"Coffee With Jennie": 360K-Subscriber YouTuber Apologizes

A South Korean YouTuber has apologized after showing up at the agency of BLACKPINK's Jennie with flowers and a letter in hand, saying she failed to understand basic norms of K-pop fan culture.

The creator, who goes by Potato Turtle and whose real name is Song Ji-yoon, posted an apology on her social media on the 13th. "I apologize to everyone who felt uncomfortable because of the video I uploaded," she wrote. "Reading the comments made me realize how thoughtless my actions were."

Potato Turtle, who has about 360,000 subscribers, recently posted a video framed around a bucket-list goal of "grabbing coffee with BLACKPINK's Jennie." In it, she visits OA Entertainment, Jennie's agency, located in the Hannam neighborhood of Yongsan district, Seoul.

She arrives at the building holding a letter, a bouquet, and a heart-shaped balloon. "Jennie's company is in Hannam, and I also live in Yongsan district," she says in the video. "I thought opportunities come to the people who knock on the door."

After she rings the intercom, a person who appears to be a staff member responds. Told that Jennie is not there, Potato Turtle hands over the letter and flowers and leaves.

The video quickly drew criticism, with viewers arguing that the visit crossed into a private space and was not meaningfully different from sasaeng behavior. Sasaengs are obsessive fans who track K-pop artists in their private lives, and their conduct is widely condemned in Korea's fandom community.

In her apology, Potato Turtle said she "wanted to try something that seemed impossible" and clarified that she never actually believed showing up at the agency or attending a concert would lead to coffee with Jennie. She added that she had drawn inspiration from overseas videos in which creators deliver messages directly to celebrities.

"I did not realize that going to the company and handing over a letter and a bouquet could come across as sasaeng behavior," she wrote. "I was ignorant about idol fan culture. I will act more carefully from now on."

The reaction points to how sharply K-pop fans police the line between public engagement and personal space, and how quickly a stunt-style video framed as harmless can read as an intrusion inside the fandom itself.