Last June when Jin of BTS returned from his 18 months of military service, he held an event where he hugged one thousand BTS ARMY in an amazing show of gratitude for the support ARMY has shown during his enlistment. He wanted to hug three thousand fans initially but staff told him he wouldn't have time to fit in that many hugs. He also performed and shared time talking with ARMY during the event which coincided with BTS's 11 year anniversary Festa.
Anyone who is ARMY knows Jin, the eldest member of BTS at 32, is an introvert. He has expressed nervousness and discomfort in circles where he's surrounded by people including other celebrities. This is quite typical of introverts and as an introvert myself I feel like I can relate to him on that. He's a sweet and thoughtful man who makes a point to make others feel comfortable even when he isn't always as comfortable as he seems. At this event he even put a cute sign board on his chest in order to make it less awkward for the predominantly female fandom members whom he would be hugging so no one would feel awkward being chest to chest with him. After all, despite feeling like we know the guys they are still strangers to us.
A woman took it upon herself to take advantage of the situation of having the opportunity to hug Jin and kissed him on the cheek without consent. Jin turned his head and had a shocked and disgusted look on his face afterward. There's video and photo evidence of this. There were at least two others who also attempted to kiss him but I think this one person was the only kiss that connected where there was actually contact.
As soon as we saw this happen, BTS ARMY took to social media to discuss it and that's when things got weird. Real ARMY- ARMY who are here for the right reasons, to love, support, and protect BTS, were livid. We saw it for what it was, assault. Jin never consented to kisses. He consented to hugs. Anything more is not cute but abusive. This wasn't some cute "shoot your shot" moment as someone ignorantly posted on one of my comments this week about it. It's considered sexual battery or assault. Some call it sexual harassment as well.
The woman who did this is being pursued by Japanese and Korean police for an investigation apparently due to a netizen reporting it to the police. Haters say that this person went too far in reporting it and that ARMY is over reacting. If you want to read some ignorant sexual assault apologist type comments you can check out @lain.eyb2014 on Threads who has the asinine opinion that Jin doesn't care what happened and because he's a soldier and a grown man it's not that big of a deal. Also she says it's not like his private parts were grabbed. After you check out the ignorant comments, block them and have others do the same because people like this don't belong in our spaces. This is behavior that is synonymous with rape culture.
It doesn't matter that Jin is a man. Men are assaulted too. Women shouldn't be doing these things to men just as men shouldn't do them to women. I made the comment that if it was a female artist and a man kissed her without consent women would be flipping tables over this. Lain.eyb2014 replied that her opinion would be the same even if Jin was a female artist and this happened to them. Peak ignorance. People think they own celebrities or idols and they seem to have a sick attitude where they wish harm on them and victim blame when something happens. We don't do that in ARMY and anyone who does doesn't belong in the fandom. Anyone who thinks like this needs to be watched carefully around children too because that's abuser behavior or behavior of someone who would excuse an abuser and victim blame.
A similar thing happened to Chris Martin of Coldplay too. A woman asked at a concert if she could come up and give Chris a hug. Chris is another very kind, sweet, artist who loves his fans. He often lets fans come up on stage and play piano with Coldplay or sing so her asking for a hug wasn't out of the ordinary. When the woman went for the hug, she grabbed Chris's buttocks assaulting him. Coldplayers on Twitter were outraged as well at the inappropriate behavior. Chris took a moment to address it and ask that fans not grab him. He made a joke out of it but make no mistake about it, it was inappropriate period. He dealt with it by making a joke after expressing that it wasn't welcome.
Fans need to have respect for these artists. That's what they are, artists. They are human beings like us who just happen to have better careers. They don't deserve to be treated like fans own them. They didn’t "sign up" for this as is one stupid argument people use. They signed up to entertain, not be abused. These comments sound like jealousy and that comes from idol worship culture and celebrity worship. It's sad that anyone would make comments that anyone deserves to be treated with disrespect and touched in any inappropriate way just because the public knows them and they're famous. No one deserves non-consentual touching or kissing. Keeping your hands and body to yourself is taught in kindergarten. Anyone who is ok with this behavior is problematic. People need to learn to respect boundaries.
Hopefully the woman who did this to Jin cooperates with Japanese and Korean police and is punished.
Links:
Jose gives the update on the woman who assaulted Jin
https://youtu.be/iczLRS0RG5M?si=ipz1-fsDH5BYNM1e
AP News article on the situation
5.8.2025 update, she went to SK and turned herself in
