NEW of K-pop boy group THE BOYZ is receiving tons of criticism for his 'bad' attitude at a fan video calling event.
Recently, THE BOYZ held a fan video calling event for those who won tickets to the event through the purchase of their most recent album 'Delicious'; fans were given 15 seconds to talk to each member of THE BOYZ.
In the recorded video call with NEW that one Japanese fan uploaded online, the fan asked NEW, "Oppa, please show me some aegyo (a cute display of affection often expressed through a cute voice, facial expressions and gestures)."
Immediately, NEW shook his head in the negative and told her, "No, there's none to show."
The fan, sounding sad and upset, tried to convince him to show her aegyo two more times after that, but he returned it with the exact same words, even more flatly each time.
Their call unfortunately ended without her getting anything from him until the end.
오빠 애교 해주세요
-없어요
애교 해주세요
-없어요
애교 해주세요ㅠ
-없어요
20230708
— Kitsch (@soda95394782448)
Since they could only talk to each other for 15 seconds, it was inevitable for fans to center their calls around missions like showing aegyo or asking them to say something to them rather than having a real conversation together.
A great number of K-pop fans like seeing aegyo of their favorite K-pop stars, but there is no such rule that NEW had to do so when she requested it.
But considering she spent millions of won just to speak to him for 15 seconds, and it is part of his job to communicate well with fans, his attitude at the fan signing event is being criticized at the moment.
It was because all the other members of THE BOYZ brightly-smiled for fans and showed them aegyo on the same day as well.
In fact, this is not the first time NEW disappointed their fans.
In an interview with one fashion magazine last year, the members of THE BOYZ were asked, "What do you think is the secret to the group's continuous growth?"
Another THE BOYZ member JUHAKNYEON answered, "I would say 99 percent of it is all thanks to THE B (the name of THE BOYZ' fandom), and about 1 percent of it is due to the effort that we put into our work."
The response from NEW was complete different, "Well, I don't think that way. I believe our continuous growth is the result of our hard work, 100 percent. I mean every bit of that. We've worked so much up to now. We use hours and hours of our day practicing."
Back then, his interview hurt some THE B; some even left the fandom after the release of the interview.
Regarding the way he behaved at the recent fan video calling event, his agency has not made any comment yet.
(Credi= Online Community, IST Entertainment)