character family... rofl

jongdae is an only child and both of his parents were scientists

i don't feel like this is really spoilers because it's unlikely he'll ever go into much of these details ICly because he doesn't actually know a lot of this information

his mother was japanese and his father was a korean national. they both worked on the same project.

he doesn't remember much about his mother but one can assume that she wasn't a very nice lady since she remained entirely professional about her obligation to him, whereas his father eventually grew to have a relationship with him that wasn't just... "surrogate & caretakers"

uh.. of course one can assume other things about them since they were both members of the weird cult that ran the whole operation, although his father also became less about that life over time as well

they were both completely ordinary humans otherwise. no powers, no genetic modifications either. which is important in terms of the cult's goals and beliefs. they were big on the "pure human" movement in which they refuse any of the commonplace genetic mods that almost everyone else has standard, simply because it's generally way healthier.

the irony of all this being that jongdae is very much not a pure human at all

but his father did have a pretty big impact on the later part of his life leading up to when he left the compound and started living out in the real world. basically most of the positive experiences he's had can be attributed to him.