you’ve likely heard about the fatal crowd crushes during itaewon’s annual street party for halloween. i’ve seen some variance in numbers, i would assume from me coming across snippets of the news yesterday out of order, but at minimum over 140 people lost their lives in this crush.
one of those people was lee jihan, a former participant on produce 101 season 2. he’s been in the process of filming an upcoming drama, and he had just turned 25 this past august.
i will readily admit that between him having had fewer ‘official schedules’ over the past years since pd101s2, and with me being a very sporadic tv watcher who has thus not kept super on top of the dramas he has worked on, jihan is one of the participants that takes up more of the background noise of my fan life, but he was still an undeniable part of it. it is impossible to overstate the ways that my life over the past five years has moulded around being a fan of the participants on that show, and jihan was as much as part of that as anyone, a part of this core of happiness and love in my life. the be mine team 1 center, kenta’s first friend on produce, the person who described being a trainee as being in an elevator with no buttons and now five years later won’t be alive to see his national tv debut as an actor.
jihan’s funeral is today (nov 1st kst), and his obituary shared by a few of the other former pd101 participants asked to “please say goodbye to jihan on his last journey” - i wanted my version of that to be sharing some of his presence on the show. if you happen to have time in your day to watch a few minutes of a bad reality singing competition, then i would really love to be able to share some of the happiness that jihan has given me in life with anyone i can as a way to remember him.
his dance battle team’s prep + performance cut; dance battles were the first contest on pd101, and the only one he participated in before elimination. making this cut was the first time i’ve rewatched the be mine teams prep for a while and i forgot how, to make a narrative contrast to youngmin and park seungwoo’s ‘rift’, half of their screentime is hweseung doing his thing and jihan being stoked about it, it’s very cute.
and the arm wrestling contest - if you watched pd101s2, one of the three things you’re most likely to remember jihan from is the teammate ab check at 0:50, a classic moment with some classic fanart that jihan resposed on insta (bfc2 teammate heesoo reposted the whole fanart too, which i also want to share because it’s got some great depictions of can’t i be yours team’s faces). his and kenta’s exchange at 2:01 is equally a classic in my heart.
whether anyone in my circle watches these clips from my silly little survival show obsession, i’m glad for this space to talk about this ♡
