“It will be my sister’s rumor for a very long time”… Song Ha-yoon, a male victim of school violence, further exposes DM content

The controversy over actor Song Ha-yoon's school violence (hereinafter referred to as 'school violence') has reignited. Mr. A, the man claiming to be a victim, made an additional statement regarding the Song Ha-yoon school violence controversy.

On the 21st, Mr. A posted a post titled “Song Ha-yoon is a victim of school violence” on an online community. He claimed, "I am a male junior of Mr. Song, a victim of Song Ha-yoon's school violence. I only hoped for a sincere apology, but both the agency and Song Ha-yoon responded shamelessly."

The Instagram direct message (hereinafter referred to as 'DM') sent to Song Ha-yoon and the KakaoTalk message shared with an agency official were revealed. Mr. A said, "A lot of time has passed, and I felt like I was blocking the future of an actor who has finally seen the light of day, so I was planning to cover it up by only receiving an apology as quietly as possible and only hearing the reason for the assault. I was planning to forgive him if he remembered and apologized." He then explained, “So the first thing I did was send a DM to Song Ha-yoon’s Instagram.”

Person A sent a message saying, "I got slapped about 30 times. If I did violence for no reason, let's at least apologize," but did not receive a response from Song Ha-yoon. Mr. A confessed, "I sent a DM to Song Ha-yoon's agency because there was no response. Since there was no response, I also sent an email. After sending the third email, I received a reply saying, 'I want to hear specific details,' and we talked on the phone for about two hours."

He said, "I said, 'I will keep my mouth shut once I hear a sincere apology and the reason for the assault directly from the person concerned,' but the agency only repeated, 'We can't contact the person involved. Let's meet first.' The person hid behind the company and made no apology. “If Song Ha-yoon had come forward and asked for forgiveness first, I had no intention of making it public like this. I decided that it would be deceiving the public for a celebrity who is supposed to set an example for others to shamelessly stand in front of the public without any sense of guilt, so I made it public.”

Earlier this month, Mr. A reported suspicions of Song Ha-yoon's school violence to JTBC's 'Incidence Team Leader'. He claimed that 20 years ago, in August 2004, when he was a high school student, he was bullied by Song Ha-yoon for 90 minutes. Living in the United States, she said she only came across the tvN drama ‘Marry My Husband’ a month ago. “I was avoiding that older sister until she transferred to another school, and I wasn’t even interested in how she lived after that. When I watched the shorts video, the events of that time were vivid before my eyes.” “I remembered it, and my hands and back broke into a cold sweat, and I got angry when I saw him acting contrary to his past behavior on TV,” he confessed. He continued, "It's been a week since the last broadcast. As expected, people don't change. If you're thinking of taking legal action, don't get any hope because I have no intention of reaching an agreement no matter what happens." “I think it will work, and it’s not over yet.”

Song Ha-yoon denied school violence, saying, “I have never even met A.” His agency, King Kong by Starship, said on the 2nd, "The content broadcast on 'Case Manager' and subsequent reports about it are all untrue," and added, "In the future, we will confirm the facts of this case, take civil and criminal action against the informant through legal review by a law firm, and broadcast the case manager." “We are considering all necessary measures, including a temporary injunction,” he said.

Ten Asia Reporter Lee So-jeong forusojung@tenasia.co.kr