150930 PLEDIS Facebook Announcement

Whattttttttt

This is supposedly got something to do with the recent After School disbanding rumours as well as some nasty rumours about Seungcheol that have been circulating over message boards

The rumour goes along the lines that Seungcheol was an iljin (bully/gang related term) before debut and there are apparently screencaps that "prove" this as well. But so far nothing has been confirmed and judging by the severity of Pledis' announcement, I'm assuming these rumours are false just like the ridiculous AS ones.

But yeah this whole drama will probably blow over in the next few days.

Someone else could probably sum up this whole mess better than me tbh haha

It is highly unlikely that Roleplayers will be targeted or roped into this situation.

The main issues are supposedly (1) a 'trainee' leaking information of After School's disbandment and (2) Seungcheol's supposed Iljin past. If I'm not wrong, I believe it is mostly the latter that they are targeting. Unlike many other Iljin disclosures however, there are no photos Seungcheol, only 'screenshots' of his supposed Iljin accounts on past forums (I believe the SNS impersonating comes in regards to this as people are claiming the accounts belong to him).

A little more about Iljins - these are pretty much what you'd see as delinquents, mostly associated with some form of peer-circle where they engage in underage smoking, drinking and occasionally, sex parties and drugs. The term is also associated with bullying, a major social topic that continues to exist in the Korean society. Weirdly enough, iljin aren't gangs in the way you'd see in mobster movies, even though some of them do dealings underground, but these people tend to parade their identity and wears it as a badge of honor. They work mostly on Iljin private forums, trading photos and contacts in a closed network that supposedly works on invitation basis. To put it shortly, you do not want to be labeled as an iljin as it is very bad reputation, especially for idols who are supposed to have a fresh image and be the role model of their young audiences.

Either way, I have not seen the original post (it was taken down by the time I got to checking things). However, judging from the sources and discussions, it seems like things are looking up in Seungcheol's favor as there are no photos, just 'screenshots' of his supposed ID on iljin forums. Also, his classmates have been stepping up and defending him - the main idea of this announcement is to find the original rumor-poster.

It's not the first time this kind of stuff happened in Kpop (most recent being LOVELY's member, but she has also since cleared her name about the iljin rumors I believe). At least the company is working hard to resolve this ASAP.

Yeah, I know at least that Afterschool's disbandment is definitely false. Uee discussed it in an interview recently saying that there is no threat of them disbanding and that they all want to come back soon. And hopefully OC's comeback will help AfterSchool's chances of getting a comeback as well.

Right? I mean, the kid is a total sweetheart.