Enhypen is a new Kpop boy group that emerged from the survival show I-Land, debuting with members Jake, Jay, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon, Heeseung, and Ni-Ki. As of their debut at November 30, 2020, they’ve been taking they world of Kpop by storm, with their debut song reaching 9.4 million views in 24 hours. The group is doing well, but that comes with it’s ups and downs.
On May 20th, an anonymous tweet claimed to be one of member Ni-Ki’s friends. In the tweet, they exposed him for ‘lying about his age to get into I-Land.’ As many Engenes, or Enhypen fans, know, the age range in I-Land was 15 to 22. According to HYBE and BELIFT, that was planned.
The companies said that they set the age limit to 22 so that the idols would be young, which seemed to appeal to many fans. The youngest age, 15 was held by none other than Ni-Ki. But according to Ni-Ki’s ‘friend,’ he was not 15. He was 25.
Lying to a company as big as HYBE is illegal. Ni-Ki could go to jail for lying. Now, many Engenes knew he looked older than 15, but anyone can look older for their age. The media decided to ask HYBE and BELIFT in a mass spam of emails if this was true. Eventually, the rumors got so bad that it started to ruin the group’s reputation.
On June 1st, a message from not Enhypen, not BELIFT, not HYBE, but Ni-Ki’s mom’s Twitter. Now, for non Engenes, Ni-Ki was born in Japan. His mom’s tweet was translated into English and Korean. ‘If I need to show his birth record to stop this hate on my child and his friends, I will.’ Netizens replied, saying that she should so that the situation could pass over.
The other day, on June 2nd, she uploaded a picture of his birth record, also translated into English and Korean. Engenes we’re outraged.
The birth record said that he was born on December 9th, 2005, his real birthdate, making him 15. The anonymous tweeter came on to Twitter to apologize for what they had started. Engenes refused to except the apology. They were outraged that this whole time, it was a false claim and almost ruined Ni-Ki’s career.
Their first scandal came to an end with a false conclusion, but all Engenes know that this won’t be the end. As long as they stand to protect Enhypen, they know that whatever comes their way will not harm the boys.