#also the timing of these accusations (right before kingdom and after goodyearforskz 2020) is definitely... something

[petekaos]

Rahul! Disclaimer: this is about the Hyunjin situation, so if you don’t feel comfortable answering, then feel free ignore! Sorry, I know that you don’t post/talk much about SKZ on here. And maybe I shouldn’t even be asking for your opinion, but I’m pretty conflicted on the whole situation and have always admire how thoughtful and insightful you are. SKZ is the only group that I “stan” and like I’m sure you feel, their music means a lot to me. But I in no way condone bullying, especially as someone that’s been victim to it for most of my life. It’s completely shattered my self esteem and I don’t think that I’ll ever recover from that, so I know what a lasting impact bullying can have on someone. And while we’ll never know exactly what happened, it seem that Hyunjin severely hurt his former peer(s) with his his word/actions (though a lot of stays are denying it), and for that he should apologize. I’m a firm believer in holding people accountable while giving them the time and space to learn and grow from their mistakes. And not addressing or completely dismissing the accusations wouldn’t have done that. But that’s not what happened. Hyunjin met with and apologized to the parties involved, then posted a public apology. So I’m not sure that a indefinite suspension from SKZ activities is necessary for him to reflect (it seem like he already has), or even if that’s what it’s supposed to do. Idk, it seems sort of excessive considering the impact it’ll have on his career at that of the group as a whole. Again, I don’t want to undermine what Hyunjin did and the hurt that he caused, I just don’t see how JYP’s response “solves” the issue, it seem like it’s only making it worse. Sorry, that got sort of long 😅 Mind sharing your thoughts, kind sir?

hiii nonnie! thank you so much for reaching out, the last couple of weeks have been kind of ridiculous when it comes to skz and i don’t mind sharing my thoughts here! 

first of all, i completely agree with you. bullying is something that is indefensible and as someone who was also bullied for a good portion of their life, the dent it leaves in your self-esteem and self-worth is extremely difficult to heal again, and i will always defend the victim, as i have been doing in this situation also. that being said, it’s because we don’t have the details of the whole situation that makes it hard to gauge and to see what your opinion is. these bullying accusations already came up in 2018 and were debunked i believe, so to see that happen again and with different accusations is... definitely something. the thing is that we don’t know and will probably never know what exactly went down - we have sources saying it was a petty middle school argument, sources saying that he bullied a girl even though he went to an all boys school, we have a classmate saying hyunjin was innocent, and then we have jyp’s own response claiming that it’s hard to prove. 

so after looking at the facts, of which we have very few, my general opinion on this is that it’s... not really my place to say. korea’s bullying culture is vastly different than western bullying culture or my country’s bullying culture and even things that seem petty or ‘unimportant’ to us have heavy consequences and measures there. korean schools and culture are rooted in hierarchy and nuance that may escape us, but may be increasingly obvious to them, so really we have very different ideas on bullying. i recommend watching pd’s video on the subject, it was enlightening! 

but one thing that i can say for sure is that i, too, believe in holding people accountable while simultaneously giving them the space to grow and to prove their growth. as hyunjin was in middle school when this happened, i believe that he has proven that he has grown from... whatever happened back then. now, this doesn’t excuse what he’s done, nor am i defending him, whatever it may be, but the fact that he met up with the people involved and posted a sincere public apology (as well as his other actions throughout the years such as his consolation sessions and whatnot) is showing to me personally that he has grown up. i don’t think the decisions you make in middle/early high school should influence your life forever, especially when it comes to cultural differences and international recognition, but i do think that your actions at whatever age matter and that you should hold yourself responsible for them, no matter at what age you’ve committed them. again, this is a personal opinion and it may be different for you! 

as for the indefinite hiatus he was put on to reflect, at this point that’s just a strategy to let knetizens cool down. as said, this is serious in korea, and it was a good idea to put him on hiatus as far as i know, while it may seem a little harsh. in my opinion, that’s the only good thing jyp has done in handling this situation. as the rest of the members are already slowly trickling back from social media/sns ban, i don’t think and really hope that this hiatus won’t take long because of kingdom as well. and as for the influence this could have on his career... well, his apology has been reported by knews and also his classmates talking about his innocence has also gone viral as far as i know, so while this may have some kind of influence domestically, i still think skz have now attained too big of international recognition for them to disband (like many people are fearing, i personally think it’s irrational) or something else to happen.

all in all, i think it’s very difficult to judge this situation considering that we don’t have all the facts, but simultaneously i am glad that he has apologised for whatever it was. personally i think it was mostly blown out of proportion because jyp didn’t handle it quickly enough and also the fact that so many fake rumours were floating around that made the entire situation even fuzzier. what we do know is that this argument was in middle school and involved more people and that classmates have come out in support of him, so do with that what you will. personally i think and would like to believe that hyunjin has grown from all of that and is responsible enough to hold himself accountable for any past mistakes from not just a pr point of view, but also just a self-reflective point of view. and considering his apology, his time to reflect, and from what we know of hyunjin as a person, it seems that is correct.