MEAWW.COM / ENTERTAINMENT / K-POP NEWS

‘Secure the safety of aespa’: Fans angry as girl group assaulted at boys' school

aespa only had a female manager to protect them from the crowd who kept invading their personal space

While aespa had a grand performance last week at Coachella and was pretty much treated like royalty, the girl group’s appearance at a boys' school in South Korea has fans angry. On May 2, the K-pop group was invited to a festival at Gyeongbok High School. Fancams started making rounds where the four girls were surrounded by men and male students with some even invading their personal space as they tried to take photos and touch them inappropriately. 

Many fans pointed out that there was no legitimate security and aespa’s manager, who is a woman herself, was all alone trying to bar the boys from coming close to the group. MYs (aespa’s fandom) were further enraged when some students catcalled and made lewd comments about aespa. On top of that, some were taking advantage of the heavy crowd to inappropriately touch the girls and take indecent photos in the guise of leading them towards their destination.

READ MORE

Ningning's Olympic row: aespa star's Instagram hacked, fans ask SM to protect idol

aespa's vocals at Coachella 2022 make fans wonder why SM won't let them sing live

No security for aespa at a boys' school

If that wasn’t enough, the actual performance was uncomfortable as some boys broke from the audience and came up on stage. The girls obliged and took photos with them, while a teacher in the background is heard joking that the boys should be careful as they could be arrested for sexual harassment. With SM Entertainment being one of the biggest K-pop labels, fans couldn’t fathom why they did not send proper security with aespa to an event being held at a boys' school. At the same time, one of the boys who climbed on stage apologized and shared that he wasn’t thinking straight.

Update: The high school has issued an apology for the crowd. However, fans are not accepting it as the high school did not apologize for the students' actions and asked all of them to delete their posts of aespa prior to the apology letter as they could be held legally accountable.

‘WTF is SM doing?’

Fans are worried for aespa’s safety and are trending ‘Secure the safety of aespa’. At the same time, they are also mass emailing SM in hopes that they take some action and such an incident doesn’t occur again in the future. Fans thanked the female manager who did her best to protect aespa, “Thank you unnie for protecting these four girls.” Another MY asked, “As you can see, this female manager was the only one who protected the girls. What the fck r u doin? @SMTOWNGLOBAL.”

One fan posted, “No cause wtf is sm doing … why tf would sm send aespa to an all boys school without proper security ?! their female manager was the only one who protected the girls from these nasty high school boys who dont have an ounce of respect for aespas privacy.”

Another pointed out that this was not the first time, “No cause this is not the first time, this also happened in airport.. the lack of bodyguards guarding aespa makes me mad, they’re women for f**k sake!! call me weirdo or oa but I’m seriously worried about the girls.” 

One fan shared, “SM Entertainment is a big company but still can't protect their artist right. THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME, WE DEMAND PROPER TREATMENT to AESPA SECURE THE SAFETY OF AESPA.” Another commented, “SM sent aespa to all boys school but without proper guards. They invaded their space & took indecent photo with indecent caption. You can see the girls are really uncomfortable but the sad thing is they can’t do anything.”

One MY was furious as a fan tries to take a photo of Karina’s chest, “What right do you have to touch her?” Another shared the video where some boys got on stage, “The incident when male students climbed onto the stage.” One MY said, “You can literally see them back off a bit but they kept their composure. These men need to go to jail.”

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.