Here on quite a serious note, and it’s with regards to the hacking incident last night that caused Junsu to delete or ‘deactivate’ his Twitter account.

Most of what I’m posting here is based on the translations I do (some from the Twitter post on dongbangdata.net here), my knowledge of Korean and its insinuations (which is pretty decent in my opinion since you know.. it IS my first language and I’ve been speaking it on a daily basis since I started talking all those years ago) as well as watching Twitter like a hawk last night till 4am because I decided it would be wise to put my body through torture by consuming a tall Starbucks toffee nut latte in the afternoon (for those of you who don’t understand why this is bad, I’ve had about four or five cups of coffee in my life and my body is extremely sensitive to it).

Yes it is long, but “Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy. Remember that.” (Thanks Mr. Sparks for that) You can skip over the parts like (this) since these are just personal comments that I’m making… and I’m quite a loquacious person so I ramble a lot.

BTW: I’m just being creative and just a bit satirical by making the whole thing seem like a play. It’s actually just to make it easier for you guys to read. I’m neither making fun of the incident (because it’s a very grave matter that needs to be addressed immediately) nor belittling it in any way, shape or form.

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So let us begin with Act 1 Scene 1: The Hacking Incident

Last night, around 10pm KST, Junsu began tweeting about being in the sauna and almost passing out from the heat. A very adorable and Junsu-esque thing to say. But before I started translating these tweets, I noticed something.

The girl who appeared in some of Junsu’s DPs. As my caption so clearly voices my utter confusion at the situation, I tweeted this screencap, asking if anyone knew who she was. I got a few ‘maybe it’s his girlfriend lololol’, but some people on my t-list (with a little more sense, to be honest) voiced their concerns that his account had been hacked.

Cue the “What the heck~!!! Who did this!!!!!!” tweet from Junsu at 10:28pm KST, which only furthered my belief that Junsu had indeed, gotten his account hacked. This promptly led to… Junsu deactivating (or in the exact words, ‘deleting’) his account as seen in tweets from Byung Han below.

From bottom to top:

(Byung Han, 10:29pm KST) It seems Junsu’s Twitter account was hacked.. He found out after people told him over the phone. His profile picture. keeps changing~ He’s planning on deleting his Twitter account.

(Byung Han, 10:39pm KST) Junsu wanted me to tell you all that he deleted his account ㅠㅠ I watched him do it and it was hard to watch… To the people who are calling his mother, please don’t

I’ll get back to the issue of calling Junsu’s mom in a little bit.

So the account was presumably deleted, and all hell broke loose in Twitter as it lost one of its most iconic cat-ladies… or so we thought.

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Act 1 Scene 2: The Phone Calls to Junsu’s Mom

We last left off with Byung Han saying “To the people who are calling his mother, please don’t”. Who were these people calling Junsu’s mom? What were they saying to her? Why were they calling in the first place?

These questions were semi-answered when Junho tweeted an hour later.

(Junho, 11.43pm KST) Hacking… What makes my heart ache more than that are the fans who called our mother and said things to her… Our parents don’t exist for the purpose of listening to people saying such things to them… I think that people’s words are scarier than any knife or gun out there. I ask that you please refrain from calling them^^ http://pic.twitter.com/XOzoR1Ep

So here comes the great debate, was it the hacker calling their mom, or other fans?

Argument 1: It was the hacker – if she knew how to get onto Junsu’s Twitter account, she must have Junsu’s mom’s phone number and therefore called her to say a bunch of creepy stuff.
Argument 2: It was other fans – I’m sure there are fans out there who know Junsu’s mom’s phone number who called her and either asked if that was Junsu’s girlfriend and if this was all some sick joke (or something along the lines of this), or if he knew that his account was hacked. I’m presuming that the former was more prevalent because the latter wouldn’t get such a reaction out of Junho.

Personally, argument 2 kinda kicks argument 1′s ass out of the water. Sasaengs (if you don’t know what sasaengs are, then you seriously need to go do some research on this fandom.. actually, on K-pop as a whole) know everything. Not long ago there was the incident of copies of JYJ’s passports being leaked. There have been rumors of fans breaking into TVXQ’s dorm and even the members themselves have addressed the issue of fans sleeping outside their house, following them everywhere in ‘sasaeng taxis’ and tracking their calls (which I believe Yunho mentioned during a ‘Good Morning’ episode way back.. I think it was 2007-ish after Purple Line hit it big in Japan). One can naturally assume that sasaengs, as well as some fans who are close to his parents, have the parents’ phone numbers.

Which then leads to one thing: Fans who think they’re better than everyone else (I’m sure you’ve all met at least eight people like this) chastising Junsu’s mom on the way Junsu’s behaving on Twitter or just venting out their frustrations on her or pestering her about Junsu’s so-called girlfriend, and getting peeved with his mom saying ‘wtf are you talking about?’ Junsu’s mom is a human being like any of us, and was probably annoyed and hurt, told her sons (and you can’t blame her, they’re her sons) and since Junsu ‘deactivated’ his Twitter account, Junho stepped in and spoke up (and he handled the situation admirably well, especially considering the fact that he’s been a victim to such attacks before).

Fans, riled up by the hacker and by the cray-crays who were bugging the crap out of Junsu’s mom… began their rampage.. but something was quite odd about Junsu’s Twitter account…

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Act 1 Scene 3: The Witch Hunt Begins

So the blame game began with people pointing fingers at other people with no evidence whatsoever but ‘word of mouth’. I watched about three, four people get viciously attacked for no apparent reason. No one knew who this girl was (or at least, no one was claiming to know who this girl was) and a very good question was brought up: Was the girl in the picture the real hacker? There are two arguments to this:

Argument 1: Yes, that’s the real hacker – Obviously she posted her photo on Junsu’s Twitter account to show the world how ‘conniving’ she can be and to get a sense of satisfaction from seeing herself on his Twitter page.. or something like that.
Argument 2: No, that person’s being trolled – The hacker didn’t want people to find her, so she posted some random fan’s photo up instead of her own as a decoy to throw people off her track. Or the hacker’s a mean biatch who wanted to make someone else’s life miserable and troll her pretty hard.

I can’t really say which is the right answer till the culprit is apprehended. Either way, it makes part of my soul shrivel and die.

But… what’s this? Junsu’s account is still up??

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Act 2 Scene 1: Junsu’s Account is Alive? (and the sad, scary truth behind it)

I’m sure most of you know this, but Junsu’s account @0101xiahtic is still very much alive. There are four theories behind this.

Argument 1: Junsu’s inability to handle technology probably meant he deleted the Twitter app off his phone or logged out and assumed he deleted his account.
Argument 2: Junsu deleted his account and then logged back on to reactivate it as an afterthought, or accidentally logged back in automatically through his phone, thus triggering a reactivation.
Argument 3: Junsu deleted his account and then someone who already knew his password logged back in, knowing it would reactivate his account.
Argument 4: Junsu has really deleted his account, Twitter just hasn’t properly processed it yet.

 I’m not even going to deal with the first argument, because this is just insulting and implies that Junsu’s an idiot, and even the most technologically crippled being can delete his/her Twitter account, especially if there are others with him. (I’m also dismissing the absurd theory that this is just a cover up of Junsu posting a photo of his girlfriend and deleting his account to make it seem like he didn’t do it. The hell is wrong with you people?) The second argument is plausible, it’s happened to me before when my iPod automatically logged me back into my old account, after I had deleted it, and thus reactivated its existence. The fourth argument is also plausible (see the second to last bullet point on Twitter’s deactivation policy below). The third argument is highly plausible and very, very disturbing.

(Yes, I blacked out my username. I have a private account that doesn’t need to be paraded out to the world)

This is Twitter’s deactivation policy. There is a 30 day ‘waiting period’ in which reactivation can occur by simply logging back into the account. This means that an account can never be deleted if someone keeps logging back in every 30 days.

Do you all realize what that implies? Do you see the ‘sad, scary truth’ behind this? It means that JYJ might never be able to permanently deactivate their Twitter accounts. You may rejoice and think ‘Yay, they’ll be around forever~!!!’ but think again.

They are having their freedom to delete an online account stripped from them. It’s something we take for granted, a basic online right that everyone should have, and they can’t even entertain the idea, because someone will always be there to reactivate the accounts behind their backs. Out of personal greed, fans (or whoever these people are) are chaining JYJ down and violating the basic rights a person has online. JYJ have no choice in the matter. Do you finally see the horror behind it?

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Act 2 Scene 2: Lee Jae Eun’s Tweets and the Fans’ Conflicting Reactions To Them

Before we begin, let us get one thing clear. Lee Jae Eun is not and never will be Jaejoong’s sister. (Those of you who were on Twitter last night will know what I’m talking about) She met JYJ through Prain and has been working as their publicist for quite some time; her name is even mentioned in the BTS stories of C-JeS’ Elle photoshoot.

Past midnight, Lee Jae Eun posted two tweets in reference to the fans’ growing frustration at the hacker. You must understand that as C-JeS don’t have an official Twitter account (or a Facebook page… or pretty much anything for that matter), fans have been sending tweets to Lee Jae Eun to communicate their opinions to C-JeS and she bears most of the fans’ ire at any situation.

From bottom to top:

(Jae Eun, 12:10am KST) I see that everyone’s very worried ㅠㅠ;; He won’t be deactivating his Twitter account because of that issue. And he’s accepting it (the issue) as just another happening. So we’ll do our best to make sure that the artiste and fans are not hurt by it.

(Jae Eun, 12:17am KST) I’m just trying to say that the artiste isn’t as hurt by this problem as so many people ㅜ are worried that he is. He isn’t so hurt by it to deactivate his account, and he’s thinking of it as a happening in a broad-minded manner. I’ll be careful about what I say from now on.

This is where people began to split up in their reactions.

International fans: omg beyondmonica says that Junsu isn’t going to be closing his account REJOICE!!!
Korean fans:  How can you call this a mere happening?

The international fans’ pov, I’m sure you all get so I’m going to skip over that. But the Korean fans’ reaction may seem a little odd to you all. So let me tell you the whole story.

Let’s begin with a little lesson from our good ole’ friend, Naver Dictionary. ‘해프닝’  is described as ‘우연히 일어난 일. 또는 우발적인 사건. ‘우발 사건’, ‘웃음거리’로 순화.’ And for those of you who can’t read Korean, that means ‘Something that happened by chance. Or an accidental occurrence. Also known as ‘a contingency’ or ‘a laughing stock”. Ah, there’s where we hit the wall of awkward word choices. So here’s basically what went down, last night. But before that, another tweet from Lee Jae Eun that poured oil all over the fire like a crazed pyromaniac.

(Jae Eun, 12:41am KST) My sincerity is always pushed down and ignored. All I become in the end is a criminal. A bad person. On my way home from a great dinner with a friend. Yet again, I’ve become a criminal of the world in ten minutes.

kFans: C-JeS should take action against this!!
LJE: Junsu’s taking this in as a just a mere happening and won’t delete his account, but we’ll do our best to resolve the issue.
iFans: Yay Junsu won’t be deleting his account! Thank you!
kFans: How can you call it a mere happening when an individual’s private information has been violated and stolen? This is a serious crime!
LJE: I’m sorry, I should be more careful with what I say. I was just trying to calm your worries.
(a little while later)
LJE: I’ve become a criminal though my intentions were good. My night is ruined, everyone hates me.
 iFans and some kFans: Thank you for staying by JYJ’s side and keeping us updated, don’t think like that, we apologize for the attacks on you.
most kFans: Don’t you dare just sit there and pretend to be the victim. Why doesn’t C-JeS create a Twitter account then so we can communicate with them? Don’t you realize you’re making us look like criminals too though most of us haven’t done anything but voice our concerns? etc

Now, I’m sure some harsh words were thrown at Lee Jae Eun last night because emotions were running high, and people were being…ruder than necessary. But the way she just brushed off the situation was very unsettling to most fans. As you all know, C-JeS is imposing strict regulations on fangoods and fanevents (see here). They are willing to take such strict action on fangoods, which directly affects C-JeS’ revenue, yet have done little against the acts of identity theft and hackers though it’s a much bigger issue and though they made an announcement about it back in September (see here).

Also, fans were infuriated with the fact that C-JeS is making no attempts to broaden communication with fans via SNS or a better e-mail system (who else has had their e-mails repeatedly ignored by C-JeS? And mine were about paying for my membership!! -____-) and this pent-up frustration kind of… exploded. And Lee Jae Eun happened to be the unlucky soul to whom the anger was directed.

But this isn’t the first time Lee Jae Eun has had a spat with fans and then victimized herself while making the fans seem like bad people (though I’m sure this was more of a desperate attempt to save her own ass than to intentionally harm the fans’ reputations) and as a publicist, she should technically know better than most people about the power of word choices.

Lee Jae Eun’s intentions were good, but she unfortunately didn’t express them in the right way. The lack of translations (or the lack of knowledge on the insinuations behind certain words) meant iFans were at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of understanding the situation, but now you know.

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Epilogue: There’s Still Hope….

So will we ever see our glorious duckbutt (who celebrated his birthday five days ago… seriously, hacker, you suck) on Twitter again? Will we ever see those adorable pets of his on Twitter again? Will the hacker receive the punishment she deserves for what she’s done?

(Byung Han, 2:39am KST) I told him to change his password before he deletes his account, so don’t worry too much.

This tweet could be interpreted in two ways (both in English and in Korean)

Interpretation 1: Junsu changed his password instead of deactivating his account, meaning that he intends to stay on Twitter. (which is what I’m presuming Jaejoong did after he was hacked)
Interpretation 2: Junsu changed his password just before deactivating  his account, meaning that a hacker could not simply log back in to reactivate it since the password’s changed. Meaning that Argument 4 from Act 2 Scene 1 is very, very, very probable and Junsu’s account will be deactivated permanently.

Who knows what will happen? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I hope C-JeS launches a full investigation on this matter. The more times they let matters like this slide, the more inclined hackers will be to hack into JYJ’s accounts and steal their personal information and pry into their private lives. JYJ have done nothing wrong but are constantly violated again and again out of ‘love’.

Enough is enough. This isn’t ‘love’. This is some sick perversion of it.

-Fin-