Pentagon's Jinho announces military enlistment, Cube slammed for 'treating him like a product'
Pentagon's Jinho has announced that he will be enlisting as an active-duty soldier next week, beginning on May 11.
While enlistment is mandatory for all South Korean males and most fans expect that their favorite idols will enlist at some point, it does not hurt any less when the news of it does come. And Jinho's fans have taken to Twitter to share their pain and send him messages of hope and encouragement.
"Jinho! I wish I had become a Universe sooner, but I'm so happy I got to know you these past seven months. You are our pride, and words can't even describe how proud we are of you. Universe will wait for you / We love you so much! Fighting! Pentagon fighting! #ThankYouJinho," tweeted one fan, while another shared, "I wish I was there for them since the beginning. I'm sorry we haven't given you your first win yet. I you Jinho, please take care in the military. I promise we'll wait for you. We'll wait for OT9. We'll always be here supporting you thru ups and downs."
Many fans were inconsolable, stating "I’m not stable enough for jinho to enlist holy f*ck i’m sobbing even yanan came to see him f*ck this is too much for me rn." Another shared, "I knew it.. before i slept last night i alr thought that jinho will be enlisting during rtk and when i woke up, saw the news and still crying. will never be ready and it’s even sadder bcs he will go in 3 days."
One fan did the calculations and stated, "If it’s exactly 18 months, Thursday november 11, 2021. how are we going to survive without jinho," while another tweeted, "I’ve been sobbing for an hour now because of jinho’s enlistment notice."
Most fans, however, expressed anger that the announcement was being used by the group's label Cube Entertainment for views. The enlistment news coincided with a preview of the upcoming episode of the Mnet competition show 'Road to Kingdom' which shows the Pentagon members in tears following Jinho's final appearance on the show before his enlistment.
"Theyre making ptg say goodbye to jinho for enlistment on road to kingdom and i-" tweeted one fan, while another shared the preview of the upcoming episode, stating "Nonono there may not be subtitles for this road to kingdom ep yet but is this really jinho's goodbye stage before enlisting ?? im actually crying i hate it here."
Another fan stated, "So pentagon were forced to say goodbye to jinho in the middle of rtk???? wtf is this.. mnet and cube are both messed up," while one tweeted, "Of course they would exploit Jinho's enlistment. This is so sh*tty."
"I hate this. Can companies stop using their idols’ pain for entertainment... It’s so messed up," said one fan, and another stated, "This really kind of makes me angry because they are using him and treating him like a product."
Some also pointed out that the preview centered around the Pentagon members' pain, tweeting. "The way it’s marketed as a “next week on ____” disgusts me."
Even viewers who aren't a part of Pentagon's fandom were angered, stating "I don't even stan but this made me sob like a baby. I am mad at cube and mnet for doing this to them and making it into a show content, that's sick."
"Pentagon really deserve so much better i've said this a lot and i will keep saying it. msnake and cube are the worst and everyone know by now. this is truly horrible i am f*cking sobbing this is NOT okay in any way shape or form," stated another fan.
Some fans kept things positive, stating "Universe, promise me we're going to work hard to make them win, please, the "very good" performance and shine+spring snow performance will be Jinho's last appearance with pentagon, it's the least we can do," while many multifandom stans are having the worst time as several groups have released enlistment announcements for their members, including BTOB's Sung Jae and Hyunsik on May 11, Exo's Suho on May 14, and Block B's U-Kwon on May 18.