UJU SOOK'S BACKSTORY

Personality: Uju's pretty easygoing most of the time, but he switches gears fast. He doesn’t go about life chasing credit or trying to prove anything he just thinks if you put in the work, it'll show eventually.

Goals: The primary goal in Uju's life is to figure out what he wants for himself, not just what he wants for others. Which makes it ironic that he's simultaneously keeping track of every favor done for his people, building a mental ledger of debts to repay. Maybe settling those scores is part of discovering who he is.

Backstory: Uju Sook was born into a household above an antique shop owned by his parents. While other children played with consoles and cards, he grew up around bronze trinkets and Joseon period antiques. This piqued an interest in Uju's eyes. He saw the potential in this metalwork. Every chipped edge, every dip in the cracks. He realized that he could fix these himself, or maybe even produce an entirely new product had he acquired the resources. His mother would nag on him for wearing down the merchandise, but his fingers always itched to see how the metal was put into place.

Uju's childhood hero came in the form of his dad's father, a gruff man who lived on the outskirts of Gyeonggi-do Province. Dong Sook, an old man at the age of 68, he owned a smithery as he was obsessed with making something out of whatever metal he could get his hands on. Metal works and tools lined the walls next to the gigantic forge that glowed constantly with exorbitant warmth. Uju was eleven the first time he was allowed to strike hot metal. The hammer at that age was impossibly heavy, the heat from the forge overly extreme, but all of this did not stop Uju's excitement. He visited often between school and breaks to try new things, often just dawdling around watching grandpa work.

At fourteen, Uju felt restless and needed external stimulation past what he had always been doing. The world was bright outside and he wanted to explore new opportunities, that's when he came across this group of teenagers playing basketball. He would frequent their games as street basketball wasn't like the structured play he'd seen on television; it was raw, unpolished, demanding. He started showing up daily, first watching from the sidelines, then getting picked for games when they needed an extra body. The trash talk was constant showing no remorse, a verbal training that taught Uju the street language, one that required wit and respect. They'd play until dark, then collapse in front convenience stores, and it was during these nights that Uju would listen to talks about the chaotic ideas of Seoul's youth who were all searching for something more than what their parents' generation offered.

By eighteen, Uju graduated high school and went on his own way. He had left his past hobbies ages ago. With the shop slowly running out of business. It was only inevitable that their family could not be kept afloat, so Uju decided to find his own method of providing for them. Moving out, the years between eighteen and twenty-one blurred together as exhaustion and obligation took over. Uju cycled through mechanic work, construction, dishwashing without missing a week of money sent to his parents. Along the way, he met a group of people he would call his best friends, the only family he'd built for himself in the three years since leaving home, all holding their own ambitions. Time passed as he settled into their newly founded apartment, when the news of a portal appearing arrived. With the incoming abnormalities in Seoul, they all realized that they had to pick up some form of defense-related experience. For Uju, it was time to take upon another hobby.