kpop boys and their ghosts
Jan. 11th, 2025 09:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twomblying
Some Notes:
First of all, I want to say I am not going to pretend to be an expert on Korean cultural and spritual beliefs regarding death and the afterlife. I don’t mean to be handwavy about it: it’s a complex and super interesting subject area that I’ve done a pretty base level amount of reading on (I will link some things at the end), but this is, at the end of the day, just a fun list of dudes in bands talking about ghosts. By and large, kpop idols do Not talk about religion or politics, although there are some notable exceptions and it’s becoming less and less taboo within the industry. That all being said, I do find this topic fascinating and if anyone has any resources they’d like to recommend, I’d love them.
My other disclaimer is that I’m sure lots of kpop boys in lots of groups have talked about ghosts (it comes up more than you might expect), but these are MY kpop boys in MY groups. So if your blorbo isn’t here, I’m sorry. Consider the comment section an open forum to tell me about your favorite kpop boy and his beliefs in ghosts and spirits.
On methodology:
I’m going to divide these by group, and within each group, I will share something or other the member has said about ghosts, spirits, and hauntings. If I didn’t find anything from that member, I’m going to share my personal headcanons for the members I have strong feelings about. These are my best friends and I’m diagnosing them. If there’s a member here I did not headcanon and you have strong feelings about them, again: comment section is an open forum.
Factors I considered:
Has he said outright, “I (do/do not) believe in ghosts” or has he just implied they exist
Has he seen a ghost, and how did he respond
How does he feel about ghosts as a concept and their place in the world
I also draw somehat of a distinction between being spooked by seemingly creepy or haunted places, and believing in ghosts as entities with spritiual or philosophical implications.
K-Pop boys & their ghostsBTS
Namjoon: No (headcanon) Namjoon has never said anything definitive either way, so this is a headcanon. I actually think Namjoon probably has really interesting, nuanced opinions on this because he has interesting and nuanced opinions on everything - especially anything that concerns modern and historical Korean cultural practices. He’s also a deeply philosophical dude. So, I think if you were to seriously ask him if he believes in life after death, you’d be there for hours and probably walk away with an answer that kind of doesn’t answer anything but makes you want to sit and stare at a wall for a while.
Less seriously, I think Namjoon would say that if ghosts are real they’re probably sad, and then after a moment, he’d remember that he doesn’t believe in God and just say, ’nah, probably not.”
Jin: Yes (fears them) First of all, over half this band swears they saw a ghost in their dorm during their trainee years, and they all had…very varied responses to that experience. Jin very much believes in ghosts, he once bought a Jangseung (a totem pole) to protect his and Yoongi’s bedroom and then wrote about it in his diary: “Today I went shopping. It was so much more expensive than I thought so I couldn’t buy anything. I’m scared of ghosts, so I bought a totem pole to protect me and Yoongi’s room. Totem pole, fighting.” (May 4th, 2014)
Yoongi: Yes (supportive) Oh Yoongi, one half of why I started tracking all of this in the first place. Yoongi believes in ghosts, he has seen one with his own eyes, and he is deeply concerned about anti-ghost sentiment and negative ghost representation on film:
"I did see a ghost when I was a trainee, but I don't have anything negative against ghosts. I think the idea that ghosts are harmful is the prejudice formed by horror movies. The ghosts probably never saw me, so there's no reason for it to hurt me. It's not necessarily bad.” (x)
Hoseok: Yes. (Are you kidding) Of course Hoseok believes in ghosts, my Aquarius king who is afraid of everything.
Jimin: Yes (and they’re perverts) Jimin both believes in ghosts and fears them, especially after someone or something that was decidedly NOT namjoon (normal assumption) perved on him in the shower:
"Ghosts are scary. I once saw one in my dorm when I was still a trainee. When I was washing my hair standing up, I felt someone slipping through my legs...I called out thinking it was RM-hyung but never got a reply, and everyone was sleeping when I hurriedly checked." (x)
Taehyung: Yes (fears them) believes in ghosts only so far as to use them as an excuse to cuddle with Jimin (Summer Package 2017)
Jungkook: Yes (supportive) This will surprise no one, but if Yoongi was one of the reasons I started paying attention to all this, Jungkook is the other. Jungkook doesn’t just believe in ghosts, Jungkook knows ghosts are real, he is going to find them, he is going to become their friend. In a 2023 Weverse live, he said, “I wanted to meet a ghost so bad.” He tried to actively find ghosts in his apartment with “ghost hunting tools” at 2 a.m., and literally said “ghost frequencies: iykyk” I am deely in love with him. I became so obsessed with this that it inspired a whole fic.
Seventeen
The majority of Seventeen are huge scaredy cats. And boy do they get put in Situations (multiple horror episodes of Going Seventeen), so there’s plenty of material here. However, being afraid of most things up to and including hauntings doesn’t necessarily mean you believe in ghosts in any real concrete way. Just wanted to get that out there, because otherwise the answer for this entire band would just be “yes.”
Also, every single person on earth should watch this episode of GoSe. Listen to me. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if you don’t listen to kpop or if you just don’t care about this kpop group in particular. You need to spend an hour of your time (it’s 2 parts) watching this episode of a Korean boy group variety show that has more plot than most movies I’ve seen recently. I need you to trust me. Okay? Okay.
Scoups: Yes (fears them) I’m obsessed with Seungcheol (a man with an openly acknowledged anxiety disorder) saying that among his biggest fears, ghosts are the scariest. Followed by “trying new things.” In fact, on a list of four things he’s afraid of, it goes: Ghosts, trying new things, heights, and ghosts. (x)
Jeonghan: Yes (supportive) If Jungkook and Yoongi started me down this research path, Jeonghan is the one that reinforced my belief that this may or may not be my life’s work because oh my god. Jeonghan, at the very least, believes in the two ghosts that haunt the dorm he shares with Seungkwan. What you should know about the BooHan dorm ghosts is as follows:
They may or may not be lesbians
They drink wine
They leave him little doodles and notes in his journal
He believes they’re real because they visited his Ghost Expert friend(?) in a dream
He and Seungkwan still co-habitate with the lesbian ghosts to this day
Joshua: No (headcanon)The list of actual, concretely confirmed things we know about Joshua Hong couldn’t fill a postcard (respect), so I don’t know if he’s ever actually said he believes in ghosts. He’s another one I think would actually give a really thoughtful, complex answer to this question due to his religious American upbringing. I think he probably doesn’t believe in them though. I have nothing to base this on beyond vibes.
Jun: Yes (headcanon) I think Jun probably believes in ghosts, but I don’t know for sure. This clip isn’t translated, but based on the tweet and the context clues, he believes in ghosts but does NOT feel confident that he could overcome them with his martial arts training?
Wonwoo: Yes (out of spite) Possibly one of my favorite Wonwoo moments (favorite GoSe moments in general, really) is when, during the horror episode Tag, Wonwoo becomes convinced that ghosts exist in real time. In general, Wonwoo is fairly no-nonsense and practical, so he strikes me as the type to scoff at the idea of ghosts. But when a staff member dresses up as a spirit and pretends to haunt one of the rooms on set, he insists that he saw a ghost and becomes increasingly irate that the others don’t believe him. At one point it really takes a turn, and the game (literally a game of Tag against three serial killers in an abandoned office building) becomes about Wonwoo convincing the other members that they also all saw a ghost. (x)
Hoshi: Yes (respects them) - he bows to the fake ghost that Wonwoo sees in GoSe.
Woozi: No (headcanon) I think Woozi probably thinks the idea of ghosts are interesting. He loves to go all in on a roleplay, so could probably be convinced of the idea of ghosts in the right circumstances. I also think he’d try to kick a ghost’s ass (see: Zombie episode of Going Seventeen). But I think if push comes to shove, he doesn’t really believe in them.
Minghao: Maybe, but either way he’s not afraid of them (headcanon). This man hugged a killer clown. If he found out ghosts were haunting his house, I think he’d just sort of shrug and ask them to keep the noise down.
Dokyeom: Yes and he’s afraid of them (headcanon) This man is Jung Hoseok in a different font.
Mingyu: Yes, and he’s afraid of them (headcanon). This is a fun imagine, considering Jungkook is one of his best friends.
Like:
“Sometimes he would hide at home and pretend like he’s a ghost and jumpscare me, which would seriously make me want to make him pay (his hair was long so he really did seem like a ghost)” (Seungkwan’s Weverse letter, Oct 4, 2024)
Vernon: Yes (incredibly nonchalant about them.) Hansol hasn’t really said either way, but he just kind of nods along in that video I linked earlier of Jeonghan talking about the Boohan ghosts. I think he is probably extremely live and let live about everything, including ghosts. He does have a lot of fun being a ghost in the God of Light Music episode of GoSe.
Dino: Yes (fears them). Dino is also there when Jeonghan talks about his ghost friends, and he looks like he’s considering never visiting the Boohan dorm again for as long as he lives.
Shinee
Jinki: Yes(?) He believes in at least one ghost (that looks like Minho. It may have just been Minho) (x)
Jonghyun: Yes (headcanon). It’s quite difficult to find sources on older Shinee clips and quotes, but I didn’t find anything about Jonghyun believing in ghosts. However, everything I know about Jonghyun’s chaotic bisexual energy paired with his incredibly strong convictions leads me to believe that he would fall somewhere on the Min Yoongi end of the kpop boy ghost alignment. I think he probably believed in ghosts and supported their fight for civil rights.
Key: No. Key is actually one of the only kpop boys I’ve come across who outright says he doesn’t believe in ghosts. He brings a real “don’t be absurd” energy to it. (x) - he literally says λΉμ°ν μ λ κ·μ μ λ―Ώμ§ μμ§λ§, which translates to “Obviously I don’t believe in ghosts.” One day you’re learning Korean to understand Namjoon’s wordplay, and the next you’re using it to research ghost shit.
Minho: No (headcanon) Minho’s fairly practical, so I don’t think he believes in ghosts. But I also think if YOU believed in ghosts, he would offer to get rid of them for you.
Taemin: Yes (has seen one, neutral response) Taemin has said that the SM vocal room in the basement was haunted by “kid ghosts” (x) Listen is anyone surprised. Is anyone surprised that Taemin believes in ghosts. Least suprising piece of information I could tell you about Lee Taemin.
Tomorrow x Together
So I don’t have strong opinions about most of the TXT boys where this is concerned, I just really enjoy what I’ve found on Soobin.
Soobin: No (but constant vigilance.) Soobin doesn’t believe in ghosts or superstitions, but he has said that he takes precautions against them out of habit. For example, he said that he closes all of the doors before he sleeps to keep ghosts out of his bedroom. (x)
Further Reading
Again, I’m not an expert, but if you’re interested in doing actual reading about spirits and ghosts in Korean culture, here are just a few things I read that I enjoyed. There is a lot out there about Korean Shamanism as well as Korean ancestral rites, too much to link here, but those would be other general directions to go in if you want to know more.
- Types of ghosts/spirits in Korean mythology
- Agwi - Korea’s starving ghosts (I also recommend reading Grocery List by Bora Chung (trans. Anton Hur)
- Revered and Feared: Korea’s Mountain Spirits
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