Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Gunil is now a former member of Xdinary Heroes, as he has been booted from the group following controversy after an ex-girlfriend posted disparaging comments he made about fans and fellow members.
JYP Entertainment announced the move, also clarifying that his contract was terminated, “Regarding the recent issues concerning member Gun-il, our agency has deeply recognized the gravity of the situation and has engaged in thorough, multi-faceted discussions with the artist. As a result, we have determined that it is no longer possible for him to continue group activities, and we have mutually agreed to terminate his exclusive contract. Therefore, we inform you that as of today, Gun-il has withdrawn from Xdinary Heroes and will conclude his activities with the group.“
They will continue on as five.
As far as what he said, a lot of it was about fans.
Basically, she called him out for being completely different from how he normally acted in private versus the polished image he presented to the public. Even after concerts, he’d apparently call her and talk about wanting to quit everything, along with making some pretty nasty comments about the group’s fans. She was particularly frustrated by the fact that he maintained such a positive, polished public image while allegedly being the complete opposite behind closed doors. And that’s what prompted her to reveal all this.
In one of the leaked voice messages, he said about his fans, “Yeah, everything’s shit. I just want to slap their faces.” He also talked about fans complaining about their concerts on Twitter, saying that reading their posts only made him resent the fandom even more. On top of that, he talked negatively about his own members behind their backs to her.
Anyway, shortly after his exit was announced, he then took to Bubble to clarify the situation in what seemed like a tell-all type of moment with fans.
Gunil says he had no choice but to accept the company’s decision, that the person who posted the message was somebody he was seeing for two weeks, and that he basically vented to her during a rough time, “At the time, I was mentally very exhausted because of the malicious comments that had continued from before, false stories being spread about me, and various worries and concerns I had about Xdinary Heroes’ music and performances. Rather than burdening the people close to me by telling them what was really on my mind, there was a period when I found it easier to vent my frustrations to a stranger who didn’t know me well.” Gunil does admit to being the one on the recording disparaging fans, and apologizes for it, “The person who made the inappropriate remarks about fans in the recorded phone call that was made public to Villains was indeed me. Regardless of the reason, the fact that I said those things does not change. I sincerely apologize to everyone who was disappointed and hurt by what I said.“
That said, he did wish to provide context for everything. Notably, he says he felt under stress after sasaengs broke into their dorm and tried to track him, leading to resentment of certain fans.
“Earlier this year, sasaeng fans broke into our dorm, and they even put a GPS tracker on my personal vehicle and followed me around. After experiencing things like that, I developed a great deal of fear and resentment toward certain malicious fans, and I went through a very difficult time emotionally.“
He then says a couple months ago the group prepared hard for a concert, but he was shocked by social media posts being malicious towards them with a “vicious” edge to them that made it hard to understand, “Because it was a performance we had prepared with all our sincerity, seeing unexpected criticism and malicious comments seemed to have caused me to emotionally break down quite badly.“
Gunil explained that led to him opening up to a relative stranger because he couldn’t complain to people associated with the company about it, as he didn’t want to burden other members since he was the leader of the group. Regardless, he acknowledged that he was wrong to do so. However, he wanted to make clear that he was talking about a certain group of malicious fans and not their whole fandom in general.
“There is one thing, however, that I absolutely want to make clear. The people I was speaking about emotionally at the time were certain malicious fans who hid behind anonymity, indiscriminately attacked us, or invaded our privacy. I was absolutely not saying those things about all Villains who trusted and supported us. Because I had always tried to show you the image of a sincere and dependable leader, I believe the disappointment and sense of betrayal you felt because of this incident must have been even greater. I am truly sorry for that. Around the time before and after the June Inspire concert, I was going through a difficult period emotionally for many different reasons. I also met that person around that time, and it is true that I relied on them to some extent when I was struggling. I know this story may sound like an excuse. But I want to make one thing absolutely clear: I did not say those things about the Villains whom I truly loved and trusted.“
As far as problems with his members, he admits to having issues but in the end he cherished them, “It would also be a lie if I said that I had never once been dissatisfied with the members, who I lived with every day and with whom I shared so much of both my work and personal life. But I can say without the slightest shame that while I was active as a member of Xdinary Heroes, I genuinely cared for and loved the members, and that I was always grateful for the love Villains gave us. To me, the members were always people I was proud of, and Villains were always people I was grateful for.“
Gunil ended by emotionally apologizing to fans, saying that none of this feels real, and it’s more like a nightmare, reassuring them despite acknowledging it must be difficult for them as well.
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While admitting I only know of this what I’ve written about here, this definitely seems like one of those things that is generally understandable for an idol to be going through, but also isn’t really surprising it gets them the boot.
Like even for venting, this is rather mild. If you’ve worked at a job and not expressed worse than this at some point to anybody, then you are truly a saint. That is to say, given all the terrible things idols get away from a moral/ethical standpoint and remain in their groups, this is a relatively nothingburger. That said, what it does do is potentially hurt the company’s bottom line, as disparaging fans and impacting their willingness to support the group is probably one of the cardinal sins from a company perspective. Additionally, talking to randoms about company business and what not probably didn’t do him any favors either.
Some fans are understandably outraged about JYPE seemingly prioritizing the feelings of a group of insane people over him, but companies frequently kinda toe the line with those insane people because they basically do free labor and spend a lot of money on their groups. In the end, that’s probably what they care about more than their own idols no matter what PR campaigns they do about being family.
Either way, what’s most surprising is the speed at which this was concluded, as this didn’t even really make it overseas as a controversy yet before he got the boot. The apparent eagerness to make this decision is rather surprising, though I’m glad he got to put the situation out in the open for everybody, as the context honestly does make it all rather understandable. Not the smartest thing to do or get involved with, but understandable.
