TWICE's Jihyo spoke up regarding her intermitten absence during '2019 MAMA'.

On January 5 KST, the leader of TWICE communicated with fans on their official 'V Live' chatroom before attending the '2019 Golden Disk Awards'. During the chat, Jihyo voluntarily gave fans an explanation behind her inconsistent presence during the '2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards'.

She wrote:

"At 'MAMA', you know how I couldn't appear on stage during certain moments. I am explaining because there seem to be some attention-seeking folks whining ('oong-ang-oong-ing') about it. I was just sick. LOL. How sorry I am, because it must have been fun to have some material to snipe at. T_T But there wasn't much I could do about being sick."

Following her explanation, however, certain netizens responded with negative outlooks as they criticized the statement as overly sarcastic and sneering. Especially, Jihyo's choice of words regarding the expression "oong-ang-oong" stirred up attention, as the slang is apparently often used to provoke male audiences.

Amid the controversy, many fans left comments supporting Jihyo, with some messages including: "Can't idols be angry from time to time?", "Her explanation is so clear and free of misunderstanding", "She's so cool", "It's not like she swore or anything".

What do you think of these reactions?