Kian Buholo

Kian is first introduced as Danny's fourteen-year-old younger half-brother living in Afton.

When Danny and Hannah seek sanctuary in the Unincorporated Territories, they visit Victor's house and meet Kian, whom his sisters describe as a troublemaker who had two girls wrestling over him at school.

Kian is present during a highly tense family dinner that ends in an explosive brawl when Danny punches their abusive father, Victor, across the table for insulting their mothers.

Kian Buholo is Danny's younger brother and the untouchable star athlete and 'King' of Afton High.

Initially operating as a ruthless bully alongside his best friend Alec, Kian runs an extortion ring and viciously torments the school's equipment manager, a gentle musician named Mikael Kabadu. Kian shatters Mikael's beloved violin and beats him so brutally he is left unconscious and bleeding.

Horrified by his own violence and realizing he is acting exactly like his abusive father, Victor, Kian experiences a profound shift. He stops his crew's extortion, apologizes to Mikael, and even leads a basketball boycott to defend a wrongfully terminated teacher.

Kian makes amends by gifting Mikael a beautiful new violin with a custom inscription honoring Mikael's late father. This tender gesture leads the two boys to share a kiss, and they secretly fall deeply in love, planning to escape Afton's deadly homophobic laws together.

Their hidden sanctuary is shattered when Kian's public girlfriend, Eve Omari, reveals she is pregnant, prompting her father, Chief Omari, to demand they marry when Kian turns eighteen.

Driven by a toxic, secret jealousy, Kian's best friend Alec betrays him. Alec tips off Eve, leading her and an angry mob of villagers to catch Kian and Mikael hiding together in a bedroom.

Both boys are arrested and put on public trial for homosexuality, a capital offense in Afton. During the trial, Victor Buholo uses a legal loophole regarding Kian's age (under eighteen) to spare him from the guillotine, but cruelly votes to execute the eighteen-year-old Mikael.

Forced to watch the enforcer Paolo execute Mikael by guillotine, Kian's mind completely breaks. Seeking vengeance, Kian takes his father's long gun and executes both Paolo and Victor. He is quickly extracted by Danny via helicopter to avoid being lynched.

Locked inside the Zenith Conservatory in Riverwell City, Kian's severe trauma causes him to develop a protective delusion that Mikael is still alive and safe in the cell with him. This delusion shatters only when he receives Mikael's restored crimson violin and a forgiving letter from Mikael's mother.

Kian's tragic, publicized story shifts public opinion, eventually leading to massive national protests, a refugee program for queer UTR citizens, and the exile of Chief Omari.

Years later, Kian is finally released from the Zenith Conservatory, remaining completely shattered by the brutal reality of his past. Eve visits him with their toddler son, offering him a safe return to a reformed Afton, but Kian declines.

He remains entirely alone, weeping in the dark as he holds the crimson violin, forever mourning the gentle boy who showed him true kindness.