Red Velvet Irene's Treatment for aespa Draws Mixed Reactions: 'Don't Try Restoring Your Image Using Your Juniors'

In an online community, Red Velvet Irene is once again criticized by K-netizens after doing THIS to aespa.

On June 26, aespa members expressed their gratitude to their senior and co-SM artist Red Velvet Irene on Instagram after they revealed that she brought watermelons for them.

Karina, Giselle, Winter, and NingNing also posted certification shots of the snacks their senior idol sent to them, proving Irene’s special love for her juniors.

(Photo : Irene with aespa (Nate Pann))

Following the quartet’s IG stories, an OP took to  the web forum, Nate Pann to share this touching interaction between the two acts, saying:

“Irene must have bought snacks for aespa because they were practicing for their concert today. It’s nice. But is Irene buying watermelon because it’s their symbolic fruit?”

The post has now garnered about 130k views, which gradually earned divided opinions from internet users.

At first, ReVeluvs filled the comment section with positive feedback, attesting to Irene’s unconditional love and support for her junior idols.

(Photo : watermelon for aespa from Irene (Nate Pann))

Some of the comments said:

• “Irene seems to take good care of her juniors, including NCT and former SM trainee Ko Eun, and they are still friendly and buy her a lot of delicious food. It seems like she buys a lot of food for her groupmates too, which is nice to see.”
• “I don’t think they even thought about the symbolic fruit, haha. Didn’t she just give it to them because it’s summer and it’s easy to chew and eat?”
• “I heard that pre-cut watermelons are expensive… Sister, please buy me, too…”
• “As expected, a pretty girl has a beautiful heart, too.”

However, later on, the supposedly wholesome post was infiltrated with negative and malicious comments, bringing back her “gapjil” controversy with a magazine editor in 2020. At the time, she admitted and apologized after verbally abusing a staff during a photoshoot.

With her recent treatment with aespa, Irene was then accused of using her juniors to restore her image.

• “Be nice to the staff, too.”
• “Try it one hundred days and see if your image will recover. That stigma will follow you for the rest of your life. People don’t change and can’t be changed. end.”
• “Don’t try to restore your image by taking advantage of good juniors.”
• “Buy some for the staff, too. Haha”

Meanwhile, Red Velvet, to which Irene belongs, celebrated its 10th debut anniversary this year along with fellow members Seungri, Wendy, Joy and Yeri.

To commemorate it, the quintet released its new 9th mini-album, “Cosmic” on June 24. The album contained a total of six songs, including a title song of the same name, “Sunflower,” “Last Drop,” “Love Arcade,” “Bubble” and “Night Drive.”