Recently, a pop culture critic published an article about the recent bullying incident of AOA and his take on the relationship between the idol groups and the fanbase all across the world. This article was written by Lee Moon Won and published on July 12th in 'Sports World News' under the column 'Lee Moon Won's Showbiz Watch'.

It has been a week or so since the 'AOA bullying' incident. However, it already seems like an event of the long past. This is due to the frequent change in hot topics within the pop culture community. It's more so during the Covid19 pandemic since people have gone on to the web more frequently due to the decrease in the need to go outside. These popular culture topics and issues are highly accessible on the web and are replaced at a frenetic pace due to high demand.

In any case, there is still more to be said about the incident. For example, the topic of the change in the international fans' reactions to this bullying incident.

Over the years, there were incidents in which overseas Kpop fans reacted differently than the domestic Korean Kpop fans and Korean netizens. Most Overseas Kpop fans usually protected the artist first and stood by the artists' side regardless of what the incident was. Simply put, the overseas fans went on to protect their artists and "shielded" them. They sometimes criticized the Korean netizens for reacting sensitively to certain incidents.

Most of these overseas fans would create hashtags such as '#staystrong' and support their idol groups while the Korean netizens would criticize the artists for minor wrongdoings. 

However, the overseas Kpop fans have reacted differently to the bullying incident of AOA. The overseas fans have also criticized Jimin, the former member of AOA, and also went on to criticize FNC Entertainment for their negligence on the issue when it happened. The overseas fans and the domestic Korean fans have both strongly criticized Jimin.

Many of the overseas Kpop fans were drawn to the charms of the  'Unified team' efforts and the unity of idols groups. Throughout the Kpop-history, the group members portrayed strong friendship and bonds between each other. There were times when a member would leave the group due to certain reasons, but they continued to show their friendship with their group members through Social media. 

This was the charm that drew in many overseas Kpop fandoms. They were drawn by the unique bond that Kpop's girl groups and boy groups displayed. These strong bonds became part of Kpop and many fans were drawn to the brotherly and sisterly love each member showed to each other.

However, the recent bully incident of AOA has broken that image and brought enormous disappointment to the overseas fans. Many overseas fans even felt betrayed as they believed that the relationship between AOA members was flawless and the members loved each other. The disappointment and anger were immense and the overseas fans criticized Jimin along with the Korean netizens.

In any case, "AOA Jimin's Bullying" incident ended with the AOA leader, Jimin, dropping from the team. The withdrawal of Jimin had a fatal impact on the group since Jimin took a huge part of the group's performances. Thus, AOA's future activities have become extremely uncertain. Even their appearance at the Wonder Woman Festival has been canceled. In fact, many are wondering if AOA will now disband.