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On April 4, 2025, K-pop group ZEROBASEONE, aka ZB1, appeared on SBS Inkigayo's YouTube channel as a part of promotions for their latest activities. However, their participation in one of the games sparked discussions on social media over alleged queerbaiting content.
Queerbaiting is a term referred to actions where a person pretends to be queer to appeal to the queer community but is straight.
In the video, the group can be seen playing various games and having fun. One of those games was the Pepero game. For the unversed, in the Pepero game, two players try to eat the Pepero from one end each without touching. The goal is to reduce the stick's length as much as possible.
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Fans were divided over the game and accused the group of queerbaiting its audience. A clip of the game was shared on X by the account @kpopachillean. One X user wrote:
"This is normal in ZEROSEVILLE"
The fans were not happy with the seemingly awkward interactions between the group members during the Pepero game.
"You can tell theyre all straight because of the amount of queerbaiting they do. no gay man is comfortable doing that especially in s conservative country like korea’s," a user wrote.
"All I ever hear about zb1 is queerbaiting but never about their music," another user replied.
"do zb1 stans ever talk about music? the streams dwindling with every comeback. at this point im convinced even the group is aware all they’re good for is queerbaiting," an X user replied.
While many accused the group of queerbaiting, many felt that the fans were perhaps reading too much into the context. Pepero games, despite their faded popularity, are synonymous with such coy content and are often played amongst the youth.
"sure this is fanservicey but zb1 is the LAST group you'd want to call out for queerbaiting jiwoong participated in an mv about homophobia, hanbin specializing in queer-coded dance styles, hao sang an ost from a bl, matthew supporting lesbian zerose in a fancall and more," a user wrote.
"real people cannot queerbait and also this game is a classic in the kpop industry lmao," another user wrote.
"Why is everyone hating isn’t this a normal K-pop group activity?" a fan replied.
ZEROBASEONE's activities in 2025 at a glance
In February 2025, ZEROBASEONE released its fifth mini-album, BLUE PARADISE, featuring the title track Blue. The single Doctor! Doctor! was re-released in January 2025.
The group will soon host its second fan con (fan meeting), titled BLUE MANSION, from April 18 to April 20, 2025, at the KSPO Dome in Seoul, South Korea. The event on April 20 will be live-streamed online.
ZEROBASEONE will also release the Korean version of the opening theme song, Only One Story of the Pokémon Korea TV animation, Pokémon: Rayquaza Rising, at 6 PM on April 15, 2025. The song's Japanese version was previously released in October 2024.
ZEROBASEONE is known for its music and unique formation of multi-national members. The group is currently being managed by WAKEONE. The group's contract with WAKEONE is currently extended up to January 2026.
