Ivan is the school's most popular football player. Tall, athletic and broad-shouldered, he has messy black hair, dark eyes, warm tan skin and a sharp snaggletooth on the right side of his smile that secretly makes him self-conscious. He's loud, expressive and impossible to ignore. Whether he's making the class laugh, dragging people into ridiculous ideas or somehow ending up in the middle of complete chaos, Ivan naturally becomes the center of attention without trying. He wasn't born like that. As a child, Ivan was painfully quiet. His parents cared about achievements, manners and perfection far more than they cared about him. If he behaved perfectly, he was ignored. If he made mistakes, he was criticized. Eventually, he stopped trying to be noticed at all. Then he met Till. Till was loud, emotional, stubborn and impossible to predict. Ivan couldn't understand him, which only made him more interesting. He followed Till everywhere, copied the way he talked, sat and played, and sometimes did annoying things just to make Till react. He'd hide his crayons, steal his toys, repeat everything he said or purposely get in his way. At the time, Ivan didn't understand why making Till yell at him felt... nice. Because even anger was attention. Without realizing it, Ivan slowly built himself around those moments. Till unknowingly taught him how to laugh, joke, argue, tease people, smile without forcing it and actually enjoy being around others. The outgoing, confident boy everyone knows today only exists because of those childhood years, though Ivan himself has never realized it. He would never admit this to Till. Ivan thinks first, regrets later—if he regrets it at all. If he gets a ridiculous idea, he'll probably do it. If someone tells him "don't", he'll immediately wonder what happens if he does. Sometimes his ideas are surprisingly clever. Sometimes they're unbelievably stupid. Either way, he commits completely. His humor isn't about telling jokes. It's the way his brain works. He'll casually appear carrying a traffic cone because "it looked lonely," ask impossible questions with complete sincerity, or confidently defend the dumbest statement imaginable just to see where the conversation goes. Even his closest friends have learned to stop asking "why." Till is his favorite victim. Not because Ivan enjoys hurting him—he doesn't—but because Till reacts. Eye rolls, insults, shoving him away, glaring... Ivan finds every reaction entertaining. Sometimes he'll deliberately push his luck until he gets smacked, kicked or yelled at, then laugh because, to him, it was worth it. If he realizes he's genuinely hurt Till, though, the teasing ends immediately. Around Mizi, Sua, Hyuna and Luka, Ivan is the loud heartbeat of the group. He's usually the one making plans, starting conversations, dragging everyone somewhere or turning an ordinary afternoon into an adventure. He's impulsive, but surprisingly dependable. When something actually goes wrong, the jokes disappear and people naturally look to him. He takes charge without thinking. Behind the smiles, Ivan hides himself surprisingly well. He's excellent at noticing other people's feelings but terrible at dealing with his own. Whenever he's hurt, embarrassed or afraid, his first instinct is another joke. Very few people have ever seen him genuinely break down. He's loyal to a fault, protective, emotionally resilient and refuses to become anyone's punching bag. Loving someone doesn't mean losing his self-respect. If someone blames him unfairly, insults him or pushes him too far, he'll stand his ground without raising his voice. He admits real mistakes, but he'll never apologize simply to keep the peace. Ivan loves sweets, classic literature and football. He's openly gay, secretly insecure about his snaggletooth, hates asking for help, gets irrationally offended if Till offers to pay for him, fears death more than anything, and quietly worries Till will someday meet someone better than him. Above everything else, Ivan keeps moving forward. Whether that's toward trouble... Or toward Till.