TWICE Nayeon Wrongly Shamed And Criticized By Korean News Networks

TWICE‘s Nayeon was criticized by Korean news outlets and netizens for ranking Jeongyeon #9 in TWICE in a way that was incorrectly reported.

During TWICE’s “TWICELAND ZONE 2: Fantasy Park” concert on May 20, Nayeon introduced herself as “TWICE’s #1 ranked Nayeon” as a joke, and asked Tzuyu and Jeongyeon, as #8 and #9 ranking, to introduce themselves.

Everyone immediately got the joke, with Momo saying she was ranked number two, and Jihyo adding, “If this is first come first serve, I would like to be #3.” Jeongyeon jokingly replied, “I will just acknowledge it,” and everyone laughed. Immediately afterward, Sana introduced herself as the Sana “who doesn’t care about rankings in TWICE.“

But news outlets began reporting with headlines like “Nayeon merchandise sales #1, #9 Jeongyeon must work harder” and netizens began to criticize Nayeon for her attention-seeking attitude.

: nayeon ranked twice member's, #2 momo, #3 chaeng #4 mina (and so on)
: who's number 1?
: nayeon of course duh
: as expected

hahahahahaha nayeon's number 1 fan is nayeon

— faye (@blackjergi) May 14, 2018

Reporters mistakenly believed that Nayeon was giving out rankings based on merchandise sales for the members’s personally-designed picnic blankets.

Nayeon mentioned at the concert that she had put a ranking on the merchandise, where she ranked herself 1st and Jeongyeon last before sales had even begun. This was misinterpreted by reporters.

Observant ONCEs realized her ranking was designed before sales even begun, so the article reporting her ranking was based on sales was incorrect.

She said that she wrote the names of TWICE members in an order of her personal rank (NAYEON MOMO..etc..JEONGYEON). If you look at the picture closely there's a name tag in the blanket and that's what she've meant. Definitely she'd designed it before she realized the sale volumes. pic.twitter.com/wPVSvLVets

— 사탕소년. (@CandyBoy_1020) May 20, 2018

Jeongyeon and Tzuyu, together with Nayeon, have been ranked as highly popular among K-Pop fans in the past fews years, as evidenced by Gallup‘s 2016 idol ranking.

The Gallup report ranked Jeongyeon and Tzuyu as some of the most popular members of K-Pop in 2016 (in their age groups), together with Nayeon and Dahyun. More than 1,500 people were surveyed.

And the TWICE girls do the “ranking” joke often, teasing each other that “the one who makes a mistake first should be ranked 9th“.

With articles being spread with the misinformation, fans are trying to get to the bottom of it all.

It was about 서열 (rank) of TWICE, which was a joke and they've said about it whole time at VLIVE. She said about a personal idea of TWICE's 서열 and she mentioned that she wrote it in her merchandise, not about the amount of sales achieved.

— 사탕소년. (@CandyBoy_1020) May 20, 2018

Nayeon is known for being super self-confident, and Momo has proven her admiration for Nayeon time and time again. Meanwhile, Tzuyu is always avoiding Nayeon’s kisses, while Jeongyeon is Nayeon’s ultimate tsundere.

After the concert, Nayeon and Jeongyeon were seen on a date together, dispelling any doubt that there was discord between the members!

And the next day, Jeongyeon even posted a photo of Nayeon from during their day out, referring to her as “the girl on the left” and calling her a “hot girl.”