Hyun-tae Jeon [Driftveil | Unova]

To say Hyun-tae had very few people in his early life is something of an understatement. He barely knew his mother, who died mere months after his sister was born, and their father preferred the life he had outside of his children. Thus, they were left in the care of the man’s father-in-law, their kindly grandfather who doted on his grandchildren and raised them in a loving manner. He was the one who gave them their first Pokemon; he cared about them far more than their father seemed to. At least, he did until his sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack. Their grandfather was in their lives one day and gone the next, just like that.

This loss cut deep into his child’s mind. Hyu loved his grandfather, he really did-but the man’s passing was, to his young heart, nothing short of a betrayal. The one adult who had genuinely cared for him and his sister was gone; he’d left them behind, and the feelings of grief morphed into deep-seated resentment. It didn’t help that their father eventually gave away their grandfather’s Pokemon; he barely tolerated their own, and didn’t wish to care for more. With that, Hyu had no one left to support him; his sister was too young to fully understand what was going on, so he had to take care of her, and their Pokemon too. They all needed him.

He really tried. While their father was off doing whatever it was he did, Hyu looked after his baby sister and her tiny Purrloin companion both. They trusted him completely; he was the older sibling, and that meant he had to protect them, whether from bullies or wild Pokemon or a nightmare. So strong was this conviction that when Team Plasma showed up at Aspertia and kidnapped the kitten right in front of the two kids, taking away their grandfather’s last gift to his sister and her beloved friend, it destroyed him. At seven years old, Hyu couldn’t do anything-couldn’t fight back, couldn’t chase them down. Her Purrloin was gone; just like with their grandfather, it’d happened so fast.

The only thing he could do was promise his grieving sister that no matter how long it took, he would find her Purrloin. This idea took root in his mind, and grew over the years into a storm of emotion. He hated Team Plasma more than words could ever describe; he almost cried at the way his father casually shrugged when told what had happened. The cruelty of adults felt so overwhelming; the only people in the world he could stand to be around were his sister and later on, his best friend. He had his Oshawott and them, and no one else. Even when his father eventually remarried, their stepmother didn’t seem used to interacting with kids. It was like having a complete stranger in the house, one who tried but couldn’t connect. This only strengthened the boy’s belief that no adult could be depended on.

When Hyu finally had the opportunity to enter the wider world-a chance to hunt down Plasma-he took it without hesitation. Hyu hated leaving his sister in that house, but promised to return as soon as he could with her Pokemon. Alongside Mei, he chased the people he so despised all across Unova, hoping in desperation that someone would know about the Purrloin that had been stolen all those years ago. Even when Hyu seemed to occasionally slow down, his single-minded fixation remained; everything he did had to be for his goal. He could not, would not, be that useless and weak kid again. He would bring something good back into his sister’s life.

The only thing that ever really gave him pause was the remnants of the so-called original Plasma, and even then, he quickly found himself hating them too. If they really cared, they would have never done what they did in the first place, he was convinced of that. It just got under his skin, the idea of forgiving anyone related to Plasma. They really thought fixing things was as easy as some stupid apology.

Still, at least they weren’t making things worse. The more he encountered the active part of Plasma, the more his anger against them built. But when Hyu met the Shadow Triad a second time, that fury cracked and broke the instant one of the three sent out their Liepard. Or rather, not theirs. He could not believe it at first when they said she was the same Pokemon he’d searched for all this time; he denied it vehemently, but the truth remained anyways. She was in fact his sister’s Purrloin, and she glared at him. She hated him, wanted to hurt him. Something in his head went fuzzy seeing that, like it was some nightmare he could not wake up from. He’d always pictured a tearful reunion, maybe even a joyful one, not... this.

Hyu wasn’t much help after that, admittedly; Mei was the one who really stopped Plasma in the end, and honestly, it was her who’d done most of the work the whole time anyway. Looking down at the Pokeball that held his sister’s Liepard, Hyu felt a painful guilt-he’d dragged his best friend into his personal mess, and she’d gone and fixed everything herself. How could he say that was any different than five years ago, when he’d been helpless as Plasma tore someone important away from his sister? It didn’t feel different.

Funnily enough, it was actually the ex-Plasma members he went to first, after seeing Mei off at the League. They would maybe help him with the Liepard; no way could he let his sister near her yet, the deep scratches on his arms proved that. Hyu was willing to set his feelings aside if it meant the fulfillment of his promise, not just to his sister but to the kitten that had been tormented by Plasma all those years. Some of the old members might have felt responsible, because they were really eager to help the Liepard even as she scratched and hissed at them. This conviction didn’t vanish as the days passed, either. Maybe, he thought begrudgingly, they were more than just talk after all.

When the time finally came for his sister to see her lost Pokemon, Hyu could’ve swore the cat recognized her in an instant. The Liepard never did that with him-she’d become friendlier, yes, but not in the way it’d been between them in the past. His sister, though? It was as if the last five years never happened. Seeing her smile, seeing her hug her beloved Liepard, seeing the way the Pokemon still adored her-that made everything worth it. Hyu felt, for once, like he’d done something right and good.

Of course, it also meant the end of the thread that kept him moving forward all those years, and he soon found himself adrift-at a complete loss for what to do next. His goal was finished, Hyu had fulfilled his promise, so what was he then good for? He sometimes hung out with friends, including a new guy who was apparently Mei’s long lost twin-she seriously had a life straight out of a Pokestar Studios film-but for the most part, Hyu just... didn’t leave his house anymore. He hadn’t forgotten how pushy he’d been, always demanding Mei’s help. Well, now his big quest was over. He began to feel a sharp anxiety, as though somehow that fact meant his connection with Mei was over too. She had more friends now, a sibling of her own, she’d saved the entire region-what if she didn’t want him anymore? Hyu never had many friends other than her, even his newest ones were Mei’s, without her he had no one outside his family.

That thought, playing in his head, trapped him at home even further. If he was going to lose his friends inevitably, then why not spend time with the only other person who was a constant in his life. His sister seemed happy to spend more time with him, and that was what mattered. There was only one thing could ever call him away consistently. Sometimes, the ex-Plasma members in Driftveil wanted his help reuniting stolen Pokemon with the people they once lived with. After everything he and his sister endured, no way could Hyu say no to that.

The last time he ever did this, though, he really should have refused. It would have been better if he’d stayed away. Maybe if he had, things would’ve turned out differently, less horrific. Because while he was out of his home city, the strange sickness he’d only heard very little about spread through Unova like wildfire. And while he was away, his sister died.

Hyu knew this because he went back to Aspertia when things turned really bad. He found her there, in their house where the monstrous things that used to be Pokemon had broken in, and everything that once made sense in his world shattered for good. To say she died is not right, but- Hyu doesn’t want to think of a word like murder. The memory of that day became blurry, as if his mind was rejecting it, not allowing it to be real. He still doesn’t know if it was real. But it still haunts him, that single sight burned into his head forever.

In the end, like some fucked up joke from the universe, Hyu made it back to Driftveil where this entire nightmare had started for him. It was safe there, mostly, but the people? The people there didn’t want to act like anything was wrong. They pretended everything was okay and normal, ignoring the suffering and death; he hated them with every single piece of his being. Everything in his life had gone to hell and nobody wanted to acknowledge that, they wanted him to shut up and play along. Hyu could have screamed at them-sometimes, he did. For all the good it did him.

Finally, there was the evacuation ship, full of people so messed up and haunted that Hyu at first wondered if they were even real at all. On it was a familiar face-Nate, Mei’s twin brother, a friend, and whatever happened had left him just as broken inside as the rest of the passengers. Hyu didn’t need to be told to know. Fueled by a desire to not let someone else get screwed over by this awful place, he’s become very protective of Nate despite the short passage of time.

•Has undiagnosed borderline personality disorder
•His English localized name is Hugh, but I chose to stick with the Korean translation Hyu-i or just Hyu for short. Which then turned into Hyun-tae.
•His starter and Sylveon’s names align with comforting yet bittersweet aspects of his childhood  with his sister:
-Mandu (Korean dumplings) was his favorite food as a kid, and something their grandfather made for them often
-Maehwa, also known as plum blossoms, were loved by his sister
•Made a very minor change to his B2W2 canon to better accommodate events in his history-instead of reuniting his sister with her Pokemon before he meets the protagonist at the League like in the games, it’s reversed here.
•Sprite credit: Layell, Smogon spriting project