Ryeowook has con analgesia, which is the inability to feel pain. His parents didn’t know about this until he was six years old, when he came home with a thumbtack buried in his forearm. Apparently, that day in the kindergarten, some kid pushed him to the ground and, unbeknownst to the children, there was a thumbtack there on the ground and the boy ended up landing his forearm on it. He noticed the discomfort, however he felt no pain as he came home, never once giving attention to the little thing in his arm until his parents pointed it out to him with their looks of horror. This, however, appeared to not be the first time he showed signs of his inability to feel pain.

Ryeowook was three years old when he fell off two steps of stairs, and although he had been limping from the fall, he felt no pain whatsoever as he made his way to his mother who had rushed over to check if he was fine. The second time it happened, he had been a four year old who was bullied by a group of kids because he was playing with toys which those children didn’t have and really wanted, so they forced it out of him and hit him until he was aching all over, even pushing him to the ground and scraping his elbows and knees — still, he didn’t cry once, and with the lack of reaction towards the otherwise painful state he seemed to be in, the kids got scared and returned the toys, calling him a freak. At the age of five, he accidentally got his fingers between a door and its frame, and although he could feel the discomfort of his fingers being crushed, he felt no pain whatsoever and just calmly opened the door back to pull his hand away, thankful that the door didn’t destroy his fingers in general.

Ryeowook’s lack of reaction towards pain has always been a concern to his parents, who went to the professionals in order to get a diagnosis to understand their son’s condition, ending up getting a disturbing result — he has CIP, another term for his condition, short form for con insensitivity to pain. There was no known cure for his disorder, which left his parents devastated, always worrying if their boy has done anything to harm himself since he didn’t know about it at all, due to his dead pain sensors that can’t help him pick up any warning signs on his body. No matter how many times he told his parents that he had done nothing of note worthy to be worrisome, they won’t believe him, after an incident when he was fifteen where there had been a snatch theft and the person knocked him over the head with a baseball bat, not noticing the blood that was spilling from the wound until the police called the ambulance.

Leaving his family for his mandatory service had been a nightmare to his parents, who constantly worried about what he was doing there and whether he had hurt himself again and didn’t say anything about it, not like he would even notice it in the first place. Ryeowook had been given the chance to not do the military course after they found out about his condition, but the young man was persistent and in the end, his parents reluctantly let him join the army for his necessary service, bidding him farewell with anxious eyes. The couple tend to receive calls from a friend in the military about their son’s state, and as safe and smooth as the service went most of the time, there were times where the young man had experienced something terrible and didn’t even notice them occurring — the family friend joked that this made him a difficult target to bully, though it did nothing to ease the parents’ anxiety.

After finishing his mandatory service, Ryeowook entered a med school and got his doctorate, in which he became a war doctor with it. His decision caused much shock and horror to his parents, who were worried about the dangers of war — he is their baby after all, and as proud as they should be about his decision, they don’t want him to die while he’s doing his job — and also his lack of notice if a bullet were to bury itself in him — a display of selflessness at its best, and worst. Still, as this was their son’s dream, they decided not to stop him from achieving it, letting him be who he wants to be.

Just like any normal people, Ryeowook had not been used to seeing so much gore when he first entered a real war zone to do his doctor duty. However, unlike normal people, he had not been horrified nor bothered by the sight of the violence, it just took him a while to get his bearing after living a life where blood doesn’t make a lot of appearance. There were times where he sustained injuries because he tried to pull out soldiers in the middle of a battle, but he survived most of them so it didn’t really scare him that much, although there were times where he passed out in the middle of his work because he didn’t notice that he was bleeding and failed to patch up the wound — other than that though, he practically came out of the war unscathed.

Soon, Ryeowook was reposted to become a doctor in the Eternity Glade, since the place was severely lacking in medical professionals and, being a man who had seen enough gore and violence because of the war, they believed that he can survive the place without any mental damage. His parents had objected greatly to this decision, more so than they had when their son wanted to be a war doctor, citing that while being a doctor in war ensures that he won’t be directly doing work in the line of fire, if he were to work in the Eternity Glade, he would be at higher risk of being hurt because of the violent inmates. Still, not being one to back down from offers or deals, he took the post without any questions and attempted to calm his parents down about his new position, trying to comfort them by telling them that he would be alright and that nothing bad would befall on him.

After all, Ryeowook has seen worst in a war, how can a mere institute be scarier than that?