A few days ago, I wrote about one of the dumbest supposedly major controversies in a while, which was one SEVENTEEN member supposedly telling a fan that she was basically his source of income and two others saying that she was a fan of another member. I figured that would be sorta it (because I am a dumbass) since it was either: 1) Fabricated 2) A joke 3) Telling the truth. However, of course things started to snowball because the accusation had to do with disrespect from an idol to a fan.

SEVENTEEN fans ended up claiming it was fabricated because Seungkwan‘s signature looks different, but as far as I’m concerned there was nothing conclusive about that. Of course, the same applies to the accuser’s clarifications, which don’t actually prove anything either, yet people are taking her story as solid evidence for whatever reason.

As far as I see it, we’re thus basically back to the battle of narratives. Yet the reason I’m skeptical of her side of the story is that there was a recording she made with Jeonghan that was supposed to make him some kind of dickhead.

Fansite recording of Junghan

Fan: Today’s dress code…

Junghan: Stop coming here.

Fan: (2 seconds pause) Huh…? OK.. But I keep getting picked though.

Junghan: Then other fans can’t come. Stop coming.

What an asshole, right?

But the reality of that exchange was basically what I thought the Seungkwan incident was all about, which was idols joking around with fans who show up all the time.

일 끝내자마자 음성찾아서 올려드립니다.

통으로 잘랐으며 어떻게 하든 주작 소리

나오니깐 이거라도 주작이 아니라는걸 밝히기위해 변조없이 생으로 올려드립니다.

(151101 용산팬싸)음성 듣고 알아서 판단하세요. 그리고 고소해 역고소할만큼 이게 팩트니깐. pic.twitter.com/p2l9vw230S — 햄니 (@96519kg) March 22, 2017

Everybody can have their own interpretation of that exchange, but I definitely see it as two people who recognize each other shooting the shit and not some malicious attack. And once that tone is established between them, it’s harder for me to believe Seungkwan wasn’t joking around as well since the group obviously recognizes her. The rebuttal to this being outed was that she was actually gravely offended but didn’t want to cause a scene so she played along, and that’s being taken at face value despite not appearing to reflect what we can clearly hear for … god knows what reason.

The most recent issue is SEVENTEEN supposedly re-gifting stuff they got from fans to staff.

This doesn’t seem true either, though.

Nope. Bumzu edited the post and added "I thought it was a present, but they actually left it (here). They make my heart goes up and down". pic.twitter.com/OlSmcv96bS — 혜민규 (@uygnim) March 24, 2017

Being edited makes it seem bad, but then I found out it’s a post over a year old and not related to this current mess at all. Thus, the incentive to shield at the time was minimal, and at worst this is up in the air as well.

—–

Primarily though, the thing that I’m inherently skeptical of is SEVENTEEN’s fandom, specifically the fansite admins, because they sound insane. I covered the fansite admin throwing shit at Joshua for no reason and them being a mess at ‘Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook‘, but there’s a bunch of other stuff about their fansites — like previously fabricated claims of disrespect from SEVENTEEN and them basically being sasaengs — that makes one severely skeptical about claims like the ones currently causing a mess (1/2/3/4).

All of that is still aside from the fact that at worst, even if SEVENTEEN did all this shit, the most I care is to say they were dumb and did shitty public relations with their fans. Because really, this is a controversy about a whole lot of nothing important. Still, it’s hard to see why people think SEVENTEEN are guilty of anything at this point if they look at situation objectively and without being influenced by translated comments. As of now, it’s basically just a collection of accusations that lack evidence, from a fansite admin that has already shown a willingness to twist facts to meet her narrative, and coming from a fandom that has a history of making up accusations exactly like this.

In the end, believe whatever you want based on what’s been presented cause nothing has been truly proven one way or the other that I can see, but for me it’s definitely a big ol’ nothingburger.