Seventeen's Mingyu allegedly harassed a female student sexually, would 'say sexual jokes' around her
In a string of accusations levied against many K-pop celebrities including LOONA's Chu and Straykids member Hyunjin, Seventeen's Mingyu had also been accused of bullying. Many victims claimed on a popular community site that the star had belonged to a delinquent group when he was in middle school and had bullied his schoolmates. Just days after Mingyu's agency Pledis Entertainment announced that the claims were false, the idol has been accused of sexually harassing a female student while he studied at Burim Middle School.
The person who claimed that Mingyu had harassed her, did not just post her allegations but also shared a detailed map of the school that they went to show where she was harassed. This was in response to people who refused to believe that Mingyu would be capable of not only bullying but also sexual harassment.
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In fact, according to a report in allkpop that translated the writer's post, she wrote, "I am suffering from depression and anxiety, so I didn't want to fight against someone if I do make this post. I also thought he was only bad to me. However, I decided to write this post because so many people were shielding him from the other allegations. So I am writing this so people can know. I just want to let people know that these things happened and that he's the type of person who did those things."
Initially, many had claimed that Mingyu had bullied them but there were many who shielded the idol. This resulted in the author trying to stress how much Mingyu was capable of. She detailed the things that Mingyu did and asked "What do you know?"
She also recalled that he would make sexual jokes around her and said, "That boy would also...say sexual jokes around me. He would say those things even with the teacher around. It was to the point the teacher had to say, 'Don't say those things since we have girls here.' It wasn't as bad when the teacher was there, but he didn't change a bit when the teacher wasn't in the classroom."
The first slate of allegations made on February 22 was all about Mingyu being a bully, however, his agency said in a statement that none of the allegations were true. In the statement, it was clarified, "We checked with Mingyu and the rumors are completely false and have no basis. We don't understand why anyone is making these claims." The statement went on further to claim that there were factual discrepancies between the claims and Mingyu's actual life.
The statement added, "'A's middle school graduation album is from a different year than Mingyu's graduation. 'A' also said that Mingyu was cast when he was in his 3rd year of middle school, but Mingyu has been a Pledis Entertainment trainee since he was in his 2nd year."
Another post was created on February 26 on Nate Penn where a user claiming to be a friend of a victim's friend shared screenshots of a conversation that detailed how Mingyu would bully a disabled kid. The writer explained that the victim was afraid of repercussions as Mingyu was a popular idol and only decided to come out because of how fans shielded Mingyu. The user wrote according to a post in Allkpop, "A is the witness to Mingyu's bullying, B is the victim, and C is another victim, but he has a disability. A, B, and C all attended Burim middle school with Mingyu, but the person writing this post is a friend of A who did not attend Burim."
This anonymous user also stated, "we decided to raise our voice because we saw another person on Nate Pann speak up. We are afraid we will get retaliation from the perpetrator and his fans, but we want to reveal that he's not a nice person that a lot of people believe."