Roy Kim addresses misunderstanding over wedding performance promise

Singer Roy Kim has directly addressed a misunderstanding that he had promised to perform at the wedding of actor Ji Ye-eun and dancer Bata, only to go back on that promise.

On Friday, Roy Kim said during an Instagram Live broadcast, "Since the 'Jim Jong-kook' episode, articles and short clips about the wedding performance have been flooding in." What bothered Roy Kim, he said, was being portrayed as someone who had made a promise and then broken it. "What's certain is that I never made such a promise," Roy Kim said. "It was (Kim) Jong-kook who made the promise."

Roy Kim said there has been no shortage of casual, dismissive remarks made about him. "I try not to let those things shake me, but when they do, I hope you all will help me through it," Roy Kim said.

"There are moments when I think, 'That's not what happened — how can people see it that way?' and my faith in humanity just drops. It drops endlessly," Roy Kim said, adding that the only way to restore that faith was to look out at the audience at concerts.

Roy Kim also urged people to be mindful when criticizing others. "Please be careful with your keyboard, keeping in mind that the arrows you shoot can come back around," Roy Kim said.

Earlier, on Oct. 22, Roy Kim appeared on Kim Jong-kook's YouTube channel "Jim Jong-kook" and opened up about the burden of receiving too many wedding performance requests. "If I sing at someone's wedding, people who are just as close to me feel hurt and say, 'Aren't we just as close?' Or they badmouth me behind my back for not doing it," Roy Kim said.

Kim Jong-kook then asked whether Roy Kim had not once promised Ji Ye-eun a wedding performance during filming of SBS's "Running Man," to which Roy Kim responded with apparent surprise: "Did I say that?" Kim Jong-kook called Ji Ye-eun directly to ask, and Ji Ye-eun said, "It's true — the promise was made over gukbap," before joking, "So why did you offer back then? Are you going back on your word?" Roy Kim tried to smooth things over, saying, "It's not that I don't want to do it." The clip spread online, prompting speculation that Roy Kim had reneged on a promise.

It is Kim Jong-kook who will perform at Ji Ye-eun's wedding. Ji Ye-eun revealed the wedding lineup on "Running Man," which aired Saturday: Yoo Jae-suk will serve as emcee, Kim Jong-kook will perform, and We Dem Boyz — the dance crew Bata belongs to — will put on a celebratory stage. Song Ji-hyo and Ji Suk-jin also volunteered to sing, but Ji Ye-eun turned them down with a smile, saying she wanted to "keep the quality high."

Ji Ye-eun and Bata, both born in 1994, went public with their relationship last April. The wedding will be held Dec. 12 at an undisclosed venue in Seoul.