South Korean actress Han So Hee is officially tired of being badgered by ‘groundless speculations’ around her relationship with actor Ryu Jun Yeol. On March 29, she took to her Instagram and shared a lengthy message, hoping to defuse the burdensome online harassment she’s been receiving since the news of her new relationship broke out earlier this month.

In the now-deleted post, she refuted all ‘transit relationship’ allegations, setting forth that her romance with Ryu Jun Yeol began only after he’d ended his former connection with his Reply 1988 co-star Lee Hyeri. In addition to slamming the online hate, she also urged Hyeri to contact her directly after failing to reach out herself.

She also had a bone to pick with the “one person involved in this matter … maintaining silence,” seemingly pointing fingers at her partner, Ryu Jun Yeol. While Hyeri has previously addressed her side of the story through an Instagram post, which was also deleted later, The Alienoid actor has stayed mum on the issue.

The timeline of Han So Hee’s Instagram post surprisingly coincides with a jolting revelation from South Korean media sites. On Friday, an unexpected report from Ilgan Sports divulged that Han So Hee’s request for Ryu Jun Yeol to be more open about his relationship trajectory was reportedly turned down. Industry insiders suggested that Han So Hee’s agency urged the actor’s representatives to cooperate and reveal the truth behind the issue.

Also read | Hyeri addresses ‘very personal’ Ryu Jun Yeol breakup, indirectly clears Han So Hee’s name in apology letter

However, the plea was declined. Presumably, So Hee unleashed her evident disappointment through the said Instagram post. On deleting the post, she apologised and wrote, “My personality can be rather rash.”

Han So Hee’s Instagram post about the alleged love triangle mess

Any more of these groundless speculations and it will really wear me out. I am where I am today because I was chasing after my happiness. In those days when I was meeting people here and there, it was so easy to waste one another’s time being too concerned about ‘face value’ or ‘image value’ and before I knew it, I had reached an age that I could no longer call ‘young’, I had reached the age of thirty, and while I was searching for my path, I met this person. More specifically, we met exactly in November of 2023 at a photo exhibit. (It was our first encounter. The comments falsely claiming that we had known each other before then, I will simply ignore them. Never had I met this person in any public or private occasions before that encounter, nor did we have any overlapping acquaintances in the middle. The bear was purchased in 2021 through Kakao Talk gifts.) Unlike the immature relationships I had in the past, outer appearances was far from everything, and seeing how those risky sides of me that always tried to do things however I wanted were kept in check, I felt healthier in both mind and body, and as is only natural when it comes to men and women, I felt that this was a relationship that I needed in my life. What is important to say here is that I had absolutely no intention of approaching this person with the thought to disrespect the time that he spent with his former lover. It’s the truth that they broke up last year. It’s absolutely true that they bid farewell to each other for the last time while wishing the other person good health and happiness. (I do not mean to reveal such details in their private relationship for any other reasons than to prove that it was not a ‘transit relationship’.) Although I cannot speak directly on the matter of why sunbaenim wrote in her apology post that she had promised to meet him in November, I do know that the purpose of this meeting was not to rekindle their relationship. If this statement is false, I am fine with any public rebuttals, and I would be honored if sunbaenim could contact me herself, as I have tried to get in contact with her in any way that I can think of, only to fail. I am also frustrated about the fact that one person involved in this matter is maintaining silence. I say this only because, it only makes sense that people may misunderstand that when I say that it is not a ‘transit relationship’, they may still interpret it as me denying the speculations out of anger. That is why I stress that what I have written today is based on facts from the companies of both sides, with none of my personal emotions involved. I am also writing this because there are people I must protect, and I no longer wish to see a situation where the fans who have been cheering for me and the president of my company and our company’s staff suffering damages because of me, since I am not a fool and I know that this is not about delivering words while standing only on one side. In the end, what I am trying to say is that they were long broken up, but the news reports of their breakup did not go public until November. This is fact, no matter what insiders from that company or my company say otherwise. I just don’t understand why people have to doubt the news articles which reported factual information, but then they also accept other news articles that speculate on the likelihood of a ‘transit relationship’ as reasonable facts. When you look at the malicious comments, the majority of them are private side accounts, which is also a laughable matter. Please criticize when you have exact evidence. Furthermore, seeing people curse at me and commenting on matters entirely unrelated to the issue at hand, such as slandering my family, my upbringing, my appearance, and others, I am processing much about the ways of things these days. I have already apologized. Since I cannot contact her, I am not sure if she has seen my apology, but I hope that she will not worry. I also offer my apologies to fans of sunbaenim for my careless actions. Even after time has passed, I will always be the kind of person who apologizes for my mistakes. What I do not understand is what was so funny about her ex-lover getting a new girlfriend. Why did she make a text message which was not meant to rekindle their relationship sound like it contained feelings of regret, and with it, attach this title of a ‘transit relationship’ to a normal relationship that occurred 4 months after their breakup? I do not want to be pitied. I am not writing this expecting an apology for all of the speculations and malicious comments that came about as a result of that single phrase either, I am simply curious. I also want to know why people wish to attack me so viciously, giving me no choice in the matter of whether to wear a friendship ring or not, whether to smile or not smile for the reporters and cameramen who waited for me at the airport in the cold. Why do you hate me? Once I make this post, I am certain that people will only call me a criminal feinting innocence, that I am being inconsiderate toward the staff at my company who are suffering anxiously because of me, and that they are tired of me so I should just stop. I know this for a fact. Sometimes they say to explain, and sometimes they say to just stay put, so I don’t know what these people want from me. But I’m writing this post after deciding that I can no longer sit and watch in silence. I have a profession where I am fed and my livelihood is dependent on the love and the faith of the public. Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my immature and imperfect response to the recent incident. However, I can assure you that this was not a ‘transit’ relationship, that word that I do not wish to even mention. I say that not because I am delusional, but because it is a fact. So if there is something I still have not apologized for, then please specify what that is.

Also read | Kim Soo Hyun’s Queen of Tears fee: How much did the highest-paid Kdrama actor get for his latest gig?

Amid the inflated dating scandal, Han So Hee reportedly started multiple consequential endorsement deals. She was allegedly dropped by South Korea’s NH Bank and soju brand Chum Churum. However, her agency, 9ato Entertainment, swiftly clarified earlier this month that these contract terminations weren’t influenced by the ongoing relationship chaos. They’d been finalised ahead of time.

This claim stands confirmed as March 28 reports announced that So Hee had been chosen as the new global brand model for the American home appliance brand Shark. She is the first Asian endorsement model affiliated with the brand.