1) Nice to see Ji Chang-wook having a laugh and a bit of banter here with a co-star, about their love lives. Good to know that they have them.

2) Being a very recent convert to BTS (ie March this year), I have wondered many times about the hate they received earlier in their career. They wrote about it a lot in songs, and it’s not that I doubt them, that it was bad, but was just unfamiliar with what it was like. What I did see was Namjoon and Yoongi being taunted and humiliated by fellow rappers early on, and a camera recording it all – that was pretty bad.

However just in the last few days, since Yoongi apologised for being drunk in charge of a scooter, I have started to see how toxic these haters are. It would, of course, be fair enough to say he was irresponsible and shouldn’t get special treatment because of who he is. I think no-one would deny that, least of all him.

These haters (whether they just hate BTS or are fans of other groups), however know exactly where BTS’s vulnerabilities lie and they are exploiting those to the hilt. The way I see it is this: BTS’s strengths are their love and unity as a team, and their very loyal two-way relationship with ARMY. These haters try to undermine both these things by committing vicious pranks and pretending they were done by ARMY – the online drink-driving “challenge”, the wreaths outside the Hybe building designed to drive a wedge between Yoongi and the others.

I just hope the messages of support I have been seeing on social media get through to Yoongi and to all of them. I hope Yoongi’s family (after slapping him around the head, which family would do after you do something stupid) will back him up and stop him from sinking low. In a shame culture like Korea’s, I can imagine it would to all to easy for him to feel like he’d brought shame on himself, his family, BTS and even the country as a whole, given his profile.

I don’t know exactly what these toxic people and media websites actually want to achieve. Would it make them happy if BTS broke up? Do they think it would mean more love and attention for the groups they favour? I suspect the opposite would be true – if the worst happened, it would seriously undermine the kpop industry; global support for it would plummet, and the toxic nature of Korean fan/media culture would be despised by millions of heartbroken BTS fans.