Nam Joohyuk bullying row: Third classmate's defense has actor's fans torn, 'Stay neutral'
With a second alleged victim providing a detailed statement on how actor Nam Joo-hyuk was a school bully who physically and mentally tormented him, things are not looking too good. The first accuser had changed his story after Joo-hyuk’s label sued him with loopholes popping up. But after the second alleged victim spoke up, Knetizens decided to drop Nam Joo-hyuk. And now a third former classmate has surfaced but in defense of the ‘Twenty-Five Twenty-One’ star.
We first had a letter by a former classmate written in 2021 going viral after the first alleged victim’s accusation on June 21. The classmate wrote unprovoked that Nam Joo-hyuk had been kind to him and was a nice kid who slept in class and was on the basketball team. But the letter hindered all progress after the second victim spoke up on June 28. Despite Joo-hyuk’s label SOOP denying both accusations, the general public has turned their backs on the actor as school bullying in South Korea is severe. But the third classmate’s statement could turn the tide back in the actor's favor.
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Classmate speaks up for Nam Joo-hyuk
The third classmate shared that while he was not close to Nam Joo-hyuk, he is writing the post because the second accuser's claims were excessive. OP (original poster) shared that the truth had been twisted to frame Nam Joo-hyuk. He claimed there was no ‘bread shuttle’ where the second victim was forced to buy bread for everyone nor “have I ever seen Nam Joo-hyuk swearing and assaulting other classmates.” He added that if bread shuttles or bullying took place, everyone in the class would have noticed. The classmate added that some incidents did take place but Nam Joo-hyuk was not the perpetrator.
He remembered that a student paid for other people using the teacher’s phone and it was a big deal in class. OP also claimed that while students were not forced to get into fistfights, the boys were interested in WWE and would simply play around by bumping into each other during lunch breaks. He also added that he asked other people from his class, friends, parents, and former girlfriend and they all confidently shared that the allegations were false. He concluded, “Regarding the smartphone data and the sparring, they couldn't deny because it never even happened.”
But the part where OP states, “Making other students pay for the smartphone [data] and using students for sparring were things that happened in our class,” has the Internet divided as he contradicted his last statement and did not deny that Nam Joo-hyuk did these bullying activities. Several Knetizens were brutal as they still believe Nam Joo-hyuk is a school bully. They made comments like, “Who knows. Maybe because your vision of him was a flower bed, you would never know that your classmates were bullied by the same person,” “That's low of you Joohyuk-ah,” and “OP claims he doesn't consider it being bullying, but it can still be bullying to the victim though…”
‘Better to stay neutral’
However, some users are now inclined to stay neutral, “I'm seriously even more inclined to believe Nam Joohyuk in this situationㅋㅋㅋ.. People who read the first article would know. They keep changing their words and it's better to stay neutral.” One wondered, “It's not that the truth and the lies were blurred, it was completely fabricated???” Another fan added, “for the first time ever i’m staying neutral… we have gotten things so wrong over the past two years i’m not putting any energy into this.”
With a user bringing back Nam Joo-hyuk’s past joke about Suzy’s breath, one commented, “Right? Is it just me or does it feel like something/someone is making an effort to attack his reputation. Something feels off with the bullying stories and so they bring up stories like the 'Suzy incident' when at the end of the day its not really a big deal.” But another shared, “Idk.... how are you going to tell a victim that they are not a victim? either way like others have stated it's best to stay neutral. I don't want to victim blame or falsely accuse someone.”
This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.