March 11, 2018    (Spanish version HERE)

Sunday morning, 6:09am… today is the day after a most horrible day.  I have a headache…and of course I can’t sleep.  Here I will tell my account of what happened with my thoughts in between…I know it will help me “deal emotionally” with this situation.

I remember the moment it all started for me… March 9th. Friday.  Someone in one of my Instagram chat groups posted the photo of Jung II-woo’s black post. I asked why and someone mentioned Jo Min-ki’s death.  I went immediately to search for information…and found out about all the horrible details.  Another fan shared THIS article with me.

This was Jung II-woo’s black post… Captured by jilwww_arabfans.

Jo Min-ki the actor who had played Jung II-woo’s father in the drama Golden Rainbow had committed suicide.  He had been dealing with accusations of sexual harassment by many female students (the number is now 20).   His wife had found him hanging in the basement, a suicide note left behind where he tried to apologize to the victims and acknowledged his wrong doings.

HERE is the article I saw.

In Instagram we fans tried to help Ilwoo by posting all sort of comforting posts.  I think we were comforting each other too. By Saturday I woke up to the full swing of hate messages on his last posted photo.  I could not believe it!!!  “The haters” were going about how Jung II-woo was supporting a sex offender!  UNBELIEVABLE!  We all tried in our own ways to explain and help with the situation…  he is mourning the loss of a colleague! in the case of Jung II-woo he had worked a long time with this actor.  Around 30 episodes of a drama?!  And a lot of the scenes were with him!  Doesn’t a person have the right to mourn another?  He is a human being!  How about his wife?  Seriously?

In Instagram we fans that usually post there took turns sending a lot of support messages, trying to overcome all that hate in Jung II-woo’s feed… at one point we were sending flowers, hearts as we were tired in trying to explain anything anymore.

Here are some of these hate messages along with our love ones:

I thought so many things at this time…  How cowardly Jo Min-ki had acted, but also how much pressure he must have endured to do such a thing! But my saddest thought was this man’s wife finding him dead.  She was left alone to deal with all the shame of her husband’s doings. So in the end…another woman looses.

I read an article that talked about how this Jo Min-ki was one of various men accused of sexual harassment as a consequence of the # metoo movement in South Korea.  And yes, this had caused waves, big ones in such a patriarcal society like the Korean society, but was having a terrible backslash on the women itself.  According to this article, men were discriminating against women office workers… they would not go out drinking with them anymore, and many women were getting left behind from business trips, as the men found it dangerous to take a woman as they might accuse them of something.  I was so shocked by this.   HERE is that article.  This is a graphic of the men going to drink after work leaving the women behind.

I find this amazing as my previous post was about women and their status!  And if this is what it takes, then so be it… I’d rather have the dignity of my body over drinking and business trips!  Thank you very much!

…

Then I received a message of jungilwoo_world.  She said that Jung II-woo had erased many of his posts.  It said 48 photos!!! of his 84 ones!  I went to his IG and I saw the number was even lower…33, and the number was going down.  I wrote back to her  “he’s deleting them now!!!”  and we both witnessed how he kept deleting…and deleting. I started crying…  number 13… no…!!! one left… “The Pieta” one…oh my god no!!!    I still think of this as my saddest Jung II-woo moment ever… I will never forget the anguish I felt…the helplessness. The only thing that comforts me now, is that I along with jungilwoo_world were connected with him in this sad moment.  And as I was crying…he may have been crying too… and he was not alone.  These are the photos I managed to take in this horrible moment:

 

This was taken by jungilwoo_world:

I felt so angry in this moment too…   I still am…  Haters… shame on you!  Know that you will get what you deserve.  Life will take care of you!

A very tormenting period came after…of letting everyone know… my writing was a disaster… I forgot to give enough information so fans kept asking “What happened!?!”  I tried writing something more complete in the post text…and it wasn’t until I wrote a post for Facebook that I  finally had gotten my head back again.  We were also trying to rally people from different fan groups (Smilwoo, Thailand Fans) to send letters of support to Jung II-woo.  This was spearheaded by jungilwoo_world and emilykwcheung. They are still trying to put a group of fans together so if you read this contact them via Instagram.  We really want to show Jung II-woo all the support we can in this moment.

When I think of him I feel really sad. Jung II-woo has such a gentle noble nature.  He is competitive but he is so kind. He is a class act! I can tell you this in all veracity as I have been reading and researching about him for the past year. This man is a good man! He did not deserve such a treatment. This situation must have made him feel so sad. So angry with himself.  And I know that part of the reason why he deleted all his photos is because he could not stand to see the grief he was causing his fans. And he did the right thing I think in this deleting all of his photos, and as painful as it was…it puts an end to it.  I personally learned first hand how bad things can get for a public figure in one instant!  It’s really scary!  This perhaps may protect him in the future as he will be much more careful in the future of what he says and does.  But…

…when I think of all his beautiful photos… and how free he communicated… I find it heartbreaking. To me it’s like his voice has been silenced. He will be so much more guarded in the future… he cares so much! He was one of the few artists that truly communicated with his fans all over the world through Instagram, Facebook and Tweeter. (To a lesser extent in this moment as he is doing his Civic duties.)  And he shared all kinds of photos of his life with fans.

Fortunately I had taken photos of all of Jung II-woo’s Instagram posts… way back in December of 2016 when he had 100 photos. I will post them in a page in this website… your beautiful photos are not lost to us…nor is your voice!

To Jung II-woo:

Jung II-woo know that I (and many of us) support you. I stand with you in this sad moment.  Please stand strong.  Don’t be hard on yourself.  Do not apologize to anyone!  You did nothing wrong!  You felt sorry for this man that took his life… that you once knew … these were your honest feelings of sorrow!  Your intention was good…we all know that… and this too shall pass!   Surf that big wave… dear brother!!! It will start getting smaller in time… be patient.  And please continue to share your extraordinary life with us with your beautiful photos in Instagram and other social media platforms.

And like I wrote on my post in Instagram… I know that there will be many more future Jung II-woo delights!… and I wish to be here to write all about them!   Love will reign!

I love you!

Your Fan 13

This songs are for all of us!  May love reign!!!

 

Can’t wait to see this smile again: