[name_m]Grant[/name_m] Ji-hoon [name_u]Lee[/name_u] (19) is a Korean-American guy and [name_u]Rory[/name_u] 's best friend who knows about his goal to be a journalist. While he may seem supportive at first, he doesn’t really trust journalists as professionals , thinking that they only ever make money on clickbait articles and dragging celebrities through the mud - a belief that has only been amplified after his sister , who’s Youtuber , got into a minor controversy and her mental health has been affected by gossip spread through online forums.
He supports his sister unconditionally and does fun things with her such as skateboarding while she takes a break from social media. He wants to tell [name_u]Rory[/name_u] about not supporting the idea of him joining the newspaper and wants to warn him about the internal turmoil that he knows of from his second sister, who’s a graphic designer there. Apart from simply not trusting journalists , he also doesn’t want his friend to suffer due to [name_u]Lauren[/name_u] entering back into his life after a messy break-up. However, [name_m]Grant[/name_m] doesn’t quite have the courage to tell his friend all that yet.
Him and [name_u]Rory[/name_u] have been friends since childhood due to being neighbours their whole lives - [name_m]Grant[/name_m] really appreciated the ability to play with [name_u]Rory[/name_u] as a child , as having two sisters made him eager to make friends with other boys in the neighbourhood. Rory’s stories about a crazy home-life with 6 children in the house seemed almost like science-fiction to him. His life with the siblings he has was always much more harmonious , even if they were a little bit overscheduled because of their mother [name_f]Anna[/name_f] and father Sang-hoon signing them up for many extracurricular activities to “beef up their college application”. His parents don’t really understand why he chose to take a gap year after high school instaed of going to university, given that he’s always been a straight-A student. The truth is that he deeply relates to [name_u]Rory[/name_u] when it comes to never feeling good enough despite doing well in exams. He is afraid of leaving his family home and entering adult life with full force. Despite being 19 , he still feels like a kid inside and loves goofing off with not just [name_u]Rory[/name_u] , but also other guys in the neighbourhood.
[name_m]Grant[/name_m] is the one who encouraged [name_u]Rory[/name_u] to enter a new relationship right after he broke up with [name_u]Lauren[/name_u] - something he now regrets, as [name_f]Kendra[/name_f] ,the girl in question , won’t stop bothering him to “convince [name_u]Rory[/name_u] to come back to her”. He recently came to the conclusion that despite wanting to be supportive towards both [name_u]Rory[/name_u] and his sisters, he often tends to neglect his own needs to keep them happy. He is trying to engage in more self-care recently and talk more honestly about his feelings, which isn’t always easy , as he feels preassured to keep the facade of the “funny friend” that he built over the years.