Fans are applauding K-pop girl band LOOΠΔ for breaking barriers with its newest music video, “Heart Attack.”
The video, released last week, shows the group’s newest member, Chuu, pining for her fellow bandmate Yves’ affection.
With LGBTQ love rarely seen in the K-pop industry, fans took the video as a monumental statement. In less than a week, the video has racked up more than 500,000 views.
The video doesn’t explicitly mention that the pair is together or that either of them identifies as LGBTQ. Still, fans have taken the chemistry between the two, along with shots of Chuu working to get her bandmate’s attention ― and their closeness near the end of the clip ― as evidence of their love in the music video. The clip’s YouTube description also mentions that the single is about Chuu’s “desire to be loved by Yves.”
“The titled track “Heart Attack” does not interpret the feelings of being in love in a serious way, but with Chuu’s own adorable emoticon-like ways,” the YouTube description reads.
Of course, social media users had a lot to say after the music video’s release.
The video is particularly noteworthy given the state of LGBTQ rights in South Korea. The country has made strides in accepting the gay community, with a record number of people showing up for Seoul’s annual pride festival. However, same-sex marriage has not yet been legalized. And just last year, a watchdog group reported that the military had launched a “witch hunt” to prosecute gay soldiers after a video emerged showing two male soldiers having sex.
“Military investigators used the information they gained from the investigation on the sex video to track down other gay soldiers in the army, starting by forcing the suspects to identify who they had sex with and then widening their search from there,” Lim Tae-hoon, head of the Military Human Rights Center for Korea, told The Associated Press.
The country’s president, Moon Jae-in, came out in opposition to homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage while on the campaign trail, angering LGBTQ rights activists.