7 Years Later, Jang Jaein Addresses the Nam Taehyun Cheating Scandal in 3 Words

Seven years after one of K-pop's messier public cheating scandals, Jang Jaein managed to address it in roughly 10 seconds, on camera, while laughing.

On October 2, Jang Jaein uploaded a video to her YouTube channel Singer-Songwriter Jaein titled roughly "Busking on the Han River with my 16-year Superstar K brother Seungyoun." The guest was Kang Seungyoun, her longtime friend and current WINNER member, whom she first met as a fellow contestant on Mnet's Superstar K2 back in 2011. The two spent the day driving out to the Han River, catching up, and performing together, while the cameras rolled on all of it.

How Nam Taehyun Came Up

The name nobody was expecting got dropped during a car ride conversation about WINNER's history. Jang Jaein brought up the group's 2017 hit "REALLY REALLY," asking Kang Seungyoun how he wrote it. His answer was bleak in the best way: "I was just fighting to survive. That was one of the darkest periods for us."

Jang Jaein, apparently surprised, asked whether WINNER had ever really struggled. Kang Seungyoun's reply was brief: "A member left, you know." He didn't say the name. He didn't need to.

The member in question is Nam Taehyun, who departed WINNER in 2016. He also happens to be Jang Jaein's former boyfriend, which made the moment land a little harder than your average throwaway comment. The video's subtitles apparently flagged the shared connection with the term gyeopjiin, a Korean slang expression for a mutual acquaintance who awkwardly links two people, which got an extra laugh out of both of them.

Jang Jaein went with it. "Every time we appear together, that topic fills the comment section," she said. Then she pivoted to what seemed like a prepared statement, delivered between laughs: "That was years ago. We knew him first. We're family."

What Actually Happened in 2019

The backstory she was brushing off is genuinely chaotic. Jang Jaein and Nam Taehyun went public as a couple in April 2019 after meeting on the tvN variety show Workroom. Two months in, Jang Jaein posted screenshots on Instagram of KakaoTalk messages between Nam Taehyun and another woman, identified only as Ms. A. The messages showed Nam Taehyun telling Ms. A that he had broken up with Jang Jaein a month prior, while he was, in fact, still in a relationship with her. Ms. A passed the screenshots to Jang Jaein. Jang Jaein posted them publicly.

Nam Taehyun issued a handwritten apology, acknowledging the situation and expressing remorse toward both women and his fans. Jang Jaein later said she had received a sincere apology from him directly, the two had spoken, and she considered the matter resolved. She said she wished him well as a fellow musician.

That was 2019. The October 2 video suggests the chapter is firmly closed, or at least closed enough to be worth a laugh on a Han River afternoon with the guy's ex-bandmate.