Was IU's Song Choice on SNS a Coincidence? Fans Are Split After She Used Ex Jang Kiha's Track

IU dropped a laid-back SNS update on the 6th and buried a small bomb in the background music.

The singer-actress posted several photos captioned with phrases like "Hey, long time no see," "Living hard," and "Very belated birthday spread", a mix of bed-rest shots, behind-the-scenes glimpses from set, meal pics, and in-car selfies. She also shared a warm moment sitting alongside actress Lee Yeon. Normal enough. The problem was the song she attached to the "Living hard" post: Byeolil Eopsi Sanda (roughly, "Living Without Incident"), a 2009 track by Jang Kiha and the Faces.

Jang Kiha is IU's former public boyfriend. The two met in 2013 through his SBS Power FM radio program, went public with their relationship in 2015 as an 11-year age-gap couple that got a fair amount of attention, and split in 2017 after roughly two years of dating. Since then, Jang Kiha has confirmed a new relationship with actress Yoon Gai, 18 years his junior, with the announcement coming on June 27. IU, for her part, split from actor Lee Jongsuk last month after roughly four years together. Lee Jongsuk's agency confirmed the breakup on July 10, saying the two had "decided to remain as good colleagues."

So the timeline is: IU's breakup confirmed, Jang Kiha's new relationship confirmed, and then IU posts with Jang Kiha's song. You can see why the comments section caught fire.

The reactions split pretty cleanly. On one side: "Why pick his song specifically?", "She had to know this would cause talk," and "His current girlfriend can't be happy about this." Some netizens argued the choice showed a lack of consideration for Yoon Gai, given how publicly everything has played out.

On the other side, a roughly equal chorus pushed back. "They broke up almost ten years ago," "A song is just a song," and "She probably just likes the track" were common refrains. The song title, which translates loosely to living an uneventful life, does pair a little too neatly with her caption about working hard and keeping her head down, which, depending on your read, is either a purely practical choice or a very deliberate one.

IU's actual intent is unknowable, and nobody is seriously claiming otherwise. But the confluence of circumstances, her own fresh breakup, Jang Kiha's new high-profile relationship, and a song that effectively says nothing much is going on, made the selection land differently than a random BGM pick normally would.

Separately, IU is currently focused on recovery after a flare-up of patulous Eustachian tube dysfunction, a chronic inner-ear condition. She has cancelled her September concert in Goyang and postponed the release of her sixth full-length album while she undergoes treatment. The SNS post was, by her account, the first time she'd checked in with fans in a while, which makes the song choice the most-discussed part of an otherwise quiet update.