcohol to be too bitter tasting for his liking.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ph D Pepper and Honey Buddha Chips. That's pretty much all he eats.
• Trauma Conga Line: Ignoring that his childhood was already one of these until he met V and Rika, alongside the dangerous work he was forced to do for his agency regularly since he was about sixteen, his route is one pretty much from the route split and continues on through his Good ending and into the Secret Endings.
• Tsundere: Is lowkey one towards the main character in his own route, especially when he ends up staying at the apartment to fix the security system. A notable example is one of the calls the player gets from him—and the characters are in the same room, mere feet from each other—telling her he got her food. Not because he likes her or anything, but because he knew she'd get hungry. Right.
  • The player can also received a call from him on his route fretting because she left the apartment for seven whole minutes and begins scolding her for leaving without telling him, despite the fact he'd been ignoring them up until then, saying she could get kidnapped.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He shares several pictures of himself crossdressing. And he can be pretty convincing too.

Yoosung

Voiced by: Shim Gyuhyuk

Yoosung Kim is a typical college student who lazes around when studying but is overly enthusiastic while playing an online game called LOLOL. He is Rika's cousin. Yoosung's route is a branch of the Casual Story.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: He is the youngest among the cast, possibly discounting the protagonist whose age we never really know.
• Book Dumb: His very first line in the game is him complaining about failing another test. Later subverted: he used to be a brilliant student and even graduated high school at the top of his class, but Rika's death made him into what he is now.
• Butt-Monkey: His gullibility makes him a frequent target of Seven's jokes, and you can play along. Yoosung is rarely amused.
• Break the Cutie: On his route's good ending, no less. He tries to take a level in badass by coming along with Seven to the enemy's headquarters, but gets disfigured by the bad guy in the process. Also, his route has some of the worst bad endings in the game.
• Corrupt the Cutie: In the Casual Story bad ending and Yoosung's second bad story ending, he will rebel against RFA and V, resulting in him being kidnapped and brainwashed.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Is unhappy about his major, and finds his life mostly aimless as he plays video games to occupy himself. He used to be an excellent student, but sunk into depression after Rika supposedly died.
• Dye Hard: His high school photos, which you can find in his route, show that he used to have brown hair. He dyed it to blond after Rika died.
• Expy: Has a lot in common with Yeonho from a previous game of Cheritz's, who is also blond, the youngest of his group, and has Stepford Smiler tendencies and a bad ending where he goes full-on Yandere.
• Extreme Doormat: He tends to be this, but it's generally Played for Laughs. However, it's taken up a notch on the road to his bad endings, where he just assumes that whatever decision you make for him is automatically the best one, even though it might sound downright dangerous.
• Eye Scream: Unknown attempts to disfigure him by attacking his left eye. Combined with Symbolic Mutilation in that he wanted to injure Yoosung in a way that would prevent him from becoming a vet in the future. Thankfully, his After Ending shows that he has successfully become a vet, and is due to have surgery on his eye to help fix the damage done.
• Fatal Flaw: Saeran notes in V's Route that Yoosung tends to let other people make decisions for him, whether they're what he wants or not. In fact the whole reason he's a college student is because Rika talked him into it.
• Friend to All Living Things: Yoosung loves animals; he wants to become a veterinarian, a decision he made after Rika's dog died. In his Valentine's DLC, he even makes friends with a dog who has become separated from his owner.
• Goal in Life: He decided to become a vet after Rika's dog died. This is probably the reason why he studied so hard to enter such a prestigious college.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Even though his hair is bleached.
• Hidden Depths: Although he may seem like the most Ridiculously Average Guy ever, his route reveals that he's desperately looking for validation, love and support, and that he's waiting for an occasion to better himself for someone else's sake. See Took a Level in Badass below.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: He repeatedly states he wants to have a girlfriend on the common route, and when on his route insists that your love changed him as a person.
• Implausible Deniability: Yoosung's hero worship of Rika leads to some pretty twisted logic. In Seven's route, when Mint Eye documentation is found in Rika's apartment, Yoosung insists that she must have been manipulated or threatened into working with the cult. It's even worse in V's route, when there is abundant and overwhelming proof of Rika's horrifying actions, and Yoosung still refuses to believe that she was responsible. In V's good ending, Yoosung stops Rika from drugging the party guests and finally understands that she is a threat.
• Incest Subtext: His near-memetic obsession with Rika and tendency to project her characteristics onto the MC give some fans cause to be suspicious. You have several chances to lampshade this in V's route, asking him about his "crush" on Rika and even flat out inquiring if he liked her in that way. He gets flustered, and vehemently denies it.
• Keet: Very cute and energetic, and The Baby of the Bunch.
• Kindly Vet: He's a veterinary studies major and in his Good End, has successfully become a vet.
• Leitmotif: Yoosung's theme song, which plays in his chatrooms, is "Same Old Fresh Air."
• Lethal Chef: Subverted; the food he makes looks ugly, but it apparently tastes good.
• Likes Older Women: Lampshaded in-game during a conversation.
  Zen: Yoosung that boy... tends to like the big sister type.
• Locked Out of the Loop:
  • After the secret endings, he and Zen are the only two members of the RFA to not know the truth of what happened with V, Rika, and Mint Eye. Given his hero worship of and devotion to his cousin, along with his initial reaction to finding out she was involved with Mint Eye in any way, this makes sense.
  • Averted in V's route, wherein Yoosung gets all of the details about Rika's mental instability and the Brainwashed and Crazy cult she's been running. He takes it about as well as you'd expect, and spends the rest of the route trying to make excuses for her. If you get V's good ending, Yoosung does stop Rika from dosing the party guests with "salvation elixir" and finally seems to grasp how dangerous she is.
• Lucky Charms Title: His chat username is Yoosung★.
• Meaningful Name: "Yoosung" means "meteor" in Korean. To emphasize the star theme, some of Yoosung's special chat bubbles have stars all over them, and he will also suggest inviting @star to the party.
• Messy Hair: Seriously, his hair seems to have a life of its own. He even wears a headband when at home.
• Nice Guy: He's a very sweet boy and seems happy with whatever makes you happy.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He does have quite a Yandere streak. And god, those eyes are creepy...
• Non-Action Guy: He's in the RFA but can't really do anything in particular to help the association, unlike Jumin or Seven. A source of Angst for him. He tries to grow out of it on his route, though.
• Ordinary High-School Student: More like Ordinary College Student. He claims he's this.
• Real Men Cook: He does cook, more or less well. He's not very manly though.
• Replacement Goldfish: He sees you as a replacement for Rika in his first bad ending. He even is disappointed you don't look like Rika. "Love interest" is stretching it a bit, since Yoosung insists that his admiration for his cousin was purely platonic, but the "replacement" element certainly fits.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: He's a college student, he has never had a girlfriend, he's not particularly good at anything, and he likes video games. Jumin even lampshades this by stating he believes everyone in the RFA to have a special talent, and that Yoosung's one is to be the most average college student ever. A sore spot for him and he tries to grow out of it.
• The Scream: Yoosung briefly changes his avatar to a picture of himself drawn in the style of "The Scream" on the 6th day of Jumin's route, when he fears that he failed a test after spending too much time playing LOLOL instead of studying.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Zen's Manly Man.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: How Yoosung and the protagonist's relationship will become if you pursue him. Quite obvious as the best choices that help raise his affections to you are cheesy and downright romantic.
• Smitten Teenage Boy: He isn't a teenager, but his feelings for the player character certainly paint him in this light. He gets attached to you pretty fast, and seemingly just because you were nice to him, although something else might have come into play...
• Stepford Smiler: Despite his cheery disposition, he shows some traits of clinical depression (his gaming addiction and lack of motivation in school and life) and even has a little thought bubble in the After Story about whether he should trust his self-diagnosis of depression.Further confirmed in his route, which explains it's a reaction to losing Rika and feeling he has no one left to try for... which is why it improves when you're around.
• Stupid Sexy Flanders: In the Christmas route, you can comment that you think V is handsome. Yoosung will briefly get distracted and admit that V is in fact attractive, and then get annoyed with himself and return to the topic of his frustration with V.
• Took a Level in Badass: Towards the end of his route, if you're going for a good ending. And it's for your sake. It comes with a price, though...
• Troubled, but Cute: Not troubled in the normal rebellious sense, but just plain troubled.
• Yandere: He definitely shows a possessive streak if you're on his route, but it's taken up a notch on his first bad ending, where he has the yandere eyes to boot.
• You Remind Me of X: The player character reminds him of Rika, to the point that he constantly compares them for a couple days. If you encourage him to continue in this direction, it gets much worse and triggers a bad ending.

Jaehee Kang

Voiced by: Jeong Hwa Yang

Jaehee works as the chief secretary in the C&R Company and and as Jumin's assistant. Due to the busy nature of her work, she usually comes to the messenger to take short breaks and vent out her stress. Jaehee's route is a branch of the Casual Story.

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• Abusive Aunt: The VNs reveal that her aunt and uncle took her in after her mother died. While her uncle was sympathetic, her aunt treated her horribly. Not only was she jealous that Jaehee was better at academics than her own children, but also attempted to kick her out of her house, saying that she can survive on her own and would have been married off a few generations ago. Keep in mind she is talking about her fifteen-year-old niece who was just orphaned!
• Action Girl: Practices Judo as a hobby. One of her spaceship thoughts reveals that she occasionally fantasizes about throwing Jumin.
• Angrish: When Jumin's cat projects go too far.
  Jumin: What if we sell cat-shaped bread too?
  Jumin: We can put in salmon and chicken breast in it, plus a lot of Taurine.
  Jaehee: Never mind.
  Jumin: If we open a franchise all over the country
  Jaehee: aelkfjeiejg
• Beleaguered Assistant: And how. Because she's such a hard worker, Jumin wants her working with him at all times on all of his projects - no matter how pointlessly cat-related. Because the job does pay well, and because she believes in doing jobs properly, she always goes along, no matter her doubts.
• Brainy Brunette: Noted in one of the email conversations to have graduated college early.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: In Zen's route, Jaehee disapproves of the player and Zen growing closer, saying it's because she's concerned it will affect his image. Seven and the player even call her out on it, but by the end, if you go along the right path, she owns up to her gatekeeping and sincerely apologizes to you, and decides to instead use your mutual interest in Zen's career to become closer.
• The Comically Serious: Whenever she has to go along with one of Jumin's weird cat plans. Exemplified in one of her avatars, which is of her standing with a serious but resigned expression as Elizabeth III lies right on top of her head.
• Curtains Match the Windows: Both her hair and eyes are brown.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Jaehee used to have long, straight hair, but Jumin forced her to cut it short and wear non-prescription glasses to make her look less traditionally attractive, as a condition for her to get the job. In her Good Ending, she lets it grow back into long, wavy locks.
• Fangirl: To Zen. Her admiration of his work occasionally gives the impression of a crush, but she denies it and insists that her Fangirl status is based entirely in his acting prowess. She really doesn't seem to have romantic feelings for him.
• Formal Characters Use Keigo: A Korean variation - she noticeably always speaks in a very formal and polite business speech pattern, even to those younger than her like Zen, 707, and Yoosung. This marks her as a serious and professional person and also shows how she lacks any personal connection with the RFA members besides being Jumin's assistant. In her own route, she will adopt a less frigid speech pattern as she grows closer to the MC, but it's still notably polite and respectful, just not as business-like as before.
• Gay Option: Downplayed. In her main route, her feelings for you are limited to subtext, but the Valentine's and Christmas DLCs make her attraction to you much more obvious, so much so that, in the Christmas DLC, when she describes the kind of lover she would want, you ask her, "So...like us?" and she giggles and says that, yes, exactly, like the two of you, and that your relationship with her is her ideal, and at the end, she says that maybe she's developed feelings for you without even realizing it.
• Girly Bruiser: When she has the freedom to really be herself, she's very feminine, preferring her hair to be pretty long, and to clothes with gemstones, ruffles, and frills. She's also a black belt in judo.
• Growing Up Sucks: One of the themes of her routes is the difficulty of working and living as an adult in modern society.
• Leitmotif: Jaehee's theme song, which plays in her chatrooms, is "Lonesome Practicalism."
• Lighter and Softer: Jaehee's route is often considered as a "breather" chapter in the game (even though it's rife with as much Tear Jerker as the rest of the routes) due to the fact that her story does not directly involve Mint Eye (unless you get her bad relationship endings).
• Lipstick Lesbian: She was forced to cut her hair and wear glasses by Jumin to get her assistant job, but when she has the freedom to dress how she wants, like in the Christmas DLC, she wears form-fitting dresses with ruffles and frills, and in both her After Ending and Valentine's Day DLC, when the two of you are running your cafe together, she grows her hair out long enough to touch the middle of her back, and she wears a frilly apron on top of her dress.
• Mistaken for Romance:
  • In the prologue chat of Another Story, you can tease Jaehee about her relationship with Jumin when both of them decide to sign off at the same time. Jaehee is not only unamused, but she flat-out tells you that the only thing binding them together is money, since she's his employee. Needless to say, Jumin mutually agrees.
  • Her fascination with Zen can give off a vibe of attraction, and you can accuse her of wanting Zen for herself when she is critical of your relationship in Zen's route, but she makes it clear that it's a purely platonic appreciation of his aesthetic and acting skill.
• Must Have Caffeine:
  • She mentions at one point that she tends to drink a lot of coffee, but it's downplayed in most of the routes.
  • Played with in her route. She certainly might need the caffeine because she's exhausted and overworked, but it also turns out that she really likes coffee and is fascinated by related businesses. In her good ending, she opens a coffee shop with the protagonist.
• Office Lady: She works as Jumin's assistant, and certainly has the personality commonly associated with the archetype.
• Old Maid: In one conversation, the characters talk about how it'll become harder for Jaehee to find love once she gets older. However, the main character has the option to tell them they're just prejudiced for thinking her age would affect her chances for love.
• Only Sane Man: By far the most reasonable of the RFA members. This trait is made apparent in the choices necessary to enter her route: she likes a main character who is optimistic and hard-working, but sensible and cautious. She claims that nothing special has ever happened to her, and is the only one in RFA who is rightly wary of you at the beginning of the main routes, which makes sense because you're a total stranger entering a locked, private server, and is suddenly living in their dead (not actually) friend's apartment under extremely suspicious and mysterious circumstances. Whereas everyone else warms to you pretty quickly, you have to put in a little work to get her to begin trusting you.
• Perfectionist: If she does a job, she does it properly, no matter what.
• Power Hair: Has very short, businesslike hair. Cutting nearly all of her long hair off was actually one of Jumin's conditions for her to get the job.
• The Stoic: Uses the least emotes and text effects of the cast, and her two most-used emotes are simply her sighing and her glaring in irritation. When the main character makes her laugh in her route, 707 is shocked. However, it's also deconstructed: she deliberately tries to push aside her emotions so she can work better, but as a result Jumin refers to her as a robot and acts as though she doesn't have any emotions at all, giving her even more work.
• Straight Man: Plays this role to pretty much everyone else in the RFA, much to her exasperation, although that's not to say that she doesn't have a sense of humor.
• The Woobie: Her parents died when she was young, her father of natural causes and her mother of a car accident. She lived with her aunt and uncle, and her aunt was constantly jealous and spiteful of her success. In the RFA, she's forced to be at the beck and call of Jumin, who dumps his cat and an insane amount of work on her. In one VN scene, we see her coworkers mocking her during a presentation, implying she isn't the most popular at work. She gets interested in a coffee project, but Jumin tries to shut it down in favor of his cat hotel project. When 707 does the project for her, Jumin fires her over it.
  • It comes back to bite him in the ass, as at that point she is happy, more than anything else, to be relieved of her job. Six months later, she has opened up a successful coffee shop with the protagonist, Jumin has still not found a suitable assistant to replace her—Yoosung is working as an intern for him now, instead, and confesses during the Valentine's DLC that Jumin sent him to spy on her business, seemingly hoping to hear it was failing.
• Workaholic: She's almost always at the office, or doing some kind of research related to her job. She often goes nights without sleep, and hasn't had a day off work in a very long time. It's mentioned that she once fainted from overworking herself, but simply went to get a vitamin shot and got back to work.
  • Subverted in her route. She is diligent and hardworking by nature, and cannot consider doing less than her best; she appears to be a workaholic because Jumin has workaholic tendencies and fails to realize that sometimes his staff need a break even if he doesn't.

Another Story (SPOILER WARNING)

V

Voiced by: Ho San Lee

V is the current head of the RFA, but is often offline because of his trips as a photographer. He was Rika's lover and fiancé before the events of the game, and has been Jumin's closest friend since childhood. He is a secondary character in the Casual and Deep Stories.

V's route was the first available branch from Another Story upon its release in September 2017. It is set six months after Rika's "death", and therefore a year before the events of the other routes.

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• Apologises a Lot: Played for Drama, considering he's a victim of long-term Domestic Abuse.
• Ascended Extra: In July 2017, Cheritz announced that they would release V's route in August (it actually came out in September, a day before his birthday).
• The Atoner: He thinks he caused Rika's instability, and as a result believes that he deserves any pain or injury she inflicts on him. Convincing him that he doesn't need to take responsibility for Rika's actions is a big part of his route.
• Break Their Hearts to Save Them:
  • Just like Seven, V also invokes this in Seven's route when everyone comes bearing down on him to tell them what he's been hiding. Unlike Seven, however, V is successful in breaking everyone's trust (except Jumin's) and manages to get everyone else to hate him because he felt it was his sole responsibility to make sure Rika didn't try to involve the RFA members in Mint Eye. It's only when V dies that the other RFA members decide to forgive him for keeping secrets.
  • In his own route, V tries to distance himself from the protagonist and even asks her to blame him for everything, because he doesn't want her to protect him and put herself in even more danger.
• Break the Cutie: He was artistic when he was very young, but his father discouraged Jihyun from creative pursuits and convinced him that his mother was not worth talking to. As a result, he became a cynical teen who only thought about money and his father's business, disparaged artists for being "impractical", and dismissed his mother's attempts to connect with him. It took her death and Jihyun finding her diaries for him to understand her and throw off the extreme pragmatism his father forced on him.
• Broken Bird: V has isolated himself and become an Extreme Doormat since Rika's death, frequently claiming that everything is his fault and that the other RFA members should hate him. As it turns out, Rika isn't dead, but she is a viciously abusive and manipulative person, and the Destructive Romance with her has caused major damage to V's psyche. His route gives more details, including the circumstances of his mother's death. Convincing him that not everything is his fault and that he does deserve to be happy is a major part of getting his good ending.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • To Seven in his route, and to a lesser extent the entire RFA. V's attempt to hide the truth about Rika and Saeran does not go over well with Seven.
  • Even in the other routes, the RFA members can become frustrated with V or lose faith in him entirely because of his poor communication during dangerous situations (not to mention the bomb in the apartment).
• Career-Ending Injury: He's a well-known and talented photographer, but his eye injury is causing his sight to deteriorate and he says he will soon be unable to take photos. By the time of the first secret ending, he's almost entirely blind and his eyes appear dull grey because of the scarring.
• Character Development: A monumental level of it in his route. He goes from the secretive, traumatized person of the prior routes to someone who is able to open up to MC and the RFA, address his flaws, realize that his feelings for Rika were a toxic obsession that destroyed both of them, and move forward with his life.
• Childhood Friends: With Jumin. They lived in the same neighborhood as children and have known each other for 20 years. The Deep Route reveals that he and Rika gave Elizabeth 3rd to Jumin because they didn't want him to feel lonely, and V was the one who named her (which is why Jumin never considers changing her name).
• Curtains Match the Windows: He has teal hair and eyes, although after his eye injury, his eyes turn grey with scarring.
• Death Seeker: One interpretation of his actions, such as his intention to sacrifice himself to stop Rika. V blames himself for a lot of suffering, from his mother's death to Rika's breakdown and Saeran's brainwashing, and doesn't believe he can or should ever be forgiven. He even says in multiple routes that if he could die in exchange for the other RFA members being saved, he would do so without hesitation. During Saeran's route, he says that Saeran (who is pointing a gun at him) might as well kill him because Saeyoung will hate him anyway.
• Destructive Romance: With Rika, V's fiancée. He tried to get treatment for Rika's mental illness, but couldn't convince her to stick to it. As a result of Rika abandoning her treatment, her condition worsened considerably, leading to Domestic Abuse.
• Distressed Dude: In his route he gets caught while trying to help you escape from Mint Eye, so Seven has to rescue the both of you.
• Domestic Abuse: Rika caused the eye injury that would eventually turn V blind because she wanted him to prove his love for her, which is why he refuses to get treatment. It's also implied that she physically abused him while he was undercover at Mint Eye.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Subverted. He certainly isn't doing well mentally, but his eyes are dull grey as seen in the first Secret Ending because Rika blinded him.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: His route is absolutely nightmarish for him (and you), even on its way to a good ending. There is of course the situation of his eye injury, but his route goes deeper into his involvement with Mint Eye and shows how damaged he really is. From the moment he realizes that MC is in Mint Eye's compound and is being manipulated by Rika and "Ray" (Unknown), it gets exponentially worse. He tries to save you and then has to run because there's no chance of escape, but he's injured in the attempt. After Rika captures him, he gets forcibly overdosed on Mint Eye's "salvation elixir" by Ray (and choked when he calls Ray "Saeran"), then spends days detoxing while horribly depressed and trying to convince you that letting him sacrifice himself to stop Rika is the best option. You get him through that, start getting him to address some of his issues, and then Rika stabs him and you rush to the hospital for emergency surgery. That's not even all of it.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: His hair is longer and messier in his route (see above) than in the original five. In his good and normal endings, he appears to have cut it, which makes him look less ragged and stressed.
• Extreme Doormat: He never even tries to defend himself when other RFA members (usually Yoosung) get frustrated with him, just apologizes and agrees that everything is his fault. Jumin implies that V wasn't quite so timid before Rika died, but he's never been assertive. His fear of conflict is another symptom of an abuse victim.
• Eye Scream: It's never revealed exactly what Rika did to his eyes, but Jumin describes the injury as "severe corneal damage from external trauma". By the time of the first Secret Ending, they've turned grey with scarring and he's almost entirely blind.
• Fatal Flaw: V is deeply empathetic and selfless to an impractical degree. He tries to protect the RFA from Rika so they will be safe and keep believing she was a good person, but she attacks them regardless and he doesn't survive the aftermath.
• Fleur-de-lis: V has a small fleur-de-lis pin on the tan blazer he wears during Another Story.
• Former Teen Rebel: An inversion revealed by flashbacks in his route. Jihyun had every intention of pursuing a career in business like his father wanted, and convinced himself that being an artist was impractical and foolish. His mother encouraged him to explore his artistic talents, and eventually he found his passion in painting (photography came later). His abandonment of a traditional career path is one of the reasons he doesn't get along with his father.
• Freudian Excuse: Jumin implies that V did not have a good relationship with his parents when he was young, and mentions something that "happened to [V's] mother" in the Christmas DLC. V's route goes much further into it. His father left his mother shortly after Jihyun was born and kept them apart for years. He apparently spoke very negatively of Jihyun's mother and convinced their son that being an artist was foolish and impractical. When his mother finally found him and tried to connect, he was distant and resisted her encouragement to explore his artistic talents, even yelling at her and tearing up a drawing because she entered it in a contest without his knowledge. They apparently never reconciled before she died saving him from a house fire, and he's never forgiven himself or his father for how they treated her.
• Guilt Complex: V tries to take the blame for everything, even things that cannot possibly be his fault like his mother dying while rescuing him from a fire, Rika's mental illness, Rika's independent choices and actions about which he knew nothing, and the troubles of other RFA members. In his route, he outright asks the protagonist to blame him for everything that's going wrong.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In his attempt to keep Rika away from the other RFA members, he's placed himself in a position where the abuse she inflicts on him only gets worse. In Secret Ending 01, he begs her to hurt him instead of herself and others.
  • In his route, V tries to convince Rika to take him prisoner and let MC go. Later, he tries to convince MC to let him sacrifice himself to stop Rika from hurting anyone else.
• Hidden Depths: He apparently speaks at least some Arabic, because he's able to get into 707's apartment without triggering the security system in Zen's route.
• I Can Change My Beloved: He hopes that by staying with Rika and accepting her destructive nature, it might help her return to her bright and helpful self again.
• The Illegible: According to Jumin and V himself in the Christmas DLC, V's handwriting is so awful that even his own girlfriend asked him to only send her typewritten letters.
• I Am Not Pretty: In his route, V states that he doesn’t consider himself to be particularly attractive, especially when compared to someone like Zen. It's also noted that even though he's a photographer, he doesn't take many pictures of himself.
• Ineffectual Loner: His attempts to distance himself from RFA and help Rika alone after she rejected treatment only made everything worse.
• Insecure Love Interest: In his route, he is convinced that he doesn't even deserve you as a friend, and that he will never be able to give you the kind of love you should have. In his good and normal endings, he says he needs to find himself before he can consider being in any relationship again; after a two-year Time Skip, he's finally recovered enough to give it a shot.
• In the Hood: He wears a black robe with a hood while undercover at Mint Eye during Another Story.
• It's All My Fault:
  • He blames himself for Rika's mental breakdown, the Domestic Abuse she has inflicted on him, and the problems of other RFA members (especially Yoosung and Seven). See Apologizes a Lot and Sorry I Fell on Your Fist.
  • In his route, he tells you more than once that all of the bad things happening to you are his fault and you should hate him.
  • In Ray's route, V exclusively blames himself for Saeran's condition, placing almost no responsibility on Rika despite the fact that he was only unaware of her actions because he was working independently to keep both twins safe.
• Jerkass Realization: During a flashback that takes place after his mother dies saving him from a house fire, he talks to Jumin about how much he regrets his behavior toward her. He will also confide in the protagonist during his route.
• Killed Off for Real: At the end of the 1st Secret Ending, Saeran ends up shooting V. Given that he vanishes off the RFA's radar completely by the time of every After Ending, this may be his fate no matter which of the five original routes you play.
• Leitmotif:
  • In the five original routes, the song that plays most frequently in V's chatrooms is called "I Miss Happy Rika"
  • In Another Story and his own route, he has several pieces that represent different elements of his character and what he's dealing with. Instrumental versions of "Light and Daffodils" (the song that plays with the opening video of Another Story) tend to show up with the subject of his past with Rika, an idealized perception of her, and his own lingering feelings. "Sun's Love" goes with reevaluating that relationship and growing to understand how toxic it is for everyone involved, and it features strongly when he confronts Rika and stops giving her what she wants. "I Draw" is for personal introspection, memories of his mother, and his developing sense of self-worth. Finally, "The Compass" is about his feelings for and about MC as you encourage him throughout the story and give him the chance to finally start healing from a lifetime of trauma (made very clear by the lyrics of the song as it plays over the end credits of his route).
• Leaving You to Find Myself: In his good ending, he disappears for two years to get himself sorted out before he comes back to the protagonist.
• Love at First Sight: V casually invites Rika out for coffee after first meeting her at one of his exhibitions, which is also mentioned in the RFA Guidebook, where he says his first date took place at one of his gallery showings.
• Love Martyr: In his relationship with Rika in the routes other than his own. Even at her most unstable, he is completely devoted to her. It doesn't go well for him, in the end. In his own route, you can avert it.
  • Happens to him again with the MC in one of his bad endings, which shows the MC involved in a very suggestive photoshoot with multiple other men while V takes pictures. He promises to love the MC no matter what she does, whether it's cheating on him, abusing him, or even outright killing him.
  V (to MC): Even if you choke me someday... I'll always love you, like the sun...
• Love Makes You Crazy: The poor guy's mental state was clearly already unstable throughout his route, but if you push him and ignore his boundaries, encouraging his Love Martyr and Romanticized Abuse tendencies, he enters a relationship with the MC that's even worse than his previous relationship with Rika. His obsessive side comes out in full force, and the Bad Ending that results from these decisions has him snapping creepy photoshoots of the MC and other men, all while begging the MC to "test" him more so that he can prove his love to her.
• Love Will Lead You Back: A very dark version of this trope occurs during his day 10 Bad Ending, when he claims that he can never forget about Rika, no matter how hard he tries, and subsequently leaves you in order to return to her. A similar situation occurs in the good and normal endings of Ray's route, regardless of your actions.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • He feels that Rika's deteriorating mental state was his fault and that he could have saved her if he'd handled it differently.
  • His route reveals that he still has a lot of guilt around the way he treated his mother before she died, and that's part of why he wanted to save Rika.
  • Ray's route puts more focus on how much he blames himself for Saeran's brainwashing and torture at Rika's hands.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: He was in his house when it caught fire, and lost consciousness due to smoke inhalation before his mother ran in to rescue him. She didn't survive. He has never forgiven himself for how he treated her beforehand.
• Nice Guy: He's a kind person, and values kindness in others. This is key to remember in his route, since being mean to other people, whether it's Rika or V himself, will most likely net you a bad ending.
• Non-Action Guy: Most of the other male characters are athletic and/or will have some kind of rescue scene (even Yoosung gets a badass moment in his route). V doesn't get much focus in general, but Jumin mentions at one point that he's "not persistent enough to fight anyone", and he's visibly thinner and more delicately built than the others. Being mostly blind tends to preclude "action", too. Even in his own route, his attempt at rescuing you just gets him hurt, and Ray is able to physically overpower him without much difficulty. Subverted in Ray's route where you can call him much later in the route and you hear him beat someone down.
• Not So Above It All: Although he's presented as one of the more mature members of the RFA and is a pretty melancholic figure overall, V does have a playful side. In the main game, this manifests as him lightly teasing other characters, while event chats have him displaying trollish behavior that even rivals Seven's antics.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: You can ask what V's real name is during the common route, but the answer you get is just "You should ask him yourself". His legal name is Jihyun Kim, revealed in a flashback during the first Secret Ending. It also comes up in his route, naturally, and he goes back to using it in his Good Ending.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: In his route, V's only way of disguising himself is to don Mint Eye's standard black robe and hood. Although it's no surprise that Ray immediately recognizes him when V interrupts the initiation ceremony, both Ray and Rika are surprised that V snuck past them and managed to infiltrate Mint Eye despite the fact that V didn't bother to disguise his voice, hair, or eye color.
• Parental Abandonment: Jumin mentions that V's parents largely ignored him when he was young. He also makes a cryptic comment about something that "happened to [V's] mother", but does not elaborate. V's route gives more context on both, but focuses far more on his mother.
  • V's mother was a talented violinist who lost her hearing and by extension her career shortly before he was born. She fell into a crippling depression, which apparently prompted Jihyun's father to leave her and take their child with him. They had scattered encounters during Jihyun's childhood, most of which involved her encouraging him to pursue his artistic talents. She died saving him from a house fire when he was in his teens.
• Parental Substitute: In Luciel's route, it is revealed that Luciel saw him as a father figure.
• Passing the Torch: Jumin succeeds him as RFA's leader.
• Poor Communication Kills: An understatement. He keeps everything about Rika and Mint Eye a secret from the RFA (his success at keeping the others in the dark varies from route to route), and it's implied that his refusal to speak about what's happening gets him killed off-screen at the end of every route but his own. In Secret End 01, we see this happen on-screen.
  • V even lampshades this during a phone call with you in his own route, saying if he'd just kept everything to himself, he was sure something bad might have happened to him.
• Post-Mortem Conversion: In a sense. After V dies, everyone seems to forgive V for keeping them in the dark about Rika and her involvement in Mint Eye because they finally understood what his true intentions were (to protect the RFA members).
• The Quiet One: He's become much quieter in the two years since the last party, but other characters imply that he's never been chatty.
• Reclusive Artist: Zen mentions that V's work is famous and critically acclaimed, but he never speaks to the press or sells his photos. V also mentions in Jaehee's route that Zen can't go to Mint Eye's compound because he's famous, but V can because no one knows what he looks like. It's not entirely clear if this is a recent development; he did attend a gallery showing five years before the events of the story and met Rika there.
• Red Herring Mole: V's color theme is mint, and his incredibly suspicious behavior and hiding the truth from RFA, especially in Seven's route, leads even the characters to suspect that he is the mastermind behind Mint Eye. He's actually infiltrating Mint Eye, rather than the other way around.
• The Mole: The real reason why V's been MIA and suspiciously cryptic in all of the routes is because he's actually been undercover at Mint Eye, keeping tabs on Rika and gathering information about the cult. As you would expect, Rika does not take this well.
• Romanticized Abuse: Prone to thinking in this way, which obviously didn't help his Destructive Romance with Rika. You can help him out of this tendency in his route, or can encourage it and lead him into a very bad ending where it gets even worse.
  V (to Rika): I think my eyes are at their end. But... I liked it because you're the one who gave me this pain.
• Secretly Dying: In Jaehee's route, V appoints Jumin as the next leader of the RFA, saying that it's because he has terminal liver cancer. Based on the events of the first Secret Ending and the discussion he has with Unknown earlier in this route, V may be lying about this to keep the RFA in the dark about Rika's true nature and establish a reason for his inevitable disappearance.
• Self-Sacrifice Scheme:
  • He appears to do this in Jaehee's route. Unknown tells V that he will stop attacking the rest of RFA if V sacrifices himself. V says he needs time to establish a reason for his disappearance, which probably explains the cancer story he tells Jumin later in the route.
  • In V's route, he believes that he can stop Rika from hurting others by making himself the target of all her anger and violence, and tries to convince you to let him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy (an artist, emotional, valuing others above himself) to Jumin's manly man.
• Sorry I Fell on Your Fist: Overlaps with Apologizes a Lot. He blames himself for everything awful that Rika has ever done, including physically and emotionally abusing him, and apologizes to her for failing to make her happy.
• Sunglasses at Night: He's never seen without his sunglasses (except in old photos) until the first Secret Ending. His eyes are seriously injured and he's going blind; the glasses hide the scarring and probably make it less painful for him to be in bright places.
• Survivor Guilt: He appears to have some of this centered around his mother, who died while saving him from a house fire.
• Team Dad: For the younger RFA members (in Seven's case, V really was a Parental Substitute at one point). Before the branch of Another Story, he gently scolds Zen for reckless behavior on his motorcycle and the fact that his fridge contains nothing but beer.
• Tragic Hero: His intentions have always been good; the execution, not so much. See Tragic Mistake below.
• Tragic Mistake: When Rika started to reject therapy and became dangerously unstable, he chose to stay and try to keep her safe without telling anyone about her mental illness. She is exponentially worse by the events of the game, and V's attempts to save her eventually get him killed.
• Trauma Conga Line: After falling for Rika. Finding out she's mentally ill and trying to get help for her, only to watch her refuse treatment and become more and more upset and delusional. Hearing her threaten self-harm and telling her to hurt him instead, which she does. Living in that incredibly abusive, manipulative relationship for years. Having her injure his eyes so severely that he's going blind and has lost his career as a photographer. Being tortured and abused while undercover at Mint Eye after she breaks up with him for questioning her methods. And then he gets shot.
  • His route somehow gets even worse, even though he can survive it. All of the above except for the shooting occurs. Then he tries to rescue MC from Mint Eye, fails, and gets injured in the attempt. He finds MC again while Rika is trying to convince her to stay with Mint Eye, and Rika's disciples arrest him and throw him in a cell. Unknown physically attacks him and then forcibly overdoses him on the "elixir" that Rika uses to control people. You and Seven rescue him, but it takes days for the toxins to leave his system, and even when he's physically recovered he's mentally exhausted and depressed. He finally seems to be improving and starts to open up to MC about his fears and some of the trauma around his mother's death, and then Rika stabs him.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Hoo BOY. Big time in Ray's After Ending. He works with Rika and drugs the whole RFA so that they'll be knocked out for a few days, and even when he's rescued Seven, he and Rika keep him trapped in their home with plans to also trap Ray there too forever so they can "bring back the happier times."… while not stated outright given Rika’s behaviours and habits it’s implied this is a result of V being Brainwashed and Crazy due to the elixir.
• Used to Be More Social: Other characters mention that he was much more present in the chatroom and frequently met with Jumin before Rika died.
• Walking Spoiler: His existence itself isn't a spoiler, but the truth behind his and Rika's true relationship, as well as his eventual death, are major spoilers for those who haven't played the 1st secret ending. Not to mention everything that happens in his own route.
• You Are Number 6: V's codename in Mint Eye is Believer A306.
• You Are Worth Hell: V chose to stay with Rika even though it's clear he can't do anything to help her.

Unknown

Voiced by: Kang Sujin

A person who contacted the main character using a messaging application, looking for the owner of the phone he picked up. He disappears after the main character has discovered the RFA, but comes back later as the main antagonist who plans to stop the RFA's party. His real identity is Saeran Choi, 707's twin brother. In Another Story he is known as Ray.

Ray's route was released as the second branch of Another Story on 31 January 2018.

---

Click ^here to see his Main Story appearance

Click ^here to see his Another Story appearance

• Abusive Parents: His mother is an alcoholic who would, among other things, tie him up in the kitchen, while his dad probably wants him and his brother dead because they threaten his image. There's a reason he calls his life back home "hell".
• Adaptational Name Change: In V's route, he is usually called "Ray". It turns out that Ray is a Split Personality.
• Affably Evil: He's very kind to you, especially in the first four days of Another Story, at least, before his more violent self kicks in during the course of V's route. Throughout the first few days in V's route, he does all sorts of nice things for you, like picking flowers.
• Always Someone Better: Unknown views Seven as his rival, angry that he was better in almost everything in life. This becomes his breaking point when Rika, who had convinced him of his potential, chooses Seven over him.
• Ambiguously Christian: Unlike his brother, Saeyoung, who is explicitly stated to have been born into an irreligious household and initially didn't believe in God and converted to Catholicism later, Saeran/Unknown's exact relationship with religion (aside from his explicit affiliation with Mint Eye)—Christianity and Catholicism specifically— is a bit trickier to pinpoint. He most likely also was originally irreligious, and after learning about Catholicism through Seven, he grew an interest in church. Saeran does say around that time that he does believe in God and prays to Him sometimes, and later he does attend Mass with V and Rika. That being said, in the Secret Ending, he says that he doesn't know if God exists or not, suggesting he is agnostic. Additionally, one of Seven's bad endings has Unknown yell at Seven "Why don't you ask that righteous God of yours?!", which seems to imply that Unknown holds some contempt towards Christianity/Catholicsm (though it could also be related to both his loyalty to Mint Eye and his disdain for anything related to Seven.) However, Another Story (which takes place about two years prior to the above), it's a little different. Depending on the dialogue option chosen, while talking to the MC on day 10 of his route, after escaping Magenta and doing some work to find Seven, he makes a comment saying he believes God is on his side helping him (though he also wonders if Seven purposefully left details for Saeran to find) and in his After Ending, he does imply he believes in guardian angels, Heaven and an afterlife. Still, it isn't explicitly confirmed if he is Catholic or another Christian, holds some spiritual beliefs but is not affiliated with any religion, might've just been speaking metaphorically, or something else.
• Ascended Extra: Unknown was given a route, which releases on January 31, 2018.
• Ax-Crazy: Saeran is... not a stable person, due to being a Brainwashed and Crazy cultist.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: By Rika's cult. It's even explicitly referred to as such.
• Broken Pedestal: Saeran idolizes Rika and refers to her as his "savior". When she suggests sparing Seven (after she convinced Saeran that his brother betrayed him) and V (whom he feels is a threat to Mint Eye), Saeran feels betrayed by her and breaks down. A similar case happens in his own route where the protagonists' influence cause him to question Rika's decisions and on the way to the good ending, culminating to Saeran leaving Mint Eye.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: He's the one who sent you to Rika's apartment. He can also enter anytime he wants.
• Caring Gardener: Played with. In his backstory, Saeran's interest in gardening and flowers started before his induction to Mint Eye, when he was the gentle and timid boy he originally was. In Another Story, Ray is the person most interested in gardening, as he's in change of maintaining Magenta's garden and often will gift flowers to and talk about the language of the flowers to the player character. However, while Ray is the most affable and passive of Saeran's personalities, he's still not unambigously good; he's a cultist who lied to and kidnapped (through deception) the player character, harbors a deep resentment towards both his brother Saeyoung and V (whom in V's route, he gives a version of the elixir modified to be even more painful specifically for V); and in the bad endings for Another Story's prologue and common route, as well as V's route, he's shown that he will stalk the MC or force her to drink the elixir if he suspects that she doesn't agree with Mint Eye's ideals nor wants to stay with him. His his isolated and abusive upbringing and him being forcibly brainwashed by Mint Eye makes a lot of his actions fall even more into morally ambiguous territory. Later in his own route, when he is brainwashed back into the Unknown from Casual Story/Deep Story, he's not shown doing any gardening and says to the MC he doesn't get Ray's interest in flowers. Though given that he was trying to follow Rika's ideas of what being "strong" is, it's pretty likely he was just trying to deny his interest in them due to seeing them as weak. Unknown in Casual Story/Deep Story is never seen gardening, nor is any interest in it mentioned. In Ray's good and normal ending and his After Ending, this trope is played completely straight, with Saeran at that point being consistently kind, gentle and forgiving and his love of gardening and flowers being very prevelant, to the point where in the normal ending of his After Ending and some Google Docs events Cheritz has done, it's shown he now has a greenhouse.
• The Cracker: Just like his twin, thanks to Rika's involvement.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: In V's route, he invites you to test out a new mobile game. When he starts falling in love with you for real, he begins to get jealous of you spending time with the RFA.
• Dark Is Evil / Evil Wears Black: on days 7-9 on his route he wears a black suit and is largely cruel.
• Desperately Craves Affection: Especially in Another Story. This trope is why he becomes so attached to the MC. He interprets her simply trusting his words and coming to Magenta as an act of kindness, when in his life (including currently in Mint Eye), he was mostly treated horribly.
• The Dog Bites Back: In the tenth day of his route, he decides that Rika is wrong with her way of going about things and gave her a ShutUpHannibal speech that for all that she claims to be doing things for the good, she actually wishes to induce pain on others the same way she experienced in her childhood, prompting him to choose the protagonist over Rika.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul":
  • In Seven's route, Unknown becomes agitated when Seven addresses him as Saeran, and says that Saeyoung has no right to use that name.
  • On Day 7 of V's route, V tries to appeal to Ray's humanity by using his real name. Ray screams at him to stop saying that, and claims that he will strangle V if he says it again. V repeats it. Ray chokes him until he loses consciousness, and it's implied that Unknown would have kept going if he'd surfaced.
  • A downplayed version in his route where calling him Ray after he was completely brainwashed by Rika to be the Unknown that the players have known that he felt sick hearing the protagonist call him Ray.
• The Dragon: He's the Savior's second-in-command within Mint Eye, and does whatever is asked of him.
• Driven to Suicide: He tries in the second Secret Ending, while he's confined in the hospital.
  • Also in V's normal and good endings. Although he was initially assumed to have died, V's After End revealed that he narrowly survived, although it left him with lasting burns.
• Dye Hard: His hair is bleached white except for the tips, which he doesn't seem to have gotten.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: And how. Asides the secret endings, his route is full of it, what with having to fight back against Rika to protect the MC, the person that he grow to genuinely like, and acknowledging the things about himself and learning that yes, he deserves to be free and that Rika is wrong about her way of going with things. And finally, coming to terms about his initial resentment with his brother.
• Evil Twin: Although it's not exactly his fault.
• Expy: Has several parallels with the nameless doll from Nameless as a character who manipulates the player character into meeting the five other main characters to fulfill a hidden sinister agenda while holding an obsession towards her, has a name that isn't revealed until the final (recommended) character route, and became a bitter misanthrope after believing that he was abandoned and forgotten by a loved one who made a promise to him and seeks revenge against them.
• Eye Color Change: CGs of a young Saeran shows him having similar yellow eyes as his brother, Saeyoung. This changed to mint green after he was brainwashed by Rika into joining her cult.
• Family Eye Resemblance: He and his brother Saeyoung are among the only characters in the game to have a single, ring-like marking inside their iris, which was likely a hint of them being related. Additionally, Saeran naturally had gold eyes, just like Saeyoung and his biological father Saejoong.
• Foreshadowing:
  • There's a red tinge to his hair, foreshadowing his relation to another character in the cast with bright red hair. Also, if you compare his normal pose with Seven's side pose, you'll notice that the two have the exact same hairstyle in spite of the color difference.
  • Similarily, both he and Seven are also among the only characters to have a single, ring-like marking inside their irises.
  • In Zen and Jumin's route, it's evident that there's some sort of rivalry between him and Seven. Naturally, it all makes sense once it's revealed that they're brothers.
• Game-Over Man: He appears in most of the bad endings in the game just to gloat at your loss.
• Hand Cannon: The pistol he has in the first Secret Ending is completely absurd. Especially considering he's an ill boy who is outright stated to be physically frail, there is no way he could reasonably fire it (especially one-handed) without smacking himself in the face.
• Have a Nice Death: In the bad endings he appears in, he talks to you very mockingly before either killing or kidnapping you.
• The Heavy: He works for the Savior, but he's almost always the one directly attacking the RFA personally or through hacking, while his boss remains in the shadows at their headquarters.
• Heel Realization: It was near the end of his route that he realized that him treating the protagonist badly doesn't make him any different from his abusive mother or Rika and near the end of Day 9, has started to come to terms with the abuse he experienced.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Apparently, this is part of the reason he's so drawn to you in V's route, since he says several times that he's never had any friends, and asks if he could be your best friend.
• Implied Love Interest: At least in Another Story’s timeline, as his ending ties up the most loose ends of the plot, and it’s referred to as “The Final End” by Cheritz themselves. Though considering his twin brother’s route gets a similar treatment in Deep Story, it could be a case of both Choi twins being the canonical love interest depending on the time the story takes place.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: During days 8 and 9 in his route, Saeran acts arrogant, abusive, and constantly calls himself strong while calling MC and many of the other believers weak, useless, and airheads. It's shown that this is largely out of fear of being hurt again and he later admits to MC that all of the derogatory names he called her was him actually projecting his own insecurities onto her.
• Jekyll & Hyde: In Another Story, it's revealed that his personality has split into Ray (sensitive and emotional, though still resentful and gleefully abusive toward V) and Saeran (consumed by rage, violently unstable, and resentful of his "weaker" side). Ray isn't unambiguously good either, but Saeran is brutal.
• Karma Houdini: While he was definitely not in the right state of mind at the time, his murder of V seems to be just quietly set aside by the other characters afterwards, and unlike with Rika whose crimes Jumin and Jaehee at least planned to inform the police about before Zen and Seven interfered, the other characters don't seem to even consider doing anything similar with him.
• Kick the Dog:
  • In the first Secret Ending, he mocks V for thinking he has any influence over Rika or that she could possibly still care about him.
  Unknown: The savior has no interest in you. It's a big mistake if you think being her ex lover means anything. Just be thankful that you're alive, blind man.
  • On Day 7 of V's route, V is locked up in Magenta's dungeon and deprived of water. Rika has only ordered Ray to give V a normal dose of the elixir, but he deliberately strengthens the formula and forcibly overdoses V on it. The whole time, Ray delights in watching V in pain and gleefully laughs while taunting him.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: On Day 7 of Another Story, Ray almost strangles V (who was injured on Day 5 and is now incapacitated by the elixir) because V calls him Saeran.
• Laughing Mad: He loves doing this. Sometimes overlaps with Evil Laugh.
• Leitmotif:
  • He didn't have a specific theme in the original routes, but usually appeared with "Dark Secret" or "Mysterious Clues" playing.
  • In Another Story, he gets two: "Endless Struggle" (Ray's theme) and "I am the Strongest" (Saeran/"Unknown"'s theme), which serve to tell you which one you're dealing with, among other things.
• Lima Syndrome: In Another Story. His initial goal was to find a person who would unknowingly infiltrate RFA and organize the party, and for a good chunk of time he pretty much holds you captive, but that doesn't stop him from immediately becoming very attached to you.
• Long-Lost Relative: He's Seven's twin brother who he hasn't seen in years, thought to have been under Rika and V's care.
• Loss of Identity: What Rika did to Saeran when she brainwashed him. She convinced him that the softer aspects of his personality were "Ray", and only his anger and resentment were the real Saeran.
• Love Makes You Crazy: He's attracted to you in all routes, but V's route really seals the deal. At first, he's oblivious of your attempts at flirting with him, until he genuinely falls in love with you by the 4th Day and hopes to inaugurate you into Mint Eye so he won't be alone. He starts begging you to stay when you become suspicious, and he subsequently freaks out when V tries to rescue you during the ceremony. In his route, this is averted since instead of doing the former, he lies to Rika about successfully brainwashing you in the hopes of protecting you.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Most of the time, everyone just calls him Unknown. In Seven's route, we learn that his real name is Saeran.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: In V's route it is shown that his fear of abandonment is so severe that this is basically his catchphrase. From the very first day he gets very distressed whenever you imply that you want to leave, and starts promising to try harder to make you happy. This only gets worse later on.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: In the original story, his attire consists mainly of red and black clothing and he's an antagonist. He wasn't always evil, however.
• The Resenter: He has harbored an intense resentment toward Seven and V for years, ever since Rika brainwashed him and convinced him that they were responsible for his abandonment and torture.
• Scars Are Forever: V's After End shows that he survived Mint Eye's destruction, but it left him with burn marks on his face and one of his hands.
• Split Personality: In Another Story, we learn that he in fact has two personalities - Ray, who is introduced upon arrival at Mint Eye, and a much more dangerous and violent side that both he and Rika refer to as Saeran. Ray's route reveals that this is the result of the elixir that made him Brainwashed and Crazy. "Ray" is made up of the softer elements of his personality, while "Saeran" is the negative emotions and violence Rika encouraged in the course of brainwashing him. "Saeran's Diary" in the Mint Eye Believer's special package gives more details and insight.
• Split-Personality Merge: Near the end of Saeran's route, his two personalities start to reintegrate.
• Stalker with a Crush: In the prologue of Another Story, if you reject his request to test the game, he starts watching you in secret and calling you every day.
• Sweet Tooth: According to his profile, his Trademark Favorite Foods are candy and ice cream.
  • And he does mention loving ice cream in V's route.
• Troubled, but Cute: In Secret Ending 2, Saeran struggles between trusting Seven again and resenting him.
  • In V's route he's just as unstable as in the main game (not to mention him still being a cultist), but his obvious and expressive affection for you immediately made his Ray personality extremely popular among the fans.
• Tsundere: After he is reformed, he acts like this, mostly around Seven.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: The Saeran in Seven's flashbacks is nothing like the Unknown the player has been used to. Being brainwashed can do that to a person.
• Villainous Breakdown: In the Secret Ending, he is not happy when Rika not only spares Seven's life, but also intends to bring him into Mint Eye as one of her disciples to replace his role. He is also angry when she chooses to spare V's life as well. This causes him to become mentally unstable and shoot V.
  • In V's route, he does not react well to V's attempts to rescue MC. Most notably, when V smashes the elixir Ray was trying to drug the player with, he completely drops his suave and charming persona and starts to hysterically scream and cry.
• Vocal Dissonance: He has a somewhat gentle, even delicate appearance many fans find adorable. Because of this, hearing his quite low and raspy voice for the first time can be surprising.
• Voice of the Legion: He has a creepy, distorted voice when he speaks with his mask on.
• Villainous Crush: His crush on the protagonist is heavily implied in the first five routes, and his obsession with her goes through the roof in V's.
• Walking Spoiler: Just the fact he's present in the plot at all is a huge sign, to those of the cast in the know at least, that something is very, very wrong.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He appears this way during the events of the game, displaying incredibly creepy and violent behavior. It's subverted later, when we find out that he Used to Be a Sweet Kid and why that changed. After the events of the second Secret Ending, he lets his hair grow out red again.
• Yandere:
  • Interestingly enough, in V's route both his personalities are this for you, with Ray stalking you in the Prologue bad ending and deciding to "teach you the sorrow he's felt" in Day 4 bad ending, and Unknown bluntly promising to take you regardless of your wish and do whatever he pleases with you.
  • In his own route, Saeran behaves this way after he snaps and starts referring to the protagonist as his "toy". Despite constant abuse, he's very possessive over you, forbidding any other Believer from entering your room and arguing with Rika over the idea of you being brainwashed or disposed of by someone other than him.

Rika

Voiced by: Lee Hyun Jin

Rika is the founder of the RFA (Rika's Fundraising Association), which has helped many people through its parties. She died by suicide one and a half years ago prior to the events of Mystic Messenger, which resulted in the RFA putting a stop to their hosting of parties. She was Yoosung's cousin and V's lover/fiancée. Despite her absence, her impact on other characters is evident in every route, and her role as the founder and namesake of the RFA makes her an important symbolic presence. Rika does not have a route of her own, but is a crucial character in both branches of Another Story.

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• Abusive Parents: Part of her Dark and Troubled Past. Rika's parents alternated between abusing her and neglecting her, before finally outright abandoning her. Her adoptive parents didn't treat her much better.
• Affably Evil: She's unfailingly nice to you during your stay at Mint Eye, taking you for walks around the gardens and offering you hot milk for the cold even as she's ordering her guards to capture V and drag him down to the dungeons. This pleasant demeanor becomes much more unsettling once her mental instability is revealed.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Several characters comment on her childlike innocence. As Jumin's father says, it's this kind of innocence that can very easily be warped. And it does indeed get corrupted, making her particularly prone to the twisted logic and extremist beliefs that help trigger her Start of Darkness.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Played with. Despite her mental illness which led her to take up the action of being a Well-Intentioned Extremist, Rika seemed to be very shocked by his sudden death to the point where it caused her to develop aphasia as a result. It's unsure as to whether or not this was genuine concern, though, since Rika did threaten to torture and kill V herself earlier in the ending for trying to interfere with her plans. In addition to this, in V's route, if you help him realize that he never actually loved Rika in the first place, she's sent into hysterics, swinging between hating him for saying that their love wasn't real and desperately begging to have him back because being with him was the only time she felt any kind of warmth. It's left up to you to decide if she ever truly loved him, but she does insist that she does until the very end.
  • With Ray, in a rather twisted way. Though she's the one responsible for the way he is now, she's also the only character to show any kind of acknowledgement of his existence or concern for his well-being at the end of the story, and expresses hope that he'll be able to find happiness one day. Upon finding out about his death, she also has a major Freak Out of grief and guilt.
• Big Bad: Secret Ending 01 reveals that Rika was the supreme leader of Mint Eye, a cult obsessed over getting to 'paradise' through brainwashing. Her aim was to get rid of all the fear and sadness in the world, although V accuses this as a dictatorship; the protagonist and the other RFA members are targeted by her in all of the routes.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Before the start of the game she acted like a benevolent, loving person who would never hurt a soul, meanwhile she was emotionally and physically abusing V behind closed doors. The members of the RFA have only nice things to say about her because for all they know, she was a wonderful woman who died tragically. The lie crumbles the deeper you get into the route progression.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Her view of the world is very much this, so much so that she feels absolutely no remorse for kidnapping, drugging and abusing her followers to submission if need be (like she did to Saeran), since she believes that she is saving them from the darkness of the cruel world.
• Broken Ace: A beautiful, intelligent, and cheerful woman who hosted parties for charity, did everything in her power to make others happy, and died by suicide. Also a mentally unstable cult leader willing to brainwash others and permanently blind her lover to fulfill her dream of making everyone happy by ANY means necessary. And V lied about her dying by suicide to hide from the other RFA members just how truly broken she was.
• Broken Bird: Mental illness that went untreated until her twenties had a massive impact on her early life, and her relationship with V was toxic for both of them. In V's route and the Secret Endings, she is shown to be a dangerously unstable and miserable person.
• Broken Pedestal: For nearly every character in the first Secret Ending, when they find out the truth about Mint Eye and what Rika has been doing in the two years since she "died". Zen and Yoosung are Locked Out of the Loop in this continuity, but they get the whole story in V's route. Yoosung reacts about as well as you'd expect to The Reveal that his beloved, idolized cousin is an abusive cult leader.
• Dark Messiah: Her role for the disciples of Mint Eye. They even call her their savior.
• Destructive Romance: With V, Rika's fiancé. Her deteriorating mental state and obsession over ridding the world of fear and sadness caused a huge rift between her and V. She even accuses V of caring more about the RFA than about her. After emotionally and physically abusing him, she gave V an eye injury and left him to be the leader of Mint Eye.
• Domestic Abuse: Rika injured V's eyes and told him that if he really loved her, he would just accept it and go blind, due to the fact that he once said, unprovoked, that he wouldn't mind if she blinded him, that it might be an interesting experience that brought him closer to her. It's also implied that she tortured him while he was in Mint Eye due to her belief that V didn't really care about her or her goals.
• Driven to Suicide: She died by suicide a year and a half before the events of the game ... or so we're led to believe. In V's normal ending, it happens for real.
• Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Rika has these during her Sanity Slippage and after V's death.
• Gaslighting: One of the many forms of abuse she has inflicted on V and Saeran.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In V's route, she gets so jealous of the protagonist appearing to develop a relationship with V that she stabs him.
  • Averted if you choose to agree with her philosophy and promise to love "the devil inside her." If you do so (and continuously side with her and Mint Eye over V), instead of getting jealous of you, Rika chooses you over V. This ushers you into a Bad Ending where she and the protagonist begin a (unhealthy) relationship.
  • This trope is zig-zagged even if you don't get the above bad ending. Though Rika does appear to be jealous of the MC at certain points, she also outright praises the MC for bringing out the human side of V that Rika herself never could. By the end of the route, she's alternating between thanking the MC for being by his side, saying that all she wants is for the MC and the rest of the RFA to be happy, and hysterically begging V and/or the MC not to leave her.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Subverted. In the first Secret Ending, we learn that she isn't the kind-hearted person everyone thought they knew, and it's possible that she never was that person.
• Happily Adopted: Subverted. Turns out life with her adoptive parents had been far from happy. Her adoptive mother even remarked that she wished she never adopted Rika in the first place.
• If I Can't Have You…: In V's route, after he tells her that their relationship was based in an unhealthy obsession and he's done trying to salvage it, Rika stabs him in a hysterical rage.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: One of her primary motivations. She's desperate for love, and her fear that no one has ever loved her leads to her most dramatic Freak Out in V's route.
• In Love with Love: The true nature of her relationship with V on her end. Rather than loving him for who he is, she was more in love with the idea that she could be loved by anyone at all, due to the trauma from her Dark and Troubled Past.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Related to Sanity Slippage. We see it during flashbacks in the first Secret Ending. Her rejection of therapy and insistence that she doesn't need it are troubling, and her refusal to accept her dog's death is a little creepy, but they're nothing compared to blinding her fiancé and running a Brainwashed and Crazy cult.
• Karma Houdini: After everything Rika put the RFA members through (and inadvertently causing V's death), Rika is put back into rehabilitation. That's it. In fact, no one seems to really bring up her involvement with Mint Eye or the fact that she brainwashed Saeran after the 1st secret ending.
  • Zen's prophetic dream suggests that Jumin and Jaehee had plans to call Rika out on what she'd done and serve her appropriate punishment... until Seven hacked their network and deleted all their evidence files to prevent any chance of Saeran's name or involvement being made public.
  • Averted with V's normal ending, where the entire RFA turns against her, and Saeran attempts suicide while blowing up Magenta. Overwhelmed by guilt and grief, she goes back to her apartment and triggers the bomb, causing her to die. Even fans that wanted Rika to be punished for her actions didn't think she deserved that kind of ending.
  • In Ray/Saeran's normal and good ending, the RFA (sans v) are Locked Out of the Loop of Rika being involved with Saeran's brainwashing though they are aware of what Saeran had gone through and even in the end of the route, she wasn't punished for her actions.
• Knight Templar: Mint Eye's objective is to remove all suffering from the world and make everyone happy. Sounds great, if unrealistic. The brainwashing and torture, not so much.
• Madness Makeover: Rika wears the Mint Eye uniform after she leaves V for the cult.
• Manipulative Bitch: Being the leader of Mint Eye pretty much requires this. Flashbacks also show her gaslighting and guilt-tripping V whenever he tried to reason with her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Says this almost verbatim when she calls the protagonist after stabbing V, sobbing about how she's a monster and begging the MC to take care of him. She has the same reaction when she killed Saeyoung and Saeran's mother out of self defense but ultimately decided to focus on saving Saeran first.
• Never Found the Body: Yoosung doesn't believe Rika is dead primarily because he never saw physical proof. This gets him into quite some trouble during his second bad story ending, when Unknown is able to trick him into following him by lying that he had done an autopsy on Rika's body. As it turns out, he's right — Rika isn't really dead.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: She institutes a horrific regime of torture and brainwashing, while also having followers drink an elixir that breaks down their sanity and trying to destroy the Rika Fundraising Association. In V's route, she claims, when conversing with the heroine, that this is all to create a paradise where everyone in the world can be happy and free from pain and suffering, and no one will have to suffer the bad childhood that she did. However, in Ray's route, she drops this rhetoric and reveals it to be a cover for being The Social Darwinist who believes the strong should dominate the weak. So in the end, Rika simply wants to dominate others as payback for being dominated and abused as a child.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: V asks if "Rika" is her real name in the flashback that shows their first meeting. She confirms that it's not, but never actually tells him what it is. If you play her DLC you learn that her birth name is Mina, Serena was the name her adoptive parents gave her, and once she finally left her abusive home, she renamed herself Rika.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: Combined with Please, I Will Do Anything! in V's route, and is said to both V and the MC at different points. She begs both characters to let her stay with them, telling them that they can do anything they want to her, whether it's mangling her body or keeping her locked up in her room. In V's day 10 Bad Ending, this actually works, and V returns to her.
• Pure Is Not Good: Definitely pure of heart, and single-mindedly dedicated to her cause — which involves brainwashing and kidnapping in order to bring about her imagined paradise.
• Put on a Bus: At the end of Secret End 02, Yoosung and Zen send her to a natural rehabilitation group abroad before Jumin and Jaehee can call her in for questioning over her involvement with Mint Eye.
• Posthumous Character: Or so we're expected to think. Turns out V lied about her suicide to hide the truth about Rika's true colors from the other RFA members.
• Rape as Backstory: Her DLC reveals that she was repeatedly sexually abused by her family's pastor when she was a child.
• Sanity Slippage: The entire first part of the Secret Ending shows Rika's slow descent into Mint Eye.
• Stepford Smiler: Rika hated being around Yoosung, because that meant she would have to smile and pretend everything is okay, when clearly she is anything but.
  • This is explored in greater detail in V's route, when Rika reveals to the protagonist that forcing herself to smile outwardly convinced the people around her that she was "normal," and allayed the bullying she had experienced as a child.
• Walking Spoiler: Her existence itself isn't a spoiler, but the fact that she's actually been alive all this time and played a crucial role in the plan to kidnap the RFA members is a major spoiler for those who haven't played the 1st secret ending.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Rika's goal was to lead everyone into a paradise named "Magenta" and purge all the pain in the world. Too bad Mint Eye was a cult.
• Uncertain Doom: On the 10th day of V's route, the bomb in her apartment detonates, apparently with her inside. In the normal ending, she is never found and is presumed dead. In V's good ending, Rika shows up at the cancelled party and tries to dose guests with her salvation elixir, so it's possible that she survives the normal ending and just goes into hiding.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: She created Mint Eye in a twisted attempt to eliminate suffering from the world. With that goal as her excuse, she could justify brainwashing anyone who opposed her and torturing people so they would appreciate peace.
• Villainous Breakdown: One in the first Secret Ending, and two in V's route.
  • Despite her cold attitude towards V in Secret Ending 01, his death causes her to have one of these, resulting in aphasia.
  • In V's route, she breaks down screaming and crying uncontrollably when you reject her and V says that his feelings for her were a dangerous obsession. She has another meltdown later in the route after V says their relationship is over, culminating in Rika stabbing him.
  • Momentarily suffers this when Saeran calls her out for her abuse and ultimately leaving. That is until V appears to her side.
• Villainous Crush: She develops a crush on the protagonist in V's route, and in a bad ending, you can reciprocate.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Everyone knows her as the philanthropic, wonderful person who founded RFA and tried to help the disadvantaged. It doesn't go well when most of the cast (sans Zen and Yoosung) discovers her Brainwashed and Crazy cult and Rika's own Sanity Slippage.
• Visionary Villain: See entries under Utopia Justifies the Means and Knight Templar.
• We Can Rule Together: Attempts this with the MC in V's route. Whether it succeeds or not is up to you.

Minor Characters (unmarked spoilers)

Vanderwood

Seven’s maid, or so he claims. In truth, Vanderwood is a secret agent who works alongside Seven as his handler. He frequently gets frustrated at his co-worker’s antics.

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• Endearingly Dorky: Most of the time he's a Deadpan Snarker with a touch of a Hair-Trigger Temper, but if you catch him at the right moment, he can actually be pretty cute, such as the time when you can choose to tell him you think he's handsome in V's route, to which he'll be very surprised and very flustered, telling you that your compliment is making him "a bit self conscious." He also seems to like Iron Man, since he reluctantly admits to Seven that, if he had the choice, he would change his codename from "Vanderwood" to "Stark." And during V's after ending, the fact that he really does very much care about Seven is made abundantly clear: disregarding orders from the agency to kill him for insubordination, fussing over him, insisting that he eats, and going to lengths far beyond what he has to to make sure that Seven stays with the RFA and finds Saeran.
• Gender Reveal: It's revealed early on in Seven's route that Seven's maid "Miss Mary" Vanderwood is actually a man - and that Vanderwood isn't really Seven's maid at all. Notably and humorously, Zen doesn't take it well, even by the end of Secret 01.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: As seen on the picture.
• Only Sane Man: In V's route, while you're hiding with V and Seven, he's clearly the most emotionally stable person there, and since he's the only one in the room not emotionally invested in what's going on, is also capable of being objective about the situation, and therefore points out all the ways in which what's happening is absolutely bonkers.
• Punch-Clock Villain: At the end of the day, all Vanderwood wants is to survive working for the agency, and when Seven offers him an escape from it during the Secret Ending, he takes it.
• The Spook: As an agent, his prior identity has been erased and he no longer uses his birth name. He really doesn't like the name he's been assigned, and if he had the choice, he would change it to "Agent Stark," since he apparently likes Iron Man.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Seven. He may threaten to taser him and nag him to do his work and once tries to kill him, but he does become genuinely panicked when Seven gets shot in the Secret Ending and does everything he can to keep him awake and alive, even telling him that his life would be ruined if he saw him die. In V's route, when Seven calls him and tells him that he needs his help, he drops everything and comes to help V detox from the elixir, just because he knows it's important to Seven. Even more, in V's after ending, he can't bring himself to shoot Seven for disregarding the agency's orders, instead telling him to Get A Hold Of Yourself Man to snap him out of his depression, and opting to stick by him to make sure he's safe and fed. The two of each other have known each other for many years, and while Vanderwood acts like Seven's nothing but a thorn in his side, he cares very deeply for him, and makes it very clear when things get dicey.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He and Seven are both captured near the end of Ray's route. Seven is implied to be dead in the normal ending and is still missing in the good ending, but Vanderwood is never mentioned in either.
  • In Ray's After Ending, he's revealed to be alive and aids the protagonist into rescuing Seven.

V's Mother

The deceased mother of V.

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• Broken Bird: She lost her hearing and by extension her career as a violinist due to an injury during her pregnancy. The resulting depression prevented her from interacting with people or properly caring for her child, and her husband left her and took Jihyun with him. It took years for her to find her son again and start to build a relationship with him, but he remained emotionally distant and even occasionally hostile toward her. Her Posthumous Narration of VNs during V's route shows a deeply hurt and traumatized person.
• Career-Ending Injury: She lost her hearing, which made it impossible for her to continue as a violinist.
• Cynicism Catalyst: Inverted. Her Heroic Sacrifice finally inspired Jihyun to drop the cold businessman persona his father had cultivated in him and start to pursue his artistic talents as she had always urged him to.
• Heroic BSoD: After she lost her hearing, her depression was so severe that she rarely spoke to anyone or left her room.
• Heroic Sacrifice: She died after running into a burning house to rescue her son.
• Mama Bear: She willingly jumped into a burning house just to save her son.
• Missing Mom: Since she died in the backstory.
• No Name Given: Even in the visual novel segments she's not narrating, she's only ever referred to as "Mother".
• Posthumous Character: She died some years prior to the events of V's route, but has a significant role in the story via Posthumous Narration and a few conversations MC has with V later in the route.
• Posthumous Narration: Multiple VNs in V's route are told from her perspective, giving context on his childhood and how he became the person he is today.
• Unnamed Parent: Her surname is presumably Kim, but her given name never comes up.

Echo Girl

A popular celebrity and idol who Zen is set to work with in his route. She is a big fan of his and flirts with him, giving him the lead role in an upcoming production so she can act alongside him. However, when he rejects her advances, she becomes furious and frames him for sexual harassment, intending to destroy his career.

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• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Echo Girl is well-adored and even manages to save Zen's role in a show after he injures his ankle. But as soon as Zen rejects her advances...
• Buxom Beauty Standard: Echo Girl tells Zen that he can't resist a girl with "natural D cup breasts" when she comes onto him.
• Embarrassing First Name: Echo Girl's real name is Kyungju Choi, which she hates. Zen often calls her by that instead of her Stage Name.
• Evil Is Petty: She responds to rejection (polite rejection in Zen's case) by attempting to destroy Zen's and Jumin's careers.
• Idol Singer: Echo Girl is a popular singer in South Korea.
• It's All About Me: From the Disproportionate Retribution she gives Zen and Jumin, it's apparent that she can't take rejection.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Implied. Being exposed as a liar by her victim (with a girlfriend) wouldn't do any good to her reputation, and in Zen's After Story, she isn't a good actress.
• More Hateable Minor Villain: Echo Girl's only purpose is to serve as an antagonist in Zen's route while Unknown and The Savior are doing their own thing. She is a famous celebrity who tries to pressure Zen, a co-actor in an upcoming production, into sex, then makes a False Rape Accusation as revenge for being turned down. She has no redeeming qualities, and the only good thing she's ever done for Zen was to convince the director not to drop Zen from his project when he injures his ankle, albeit for ulterior motives.
• Not Good with Rejection: Rather than accept Zen's rejection of her advances, she accuses him of sexually harassing her, damaging his reputation as a result.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. She shares a surname with one of the main characters, but has no relation to him. Understandable, as it's one of the more common surnames in Korea.
• Stage Name: "Echo Girl" is the professional name of Kyungju Choi.
• Woman Scorned: Echo Girl plans to ruin both Zen and Jumin's image after Jumin refuses to invite her to a party and Zen turns down her advances. She even addresses this trope when she spouts out "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Zen.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: When Zen turns down her advances, she claims he harassed her to destroy his image and gain more publicity for herself.

Glam Choi

A famous film actress and new lover of Chairman Han who schemes to get at his fortune.

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• Gold Digger: Only wants to marry Jumin's father because of his money.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. She shares a surname with one of the main characters, but has no relation to him. Understandable, as it's one of the more common surnames in Korea. She is however, related to Sarah.
• More Hateable Minor Villain: Glam has no redeeming qualities and was written to be an antagonist in Jumin's route.

Sarah

A woman who follows Glam Choi around and serves as an apprentice of sorts. Like her mentor, she is greedy wants to marry Jumin to get at his money.

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• Arranged Marriage: Glam and Chairman Han set Jumin up with Sarah and expect him to marry her. It's eventually called off.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Sarah gets jealous of the player when Jumin prefers to spend more time with her.
• Gold Digger: The main reason she's trying to marry Jumin is because she and her company need money.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with her last name, Choi, which is a common surname in Korea.
• More Hateable Minor Villain: Sarah has no real purpose in Jumin's route other than to stir up trouble.

Prime Minister Saejoong Choi

The current prime minister of South Korea and a popular politician. Behind his kind face lies a scheming scumbag who abandoned his children, the Choi twins, and wants nothing more than to be elected as president.

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• Abusive Parents: Pretty much a given with all the times he tried to get rid of Saeyoung and Saeran on a countless basis.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Despite his nice friendly front, he is only shown interacting with the RFA with ulterior motives of finding Saeyoung and getting rid of him.
• The Ghost: In Seven's route, he was only mentioned; he doesn't appear in person until Ray's route.
• Greater-Scope Villain: As the corrupt prime minister, he is a far greater threat than the Savior and Mint Eye, but he stays in the background in most routes, only acting in the Seven and Ray routes.
• Family Eye Resemblance: He shares the same gold eye color that his biological sons, Saeyoung and Saeran, naturally have.
• Karma Houdini: He gets off scot-free in the Normal ending of Ray's route after abducting Saeyoung and possibly killing him. Even in the secret endings following Seven's good ending, his neglect and attempted murder of his children never reached the public eye and still maintains his position as a political figure as a result. Averted in the good ending of Ray's route where the RFA reveals the truth and has him charged for those crimes before he can proceed with getting rid of Saeyoung, ending his political career.
• Offing the Offspring: Heavily implied to be the case of what he had done to Saeyoung in the normal ending of Ray's route. This also happens to either of the twins in some of the bad endings in Ray's After Ending.

Mika (Unmarked Spoilers)

A fellow orphan Rika/Mina grew up with who shows up in the Rika Behind DLC.

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• Enfant Terrible: Even as a little girl, she espouses the belief that cruelty is what makes people strong, meaning even then she was set on the path to grooming Mina into becoming a cult leader.
• Freudian Excuse: Like Rika, she grew up with bad adoptive parents who at some point dumped her back in the orphanage. This led her to adopt the belief that being cruel to your children is the only way to make them prosper. Though unlike Rika, her past is not focused on.
• Predecessor Villain: She's the one who actually created Mint Eye and then brainwashed Rika into becoming her protégé.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears in a single DLC and dies by the time of the main story, but she is the one who corrupted Rika into becoming the Savior and founded the cult Mint Eye. Essentially the entire plot happens because of her.