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On April 24, 2023, Prestige Entertainment released a statement confirming that ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo will be participating in the upcoming KonnecThai event as planned previously. This will mark his first schedule after group memeber Moonbin’s death, which is scheduled to take place on April 30th in Thailand.
On April 19, 2023, ASTRO’s Moonbin was found dead at 8:10 pm KST by his manager at his residence in Gangnam, Seoul, and the Gangnam Police suspect it to be a case of suicide. The K-pop industry is silently mourning the death of Moonbin either via condolence messages, heartfelt tributes, eulogies, or by sharing their personal anecdotes and friendships with the departed ASTRO star.
AROHAs fans have taken to social media to defend the ASTRO member for resuming his personal schedule post Moonbin’s death. A fan, @gotsevenornever, wrote “Everyone grieves differently,” in response to ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo resuming personal schedules.
ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo's fans support his decision to resume his personal schedule following Moonbin's demise
Several fans were critical of ASTRO's Cha Eun-woo's decision to resume work immediately after Moonbin’s death. However, AROHAs have come in the singer’s defense, stating that keeping himself busy with work might be his way of grieving his bandmate’s loss.
While ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo is reportedly in a state of deep shock following the unfortunate demise of his friend and bandmate Moonbin, he decided to honour his work commitments as he is representing his country, South Korea, at the event.
Prestige Entertainment released a statement regarding the True Beauty star’s participation in the KonnecThai event. They thanked ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo, Fantagio, and the organizers for making this difficult decision of going ahead with the event despite the heartbreaking circumstances
Additionally, they assured fans that they will do their best to make the ASTRO member comfortable and the event meaningful, keeping in mind the member and fans’ sensitive moments at the moment. They also expressed their deep condolences to Moonbin and his bereaved family.
The full statement by Prestige Entertainment reads as follows:
KonnecThai is a cultural exchange event and festival aimed at strengthening ties between Korea and Thailand. It is being held on April 29-30 and will showcase performances, dance, music, art, food and culture from both countries. ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo is scheduled to appear alongside Thai actors Jeff Satur and Putthipong Assaratanakul, aka Billkin.
On April 20, 2023, a day after Moonbin’s tragic death, ASTRO’s Cha Eun-woo, who was in Los Angeles to attend the Dior show and Coachella, urgently flew down to Korea and headed straight to console Moonbin’s grieving family.
Dressed in a navy blue jacket and wearing a cap and face mask that covered his face entirely, the True Beauty star walked alongside his manager and bodyguard without pausing to interact with press members and reporters waiting.
Moon Ga-young pens a heartfelt note for Moonbin
The ASTRO member may not have issued a personal statement regarding Moonbin, but his True Beauty co-star Moon Ga-young has taken to Instagram to pen a heartfelt note for the deceased singer Moonbin.
The two reportedly modeled for a children’s clothing brand in their pre-teens. In 2020, Moon Ga-young and Moonbin appeared together on the cable channel tvN's Food Avengers. At the time, they joked that they never thought they would reunite in adulthood on a variety show and wash dishes together.
Moon Ga-young released a carousel of pictures on Instagram with the first slide painted black as a tribute, the other two contained pictures of themselves as child models and the other as young adults respectively. She captioned the post with:
"I remember our beginnings, and how I was suddenly looking up at you from well beyond my height."
None of the ASTRO members have made any personal statements about Moonbin’s death as of yet.
