On April 8th, Joo Ji-hoon made a guest appearance on Shin Dong-yeop’s web content and recalled his school days. The actor said, “I lived in Cheonho-dong, Seoul and my school had 19 classes for one grade and 75 students in each class. Can you guess how many bullies there were?”
He continued, “The kids used to hit other students, but they didn’t mess with me because I was quite big. However, as I entered middle school, they began to pick fights in groups. I still remember that I thought they were a bunch of cowards”, adding “They didn’t face each other one-on-one but they always threatened others like ‘We’ll bring our big brother’. It was scary”.
Joo Ji-hoon emphasized, “To explain how lucky I am… I’m active as an actor and I feel so glad that I didn’t engage in such things when I was young. Ironically, I was bullied by them until I graduated from high school”.
Appearing on the YouTube content “Song Yoon Ah by PDC” on July 12th, 2023, Jeon Somi confessed her experience of being a victim of school violence in elementary school.
She said, “I transferred to an elementary school in Korea. At first, everybody said I looked like a doll because it was their first time meeting a biracial kid. For the next two days, I was the most popular kid at my new school. The day after I transferred, there was a student election. My entire classmates pressured me to participate, so I participated without really knowing what it was all about and won with the most votes.”
She continued, “But then, there was this girl who prepared so hard, and I think she got really frustrated about the result. All her work went to waste because of a newcomer like me. And she began to bully me along with her friends. She began making me an outcast, which continued until the first semester of 6th grade.”
Kang Daniel, who won first place on Mnet’s “Produce 101 Season 2”, also revealed that he became a school violence victim due to frequent transfers during his elementary school days. He said, “I’ve had my game account stolen a few times. I’ve had my wallet stolen in school too.”
At the same time, Kang Daniel expressed his anger towards the perpetrators, “Even if the bullies’ personal information is disclosed, some will still keep being bullies. They’re the worst. Even if you tell the bullies’ parents, they’ll say, ‘My son didn’t do anything wrong!’ So I have no idea what this could be. I don’t think there’s a solution.”
Wonstein confessed that the school violence he suffered in middle school led to violent self-harm. The male singer added that the bullies even robbed his money.
Following Wonstein’s story, Park Na Rae also carefully talked about her childhood. She confessed, “They publicly cursed at me for no reason, and even threw stones and trash at me.”
As such, courageous confessions of entertainment stars who have a positive influence on the public continue. In response, the public expressed their support by leaving comments such as “The more I know them, the more wonderful they are”, “I hope they can cheer up” and “They grew up well.
