(G)I-DLE’s Soojin Personally Denies In Detail Bullying Allegations Made Against Her By The Original Accuser

(G)I-DLE‘s Soojin was recently swept up in bullying allegations. She was accused first and foremost by a former classmate’s older sister via Instagram. Later on, other accusers stepped up.

Soojin took to U-CUBE to address the entire issue in a long post. Regarding the Instagram accusations, Soojin spoke from her point of view on the matter.

Her statement up to the points regarding the  Instagram accuser can be read below.

Hello. This is Soojin. Firstly, I’d like to convey my apologies to everyone that I have concerned due to this issue. I am going to try to speak from my point of view about the rumors and exposés surrounding me.

Points 1 to 6 contain my point of view towards the first ever accuser (the Instagram accuser who calls herself the victim’s unnie. The alleged victim will henceforth be called ‘Schoolmate B’).

1. The reason I knew who wrote the post

• For some time before the exposé was uploaded, I’ve heard from other schoolmates that Schoolmate B is asking around for my photographs.
• As we were close for a short time during my school days, I still remember the name of Schoolmate B’s unnie. And so when I first saw the accusatory comment containing my the initials on Wikitree, I could guess who it was from the Instagram username.
• I want to make it clear that it is not because I bullied Schoolmate B that I knew the identity of Schoolmate B.

2. The overturn of claims about thrombocytopenia (TCP)

• Ever since the first accusatory post, Schoolmate B and the unnie have be claiming that due to the stress caused by me, Schoolmate B got TCP and had to be hospitalized repeatedly — and that this is confirmed.
• But when Schoolmate B’s unnie and my agency representative met, the unnie said Schoolmate B’s condition flared up around the third year of middle school, which is a long time after the “period of school violence” which allegedly took place. The unnie even suggested that the condition may not have been caused by school violence.
• After that meeting, they overturned their claim that Schoolmate B’s TCP is caused by the alleged school violence — but instead insisted that there could have been some influence in its development, though unverifiable.
• When the public decided that the TCP part may not be completely true, they ultimately deleted the post containing the TCP story.

3. The argument over the phone

• First of all, when I met up with Schoolmate B, I sincerely apologized multiple times for having cursed her out over the phone. But I cannot acknowledge any part of the juice incident. When I wrote my first statement, I remembered the telephone conversation but I did not remember the juice incident as they have detailed. Hence, I used the expression that ‘I do not remember the issue.’ Looking back, however, I see that my statement could have caused confusion and so I accept all reprimands about it.
• Here’s how I remember that day: Schoolmate B and I said we would hang out and I got to the location first to wait for Schoolmate B. She did not come even after some time had passed. When I contacted her, she said she actually could not come. That was not the first time that Schoolmate B had done something like that to me. As I was young, I could not hold it in and I cursed her out over the phone. That phone call was between me and Schoolmate B and no one else had been present during the call. It is clearly my fault that I did not express myself nicely, but it had not been to bully Schoolmate B. The moment I started cursing, Schoolmate B’s unnie took the phone. Then the unnie, who was already an adult, started scolding and cursing at me, a middle schooler. I said sorry and hung up. During this part of the call, the unnie did not mention the juice incident at all and I was unable to explain why I got mad at Schoolmate B. Although Schoolmate B said she got money from her unnie and gave it to me, I did not accept any money at all at that point in time. After this phone call, Schoolmate B and I drifted apart.
• I have never bullied or been violent or taken possessions from Schoolmate B. In fact, apart from the situation above, I have never bullied anyone.
• During the meeting between Schoolmate B and me, I mentioned how the unnie also cursed at me — and at first, Schoolmate B stated that she was with her unnie the whole time listening to the conversation and that the unnie did not curse. However, as the meeting progressed, Schoolmate B did speak as if she was acknowledging that the unnie did curse at me. Then later that night, through an Instagram live broadcast, Schoolmate B’s unnie said she remembers everything she said during the call — hence  acknowledging that she did not merely reprimand me over the phone that day.

4. The Physical Education class incident

• According to the unnie, Schoolmate B heard Student Oh call Student Kim as Student Nam during P.E. class and that Schoolmate B laughed at what happened. Then, allegedly, Student Oh told me what happened so that I scolded Schoolmate B in front of a lot of other students in the corridor near the bathroom.
• Student Oh and I were merely schoolmates and it is false that Student Oh told me about the above-mentioned incident. Also, Student Oh confirmed that there was only one P.E. teacher in school at that point of time. And as 7th graders, Student Oh and Student Kim could not have taken P.E. together as they weren’t from the same homeroom. I don’t understand how the name-calling even happened if they couldn’t have been in the same class.
• As it was claimed that the incident happened in front of many students, I tried to confirm it with other schoolmates. There was no schoolmate who could verify what happened.
• Student Oh, Student Kim, and I all confirm that the incident did not happen — as it simply couldn’t have happened.

5. Regarding the DMs they cited as proof and the alleged school violence committee meeting

• It is true my mother once came to the school due to a school violence committee meeting being held. The meeting was, however, held over an incident in which I was blamed though I had no involvement. I remember how my mother came out of the meeting room crying. My mother was never rude to anyone. After the meeting, the teachers talked to the students privately and through that investigation, it was revealed I was not at fault.
• Does this mean I admitted to a school violence committee meeting?
• Like I explained above, that meeting revealed that I was made a scapegoat over a different school bullying incident. My mother was made to attend the meeting over something I didn’t do. Can this still be seen as me acknowledging that the committee was holding a meeting because of me?
• During the meeting with Schoolmate B, we talked about the committee meeting as well. As it was a private committee, I explained what happened during the meeting — to which she was unable to say anything. Then, after a long period of silence, she said she did not know much about my mother. She spread information about my family without really knowing about the committee meeting.
• During the meeting, I clearly expressed that I was not relevant to the school violence committee issue. Yet, in her blog comment, Schoolmate B shared what I said without context and only mentioned the part about me acknowledging the fact that there was a school violence committee meeting.
• Even though there is an audio recording to verify what I said, Schoolmate B and the unnie insisted in the interview with a reporter that I did not acknowledge anything during the meeting with them. Then, a few days later, they began spreading that I acknowledged there having been a committee meeting.

6. The reason I opted to send a representative instead of personally showing up at the first meetup

• After the accusatory post first went public, my agency DMed the unnie requesting that Schoolmate B and I meet up. The unnie, however, said that Schoolmate B felt uncomfortable with seeing me and turned down the in-person meeting between us. The agency respected this decision and suggested that a representative attends in my place. I wanted to speak with Schoolmate B personally, but as we received the DM that Schoolmate B felt uncomfortable with me, I opted to have someone represent me instead. I was not trying to avoid her at all.
• During the meeting I had with Schoolmate B, she acknowledged that she knew I requested to meet up first as well.

— Soojin

The rest of the post detailed the allegations regarding actress Seo Shin Ae and other accusations.