Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
When the Bang Si Hyuk messages about crushing aespa were dramatically revealed, it mostly just made obvious to every reasonable person what goes on in K-pop: competition. So reasonable people also meme’d about it more than took it as some kind of serious offense, and aespa themselves seemed to be enjoying it to some extent as well (their family members, too)
Given that they and NewJeans were coming back at the same time again, many were anticipating interactions between the two, and collabing on a dance challenge ended up being the perfect way to do so. Minji and Haerin paired with Karina and Giselle at SM Entertainment‘s building, while Ningning and Winter went to HYBE for Danielle and Hanni.
@aespa_official #Armageddon with #MINJI #HAERIN #NewJeans #뉴진스 #KARINA #카리나 #GISELLE #지젤 #aespa #에스파 #aespaArmageddon ♬ Armageddon – aespa
@newjeans_official How Sweet it T(ae)ste 🖤🍭 #aespa#WINTER#NINGNING #HowSweet#NewJeans#뉴진스#HANNI#DANIELLE#NewJeans_is_Everywhere ♬ How Sweet – NewJeans
Normally, dance challenges are rather useless, but this one at least had some spice to it. Even the choreographers of both teams were excited, apparently.
안무가님들 인스타도 반응 뜨겁당 ㅋㅋ pic.twitter.com/2fqcrc35Kx
— 현이 (@gott2sttot) June 8, 2024
Even still, I wasn’t gonna cover it, but then there was subsequent mess after apparently Karina sent Minji on a spy mission during their meetup, tasking Minji with spreading aespa’s Armageddon promo stickers around the HYBE building.
아 카리나 지젤 선배님이 캣닢즈랑 챌린지 할때 외계인 침공 스티커 주시면서 회사에 뿌려주세요!! 하셨대 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 그래서 민지가 매니저님 몰래몰래 회사 곳곳에 뿌려놨대 개웃기다 pic.twitter.com/ZPTdoF9MV9
— 밍곰 (@Minggom_16) June 8, 2024
In a voice livestream, Minji mentioned doing it:
“That’s right, I received the stickers that say stuff like ‘when aliens attack, those who haven’t heard ‘Armageddon’ will be eaten first. So [Karina] sunbaenim told me to spread it around the company. So I really did. Perhaps witness photos will pop up. Isn’t it funny? I was going to spread them, but my manager said I couldn’t so I did it secretly.”
As if running some kind of covert spy network that was actually done publicly, Karina then commented on her mission’s success and the work of her spy:
"As soon as i got off work, i heard good news?"
— Karina♡ (@ujiminphoria) June 8, 2024
"Minji-ssi did it"
"Honestly i knew you would make it aww i’m proud"
"Our stickers went all the way to that place…💖"
KARINA IS SO FUNNY FOR THIS I CAN’T😭 https://t.co/w6OdyG6BSJ pic.twitter.com/iap8UnvtQ8
The spy was then pleased to be rewarded:
Minji’s reaction to Karina’s bbl message during her live
— Karina♡ (@ujiminphoria) June 8, 2024
🐻: She said it's praiseworthy…urk ark urk *loading*…hahaha anyway it’s fun haha i think it's time for me to run away
Did Minji subscribe to Karina’s bbl? She’s so fast😭 pic.twitter.com/jsOOtep8Ti
So that’s a fun little interaction that we rarely seem to get anymore between groups of other companies, but it also apparently made people upset in the interactions to these posts, which makes it even funnier.
NewJeans' Minji reveals she put up aespa's ‘Armageddon’ alien invasion stickers across the HYBE building. pic.twitter.com/fCXWgj5Gqm
— Pop Base (@PopBase) June 8, 2024
These people are one step away from unironically calling them thugs and calling the cops on them.
Amazing. Just when I thought it wouldn’t really be content, I can always count on people to help out a slow weekend.
Almost enough to break out #TeamSchadenfreude again.
——
Additionally, as another added benefit, if NewJeans do get to continue with their career normally, it’ll be fun to look back at these times when the two fandoms were getting along, because it won’t be long before they’re back at each other’s throats, as is inevitable with fandoms.
