Irene was born and raised in a wealthy family. However, there were some complications that came with this type of life. The majority of her family's wealth came from their business, which often engaged in dangerous jobs. Despite her parent's efforts to protect her from witnessing this sort of stuff, there would still be times she was exposed to lots of violence and danger. Sometimes, she would even be the one being targeted, but would never get physically hurt during any sort of encounter. This would end up traumatizing her. She would be assigned therapy by her parents, which she still continues to attend. The overall situation with her family's business has calmed down in recent times and her counseling has been of good help, but the effects of her trauma still show through her personality now.
These events have also affected her self-esteem. Irene tends to think very poorly of herself, often seeing herself as a lesser person. Despite her own lack of confidence, she doesn't really like when people think of her as incompetent. It's more so because it's a reminder of her own insecurities, as it confirms to her that other people also think poorly of her. She takes difficulty to pity. Even though it's usually meant to be compassionate, it just reminds her of how useless she feels she is. She also hates being seen as or compared to a child.
Even with her difficult childhood, Irene has always loved and been loved by her parents. She doesn't blame them for the unfortunate things she witnessed, since it was difficult to avoid while it was happening. Even with all they did for her during that time, her parents do feel very guilty for her trauma, especially her father. As time has gone on, Irene's father had become very protective over her, sometimes to an outstanding degree. Trying to build more confidence with herself, Irene has tried to become more independent. However, some of his efforts to protect her tend to interfere with this. For the time being, Irene hasn't had the heart to confront him about this, as she knows her father feels immense guilt that he wasn't able to protect her before.
Irene's family is quite large, but due to their family business they're often too busy to see each other. They only really gather for important occasions or holidays. It's always a big event when they all get together. Irene gets along well with the rest of her family, but she doesn't like how much they baby her. A family member Irene gets to see often is her cousin, Vivienne. Unrelated but Irene's family is known to be on the shorter side.
When the story begins, Irene continues struggling with what she should do with her life. She has been trying to socialize more, although many times she's anxiously stalling and not actually doing much. After meeting Louis, she sees him as a good person that could maybe help her with her struggles. So, who's gonna tell her...
