Even after Karina wrote a handwritten letter of apology, netizens still show mixed responses toward the aespa member.
The news of a romantic relationship between aespa’s Karina and actor Lee Jae-wook broke out on February 27th. Later on the same day, their agencies confirmed that they were getting to know each other.
Remaining silent for 8 days after publicizing her romance with Lee Jae-wook, Karina eventually wrote a letter to directly express her feelings as many people had requested an apology from her in various ways, such as malicious comments, rumors, and protest trucks in front of SM building. Eventually, Karina uploaded a handwritten letter on Instagram on March 5th, saying “I’m sorry for surprising my fans and causing concern to you all”, adding “I’m aware of your sadness, and deeply feel regret and apologize for any hurt feelings that I’ve caused.”
However, netizens continue to show divided reactions even after reading Karina’s handwritten letter of apology, claiming that the female idol was trying to achieve both love with Lee Jae-wook and work with support from fans who have been showering her with unconditional love.
Some netizens defended Karina, saying “Is love a crime? Is it something to apologize for?”, “It’s natural for a woman in her 20s to develop feelings and date someone”, “Idols are also humans and dating shouldn’t be considered a problem in her job”, “How can they be considered real fans if they abandon and criticize idols for dating?”, “She should receive congratulations for dating. There’s no reason for her to apologize?”, etc.
On the other hand, some argue that dating may affect the performance of the group and the company negatively because personal relationships are considered private issues. Right after Karina admitted to dating Lee Jae-wook, SM’s market capitalization evaporated by more than 66 billion won. As the leader of aespa, Karina was criticized for being irresponsible and decreasing the competitiveness of the team with her romance.
Some fans recently expressed frustration by sending protest trucks to SM’s office building with messages, such as “Karina, is fans’ love not enough for you?”, “Why did you decide to betray fans? Please apologize”, “If you don’t apologize, we’ll let you see the drops in album sales and empty seats at concerts”, etc.
