[Title : I’m sorry.
I saw the notice you posted online.
I had been arguing with KK fans online since the previous day and was very agitated.
One of my friends happened to have been chosen as a staff member, so we secretly went to the waiting rooms.
We found the KK waiting room and impulsively ended up causing an incident.
If it were premeditated, I never would have shown my face when there are security cameras.
I would be thankful if you would let me go this one time.
I’m not the one who posted the picture on the internet so I’m not able to delete it.
I’m sorry.]
Do Ra Hee shook her head after reading the email.
The gifts were discarded on the street by the award ceremony venue, so anyone could have taken the picture. The important thing was to reveal that they were the ones who tossed the gifts.
Do Ra Hee could easily guess who the culprit was from ‘I was arguing with a KK fan online’. However, jumping to conclusions was inadvisable, so before replying to the sender…*
(TL Note: To clarify, Do Ra hee wanted to look into some things before replying.)
The name of the person who sent the email was Kim Bo Mi. It was difficult to find detailed information with just the name Kim Bo Mi.
The sender’s email address was ‘bome1bome@kmail.com’.
When she checked the email address on Facenote, it, as expected, was not a registered email address.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee took a chance and searched for email addresses like ‘bomebome’ or ‘bome2bome’. Then she thought of adding Sa Bang Shin Hwa members’ birthdays and searched for the email address ‘bome1123’.
When she did, the member information popped up along with the name Kim Bo Mi. 23 years old, currently on leave of absence from school.
When she went to her profile, it showed Kim Bo Mi’s most recent post from one hour ago.
[Feeling shitty, *beep*]
There were lots of comments on her post sneering at her or using abusive language, saying ‘that’s why you should have covered your tracks better’ ‘stOOpid’ etc.
Looking through her posts, she had posted a picture of her TBN award ceremony staff badge, and there were a few noticeable pictures that made it clear she was a Sa Bang Shin Hwa fan.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee sent a reply with confidence.
***
Sometime later, the online controversy was settled neatly thanks to Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee’s actions.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee personally met up with Kim Bo Mi, who had sent the email.
Kim Bo Mi knew the internet well; she knew what bad things would happen if her personal information was posted online. Therefore, she could post the apology email she had sent online, but she said she didn’t think there was much she could do beyond that.
“Geez. How ridiculous. You knew very well what would happen yet you did such a thing?!”
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee did not swear out loud since it was a company-related matter, but she swore with her eyes. There was a reason that Manager Oh Baek Ho said not to cross Do Ra Hee.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee took deep breaths as she gave a long speech about the KK members who were cursed at and the fans who were hurt because of Kim Bo Mi.
Kim Bo Mi, who was wearing a hat, could only hang her head under Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee’s aura.
“You know that we can sue you, right?”
“…Yes.”
“Then your life will really be over. It’s on a different level than your personal information being leaked online.”
Kim Bo Mi looked at Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee with an anxious look. The staff badge was hers, so she, who was the most anxious, stepped up as a representative and had sent the email.
“So do as we say. It wouldn’t make sense for you to face no consequences while we suffer damage, right?!”
Kim Bo Mi nodded her head to Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee who spoke sharply.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee did not intend to reveal Kim Bo Mi’s personal information either. Still, even if she were to post an apology saying it was her fault, there was no proof that the person posting it really was the culprit, so she also needed to post evidence that she was.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee did not completely believe Kim Bo Mi that it was on impulse. Since there were accomplices, she thought there should be evidence of them plotting things.
Eventually, Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee found circumstantial evidence that Kim Bo Mi exchanged messages with two other people, saying things like, “Let’s go into the KK waiting room and do something. I need to go in and tear their clothes up or something to feel better. Let’s make trouble for KK.”
Immediately that afternoon, Kim Bo Mi posted an apology on the community site with a photo of her staff badge and a screenshot of the conversation of them plotting.
It said that as a fan of another singer, she had animosity towards KK and did something she shouldn’t have done, and was sorry to the KK members and fans.
Although the name was hidden, two of the profile pictures in the conversation screenshot were of Sa Bang Shin Hwa members.
Kim Bo Mi wanted to hide that she was a Sa Bang Shin Hwa fan at all cost, but there was no way it wouldn’t be revealed.
Being a fan of Sa Bang Shin Hwa was already a solid motive.
When Kim Bo Mi’s apology was posted, the community was once again in uproar. Once it was revealed that Kim Bo Mi was a Sa Bang Shin Hwa fan, it became known within the Sa Bang Shin Hwa fandom who the perpetrator group was.
Because of Kim Bo Mi’s group, Sa Bang Shin Hwa ended up getting backlash, which naturally made Kim Bo Mi’s group branded amongst the fans who attend events in person as a bad group and were ostracized.
Assistant Manager Do Ra Hee quickly released HIT Entertainment’s position, including Kim Bo Mi’s apology, through a press release.
It was firmly stated that this was the first time this type of thing happened and that the person quickly posted an apology so they were shown leniency, but they would not show leniency again.
< Scary Fight Among Fans...By Stealing From KK’s Waiting Room! >
< KK Agency States That From Here On Out, They Will Respond Firmly To The Spread of KK-Related Rumours, Malicious Comments, Etc. >
-They’re thoroughly disgracing Sa Bang Shin Hwa
-Pathetic…
-Their fans are going around doing uncool things haha
-Shouldn’t you put them in jail? HIT Entertainment sure is soft~
-Where’d everyone who was cursing KK go? lol
-They’re out of their minds!!! I heard kids these days are scary, but they’re even going around committing crimes???
-I knew there was no way our boys would do that T.T
-Those thoughtless kids should be punished…
The general public wasn’t really aware that all this happened, especially since there were no major articles because it happened between fans.
What was important were the fans. What Do Wook and the members wanted was to clear up the fans’ misunderstanding.
KK fans were outraged once the full truth was revealed and were even more saddened that despite the fact that it was stolen, the KK members were genuinely sorry that the fans’ gifts were tossed on the streets.
They drew a clear boundary between singer and fan, but it became an opportunity for the relationship between them to become even stronger.
Also, the KK members realized once again that now that they’d reached the top, there were many people who were jealous and wanted to bring them down.
They thought that they needed to be even more careful of their behavior since they didn’t know when, where, or in what way strange gossip might sprout up.
***
Thankfully, the matter got resolved, so the KK members arrived at Gimpo Airport with a lighter heart.
Countless fans gathered today as well and crowded the airport. The airport security guards had a hard time keeping the fans under control.
In the past, the members would have at least greeted them, but on days like today when there is an excessive amount of people greeting them, it would only make it worse for normal airport patrons so it was hard to do so.
The KK members, who were making their way up to the departure area, had to go through the harrowing experience of the escalator stopping due to the numerous fans who followed behind them or got on ahead of them to take pictures.
When the escalator stopped working because there were too many people on it, Manager Oh Baek Ho facepalmed out of frustration.
Eventually the KK members had to follow Manager Oh Baek Ho up the stairs to the departure area.
“Man, today is really legendary.”
“Oh my gosh.”
Jung Yoon Ki and Kim Won shook their heads as they entered the departure area.
This was their first event after the award ceremony and there was a lot that happened online over a short period of time, so the fans wanted to see KK in person even more.
At the duty-free shop in the departure area, KK’s faces were already hung in front.
“Wow…”
Ahn Hyung Seo looked in admiration at the ad that had his face on it.
“I was wondering when they would hang it here.”
“I guess it’s now.”
Ahn Hyung Seo walked towards the gate as he talked with Suk Ji Hoon. It took longer than expected to get to the departure area, so there was not much time left before boarding the plane.
All the members were seated in business class.
Shortly after take-off, the in-flight meal was served. The flight from Gimpo to Tokyo is very short so there typically would not have been an in-flight meal, but it was a special business class in-flight meal for the morning flight.
“Now that I think about it, we didn’t even eat rice cake soup yesterday,”
Suk Ji Hoon said while looking at the rice cake soup that was served as the in-flight meal.
They had been preparing for the performance that would take place today, so the KK members had mostly been at the rehearsal hall for lunch and dinner even though it had been the first day of the year.
“I’m glad we at least get to eat it here.”
Suk Ji Hoon nodded at Do Wook’s remarks as he picked up his spoon. Suk Ji Hoon started a conversation with Kim Won, whom he could see from the corner of his eyes.
“Won, Won! Take a break and eat.”
“Ahhh…sure. Okie okie.”
At Suk Ji Hoon’s words, Kim Won finally closed the Japanese book he was looking at. Once he gets into a book, Kim Won loses track of everything else. In anticipation of the events in Japan, Kim Won devoted himself to studying conversational Japanese.
Perhaps because he has a high IQ, or has excellent language skills, or both, Kim Won’s Japanese skills had improved in a short period of time.
Now he could, of course, do basic communication as well as read the Japanese newspaper.
“You said you’re going to be on an entertainment show this time, right?”
“Yeah. I need to study Japanese more too. “
“But you’re good at it too. The three of us honestly won’t have any problems. The other three are the problem.”
At Suk Ji Hoon’s cheeky words, you could hear Ahn Hyung Seo, who was sitting in the back seat, protesting that he was studying it.
Do Wook quietly laughed as he thought to himself that he should check later if the New Year’s gift he had sent to his family had arrived safely.
KK’s first event in the new year was in Tokyo Japan.
KK’s full length Japanese album < あおぞら* > had just been released in Tokyo yesterday.
(TL Note: read “ao sora” meaning blue sky)
This time, KK was scheduled go all out for their activities in Japan by appearing in not only show cases but also Japanese music broadcasts and entertainment broadcasts with < あおぞら >.
KK was already quite recognized among Japanese K-POP fans. However, through this album, they were going to focus on promoting KK’s music not only to K-POP fans but also to those who enjoy Japan’s local music.
Nakamoto, which was originally only in charge of music and album distribution, was in charge of planning and production this time as well as filming the Japanese album jacket.
In terms of revenue distribution, HIT Entertainment might take a bit of a loss but they had set up a localization strategy perfectly.
KK’s popularity had peaked in Korea.
It was a good time to climb one step, no, two steps at a time in Japan too.
They had a clear goal for their activities this time.
—
Next chapter: With the theft incident taken care of, the members jump on the plane for their next scheduled events