Red Velvet’s Irene breaks Instagram silence since her controversy; Poses with Yeri, Joy, & Seulgi
 

On October 20, 2020, Kang Kook Hwa (a Korean fashion editor) made an Instagram post calling out an unnamed female K-pop star for her poor behavior. On the post Kang used the hashtags #psycho and #monster. Numerous K-pop fans speculated that the unnamed female K-pop Star was Red Velvet’s Irene because Psycho was the name of Red Velvet’s song and Irene just finished promoting her new song Monster with a subgroup called, IRENE & SEULGI. Red Velvet is a famous Korean girl group that was made in 2014 and currently consists of five members. 

In the now-deleted Instagram post, Kang wrote about how before meeting Irene she had “prepared herself [for Irene’s attitude because of] stories that [Kang] heard [from different stylist encounters],” but Irene’s insults were so hurtful that Kang shed tears and said their meeting was “like hell for 20 minutes.” Irene also apparently made Kang kneel down while Kang was “hit endlessly by the knives she threw out with her tough”. Kneeling in front of someone is a sign of respect in Korea. Since the post, there have been many divided reactions. While some fans defended Irene, other stylists from luxury brands such as Prada, Vogue, and Chanel started to speak up about their experience with Irene’s attitude. 

Two days later on October 22, 2020, Irene and her agency, SM Entertainment, officially apologized. In both apologies they said that she was extremely sorry for causing the stylist pain and is reflecting on her past actions. What makes this a little odd is the fact that SM only talked about it because Kang apparently had a recording of Irene’s poor behavior. However, in the past even when SM’s artists were caught up in sexual assault allegations they did not even speak up about it for a week. In their apology they added that Irene had met up with Kang and apologized in person. Kang has cleared up her last post asserting that she only posted those accusations because she wanted an apology from Irene. She has accepted Irene's apology and stated that she will not talk about the topic any longer in her recent post following Irene's apology. 

Although this controversy has been mostly resolved, Irene is still losing followers on Instagram. Cosmetic stores have also removed Irene's posters with cosmetic brands that she was promoting, Clinique and Prada. Irene’s debut film Double Patty has delayed filming due to Irene’s scandal. 

By Ellie Park