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Le Sserafim's Garam called 'sociopath' after she talks of bullying past to a fan

The victim's lawyer reports that Garam had to get the highest level of punishment for not being remorseful

Trigger warning - mention of suicide

It looks like HYBE needs to have a better PR strategy to handle Kim Garam’s case. The Le Sserafim star was accused of being a school bully days before she debuted as a K-pop idol. For weeks, Le Sserafim fans were asking HYBE to issue a detailed statement instead of just stating that Garam is innocent and a victim. Well, it seems that they have finally released their stance on the situation with an in-depth explanation of all the rumors and how they are false. But it seems to be too late since fans are not believing it anymore.

A day before HYBE finally decided to explain why they believed Garam was innocent, it was chaos on K-pop Twitter as we got update after update on May 19 from the victim sharing that she had been suicidal to her law firm claiming that HYBE was suing a minor when she just wanted an apology from Garam. The firm had explained that the alleged victim had actually reached out to Garam privately and was forced to go public when both Le Sserafim and HYBE ignored her. Despite HYBE now claiming that the alleged victim is lying and in fact is a bully, fans have taken to following the ‘trust a liar rather than an assaulter’ adage. And Garam’s behavior in the past few weeks has not done her any favors. 

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Garam reportedly got the highest level of punishment

Garam’s response to a Le Sserafim fan is now under scrutiny as she addressed her bullying past. On May 18, the fan left a supportive message saying, “Garam-ah, how have you been? Please take care of yourself. You're so pretty when you smile so don't lose your bright smile. Garam-ah ~ you look strong on the outside but you're soft on the inside ㅠㅠ . Although you went through that at a young age, I sincerely hope you're doing wellㅠㅠ. Remember why you started, no matter what happens, I'll support you and protect you. Forget the past and focus on the present.”

The fan had left a second message saying that she would not breathe till Garam answered her. Garam then replied, “Thank you, you can breathe now!” Netizens are finding the whole exchange ridiculous while others believe that Garam’s response coincides with the rumors of her sociopathy that have started cropping up. After the leaked school violence committee document which labeled Garam as a bully started circulating, the alleged victim’s law firm shared that the document was real and they had evidence that the idol had been punished. 

According to the firm, the school violence counselors reported that Garam “was punished by receiving 6 hours of special education according to Article 17-1 #5 of the Act on the Prevention and Countermeasure of School Violence.” The special education that the Le Sserafim member received was that she has to improve her perception of violence and reflect on her actions with the help of experts since it is difficult to reflect on her own. When Knetz further inquired into the measure, the Ministry of Education’s School Violence/Sexual Violence Counselor responded that a #5 measure was only applied in an extremely high-level bullying case.

‘Something must be wrong with Garam’

Knetz are shocked as they made posts like, “Wow imagine being at a level when you find it hard to reflect on your own actions…,” “I've never seen a female student get the #5 sentence once,” and “Wow everyone usually just writes a letter of reflection and will try anything they can to get their sentence lessened, she's seriously legendary.” One user commented, “I am being 100% dead serious when i say i genuinely think garam might be a psychopath or sociopath or narcissist - can’t reflect on her actions - insufficient perception of violence - no signs of remorse/guilt - self centred thinking - harming others for selfish reasons.”

Another fan tweeted, “Something must be seriously wrong with kim garam. she has not looked remorseful even once and she didn't look bothered even when she appeared on the news for bullying. it almost seems like she knows she has big ppl backing her up and she'd get away with anything.” One said, “Indeed. she's a narcissist how can you appear on the news but still uploading any selca like wow she's living her life with all of these attentions now.” Another added, “In my experience with people like her, they never self reflect. Instead, she is probably thinking that the bullying wasn’t all that serious and that the victim is doing all of this for attention/moneys or that the victim is obsessed with her and targeting her and that SHE is the real victim being harassed now and it’s “so unfair <\3”.”

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