Final Statement Regarding SEVENTEEN Member MINGYU

[kyulkyung.livejournal.com]

세븐틴 멤버 민규 관련 최종 입장

Read: https://t.co/iPxiPG3IjH

— 세븐틴(SEVENTEEN) (@pledis_17) April 6, 2021

Final Statement Regarding SEVENTEEN Member MINGYU

Hello.
This is PLEDIS Entertainment.

We would like to provide our conclusive statement on the issue regarding SEVENTEEN member MINGYU during his time in school.

During this entire process, we made sure that all of our actions were governed by a principle of careful verification of all facts while ensuring that no one involved experienced any unfairness or maltreatment. We communicated directly with the individuals who wrote postings regarding the artist to examine the facts, and we have issued statements correcting claims that were untrue or based on misunderstandings.

After issuing our previous statement, we were able to contact the person referred to as “B” [op note: "b" is referring to the student that accused mingyu of laughing when another student told them that a girl's chest would grow larger if touched while groping them, which mingyu had supposedly mimicked. initially assumed to be a girl, "b" was confirmed to be male by the original poster later on.] through the individual who posted about events that happened in middle school, and examined and verified the facts over a period of more than three weeks. While memories of events that transpired ten years ago inevitably differed, we worked hard to determine the facts that everyone could agree upon as truths.

The artist wished to talk to the individual involved either personally or over the phone, but we respected the person’s wishes not to be contacted by the artist and instead relayed his message. During the course of our conversation, we tried to go beyond discussing evidence or debating claims from third parties and instead worked on building an understanding and rapport. The artist explained that in middle school when friends around him were carrying on or joking he too laughed without particular thought. The artist asked the company to relay his message that while he had no recollection of the events told by the person involved or intended any mistreatment, if there was any action that was taken that caused distress then he was sincerely sorry. The person involved also said that he did not wish the artist to bear undue responsibility for events that happened in the past.

Both the individual and the artist do not wish to cause each other any more harm due to this issue. We would like to ask you to avoid unnecessary conjecture that may cause more distress to the person involved in this issue.

Contacting people from postings online and retracing the memories of many individuals to verify the facts of the issue required considerable time and effort. Due to the gravity of the issue, we approached each step with the utmost care. Please understand that some time was therefore needed before we could issue this final statement.

MINGYU wished all fans to know that he was sorry this issue became a source of concern, and said:

“I’m sorry to have made you worry. This experience has been trying for me as well. However, I also learned that regardless of my thoughts or my recollection of past events, it was still possible to cause distress to a person through unintended actions. It was also a chance to reflect on how I should conduct myself.
It is love from you, all fans, that enables me to do what I do, and I realized once again that I must behave with maturity to return the positive energy that I’ve received from you. I will ensure that I behave in the best way possible to make sure I can be by your side as long as I can.”

We wish to conclude the issue regarding the artist and his time in school. MINGYU will resume his official activities and begin taking part in his work.

Our company would also like to offer our apology for causing concern due to an issue related to our artist.

Thank you.

SOURCES: @PLEDIS_17, TWITLONGER

Comments

[kyulkyung.livejournal.com]

i know some fans have been preparing a doc summarizing the entire ordeal, including posts by individuals that weren't mentioned in any of pledis' statements (former classmates of mingyu's who had different recollections of events), but they haven't shared it yet. i'll probably just link it in the comments if it gets posted today.

anyway, i hope this is the end of it. like i said previously, i'm glad pledis didn't sue any potential victims. if they're satisfied with mingyu's apologies, then i don't see why outsiders' opinions should matter. pledis stating that they were unable to clarify what exactly transpired in regards to certain events also makes me feel better about the claims that were straight-up denied. if they were just going around bribing and intimidating victims, what stopped them from doing the same with "b"? they also refrained from bringing up other witnesses that defended mingyu or discrediting accusers who kept editing their posts and made multiple accounts to sway public opinion. i had already made up my mind about some of the accusers, especially the ones that weren't even victims themselves, but i'm glad pledis remained as impartial as they possibly could've.

mingyu will most likely be the punching bag of netizens for the forseeable future seeing how the accusations reached way more people than any of pledis' statements did. all i want to say is that i wish people would stick to the bullying accusations when discussing his ~bad character~ or whatever and not psycho(over)analyze his interactions with his members (who clearly love him if all the weverse posts these past two hours are any indication), previous social media posts, his art, etc. as a sulli fan that is the kind of shit i really cannot stand.

[dongsaengkiller.livejournal.com]

If all parties directly involved have come to an agreement/understanding, I wish them all the best

[purpleglaceon]

"he did not wish the artist to bear undue responsibility for events that happened in the past." then why post about it in the first place....

[mishiro-san.livejournal.com]

Iirc, this person was kinda coerce by a 3rd party into letting him post about it since initially this person didn't want to say anything. The 3rd party never went to school with Mingyu and is also the same individual who made the allegation of Mingyu bullying the disable student that Pledis said was false in their first statement. Note the 3rd party posted about it without the disable student's consent as well.

[kyulkyung.livejournal.com]

that particular op really was doing the most. i don't blame the other poster who might've genuinely been hurt by mingyu's actions, even if it was unintentional on his part (who's to say really), but the weird middleman op that didn't even know mingyu and had to convince their friends, some of which weren't even victims themselves but mere "witnesses", to make these accusations public, one of which ended up being denied by the actual victim? what did you gain? they were also the same person that ended up using multiple accounts to defend themselves like come on.

[mishiro-san.livejournal.com]

Forreal that OP was a real piece of work. Like they really did not think things through and what the consequences of what he posts. Like having more than one acct to post comments to defend yourself in the post is seriously nagl.

[chikage-chan.livejournal.com]

As always, OP, thank you for constantly posting about this. I’m sure we will have people hating him forever because of this, but at least to the ones that really matter got a very fair resolution.
I really like Mingyu’s message too. I hope that he keeps himself in check, but doesn’t keep beating himself up about this whole mess.