Netizens Pull The Uno Reverse On Wonder Girls Hyelim’s Strategy To Go On Public Dates With Her Boyfriend

While the acceptance of idols dating is slowly making its way into the wider K-Pop fan culture, for older generation idols, it could often be a career-threatening “scandal.” But that doesn’t mean those idols never dated. They just had to be tactical with it. Recently, a second-generation female shared the “strategy” she used to be able to go on dates publicly without raising any suspicion.

A former member of the iconic girl group Wonder Girls, Hyerim, recently appeared in a video on the YouTube channel Chmanchu, where she shared the love story of her and her husband, Shin Min Chul. The two met at Hyelim’s father’s taekwondo class and went on to date for seven years before getting married.

While talking about how she maintained a long-term romance while being active as an idol, Hyelim revealed her secret to be able to even go on public dates with her then-boyfriend. The singer said since Shin was not a celebrity, every time the two were spotted together, fans assumed he was her manager.

This little “strategy” left the MCs impressed, but netizens had a whole different take on it. After Hyelim’s interview surfaced online, many flocked to the comments to correct her misconception, saying that fans already knew who Shin was. They just pretended to be unaware for the sake of Hyelim. The only people, netizens said, that might have been genuinely clueless about Shin were “muggles” or non-fans who didn’t keep up with Wonder Girls.

• “The fans knew everything. They just didn’t say anything…They anyway know everyone’s faces, be it the manager or the staff.”
• “Do you really think so? LOL. She thinks her fans are stupid.”
• “Talking about it like this when the fans actually pretended not to know…”
• “If it’s an unpopular idol, then what Hyelim said might make sense.”
• [Comment deleted]
• “But the fans actually knew everything, including her manager’s face. They just pretended not to know and looked the other way. If you go around talking about it like this…LOL…Only muggles were probably fooled.”

• “Really, why are you saying that…^^.”
• “Oh my…”
• “It’s not that they didn’t recognize him. Everyone pretended not to know. Be thankful to your fans.”
• “They definitely pretended not to know. Does it make sense that the fans weren’t aware?”
• “LOL.”