"A ploy to attract international fans"- Anonymous SM employees diss international fans while expressing their views on RIIZE Seunghan’s return

On October 11, 2024, the official account of RIIZE under SM Entertainment announced the return of their seventh member, Seunghan after 10 months long hiatus. The group's fandom, also known as BRIIZE, celebrated the news by trending his name and various hashtags like #RIIZEis7 on the social media platform X.

Upon the news of Seunghan's arrival, an anonymous SM employee made a post titled, "SM Employee's Blind Reaction to Seughan's Return". Within an hour, the post reached around 30K views. The employee stated in the post,

"This is obviously a ploy to attract international fans but they don't spend any money so everyone in the company is questionning the decision, lol"

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SM employee reacts to RIIZE Seunghan's return

While reacting to Seunghan's return on the Blind app, the anonymous SM employee reportedly made it obvious that the majority of the employees were not very happy with the idol's return. The Blind app is a community made up of verified employees of some of South Korea's biggest companies.

The anonymous employee claimed that their feelings were shared by other SM employees as well. They allegedly have been questioning SM Entertainment's decision to bring him back.

"All of SM Entertainment's employees are against the decision, so what are they bringing him back for? We've been saying that the Korean fans, who are the ones that actually spend money, are fans of all 6 members but the company still don't understand", the post read.

However, the post also mentioned that the label has been teasing Seunghan's return for months and they should have brought him back much earlier if this was the plan all along.

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RIIZE Seunghan's return attracts mixed reactions

Talk Saxy's singer halted his activities in November 2023, following the leak of his private pre-debut photos. It resulted in a huge controversy, especially in South Korea which led to his indefinite hiatus. However, the hiatus became painstaking for the fans when they began noticing a gradual erasure of the singer from the content that had been recorded during his presence.

Moreover, SM Entertainment did not provide any clarity or update on the singer's position in the group. In the meantime, many of RIIZE's international fans supported and hoped for the singer's return by organising various fan events. Many of the group's overseas activities witnessed the crowd chanting his name and displaying 'RIIZE is 7' banners.

The 21-year-old singer also shared a heartfelt letter on Weverse regarding his hiatus. He apologized for his past 'immature' actions and promised to work hard to be an essential part of the group. The message also relayed how the other six members reached out to him at the time when he was about to give up. The letter read:

"However, the members reached out to me once again. I'm really grateful and feel sorry for the opportunity they gave me, as it must have been a difficult decision,"

Recently, SM Entertainment announced that the singer will resume his activities with the group in November 2024.

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More about RIIZE

The group debuted under SM Entertainment with their single album Get A Guitar on September 4, 2023. The group consists of seven members including Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee, and Anton. Shotaro and Sungchan previously debuted in October 2020 as part of NCT but announced their departures on May 4, 2023.

The group released its first EP Riizing on June 17 which also included the full version of their pre-debut teaser Siren. The EP contained four more songs, Impossible, Honestly, 9 Days, and One Kiss. On their first debut anniversary, the group released their first repackage EP, Riizing: Epilogue with its lead single Combo.