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Hana Yoon

Hana Yoon was a Korean American marine biologist born in Evanston, Illinois, in 2008. She was the daughter of Sung-ho and Eun-joo Yoon and the younger sister of Travis Yoon. She was a teenager when Travis died of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in August 2025.

Early Life and Background

Hana grew up in Evanston with her parents and Travis, who was approximately four years older. English and Korean were spoken in the Yoon household and with the children’s grandparents.

Hana regularly sent Travis photographs of sea creatures, including jellyfish, octopuses, and deep-sea anglerfish. He saved the photographs on his phone. Her interest in marine life later became her profession when she became a marine biologist.

Personality and Communication

Hana shared Travis’s capacity for close attention and her mother’s practical steadiness, but she was more outwardly expressive than either of them. She was observant, warm, and direct. Her sea-creature photographs were one way she showed enthusiasm and stayed in contact with Travis while they lived apart; as a teenager, she could send a jellyfish or anglerfish instead of trying to turn missing him into a formal message. She spoke fluent English and Korean.

Family and Core Relationships

Travis Yoon

Hana asked Travis for fashion advice while getting ready to go out and shared clothing and accessory choices with him over FaceTime. She trusted his taste but retained her own preferences: before a mall trip with friends, she chose matching silver hoops over his suggestion to keep a hoop paired with a jellyfish earring, then agreed with his choice of a green crossbody bag for her white shirt and jeans. Their calls included mutual teasing, and Travis asked to see photographs of her purchases.

During Travis’s summer 2024 visit to Evanston, Hana spent much of the Thursday before his return to New York in his desk chair while he packed. She kept one of his navy T-shirts and folded the shirts he was taking with him. During their August 24 FaceTime call, Travis teased her about her missing shoes before directing her to the white sneakers she had left under his desk.

Travis was Hana’s older brother. Their recurring exchange of sea-creature photographs continued while he studied at Juilliard and during his illness. After second-line treatment failed, the family honored his request to leave the hospital and return home. Hana was present when Travis died at the Yoon family home in August 2025, after which she was the Yoons’ surviving child.

Eun-joo Yoon and Sung-ho Yoon

Hana lived with her parents in Evanston. Eun-joo worked as a registered nurse, and Sung-ho worked as an engineer.

Soon-ja Yoon

Soon-ja was Hana’s paternal grandmother and lived in the Yoon family home. Hana later described her as someone who had “watched the world with total attention and no urgency to make it say something it wasn’t ready to say.”

Friendships and Social Connections

Ezra Cruz

Main article: Ezra Cruz and Yoon Family

Ezra became part of the Yoon household during Travis’s leukemia treatment. During the summer of 2025, he treated Hana with the familiarity and consideration he showed his own younger sister, Luna Cruz. His relationship with Hana and the rest of the Yoon family continued after Travis’s death, and Hana later attended his wedding to Nina Cruz with her parents.

Luna Cruz

Ezra introduced Hana and Luna remotely during Travis’s illness or its aftermath. The two became close friends despite living in different states and being three years apart in age. Luna became Hana’s closest friend outside the Yoon family.

Characters Supporting Characters Living Characters Korean American Characters Researchers Yoon Family