Taejin Kim

**Taejin Kim** (*Gim Tae-jin*, 김 태진) is a junior at Mountain High School and a member of the Zephyrus Crew.

In other translations he is known as **TJ Kim**.

## Appearance

TJ Kim has navy blue hair, with sharp, dark eyes. He has a relatively tan skin and has a wide mouth. He looks like a maniac sometimes when he smiles. Jay described him as "the kid who looks like a viper".

## Personality

TJ Kim is very full of himself and is often seen provoking others. He also likes to belittle people and due to this, often undermines people seen as in episode 1, when he lost to Jay Jo by undermining him because of his bike. Despite his big talk, TJ is a coward as seen when he peed himself at a date with a group of girls when he receive a phone call from Vinny, after mocking someone who had peed their pants at a date with the girls. He also likes to brag to look impressive, for example, when he pretended he was a fine arts student to impress the girls he was on a date with.

TJ is foolish but is hard working. He trained hard to fight the hummingbirds on an equal playing field but because he tested positive for drug use, all his work was undermined. He surrendered his only copy of the voice recording of Sabbath's leader confession to Sungho without making a copy for himself.

## Synopsis

* Introduction Arc

Seeing Jahyeon Jo skillfully go downhill on a bike much older than his own, Taejin talks trash and challenges him to a race. Minu Yun sets it up and he arrives at the park confidently, wondering aloud if Minu's acquaintance had chickened out. Jahyeon arrives soon after and Taejin goes to shake his hand only to be completely ignored, infuriating him. Junsu Lee explains the mechanics and the route of the race, then the two take their place at the starting line.

When the cog hits the ground, the two are off and the race begins. Taejin intentionally bumps a traffic cone in Jahyeon's direction, but he quickly maneuvers his bike, bouncing atop an oncoming car - a move that leaves both Junsu and Taejin in disbelief. Approaching a sharp turn, Jahyeon skillfully drifts along the turn, securing his lead in the race.

A downhill is approaching, and they ignore Junsu's shouts for them to slow down. Jahyeon speeds downhill and shifts his bike to skid at the bottom, he kicks off to propel himself forward. Taejin follows suit but he is unable to control his speed or his bike and crashes against the gate. Junsu rushes to him, but he is unable to continue the race - his body bruised and blood seeping out from his forehead. Junsu arrives at the finish line with Taejin in tow. Angered over his loss, he screams for someone to deliver Jahyeon to him.

Taejin and his friends ambush Jahyeon the next day, but latter does not remember him. Pissed off, he kicks his bike and Jahyeon retaliates with a punch to his face. They start a fight and the three of them beat him up. Taejin tries to intimidate him, but Jahyeon talks back, he is about to start beating him up again when they are interrupted by another Sunny High School student. Hannam insists on joining the fight and Taejin is about to beat him up as well but is stopped by his friends and the three of them leave.

That night a crew meeting is called and when Minu arrives, he heads straight for Taejin and punches him in the face. He is quick to recover and demands to know what his problem is. Minu tells him and his friends to stop giving the Zephyrus Crew a bad name and to leave. The other members are shocked and Minu brings up what he had done to Jahyeon, Taejin insists that the nerd had hit him first before glaring at the other and saying it was him who should leave.
With his encouragement, other members start speaking out against Minu's recent actions. Junsu tells them to stop saying crap when Minu proposes a race to decide who stays and who leaves. Taejin and his friends agree, and Junsu decides to race with Minu, making it 2 versus 3.

## Equipment

### Aero Full Carbon Road Bike

Taejin prioritizes speed above all, and so the frame is built for aerodynamics and speed, which makes it ideal for cyclists who often ride against the wind, while the wheels are lighter because of the carbon material. It gives Taejin an advantage over ordinary racing bikes.

## History

Before the rematch races, TJ and his crew ran into the Sabbath leader and Joker. The Sabbath leader wanted to wish them good luck and said he was rooting for them. He slipped an energy drink in TJ's pocket as they were leaving. He offered it to his crew members saying the drink sucked but they declined because it was given to him, so he should have it. Unbeknownst to the boys, the drink was spiked and TJ later tested positive for doping.

Angry that he was discredited in a blink of an eye, TJ went to the Sabbath's underground fight club to confront the leader. They ran away after seeing how brutal Joker was in the cage but later tried to conduct a surprise attack on the leader when he was alone. They failed miserably and all three were beaten up. As the leader was leaving, TJ got him to admit he was the one to drug him. TJ laughed into the night because he got the recording of the confession.

The next morning, TJ dropped off his recording to the committee to clear his name. He foolishly believed that the Sabbath crew would be disqualified from the competition but as soon as the doors closed behind him, Sungho Choi, the head of the committee, destroyed TJ's only evidence.

Round 7 of the finals rolled around and TJ discovers that nothing has been done and the Sabbath crew was still not punished.

Desperate to find evidence against Sabbath, TJ and his crew dressed up as the Hummingbird Crew and sneaked into the lockers. They discover that Sabbath's locker was heavily secured. One of them took out a chainsaw and managed to open the locker where they successfully took the innocent looking duffle bag. On the way out, they ran into Jay but managed to escape anyway. In the bag were mostly change of cloths but among them was the red capsule meant to be taken 30 minutes before the race. Later that evening, TJ receive a call from Jay asking for them to meet up. Jay wanted to ask what he stole since both Shelly and he were accused of theft twice that day. TJ vehemently refused to answer but Jay threatened to call the competition employees to direct them to him. He gave in and showed Jay the red capsule. Jay realized TJ was not the safest person to be handling the drug and asked Jay to have it. TJ reluctantly agreed and when he was hunted down by Sabbath crew he could safely say he no longer had the capsule and that in fact, he already consumed it. TJ was hospitalized by the confrontation where he eventually met Jay, who was visiting Minu. Minu found out about the whole situation when he overheard them talking about it. Minu realized that Jay would not be safe with the capsule either and asked to pass it to him. The current whereabouts of the capsule is unknown whether it's in Minu's or Jay's possession.

## References

1. ↑ Manhwa: Season 1, Episode 4
2. ↑ Manhwa: Season 1, Episode 5
3. ↑ Manhwa: Season 1, Episode 8
4. ↑ Manhwa: Season 1, Episode 1
5. ↑ Manhwa: Season 1, Episode 12