Zero

This character is apart of the Jimin Ki Archives universe.

Zero is a nineteen-year-old pansexual male who is a former member of *LV* and one of the current members of *the Selected Seven*. In the first book, he is known to be fifteen but reaches age nineteen by the end of the books. He was born in what is known to be Busan, South Korea and is the only existing character not born in the twenty-first century. He has two main love interests, Jimin and—to an extent—Elijah.

## History/Backstory

Ahn Byungcheol is the only existing book character to not be born in the twenty-first century. Instead, he was born in the 1900s, when the Japanese had colonized the Korean peninsula. He is born to the peaceful married couple, Ahn Areum and Ahn Minseok who are forced into hiding due to the invasion of the Japanese. Areum gives birth in a makeshift hospital on the edge of what is now Busan to the small, fragile baby boy she names Byungcheol for its meaning of authority and wisdom, wanting her child to grow to be a wise person who wields his authority with a kind heart.

Byungcheol spent his early childhood with his parents, running around to escape Japanese soldiers and officials, with the occasional help from fellow Koreans who sheltered the family in their homes. During this time, he was taught Korean whenever they could spare the time to in between hiding and running. Wherever they went, Areum always brought a small chalkboard with her so Byungcheol could practice writing Hangul.

The poor five-year-old could barely comprehend what was happening, only that "bad men were coming" and that they always needed to be one step ahead of the Japanese. Dashing up the coast, the Ahn family jumped from city to city, hoping to eventually escape to China. Unfortunately, their dreams were never fulfilled. During a pillaging of a village the family had been hiding in, Byungcheol's parents risked their lives to hide Byungcheol away where he frightening watch from a crack in the cabinet the demise of his father and the kidnapping of his mother.

When his father refused to go with the soldiers for he was going to be deported into the army, his father was brutally murdered, his guts ripped out with a sword. His mother was forced into sexual labor, given the name "comfort woman". She tried to escape the soldiers' grasp but was then overpowered by the three soldiers that had entered the run-down shack and raped her, before taking her away. Byungcheol was forced to watch in horror, all the while hoping for them to go away so he could escape.

When the soldiers seemed satisfied with the horrors they had committed and the money they had looted from the dead body of Byungcheol's father, they left, dragging Byungcheol's mother with them and kicking the dead body as they went, oblivious to the now mentally scarred five-year-old sniffing in a locked cabinet.

The small boy shimmied away from the small crack he had been peeking out of. At first, his young mind struggled to comprehend the death, until he had taken a couple more peaks at his father's dead body. He tried to convince himself that the "bad men" had just put him to sleep, and he would wake up any second now and come find him. He thought that for a nice couple of hours before the reality of the situation hit him brick hard in the face.

Tears suddenly filled the boy's eyes, and a wail bubbled its way up his throat, erupting as a loud cry of loss. The boy sobbed for another half dozen hours, unheard by the townsfolk who were far from this location. His wails escalated louder until he had finally caught the attention of a young man wandering the empty and destroyed village. The young man, disguised in a Japanese soldier uniform to hide from the actual Japanese military, had heard the sound of a child's cries and hurried over to the site immediately, having found what he had been searching for: a sign of life.

He passed by the body of Byungcheol's father, his face scrunched in disgust. The wails became clearer as the man neared. He could accurately pinpoint where the sound resonated from. He found the cabinet, draped in ragged blankets and locked with a rusty old padlock. He examined the old lock before walking back over to the body of the dead man and searching his pockets for a key. At this point, Byungcheol's crying had begun to cease as he realized someone had found his hiding spot. He peeked out of the crack at the last minute to see the back of a Japanese soldier's uniform. He immediately shrank away from the crack and stopped crying completely, hoping the "bad man" would go away. Dreams don't always come true, however.

The young man had fished the key to the cabinet out of Byungcheol's father's pocket and was now returning back to that side of the shack. He swept away the blankets and lifted up the padlock, inserting the key inside and turning it in a 360° motion. Once he heard a satisfying click, he pulled on the lock, popping it open. He unhooked the lock and carefully pried the cabinet open to find an empty space. The man furrowed his eyebrows in frustration and opened the cabinet wider until he could dimly see the small thin legs of a toddler boy shunned into the corner. He then opened the cabinet fully to reveal the fearful, tiny child with his hands around his knees.

For a few moments, the two engaged in a staring contest where none of them won. The boy removed his hands from his legs and covered his eyes while the strange young man glanced away. The man stood and strode back over to the dead body lying on the floor of the rundown shack. Taking a pocket knife, he cut off a large piece of cloth from the man's *hanbok* and then closed the knife and slipped back into the pocket of his uniform. He took the cloth and went back over to Byungcheol and handed it to him. The younger watched him fearfully, but accepted the cloth.

The man introduced himself as Cheelwol, a Korean man hiding from the Japanese army. Byungcheol fearfully uttered his name and from there a strong relationship would go on to form. Cheelwol tied the cloth around the child's wrist and hoisted him out of the dark cabinet. He allowed the boy to rest on his back as he carried him past Byungcheol's father's dead body and out of the run down shack.

Cheelwol told Byungcheol that they would go to China, but Cheelwol had actually taken the two the mountains. Along the route they were taking, they paused to sleep. Byungcheol fell asleep instantly, exhausted and traumatized by the earlier events of the day. Meanwhile, Cheelwol shed his disguise and became his original self, the deity July. As the boy slept, he transported the both of them to his fortress in the mountains where Byungcheol would grow up for the next seven years.

The next five years were odd for Byungcheol—mainly because he was no longer in Earthen time. When a year passed the fortress, World War II had ended the nation of Korea was divided, fighting its civil war.

## Relationships

* **Ahn Minseok/Father:**
* **Ahn Areum/Mother:**
* **July:**
* **Elijah:**
* **Dr. Maxwell:**
* **Elliot:**
* **Yuna Kim/Yuna:**
* **S/Minyoung Park:**
* **Jin/Seokjin Jung:**
* **Xander/Xander Yi:**
* **Nyle/Nile Jeong:**
* **Jimin Ki:**
* **Seojun Do/June:**
* **Baekhyun/Baekhyun Kim:**
* **Alice:**
* **Paula:**
* **Natalia:**
* **Sophie:**