Living in Pyongyang, North Korea, infant Hong Ji-Soo and his family longed for a life of freedom and choice with a better standard of living. Ever since he could remember, there'd been talk of defecting to the south - moving to Seoul, Busan or Incheon - anywhere that wasn't the North's capital. They'd heard the stories, they knew the consequences; who didn't? Ji-Soo's parents had planned to defect when they met at the tender age of 17. Now both in their early thirties with an infant son, they knew for certain that they didn't want him to go through the strict lives they did. As a result of the extensive preparation of his parents, the family had a route mapped out. Like most defectors, they'd travel to China to which they'd go through in order to reach the Mongolian border. There, the Mongol government would - as they have done to defectors - offer an aeroplane ride to Seoul. When Ji-Soo was the age of 7, his family initiated it. They did well, up until the Mongolian border - Chinese officials had caught them and Ji-Soo's father sacrificed himself in order to let his wife and son make it over. The last the latter two heard about him, he'd been sent to a camp in Pyongyang and had died shortly after admittance.
Now in Seoul, Ji-Soo led a much better life and continued to uphold peace as the most important thing and it was at a rally for this that he met Harmonia. By looks alone, Ji-Soo wouldn't have been paid a second glance, however his charisma when talking was what attracted Harmonia the most - the strength and confidence behind his words and how he perfectly captivated his audiences' attention to deliver his message. The goddess accompanied him to a speech in Busan where twins between the two were conceived. Two weeks from Ji-Soo's talk, on 4th July 1998, Harmonia returned to the man and presented the two sons. With them, a note was enclosed that detailed all Ji-Soo would need to know. Half seeing as he had no choice, half because he could already tell he'd love them, Ji-Soo took in his sons and named them Kyu-Han and Kyu-Jae.
For the first few years of the twins' life, they travelled with their father from major cities throughout South Korea as he continued to preach about peace. It was on these journeys that he met his future wife, Seo-Yeon who - unlike him - was able to see through the mist; a trait that ran through her family. Eventually, when his children were 3, Ji-Soo settled in centre Seoul with Seo-Yeon who he married a year prior. There, Ji-Soo became a prominent member in the government's foreign affairs which enabled him to give his family a life of luxury.
Very early on in their relationship did Ji-Soo and Seo-Yeon discuss the twins' heritage and Seo-Yeon's ability to see through the mist. Mutually, they agreed that the latter would stay at home with the twins at all times as Ji-Soo could never be too protective of his boys - never wanting either of them to disappear. For most of their early childhood, the twins were protected and safe, until their 7th birthday. Kyu-Han and Kyu-Jae were very independent, even at their age and as such Ji-Soo let them (under some form of supervision) do near enough whatever they wanted. In a cliché sort of way, this trust was broken when Kyu-Han left to go to the park with some friends. Seeing as it was the local park near their home and that he was in a group of people, neither Ji-Soo nor Seo-Yeon thought anything of Kyu-Han going out.
Now out of all the places in South Korea (and North for that matter), Seoul was the best tourist location and as such many people from around the world were attracted. Two of these tourists were Kameron and Jaela Vemont, an American couple who weren't able to have kids of their own due to Jaela being infertile. This lead to psychological problems as she soon became desperate enough to have a child that she began to think she was pregnant when in actuality she wasn't, as well as run ins with the law as she had tried (out of desperation more than likely) to snatch babies from hospitals. The two had went to Korea as a stress relief - to allow Jaela to forget about wanting a child. However, when she saw Kyu-Han alone as he was coming back from a public toilet, her desperation got the better of her and she guided him away from the park and back up to her hotel located near it. There, she presented Kyu-Han to Kameron who was shocked to say the least, mostly because he never thought his wife would kidnap a child. While he was the more sane one of the two, Kameron also wanted a child and you could say his ego was damaged in the process of finding out about his wife's infertility, leading him to agree with Jaela and attempting to smuggle him back to America. The ordeal was risky and long but, sure enough, one Kyu-Han arrived in America with the Vemont's.
Kameron and Jaela were very quick in stripping him of his Korean identity. They picked out a series of possible names for him, eventually settling on Alfie to which he had trouble pronouncing, saying it more as 'Alpee.' They then forced him to change his last name, picking out Kaejin as they thought it looked nice - not knowing it was derived from the Korean word meaning 'broken,' a foreshadow to the future. While his twin had a life of neglect, Alfie was treasured by his new parents, neither of them leaving his side. They told him that they wanted to protect him and as such they discouraged him having any friends. The same isolation that Ethan felt would soon be felt by Alfie, leading him to also begin the spiralling staircase into depression.
A constant worry of Kameron and Jaela's was being caught and as a result they moved from state to state often. Originally, they began in their home state of Utah to which they stayed there for a year, before moving to Texas where they stayed for two years. It was there that Alfie, at 13, had his first monster attack. It was a common thing for Kameron and Jaela to go on long walks and they, more often than not, brought Alfie along with them and it was on one of these walks that the attack occurred. The monster itself was a harpy and attacked Alfie without warning. A thing to know about Kameron that he himself was a son of Ares and wasn't aware of Alfie's heritage until, obviously, the attack. Seeing as the former was an experienced demigod who'd been to Camp and had gotten training, the killing of the monster wasn't anything too difficult and Alfie walked away unscratched. Following the incident, realising the extra danger now of losing Alfie in another way, Kameron and Jaela accommodated their lives once more to ensure his protection. Kameron became a house-husband and home schooled Alfie to make sure that Alfie was always in the view of one of them. Following Alfie's 14th birthday Jaela received a promotion and moved the family to Hoboken in New Jersey where, for the first time in a year, Alfie was allowed to attend public school.
For the majority of the year Alfie had no friends, nobody to talk to and for sure no confidence. It wasn't until halfway into the year (close to Alfie begging his parents to allow him to be home schooled again) that he met someone in the form of a chemistry project. The boy he was paired with, Jansen Entwirren, was extremely nice to Alfie and eventually became his first friend, giving Alfie a whole load of confidence. This confidence was short-lived as soon as Alfie turned 15 and had his second monster attack (which was again, dealt with by Kameron) the family relocated a final time to Los Angeles, California.
Being ripped away from the only friend he ever had in America, Alfie's mental state deteriorated significantly, resulting in him eventually being diagnosed with depression and due to Kameron and Jaela's indoctrination that he wasn't Korean, some form of internalised racism was also evident. For the next two years, Alfie would remain isolated from his family and would refuse to talk to them which, in result, made his life at home harder and harder as Kameron and Jaela began to take out their frustration on him. When he turned 17, Kameron took him to camp and told him to never return to them again.
