ARMYs had a pretty eventful week this week. BTS (방탄소년단) Jin (진) was recently discharged from his military service and what better way to celebrate his return and the group’s 11th anniversary than the annual BTS Festa event! Although the other members couldn’t join the singer for yesterday’s (Thursday, 13th June) event, it was still very lively.
The first part of the celebration was a meet-and-greet session where 1000 lucky fans got to hug the idol onstage. Things were going well but sadly, at one point during the hugging session, one fan decided to risk it and invaded the BTS member’s personal space by kissing him on the neck. Here’s what happened:
In the screenshots above, it was shown that a fan had kissed Jin’s neck when she was receiving her hug. The “Butter” singer was visibly uncomfortable as he moved his face away from the fan took advantage of the situation. Despite the uncomfortable experience, the 31-year-old continued to hug the other fans who were waiting in line. The disturbing moment was captured by those in the crowd and the video has since gone viral on social media.
Many were disgusted by the girl’s action saying that she should’ve been more respectful towards her favourite singer. Others were furious that the security guard didn’t do anything when it happened. Some tagged HYBE and BigHit and urged everyone to report the incident to avoid anything like this from happening again in the future. There were also those who were against spreading the video fearing that the situation might bring negative attention to the idol and the event.
At the time of writing, there have been no updates on the identity of the offender or whether any actions will be taken against her but from our observation, it’s clear that the fan did not respect the boundaries. Unlike her, Jin has shown the utmost respect for his fans who did not want a hug from him. According to the event announcement, ARMYs could opt for a handshake instead if they are not comfortable with hugging and Jin kept that promise when a Muslim fan approached him during the session.
Fans praised the “Black Swan” artist for being respectful after a clip of him shaking hands with a hijabi fan went viral. Other Muslim fans joked that they would’ve taken the chance to just hug the idol saying that they’d be too overwhelmed with excitement to control themselves.
Watch the viral clips of the hugging sessions below:
