Chae Yul

* Chae Yul before
* As Chae Yuri
* Present
* Teen

Chae Household (His entire life until his 20s)

> I suppose we won't ever see each other again. I loved you with all my heart. Goodbye.
>
> -Chae Yul to Eun Sian in chapter 45

**Chae Yul** is one of the main male characters in Secret Alliance. He crossdresses as a woman and uses his sister's identity, Chae Yuri, to get close to Eun Sian because of her fear of men.

## **Appearance**

Yul, as revealed in Chapter Two when he undresses in his apartment, is a crossdresser. In his female attire, he wears a straight dark purple wig that reaches all the way down his back. His real hair is the same color, usually cut to his neck and framing his face. One notable strand lays in the middle of his face. (In his wig, this is pushed over to the side for a cleaner look). In his feminine attire, he always wears long sleeved, flowy dresses that stop at his knees. These dresses usually have some shade of red or pink on them.

When he is not in disguise, he opts for casual, comfortable outfits and the color black.

During Yul’s days in middle school, his hair was less messy and was a bit shorter. He wore the male uniform, which was a white, short sleeved collared shirt, black pants, and occasionally a formal black jacket that was also part of the uniform.

Yul is a very thin, feminine looking man, to a point where he was bullied for his girlish appearance. People assumed that he was a girl, prettier than most other girls, and become disgusted when they found out he was actually male, as mentioned in a flashback. When he was dressing as Chae Yuri, his other persona, his appearance was so attractive that he quickly became a very popular “girl” in the college, as stated by Hyunee. Despite that, he is shown to possess unnatural strength for someone his build and size. He has a large scar on his right arm going vertical from an event where he was attacked by Sian's mother with a knife.

During a flashback to Yul’s days at the beginning in high school, after Sian broke up with him and he becomes depressed, his hair grows longer, past his chin, likely from a lack of self-care or hygiene. He has dark circles under his eyes. In this scene he wears a gray, long sleeved shirt. In another flashback, two years after he and Sian broke up, his hair is a bit past his shoulders. He also has tired eyes in this scene. He is shown to wear a dark gray sweatshirt with the hood pulled up so that Sian won’t recognize him as he is stalking her, and black pants.

At the end of Secret Alliance, in chapter 45, he has much shorter hair than before and is seen carrying a crate with earmuffs on and a uniform at his job. While he was writing the letter for Sian he was wearing a white tank top with his usual black jeans and shoes.

## **Personality**

On the surface, Yul appears to be a very sweet “girl”, but he is actually shown to be very manipulative and controlling. For example, back in middle school while Yul and Sian were still dating, he told Sian to change her profile picture since guys might have dirty thoughts about her, then immediately recalled his statement, all so Sian could doubt herself and believe that Yul was concealing the fact that guys were gross toward her. He also told a classmate to go up to Sian aggressively and treat her rudely while asking if she “did it” with Chae Yul, then asking if Sian would “do it” with him. This was so Yul could both give Sian the impression that other boys were bad, as well as save her from the classmate who was acting on Yul's wishes. Yul would create scenarios where Sian was put in danger all so he could save her, playing the hero and destabilizing her relationships with others, notably rushing at Sian’s mother so that the mother would be forced to act defensively. These events significantly added to her fear. Sian was often willing to give him what he wanted, likely due to a fear of his anger, and the fact that she had nobody else to truly rely on. Yul is shown to have explosive anger issues, getting into fights with his parents, threatening to kill his bullies, and generally being shown to have a very quick temper, on occasion even lashing out at Sian, though he apologizes right away to her. He erupts in anger when things do not go how he plans. He is the perfect example of a male yandere personality type. He will do anything to have “Sunbae” or “Noona” (Eun Sian) all to himself; even if that means crossdressing as a female (which he admits he hates), stalking, psychological abuse, extortion, identity theft, blackmail, invasion of privacy, breaking and entering, assault, attempted murder, and other crimes. After an incident with a drunk man at the female-only cafe where Sian worked, in which Sian was threatened, he later stalked this man while dressed as Yuri, and eventually followed the man into a dark alley. He knocks the man unconscious with a taser, and then beats him up, which the employees at the female cafe are talking about the next day. Yul displays symptoms of having borderline personality disorder to an extreme, most notably behaving drastically to keep his loved ones from leaving him, planned or otherwise. However, he also exhibits antisocial tendencies, prone to trying to control situations and displaying a disregard for anybody who isn’t Sian, behaves impulsively and reactively, experiences uncontrollable mood swings, and tendencies to harm himself and others when emotional. When around Sian, though, a much more complacent and sweet side surfaces (Although his composure breaks quickly when he doesn’t get what he wants). He’s very loving with her, and states several times that he’ll do anything to get her to stay by his side. When faced with the fact that Sian liked Yujin more than she liked Yul, he is willing to act desperately, telling Sian that even if she doesn't love him, he just needs to "stay by her side".

## History

Yul lived at home with his parents, and at one point his sister, until his twenties. He is Eun Sian’s ex-boyfriend. He went to middle school with Sian, but when she moved away for high school, he was shown going into a depression because she wasn’t going to be there. He is later seen stalking Sian at her new school, but she does not recognize him. Not much else is known about his past, but most of what is known revolves around being bullied in school for his feminine appearance and his relationship with his parents being very strained. Yul’s quick temper makes it difficult to hold back his anger, and as such he’s been shown getting into arguments with his classmates often. For example, he exploded at and attacked a classmate who dressed him up like a girl and mocked him. A few of their other classmates had to physically restrain him from harming the girl with a knife (that appeared to be a box cutter) he had. Another glimpse of his past shows Yul heading out for school and getting into an argument with his parents over his attitude. He didn’t greet his dad, causing the former to lash out and throw a bowl of rice at him for being disrespectful. Yul is shown storming out after smashing the bowl, and his dad discusses sending him away to a mental institution.

In flashbacks, Yul was shown to be bullied often by his classmates, male and female. When Sian approached him in middle school, he assumed she was one of his tormentors simply acting nicely; thus, he ignored her attempts to become friends and even shouted at her. Sian called him "pretty" and this disgusted Yul and enraged him. Later on, a group of boys is crowding around Chae Yul, at first taunting, but then attempting to sexually assault him. Sian witnessed the issue and ran in with a disguise (the disguise being the middle school’s male uniform and a bag with eyeholes over her head) and called a teacher, causing the group of boys to become wary that a teacher was around. While the boys were distracted, Sian took Yul's arm and ran with him to a safe place. causing Yul to sob out of confusion, gratitude, and emotion, as he didn't know and couldn't comprehend why she was being nice to him. Thus, his romance with Sian began, and so did his obsessive attraction.

## **Trivia**

He is actually shorter than Eun Sian by 2cm, as she is 170cm.

According to the author’s note, his symbolic flower is a Lobelia, meaning malice.