Let's Summarize, shall we?
Not only did South Korea experience one of their biggest tragedies ever with the Sewol Ferry Accident that took the life of approximately 300 people, many of whom where students, but the entertainment industry has been crazy as of lately. Famous singers and actors such as Sulli, Kris, Park Bom, Kim Hyun Joong, Han Hyo Joo, Song Hye Kyo, Kim Soo Hyun/Jeon Ji Hyun, Lee Byung Hun/Dahee have brought to us the biggest scandals this year, and no small ones either. There have been tax evasions, contract terminations, blackmailing, drug-smuggling and domestic abuse, and then there are all the dating "scandals" too, which aren't really that big of a deal but there's been so many other this year that it's still worth bringing up. People are loosing their minds everywhere and I understand them, as it seems every day something new pops up that scatters the illusions we have of our favorite stars. SM has had a rough year, there's no denying that, but YG isn't too far behind either. Both labels need to sort out their PR teams immediately because their work this year has been nothing less but awful.
Another topic that's been brought to life is the invasion of former "Iljin's", a term usually referring to rebellious and irresponsible adolescents that spend their time smoking, drinking, ditching school and treating their peers badly. I can see why all of this is controversial in Korea, but I think that as long as you're a kind person, what you do with your studies and spare time is none of my interest. However, with new names such as Winner's Taehyun and Park Bo Ram being exposed as former "iljin's" and bullying in general has become a hotter topic due to young soldiers in the army committing suicide because of it, the term has once again arisen to the surface. As South Korea is statistically one of the leading countries in numbers of suicide I think it's about time the topic is being discussed more openly, but I hate how it had to go this far for it to do so. It's never a comfortable subject, but it's extremely important and it's essential that the issue of bullying has to stop.
What threw me off completely though, was when I woke up to the news of an idol death. I still have a hard time processing what has happened because it all seems just a bit too surreal, but there's no way escaping the truth. Ladies' Code member EunB passed away early this morning in a severe car crash, and the rest of the people in the vehicle were taken directly to the hospital. I literally stared at my computer screen with my mouth wide open for a good 5 minutes or so when I first read it, and I could feel the tears forming behind my eyes as one of my worst nightmares came true. I knew something like this could happen because these incidents are far more common than they should be, but I never thought it actually would. It's all very strange how I was jamming along to "Kiss Kiss" only to find out later that one of the members no longer lives.
My deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and colleagues, as I can't imagine what they must be going through right now, and I'm sending all my thoughts to RiSe and Sojung, whose conditions are still critical.
What scares me the most is that it could have been anyone that lost their life. With car accidents being as common as they are unfortunately, it's almost miraculous that these kind of tragedies don't occur more frequently. I still remember Secret's accident a while back resulting in member Hana being absent for several months, as well as my bias Jonghyun's one leaving him with a broken nose. Most K-pop fans are also familiar with Super Junior's big car accident many years ago, and member Kyuhyun in particular received the most injuries and were at one point given only a 20% chance of surviving. In the end, he recovered but it was a terrifying time for all parties involved. If you think about it, basically every idol group has been involved in some car accident, big or small, and that's absolutely mental. There's nothing more worrying to me than seeing an entire group being squashed together in a van and not knowing if they'll get to their destination safely. The fact that not wearing seat-belts in the back seat is normal tells a lot about how much the general traffic safety in Korea is lacking. Does a person have to die like this before changes are made?
It's fair to say 2014 has been a pretty scandalous year so far, but with these recent events it almost feels like the bottom has been reached. Hopefully things will get better from here, and I sincerely wish for no more injuries or any other kind of hurtful news.
