K-Pop and parasocial relationships go hand in hand, and some agencies have even marketed their groups with a boyfriend or girlfriend concept.
BOYFRIEND
One of these groups is BOYFRIEND, a boy group formed by Starship Entertainment in 2011. In 2019, BOYFRIEND disbanded, but they reformed in 2021 and returned with the digital single “Ending Credit”. That same year, they made a comeback under the new name BF, but they’re now back to promoting under their original name.
Boy Group Returns With All Members And Original Name After Being Disbanded By Company
Recently, an X post brought up BOYFRIEND’s “You want to date me. Buy my album” marketing.
Boyfriend’s debut is fascinating to me because their whole schtick was the pure essence of boy band marketing: I’m your boyfriend. You want to date me. Buy my album.
pic.twitter.com/SRLoxQMmK2
— 🎚️ (@sweetchicmusic) June 2, 2026
In response, other netizens pointed out that BOYFRIEND, whose early promotions revolved around being the perfect boyfriends to their fans, pulled the ultimate Uno reverse card. They named their fandom BESTFRIEND, locking them in the friend zone forever!
And then pulled the greatest friendzone move of all time by calling their fans “bestfriends” https://t.co/PQu76rR8DY
— Ellis (@shining948) June 3, 2026
and then they immediately friendzoned their fanbase with the official fandom name announcement: bestfriend
— ✦ ᴀ ʟ e x ✦ (@purpcult) June 3, 2026
Fans were quick to point out that BOYFRIEND isn’t the only K-Pop group that has done this. The girl group GFRIEND also friend-zoned their fans by naming them Buddy. Ouch!
the gg equivalent is gfriend calling their fans buddies https://t.co/LJhtVn6565
— ต้นหอม (@kehaoji) June 3, 2026
This is literally gfriend calling their fans “buddy” 😭😭😭
— halidi (@__halidi) June 3, 2026