Hyeonjin Cha

* Colored
* Sketch

## Webtoon Debut

Chapter 137

**Hyeonjin Cha** is Gerard Jin's friend and former bandmate.

## Appearance

Hyeonjin is tall and of a similar height to Gerard Jin and Kingsley Kwan. He has short dark brown hair and purple eyes. His skin is on the paler side, but not as pale as Donald Na.

## Personality

Hyeonjin often comes off as cold and selfish, but deep down he does care about his friends and bandmates. He has his pride as a musician to refuse to work under Sinma Entertainment, and wants the band to play for their love of music, not for money. Despite having gotten into an argument with Gerard a few hours prior, Hyeonjin didn't hesitate to run into a burning building to save him. He also hid the fact that he saved Gerard's life and injured his hands from Gerard because he didn't want to be a burden.

Hyeonjin is a bit of a perfectionist and refuses to let his bandmates listen to his songs until he is a hundred percent satisfied, although Sangman managed to convince him to let him hear the demo.

## History

### Episode 127

While playing pool against Gray, Gray asks Gerard about the person he stopped on the street earlier. Gerard replies that he has unfinished business with someone but had mistaken the person on the street to be him. He mentions that it's been exactly a year. It's revealed that Gerard had mistaken Kingsley for the person he had unfinished business with. Gray thinks that the guy Gerard mistook for his acquaintance is as tall as he is and that the guy Gerard's looking for must be really tall.

### Episode 135

While changing out of his work clothes, Gerard recalls the time he and Gray were walking to the pool hall and Gerard saw Kingsley. Gerard mistook Kingsley for Hyeonjin, ran up to him, and grabbed his shoulder. When he realized it was not Hyeonjin, Gerard apologized and walked away. He thinks that there's no way Hyeonjin would be here.

After helping Alex bring some of their stuff from the annex room to Dorim Shopping Complex, Gerard bumps into Jinu. After chatting with him, Gerard thinks back to when Hyeonjin told him that he's on his own.

### Episode 137

Gerard and Jinu arrive at the practice room and Jinu remarks that Hyeonjin keeps taking everything offensive. He tells Gerard to try to get along with Hyeonjin and says that Hyeonjin is constantly angry. He then asks if Hyeonjin is the where Gerard picked up being a bastard. Jinu also says that Gerard and Hyeonjin may be tall, but they still act like kids. Sangman and Hyeonjin arrive.

### Episode 138

Slam is sitting together. Jinu asks Hyeonjin if the songs are coming along well, to which Hyeonjin confirms. Jinu asks to hear at least one of the song to get a grasp of the concept, but Hyeonjin refuses and reminds him that he knows how he works. Jinu says that Hyeonjin never shares his music until he's a hundred percent satisfied, but Sangman's thought bubble reveals that he got to hear the demo.

Jinu brings up the offer to work with Sinma Entertainment, but Hyeonjin is immediately against it. He says that if they work with Sinma they'd have to do what Sinma wants whenever they tell Slam to do something. He claims that Slam plays for the love of music, not money, and calls their desperateness lame. He and Gerard start to argue and when Gerard says Hyeonjin's stubbornness is hurting the band, Hyeonjin points out how Gerard gets into lots of fights and how Gerard can't play with an injured finger.

When Gerard is listening to the demo Hyeonjin had given to Sangman, Gerard says that Hyeonjin is a musical genius. Sangman says that the song was made for him. He says that although Hyeonjin is touchy, he probably knows Gerard better than anyone. Gerard thinks that the songs Hyeonjin writes are incalculably valuable to both him and the band, and Gerard knows that he can't even begin to copy him.

### Episode 139

Sangman asks where Hyeonjin is and Jinu tells him that Hyeonjin said he'd be waiting at the studio. Sangman wonders why Hyeonjin can't be happy that they've signed the contract. A panel shows Hyeonjin playing his bass in the practice room.

At Greenfield, two guys from another band notice his and Gerard's height and one wonders if they're basketball players. His bandmate tells him that they're in Slam, the new band that plays Tuesdays and Wednesdays, to which the first guy understands that their band was named after basketball players "slam dunking." Hyeonjin on next seen on stage with the rest of his band.

### Episode 140

The Hongdae branch manager congratulates Slam and tells them that they'll be performing on weekends at the Songdo branch. Later, when Jinu says that they're jealous of the other bands having their own private transportation, Hyeonjin says that he's more pissed than jealous about their situation.

After they were done performing for the night, Hyeonjin is sitting with his band outside and asks what's the point of people liking Slam when there was no difference between working with Sinma and what they used to do when they busked. He says that he tried calling Sinma but couldn't reach anyone due to Sinma not working on weekends to protect their "work-life balance" which means no one cares about their weekend gig. He asks Gerard what he thinks, and if it's worth working their butts off just to pay for their practice room.

When a drunk member of another band tries to attack Sangman and Jinu, Gerard steps in and starts to fight. Hyeonjin makes no effort to step in but is visibly annoyed.

Next week, Hyeonjin, Sangman, and Gerard are waiting outside Sinma Entertainment to have a meeting with Sinma regarding the band audition. They're all wondering where Jinu is and see Jinu limping towards them.

### Episode 141

Jinu claims that it was only a little accident and tries to brush the concerns about his wounds off, saying it isn't a big deal. Hyeonjin realizes that the attack on Jinu was connected to Gerard. He angrily tells him that his troubles is spreading to others. Sangman pushed Hyeonjin towards the entrance and tells them to stop it.

The four bandmates enter Sinma Entertainment’s office. Hyeonjin becomes fed up with Sinma when they refuse to improve the terms of the contract or pay Slam more. Shin’s assistant tells Hyeonjin to not be rude and that true artists shouldn’t be so obsessed with money. Hyeonjin reminds him that he’s not a kid but a member of a contracted band and tells him to not talk down to him. Shin’s assistant stands up to intimidate him but that backfires when Hyeonjin stands up and uses his taller height to make Shin’s assistant back down. Hyeonjin says he’s sick of the bullshit and quits.

Shin tells Jinu to write the songs but Gerard thinks that Hyeonjin’s songs are special and although Hyeonjin was selfish and impulsive, Hyeonjin’s songs were the only ones that could bring out Slam’s charms. As a result, Slam couldn’t continue without Hyeonjin and left Sinma.

The next afternoon Gerard approaches Hyeonjin and tells him to come back to Slam and that they are no longer working with  Sinma. Hyeonjin laughs and tells him that he already has a deal going on as a soloist and that he even applied for auditions as a soloist. He says he deleted all his songs and files for Slam and to not bother asking for them. He claims that he never seriously wanted to be in a band in the first place, stating that he and Gerard weren’t even in the same league. Hyeonjin says he’s done with him and walks away.

When Gerard calls out to him, Hyeonjin asks if it’s because Slam needs songs for summer band auditions and tosses him a set of keys. He tells him that there should be some sheet music and an external hard drive with songs left behind in the practice room’s cabinet. Hyeonjin says he won’t be needing them anymore since it was all a joke to him anyway. He tells Gerard good luck trying to make it on his own and leaves.

### Episode 150

Gerard, Hyeonjin, and Sangman are at Gimpo International Airport. Gerard sees Hyeonjin’s smile and calls out to him, asking if he’s really running away by himself now that the band is in ruins. Hyeonjin asks what he’s doing here and that he made himself clear the other day. He asks if Gerard still has things left to say. Gerard asks Hyeonjin if Slam meant nothing to him and angrily demands to know why Hyeonjin had a soloist deal and signed up for soloist auditions. He calls Hyeonjin selfish. Hyeonjin says he doesn’t care what Gerard thinks and that since the sheet music is gone, they should just go their separate ways. Gerard angrily storms off but suddenly grabs Hyeonjin’s arm and pulls Hyeonjin’s hands out of his pockets, revealing that his hands were heavily bandaged. Gerard shakily asks what happened to him.

A flashback shows that Hyeonjin ran into the Dorim Complex after the explosion had knocked Gerard out. One of the ceiling beams was about to fall and crush Gerard’s head but Hyeonjin caught it in time. He yelled for Gerard to wake up but Gerard remained unconscious. He saw that the ceiling was going to continue to collapse and screamed as he threw the beam aside. He carried Gerard outside and asked him how he could risk his life for mere sheet music and called Gerard a moron. The flashback ends.

Gerard asks Hyeonjin if he was the one who carried him out of the practice room and asks why he didn’t tell him. Hyeonjin says that it’s not a big deal. Sangman reveals that Hyeonjin told him to keep it a secret because he didn’t want to burden anyone. Hyeonjin had turned down the casting offer and hadn’t applied for any solo auditions. He needs to get a few more operations on his finger joints and that it’ll take at least a year for the nerve endings to heal completely.

Gerard falls to his knees and cries. He tells Hyeonjin that he (Gerard) is nothing to him (Hyeonjin). Gerard asks why Hyeonjin saved him and screams that he didn’t deserve it. Hyeonjin turns away and says that he wanted a break anyway. Gerard apologizes to him and continues to cry. Hyeonjin makes Gerard promise that, since it’ll take at least a year to recover, Gerard can’t use his hands in fights for a whole year. Hyeonjin says that Gerard’s hands are too valuable for that because he’s Slam’s lead guitarist. Hyeonjin boards his plane and leaves.

## Relationships

### Gerard Jin

Gerard was Hyeonjin's bandmate in middle school. The two often got into arguments that their other two teammates, Jinu and Sangman, would have to break up. Despite their disagreements, Gerard understood that Hyeonjin was irreplaceable and cut ties with Sinma Entertainment after Hyeonjin quit. Although they never got along well, Hyeonjin didn't hesitate to rush inside a burning building to save Gerard and even messed up his hands in the process. Gerard was devastated to learn of Hyeonjin's sacrifice and agreed to Hyeonjin making him promise to not use his hands for an entire year. Gerard upheld this promise even though he ended up struggling and losing some fights.

### Sangman

Hyeonjin seems to be closest to Sangman out of all the band members. Despite Hyeonjin being a perfectionist who doesn't allow people to hear his music unless he is a hundred percent satisfied with it, Sangman managed to convince him to let him hear the demo. Sangman was the person whom Hyeonjin informed of his injuries and future plans. He also accompanied Hyeonjin to the airport to see him off.

### Jinu Kim

Hyeonjin respects Jinu as a fellow band member.