SOOP broadcast BJ Se Yeon is finally speaking out. The Bang Si Hyuk scandal, she revealed, cost her far more than just her privacy.
Se Yeon gave an interview published on April 3rd on the YouTube channel Beautiful Nerd, in a video titled 'An underground female streamer, BJ Se Yeon, who crashed HYBE stock and pulled in 3 billion KRW (2.3 million USD) with the Zero Two dance.' She detailed everything: how she ended up in the footage, how the internet pieced it together, and most strikingly, how those around her reacted once the headlines went viral.
“A netizen noticed me in a street YouTube video overseas, and it coincidentally matched a photo I posted that day wearing the same outfit,” she said. That single matching detail ignited a national conversation. The footage, originally captured by the U.S. channel I am WalKing, showed Bang Si Hyuk walking through Beverly Hills with Se Yeon and another BJ, and quickly drew intense backlash online.
She also described how celebrities’ reactions shifted immediately after the story broke. “A famous rapper had shown interest in me and sent me DMs, but as soon as the article about Chairman Bang appeared, they deleted all messages,” Se Yeon revealed.
She added that a well-known actor followed her account and then secretly unfollowed, while a famous soccer player had been viewing her Instagram Stories. She painted a picture of a very particular kind of social calculation, where public figures instinctively manage their associations, reputations, and perceived risks the instant a scandal hits.
Regarding the viral Beverly Hills footage, Se Yeon explained that a netizen spotted her by chance on an overseas street YouTube channel and cross-referenced it with a photo she posted that same day wearing the same outfit. That single matching detail ignited a national conversation. The footage, originally captured by the U.S. channel I am WalKing, showed Bang Si Hyuk walking through Beverly Hills with Se Yeon and another BJ, and quickly drew intense backlash online.
HYBE responded that Chairman Bang had met the women at a social gathering and later helped arrange restaurant reservations during their LA visit. Se Yeon pushed back, saying the meeting was far from coincidental. The chairman had offered to secure a table at a notoriously hard-to-book restaurant, and going together was simply part of that arrangement.
She was candid about her earnings. At her peak, her annual broadcasting income reached 3 billion KRW (2.3 million USD), and on one birthday, she earned 100 million KRW (76,500 USD) in a single day from virtual gifts alone.
In a lighter moment toward the end of the interview, she addressed the minor stir caused when Jeong Seung Je, one of Korea’s best-known math tutors, liked one of her dance videos and briefly became a topic of online debate. Her response was characteristically unbothered. She said, “It could be an accidental tap. People are allowed to watch.”
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