#this is terrible but it's been in my drafts + i don't wanna panic about getting other stuff done for activity check on at least one muse

[fmdtaeyongarchive]

headcanon #011: 2016 scandal

word count: 1,575 words

triggers: brief mention of depression

the scandal dropped around valentine’s day of 2016. because what better time to risk ruining someone’s entire career and personal life than the day of love? in total, ash was linked to four different women by the end of the scandal, although the company pretty successfully buried one. bc entertainment denied any romantic involvement with any of them, though in truth, ash had had casual romantic or physical involvement with three of the four at some point, but only one was ongoing at the time of the scandal.

the whole thing started when a media outlet obtained pictures of ash and a junior girl group member (though she was senior to him in age) who he’d gone on a few dates with in late 2015. they had called any prospective romantic relationship quits after a few dates and became only friendly acquaintances afterwards, and being unable to catch the pair on any more dates is what prompted the outlet into considering releasing the pictures before they could become old news.

the outlet had gotten a number of pictures of ash and the girl group member and had been paid off for the more incriminating pictures of them getting into his car or being obviously affectionate. the scandal wouldn’t have blown up from these pictures alone, as even though pictures of ash kissing or embracing a girl would be terrible for pr, if there were only pictures of them meeting up, they could easily be buried and written off as senior and junior friends. bc entertainment had much more power than the girl group member’s company who probably couldn’t afford to pay off or buy the pictures on their own. no one told ash or the girl group member in advance of the pictures dropping and they found out when everyone else did.

if everything had gone as expected, the pictures would have earned ash some minor criticism for hanging out with a female friend in a way that could be misconstrued, but unfortunately, the release of the pictures prompted a much bigger situation than anyone had anticipated thanks to there already being rising discontent among ash’s more “““devoted””” fans.

a few of ash’s sasaengs knew about ash’s recent dating history before any pictures were released, but had kept their knowledge a secret out of “““loyalty””” to ash, until he was exposed by the media outlet. at that point they turned on him thanks to their increasing annoyance with knight’s falling image and a perception that ash was ungrateful for them due to his more reserved nature and his having dated consistently since debut. a number of fan sites released pictures (either through fan forums or by selling them to media outlets) they had of ash with three other girls which were equally or more damning than the initial pictures. they didn’t gain much steam at first as bc and ash’s remaining fans tried their hardest to bury them.

first to be released were pictures from one of ash’s most followed fan sites, although they did so semi-anonymously. this time, they were photos of him with an established actress four years older than him. she was generally well-liked and had a very clean image, so the release of pictures of ash entering her at her apartment building and pictures of them meeting up outside of ash’s hotel during a time when their overseas schedules overlapped were pretty scandalous in the eyes of fans and the public. the fact that the date of their overseas hotel meet-up wasn’t very far from the dates the media outlet had claimed he had with the junior girl group member didn’t go unnoticed and started the real fire under a scandal that would have otherwise blown over pretty quickly. while the source of the photos being one of ash’s most followed fan sites was never officially confirmed, cryptic tweets about having worked so hard to protect his image for him and an immediate closing of the fan site right before the release of these pictures are often pointed to as proof. it’s an open secret at this point. in truth, his relationship with the actress was very similar to his relationship with the female idol from the media outlet’s pictures, which was some casual dating and hookups, but the periods of time he was seeing each of them didn’t overlap like netizens claimed must be the case.

a few photos also surfaced of him with a rookie model, but he was genuinely only ever friends with her and they gained the least attention thanks to how blurry and relatively innocent the pictures were and their respective companies catching on quick enough to bury them and take down any posts that gained steam. only his dedicated fans and antis seem to really know about those pictures, though antis have tried their hardest to spread them around to further ruin his image.

the last photos that got released were the final nail in the coffin. again, they were released by a sasaeng and involved pictures of him with a female idol, this time one who was his industry senior. she was the only girl ash had actually still been seeing at the time the pictures broke, but they hadn’t been dating, only hooking up. following the handful of pictures of them together surfacing, the idol cut off all contact with him.

eventually a post was written on a fan community site tying all of the pictures together and, in the most clear way possible without risking legal action, made enough implications for the title of player or womanizer to begin to be attached to ash’s name. the writer of the post claimed he was already well-known among fan sites for being a player, when really, it was more like it was known among some stalker fans that he had been dating around like an average young adult for the past few years. the post blew up and became a top trending post in the fan community, which made other news sites in toxic cyclical fashion.

in the aftermath, fan communities were ablaze with rumors and criticism for ash, though most of it never extended beyond fans passionate enough to keep up. members of the communities brought back old blind items about alleged womanizers in the industry and attributed them to ash without any proof and over-analyzed every interaction he’d ever had with a woman. his image suffered especially because he had previously been seen as shy and reserved and fans felt these couldn’t possibly be true traits of his if he’d been dating girls. people claimed they’d seen him out with girls without any proof and over-analyzed his smallest public interactions with female friends. in very specific corners of the internet that never blew up too much beyond dedicated netizen fans, others claimed they had convenience store receipts of him buying condoms with girls (think that invasive ka*stal receipt mess). for the most part, most people doubted or criticized these receipts for invasion of privacy and lack of sufficient proof, but some committed antis believed and latched on to them. there were also lovestagram accusations as come with any dating rumor, but the accusations were very obviously a stretch to most. this all happened in the span of a few weeks among fan communities, which helped to amplify voices of antis.

many of ash’s fan sites closed permanently or rested after the scandal and some of those who remained open received criticisms from knight antis and fans of other members who believed ash should be kicked from the group. some fans claimed to be more upset ash was careless enough to get caught and put knight’s career in jeopardy, while others were upfront about being disappointed in him dating or sleeping with girls while under a dating ban.

the saving grace to his scandal that didn’t get him completely blacklisted or kicked out of the group was that there were never clear pictures of him kissing any of the girls released (though there were some pictures with varying levels of skin ship), so the claims were based on him being in popular date locations with girls alone and meeting them at apartments and hotels at night, allowing bc to officially deny all dating rumors and also allowing for a small minority of fans to still insist to this day that ash has never dated anyone and that he was “framed”, though, in general, people agree that bc was doing damage control.

ultimately, the scandal took an incredibly bad toll on ash’s mental health and it set off the worst bout of depression he’s ever experienced which lasted for months and has, in the long term, led to a lot of paranoia in his dating life and a general distrust and even dislike of and resentment toward his fans. it’s harmed other relationships he’s had afterward since he’s now private about his relationships to a fault and doesn’t tell even his closest friends when he’s seeing someone.

it also led to a change in his image, with less emphasis on any kind of innocence, and, for a while, less of an emphasis on a boyfriend-like image. instead, his image began to shift to really play up a heartbroken/~fixable~ aspect to the brooding artsy guy image to reel fans back in. the effects of the scandal are still ongoing, really, and have contributed to him being pushed in a sexier and more mature direction now.