Dayoung Apologizes After Her Relationship With MONSTA X Members Strikes A Nerve With Fans

Their long-standing dynamic was highlighted in recent content.
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Jenny Kang
Jenny Kang

WJSN’s Dayoung has apologized after some MONSTA X fans took issue with her recent comments and interactions involving the group.

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Dayoung | @dayoungism/Instagram

Recently, a post on the Korean online community theqoo gained attention after sharing Dayoung’s Bubble message, in which she apologized after learning that some fans had become uncomfortable with her actions. In the message, Dayoung wrote that she did not want to make anyone feel bad.

I don’t want to make anyone feel bad. But I guess some people got upset because of me. Thank you for letting me know. Even if I didn’t mean it that way, if the other person felt that way, I think I should change! So I’ll be more careful from now on. Can you let them know I’m sorry for making them feel bad?! And thank you for letting me know!!!

— Dayoung

The apology came after renewed discussion over Dayoung’s long-standing close relationship with MONSTA X members, who are her senior labelmates under Starship Entertainment.

Dayoung has previously shared that the MONSTA X members looked after her when she was young. During a past appearance, she explained that she had known them since she was a trainee and even referred to them as “dad,” while the members called her their “daughter.”

If you’re old enough to know better, then you should be embarrassed about still playing that little family-roleplay game from when you were young and fix the way you address them. Or, if you’re still immature at your grown age and still haven’t grown out of your main-character syndrome and ‘youngest sister with six oppas’ complex, then call them that quietly without making it obvious. Why do you always have to put it on display and piss off the fangirls like this?

— @doraishootting/X

While the dynamic had long been understood by some fans as a familiar joke between labelmates, recent content brought the relationship back into the spotlight. In one recent challenge video, Dayoung referred to Kihyun as “dad,” which led some fans to say the joke had become uncomfortable or overused—especially given Kihyun’s past dating rumor with another WJSN member, Bona.

Girl literally wrote “Why am I the only one making the heart, dad?” to her groupmate’s ex-boyfriend.

— @O417OTG/X

The criticism also appeared to grow as fans resurfaced other moments involving Dayoung and MONSTA X members. In Joohoney‘s recent YouTube video, while ordering shaved ice dessert, Dayoung made a joke at how Joohoney has a lot of money.

When he said he needs his channel to do better so he can start getting paid more/receiving sponsorships, Dayoung got even cheekier and told MONSTA X fans to watch his content so “oppa would not go broke.” Some fans felt the comment crossed a line, while others argued it was simply a lighthearted joke between close friends.

But seriously, what the fuck are you doing? You’re the one going around saying shit like ‘using my dad’s card,’ while getting allowance from them, receiving gifts from them, and having them buy you meals. And then you’re telling fangirls, ‘If you don’t want to see oppa go broke, raise his view count’? Is that seriously what you’re saying?

— @jalhaera_jae/X

God, this is so fucking annoying. Why do people keep going on and on about their ‘history’ like that matters? Just because they’ve known each other since they were young, does that mean it’s right for her to keep calling him ‘dad’ for ten years when he’s f*cking her groupmate or whatever? What, is she going to call her groupmate mom too, and his current girlfriend the stepmom? Fucking seriously? And the money??? Whose wallet do you think that ₩1.00 million KRW (about $658 USD)came out of? If I’d known my money was being used like that, I wouldn’t have poured my money into them, fuck.

— @O417OTG/X

Amid the tension between fandoms, Dayoung’s apology came and further divided the reactions. Some MONSTA X fans argued that Dayoung should be more mindful of how her jokes may come across to the group’s fandom, especially when they involve familiar nicknames or comments about the members.

Screenshot 2026-05-23 at 12.27.26 PM

  • I get that they’re close, and I get that she’s a younger sister they dote on. But now that they’re all older, couldn’t they at least stop using those titles? Fans would probably like that more… It’s not like they’ve got a 10-year age gap to be calling her “daughter.” Just keep it to “siblings” at most.
  • Honestly, even the age gap isn’t that big, but since MONSTA X has taken care of Dayoung since she was a trainee, calling them “dad” and “our daughter” could be misunderstood by people who don’t know the background. But now Dayoung is in her late 20s and MONSTA X are in their mid-30s, so depending on the person, even knowing the context, the father-daughter thing might feel uncomfortable LOL. Since she apologized for mentioning it in a designated-code kind of way, I hope they just move on peacefully.
  • It was understandable for people to dislike it… I held back because I thought it might just look like jealousy, but as the mentions got worse, still, now that she knows and says she won’t do it anymore, she should just stop.
  • They’re attacking her just because they dislike her.
  • I mean, the fans put up with it for a while. It just looks bad because only Dayoung has apologized.
  • I “understand” only because they’re not my biases. If it were my idols, I wouldn’t like it.
  • Aha. I was wondering what was going on. So they’re saying the “family dynamic” they played when they were young is still being done even at their current ages. But it was just a family-roleplay thing because they were young, not because they actually have some special relationship… Yet it’s a problem all of a sudden.
  • Not a fan of either groups, but regardless of them being from the same company or whatever… Even between opposite-sex friends, same-sex friends, or childhood friends, I don’t think it’s good to display closeness too much. You never know what might happen between people. Even if you’re close, you can fight and naturally drift apart. Then later, when you get a significant other and things get awkward, it just becomes tiring for everyone involved.

Others defended Dayoung, saying the backlash was excessive given how long she and MONSTA X have known each other. One defending comment argued that if fans personally dislike the nickname, they simply do not have to use it, but that attacking Dayoung for expressing closeness to seniors who watched her grow up was going too far.

Whether she calls them ‘dad’ or ‘hyung,’ if you don’t like that title, then you personally don’t have to use it. But if you’re going to spew that much malice over her showing affection toward close older male friends who have watched her grow up since sixth grade, then I feel like you need to work on yourself instead of calling that fangirling.

— @kindsudal/X

Read more about their dad-daughter dynamic here:

Cosmic Girls’s Dayoung Is MONSTA X’s Unofficial Daughter — Here’s How That Happened

Source: theqoo

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