Thought I wouldn't be back until AYS2 dropped, but here I am…
Watching silently while everything has been going on has been a lot. So many times over the months I’ve written and deleted posts, not wanting to add to the negativity about how I've seen the fandom treat him. But this feels different. Seeing what’s happening with Jimin, my ultimate bias and the reason I even became a fan of BTS, has been heartbreaking, especially because none of this is due to anything he did. Watching fans use BigHit’s words as “confirmation” that he has a girlfriend, then celebrating the fact that Jimin is straight, has been disgusting. Regardless of whether that woman was or wasn’t his girlfriend (I’ll get to that), sexuality is fluid and exists on a spectrum. The homophobia I’ve seen from certain parts of the fandom has been shocking, though maybe I shouldn’t be surprised given how some people talk about Jikook.
Now about that woman. It blows my mind that people so easily accept the idea that she was dating Jimin, while completely ignoring her strange behavior over the years, especially her recent escalation, without questioning anything. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills myself, because this is someone who’s had repeated emotional breakdowns on live streams, once insinuated she was with JK, had men appear on her lives who later had to clarify they weren’t dating her after rumors spread, openly claimed she was dating Jimin only to come back and deny it, blaming others for “making up lies.” She claimed harassment from Jimin’s fans, had a group of shippers as paid subscribers on her lives begging for information about him to validate their ship, even though half of that ship was spotted in Paris holding hands with someone else. I could go on about that, but I won't.
It’s clear from her weird video that she had some access to Jimin about five years ago, whether romantically or just as a friend, and spent time around him. That’s not really the point though. The point is she has saved recordings of him. There’s no telling what else she has, and by posting those videos she’s signaled two things: one, she doesn’t care about making his life more difficult, and two, she isn’t afraid to post more in the future to prove a point. Knowing how difficult Jimin has said that time was for him, this feels especially exploitative.
The saddest part is that Jimin is an idol in an extremely conservative country, which makes it nearly impossible for him to push back strongly against her claims without exposing even more of his private life and risking her releasing more. His character is being defamed, with even more slanderous lies spreading to serve other people’s agendas, and very little seems to be done to stop it. Honestly, I don’t want to speculate too much further, but it all feels a little blackmailish.
And I definitely don’t understand how this somehow “confirms” the relationship status of Jikook, or why some fans are twisting this into blaming Jimin for “feeding fanservice.” Last I checked, Jimin wasn’t the one constantly posting about JK while fueling fans who say vile, disgusting things about another member.
What hurts the most, though, is remembering how happy Jimin seemed after his discharge. He was posting more on IG, looking youthful and unchanged, still his selfless and loving self despite everything he’s gone through in the military. So many details about this whole situation bother me, but what matters most is that Jimin feels supported and loved by people who don’t have ulterior motives, people who are simply there for him unconditionally.
I hope he takes as much time as he needs away from social media and the negativity, even from within his own fandom. More than anything, I want him to feel love from those who truly matter in his life and to be happy, so happy. To live however he wants, with whoever he wants, free from the stress of bad people trying to dim his light.
I’ll be here whenever Jimin decides to return, supporting both his career and the caring, beautiful person he is.
