PocketDol respond to allegations of 22-year-old stylist grooming 14-year-old FANTASY BOYS member Gyurae

Disturbing grooming allegations emerged recently, when a netizen/fan/sasaeng/stalker released evidence that a 22-year-old female stylist was having a relationship with 14-year-old FANTASY BOYS member Kim Gyurae.

The netizen that exposed this seemed more upset that he was allegedly in a relationship (a victim of grooming, to be clear) than anything else, and this whole thing supposedly started when she saw the two of them holding hands, which is when she asked a friend for their private Instagram accounts. The netizen then claims to have paid a hacker $20k+ to get into their accounts, posting evidence they found that includes inappropriate text message convos and audio/videos exchanged between the two.

In response to this, PocketDol Studio has released a statement inferring that some of the evidence was manipulated and they would be taking action against the netizen who leaked this information.

We are releasing the following statement about FANTASY BOYS member Kim Gyurae.
We would like to apologize to the fans and the members who were disappointed by the controversy regarding Kim Gyurae’s private life, which is currently being spread online. However, we would like to state that there is a misunderstanding in regard to the leaked conversation.
The person who first spread these messages maliciously edited the conversation to defame and spread misinformation about the artist.
Please stop spreading the photos and misleading content and refrain from speculating further.
We have monitored the situation and have collected evidence on the person who first shared the above, and we are planning to file a police report today. We are also considering additional legal actions for defamation, cyber crimes, and unlawful threats.
We are also planning on taking legal action against those who take part in secondary acts that spread and defame the artist.

Look, I certainly hope that the netizen is making things up to some extent and that the relationship between the stylist and the idol is fabricated (though the alleged audio is concerning, regardless). But I’m definitely more concerned with the possibility that they’re trying to sweep this under the rug because investigating the stylist like they probably should would bring negative attention to the group from psychotic fans like the one who exposed this to begin with.

In the end, one only hopes that Gyurae is protected, and fans are understandably concerned that isn’t being made the priority at the moment.